Handover record

A purchase has three separate days: the day the deed is signed, the day the entry appears in the register, and the day the flat is actually handed over. The third is recorded in a handover document. It is short, and it later decides whose problem every small fault is — which makes signing it quickly in a corridor the most expensive time anyone saves during a purchase.

What the record does

The document establishes two facts: that the flat was handed over, and in what condition. The first is trivial; the second is the whole value of the paper. A record signed without remarks is read later as a buyer who inspected and had no complaint about anything visible.

That does not strip you of rights afterwards. Guarantee periods for construction work run independently of the record, and hidden defects are by definition invisible at an inspection. But anything that could have been seen and was not written down has to be proved later, and proving what a flat looked like a year ago is close to impossible.

What to bring to the inspection

An inspection is technical work, and it needs a few plain things:

• the flat's cadastral plan or the contract annex with dimensions, to compare the layout against what was agreed;
• the contract with every annex describing the condition in which the flat is delivered;
• a phone with a torch and a camera: every remark needs a photograph;
• a tape measure and a spirit level, or at least a bottle of water for checking a slope;
• any small electrical device, to test every socket;
• somebody who understands building work, if that is not you.

The inspection needs daylight and time. If you are offered an evening slot or a quarter of an hour, move the date: this is a document you sign once.

What to check in the flat

In order, so nothing is forgotten: windows and how they open, seals and glazing without scratches; doors and how they close; wall and floor surfaces, slopes, corners; water running and draining everywhere; smell from the drains; radiators, their mounting and their control; ventilation, and whether there is any draw at all; electricity — every socket, every switch, the consumer unit; the fit-out where fit-out is delivered; the junctions around door and window openings.

Inspect separately the spaces you are entitled to use: the storage room and the parking space. Confirm they are the same ones named in the contract and that the keys you are given actually open them.

Writing a defect list that holds up

Remarks go into the record itself or into an annex that the record names. A useful remark has four parts: where, what exactly is wrong, which photograph shows it, and by when it will be put right. “Poor finish” means nothing. “Gap of roughly 10 cm in the lower seal of the living-room window, photo 3” means something.

Where the parties disagree, write that down too: one side says this, the other says that, and both positions are on record. Refusing to sign the record at all is rarely useful; signing it with remarks usually is, because then the remarks exist in black and white.

A second inspection after the work is done needs recording as well. A remark is closed when a document says so, not when a message says it has been dealt with.

Meters, keys, and when charges start

Every meter reading goes into the record — water, electricity, heating — together with the meter numbers. Building charges normally start running from the date of the record, so that date has to be right. Tell the building's manager and the utility suppliers about the change of owner; until you do, the invoices keep going to the previous one, and the resulting arrears do not sort themselves out.

Count the keys as well: flat, stairwell, letterbox, storage room, codes and remote controls. Write down how many there are. It is the only way ever to know how many keys to your flat exist in the world.

This article is general information and is not legal or technical advice. The condition in which your flat is delivered is defined by your contract and its annexes.