Handover and guarantees: the moment that protects the building

Everyone watches the quote. Almost nobody watches the handover — yet that is what starts the guarantees.

A building project is prepared for months: tender, quote comparison, vote, funding. Then the works end, the contractor packs up, and the file closes. That is precisely the moment when the building’s protection for the next ten years is decided.

Handover is the act by which the client — the association, represented by the manager — accepts the works. It has one major consequence: it starts the guarantees. A rushed handover leaves the building with no useful recourse against a defect appearing two years later.

What handover starts

• The defects liability, obliging the contractor to make good reported defects during the following year.
• The functioning guarantee, covering separable equipment for several years.
• The ten-year cover for damage compromising the structure or making it unfit for purpose.
• The clock on paying the balance and releasing the retention.

Until handover takes place, these guarantees do not run. That is why a contractor who disappears without formal handover leaves the association in an awkward position, even if the works look finished.

Reservations: the only real leverage

Handover happens with or without reservations. Reservations list, in the certificate, everything non-compliant, unfinished or badly executed. They are the association’s main leverage: until they are cleared, the balance is not due on the same terms.

• Describe each reservation precisely: location, nature of the defect, with a photo.
• Do not settle for "finishes to be redone" — a vague phrase never gets cleared.
• Set a deadline for making good in the certificate itself.
• Plan a clearance visit, and actually hold it.
• Keep the signed certificate: it is the file’s central document.

A defect that was visible on handover day but not reserved becomes far harder to have put right. Hence the value of a prior inspection, with the board present.

The board’s role

Handover falls to the manager, often assisted by the project supervisor. But the board knows the building better than anyone: where water pooled before the works, which door never closed, which flat complained of noise.

Asking to attend the handover visit is legitimate and always useful. It is the natural extension of the works tracking table and of chasing a contractor who never finishes.

Check insurance before, not after

Ten-year cover is only worth something if the contractor is genuinely insured for the activity concerned, and if the certificate covers the works period. Check this when choosing the contractor, not when the damage appears.

Two documents suffice: the decennial insurance certificate listing declared activities, and the liability certificate. This check belongs to comparing quotes.

After handover: what to archive

The handover certificate, the reservations and their clearance, insurance certificates, as-built drawings and maintenance instructions make up the works file. Ten years later, that file is what allows action.

It is exactly the kind of document to keep indefinitely: see what to keep and for how long. And a defect appearing later is handled like a claim, documented from the first sign.

Without formal handover a building has no ten-year cover: it merely has finished works.

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