Handover of the housefrom the contractor

Structure and facade

The house handover is the moment when the investor holds the most power in the entire construction process — and, paradoxically, the moment they most often fail to use it. After months of waiting, hundreds of emails with the contractor, and pressure to finally move in, many clients sign the acceptance protocol in ten minutes, glancing at the walls and switching on the living-room light. That is the mistake that costs the most of any decision made during construction.

The handover should take several hours, not several minutes. It's worth setting aside a whole day for it, arriving in daylight, and bringing the building design, the contract, the schedule of works and — if possible — an independent building inspector. Below are the categories that need to be checked point by point.

• Cracks on external and internal walls, especially at the corners of window and door openings
• Wall flatness and plumb — best checked with a spirit level or straightedge, not by eye
• Condition of the plaster — detachment, salt efflorescence, traces of moisture
• Correct execution of the façade — colour uniformity, no cracks at the joints of the insulation layers, correct flashing on external window sills, cornices and parapets
• Ground slopes around the building and the drainage apron — water must flow away from the foundations, not toward them
• Condition of the roof — covering, chimney flashing, gutters and downpipes, correct fixing and slope of the gutters
• Chimneys and roof ventilation — clear passage, protection against leaks

Electrical installations

• 1.

  Every socket and every light point in every room working — without exception

• 2.

  Compliance of electrical point placement with the installation design

• 3.

  A labelled and orderly electrical distribution board — every circuit should be marked

• 4.

  Electrical installation measurement protocol — effectiveness of shock protection, insulation resistance; this is a mandatory document, not optional

• 5.

  Operation of the lightning-protection installation, if one was designed

• 6.

  Outlets for future points — air conditioning, exterior lighting, home automation

Plumbing and heating installations

• Water pressure at all draw-off points, no leaks under sinks, at mixer taps or under the shower
• Free flow and tightness of the drainage system — it's worth draining water at all points simultaneously and checking that nothing backs up or seeps
• Heating performance — whether all underfloor heating loops heat evenly, whether the radiators warm up
• Performance of the heat source — heat pump, gas boiler or furnace — including its first start-up in the investor's presence
• Protocols of the water-tightness test and the underfloor-heating pressure test — documents the contractor is obliged to provide
• Mechanical ventilation, if present — operation of the air-handling unit, airflow at individual supply and extract diffusers

Windows and doors

• Opening and closing every window and every door — smoothness, no sticking, correct closing
• Airtightness — checking for draughts, especially at the thresholds of exterior and terrace doors
• Condition of the glazing — scratches, cracks, mechanical damage caused during installation
• Fitting adjustment — windows should close fully without needing to be pressed shut
• Interior and exterior window sills — no detachment, correct sealing at the joints

Interior finishing

• Flatness of floors and walls — important before accepting the shell-and-core stage, because errors here affect every later finishing stage
• Quality of the floor screed — no cracking, correct levels between rooms
• Condition of interior doors, if already installed — plumb, level, lock operation
• Traces of moisture on ceilings and walls, especially in bathrooms and utility rooms

Documentation

• 1.

  Construction logbook with complete entries

• 2.

  All test and measurement protocols — electrical installation, water tightness, heating pressure test, chimney tightness testing

• 3.

  Certificates and declarations of conformity for the materials used, especially those critical for safety — windows, the boiler, the chimney system

• 4.

  Warranty cards for the appliances

• 5.

  As-built documentation, if it differs from the building design

• 6.

  Notification of construction completion or the occupancy permit decision, depending on the formal procedure

It is precisely this checklist that answers the question of what to pay attention to at a house handover — and shows why a handover carried out carelessly practically always ends up costing the investor.

Partial handover vs. final handover — they're not the same thing

Many investors treat the handover as a single event at the end of construction. Yet in a well-organised process, handovers should take place in stages — after the shell is completed, after the installations are done but before the walls are closed up, after the façade is completed, and finally at the handover of the whole house ready for use.

A partial (staged) handover has one fundamental advantage — it lets you check what will become invisible once the next stage is closed up. Electrical and plumbing installations inside the walls, foundation insulation, reinforcement before it's covered with concrete — all of this has to be assessed before it disappears under plaster, board or ground. Without staged handovers, the investor is left relying solely on the contractor's photographic documentation and their honesty.

What to do when you find defects during handover

Finding defects during the handover is nothing to worry about — at this scale of investment, minor snags appear almost always. What matters is how they're formally handled.

Step 1: Don't sign the protocol without reservations. If defects are found, they must be entered directly into the acceptance protocol, not agreed "verbally" with the site manager. A protocol without reservations formally means the house was accepted without defects — even if a different arrangement was made orally.

Step 2: Draw up a discrepancy report. This is a document in which every defect is described precisely — location, nature of the fault, ideally with photographic documentation — and a deadline for fixing it is set. Both parties sign the report. It becomes the basis for enforcing the corrections if the contractor drags their feet.

Step 3: Use your right to withhold the final payment. If the contract provides for the last instalment to be paid after handover, the investor has the right to withhold its payment until the defects listed in the discrepancy report are removed — proportionally to the scope and cost of the defects. This is one of the few real leverage mechanisms the investor holds, and it's a shame to give it up by paying in full "on trust".

Step 4: Understand the difference between statutory warranty (rękojmia) and guarantee (gwarancja). The statutory warranty (rękojmia) arises from the Civil Code and is due to the investor regardless of whether the contractor has additionally granted a guarantee — it covers physical defects of the property for five years from handover in the case of real estate. The guarantee (gwarancja) is an additional obligation the contractor may offer on its own terms — a different period, a different scope, a different notification procedure. It's worth being clear which regime applies in a given situation, because the deadlines and procedures for reporting defects differ between them. Construction defects covered by the statutory warranty should be reported in writing, with a description and ideally photographic documentation — this builds an evidence trail in case of a dispute.

What handing over a Sigvin-built house looks like

At Sigvin, the handover is not a one-off event at the end of construction — it's a planned part of the schedule from day one. We carry out staged handovers together with the investor at every key moment when something gets closed up under plaster, board or ground: installations before they're plastered over, insulation before the foundations are backfilled, reinforcement before concreting. Every stage is documented photographically and recorded in the construction logbook, regardless of whether the investor happens to be on site.

Before the final handover, the site manager carries out his own technical inspection of the house — before we invite the investor, the house goes through an internal quality check, so that no defects appear at the client meeting that should have been caught earlier. We set aside as much time as needed for the handover itself — with no rushing and no pressure to sign the protocol quickly. The full set of documentation — tightness test protocols, electrical measurements, material certificates, the construction logbook — is prepared in advance, so the investor can review it before the meeting, not only during it.

Schedule a free consultation with Sigvin

Are you planning to build a house and looking for a partner who takes the handover as seriously as the construction process itself? Book a free consultation with the Sigvin team — we'll talk about your project, walk you through our construction process step by step, and show you what the handover of a house we build ourselves really looks like. No marketing promises — just specifics you can verify.