New-build handover inspection on the Costa del Sol
A finished unit is handed over after somebody has checked it and with a written list of what is still wrong, not after you have signed and moved in. That list is the snagging list, it is the developer’s job to clear it, and the moment it is written is the moment you have the most leverage you will ever have. We arrange the specialist who walks the unit and writes it, we chase the developer through the repairs, and we check the work afterwards. We do not write the report and we do not do the repairs.
What a handover actually consists of
Signing at the notary is not the same event as receiving the property. On a new build there are two things happening around the same few days: the transfer of ownership, and the physical handover of a finished unit that somebody has to accept as finished. Snagging belongs to the second one.In practice the sequence is the same everywhere, whatever the developer calls it.
- The unit is walkedA specialist goes through the property room by room while it is empty, which is the only time in its life it will be this easy to inspect. Empty, unfurnished and clean is the ideal condition for finding what is wrong with it.
- Everything found goes on a written listPhotographed, located and described, item by item. A verbal remark to a site manager is not a snagging list. A numbered document with pictures attached is, and it is what everything afterwards refers back to.
- The developer commits, in writing, to a deadlineThe list is handed over and the developer accepts it with a period to fix it in. This is the part people skip when they are excited about the keys, and it is the part that decides whether the list gets cleared in three weeks or in nine months.
- The handover record and the keysThe acceptance record is signed and the keys and the documentation pack change hands: the occupancy licence, the certificates for water, electricity and gas, the manuals and the guarantees for what is installed. That pack is not a formality. It is what you need when something fails in year two.
- The repairs, then the re-checkThe work gets done and somebody goes back to confirm each item on the list actually was done, rather than crossed off. Anything still open stays open, in writing, and the list keeps running until it is empty.
Our part of that is coordination from end to end: booking the specialist, being there, holding the developer to the list, and going back for the re-check. The keys, the inventory, the utilities, the access cards and the notary logistics are the handover event itself, and that is a separate service with its own page.How long the written report itself takes is the specialist’s to set rather than ours, because he is the one writing it. You get that date from him before anything is booked, along with his fee, so the timing is a known quantity and not a hope.One thing about how the list travels, because it decides how seriously it is taken. A snagging list is not an email from an excited new owner to a site manager. It goes to the developer as a formal written document from your side, and where it carries items that touch the contract rather than the paintwork, it goes through your lawyer with a deadline attached. The same list sent the two ways gets two different responses, and we would rather you never found that out the slow way.
Is snagging standard on a Spanish new build?Being invited to inspect the property before you accept it is normal practice. What is not standardised is how thorough that inspection is. Most buyers walk their unit for half an hour with the sales agent, spot four things and remember two of them. A specialist doing the same walk with a checklist and a camera produces a document, which is a completely different instrument.
Before the transfer or after it: the question that decides everything
On a new build the process depends on the developer. Some run the snagging before ownership transfers, others only afterwards. That single scheduling decision is the most consequential thing on this page, because your leverage is the final payment, and it stops existing the moment that payment clears.
How it is scheduledWhat it means for you
- The unit is checked before the deeds
- The strong position. The list is written and accepted while the balance of the price is still unpaid, so the items are cleared, or the deadline for clearing them is agreed, before you complete. In this sequence the acceptance record gets signed after both sides agree what is outstanding, not before.
- The unit is checked after the deeds
- The common alternative, and it is not a scandal. The warranties still apply and the developer is still obliged. What changes is that you are now a customer asking for service rather than a buyer holding a payment, and the speed of the repairs usually reflects that.
- The unit is not checked at all
- You have accepted the property as delivered. The warranties still cover genuine defects, but the ordinary snags, the grouting, the alignment, the chipped worktop, the fitting that is not the one you chose, are now yours to argue about with no record of what the unit looked like on day one.
So the useful move is not to demand a particular sequence, which is usually not negotiable by the time you arrive. It is to ask early, in writing, which sequence this developer runs, and to get the snagging visit into the calendar before the completion date rather than after it. That is the question we put to the developer on your behalf, and it is worth asking at the reservation rather than in the last week.One caution about the final walk: a unit that is still being finished can look far worse than it will be, and a unit that has been sitting completed for months can have picked up damage nobody caused deliberately. Neither is a reason to panic. Both are reasons for the list to be written by somebody who has seen a hundred of them.
Does snagging happen before or after the deeds?It depends on the developer. Some run it before ownership transfers, others afterwards. Before is the stronger position for you, because the balance of the price is still unpaid, so we ask which sequence applies on your project early and get the visit booked accordingly.
What you are covered for, and for how long
This is where a new build is genuinely different from anything second hand, and it is worth being precise about it, because the four things below get talked about as if they were one thing and they are not.
| What it covers | How long | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| The structure | 10 years | Damage from defects affecting the foundations, the supports, the beams, the floor slabs, the load bearing walls and other structural elements. The serious end, and the reason the cover runs for a decade. |
| The installations and habitability | 3 years | Damage from defects in construction elements or installations that make the property fall short of the habitability requirements. Water getting in, an installation that does not perform, that class of problem rather than a scratch. |
| The finishes | 1 year | Defects in the execution of finishing work. This is the layer most snagging items sit in, which is exactly why the list gets written on day one rather than once the year is nearly up. |
| Your payments, before completion | Until the property is delivered | A different thing altogether. Every payment you make during construction is covered by a bank guarantee in your name, so if the developer does not deliver under the contract you get every euro back with statutory interest. That guarantee is about the money, not about the build quality. |
For contrast, a second hand property comes with none of this. The seller answers only for hidden defects they knew about and concealed, within a short deadline, which is a very different position to be in. That is what the sibling page is about.
Something failed a year after I moved in. Is that still the developer’s problem?Very possibly, and which of the three periods it falls into decides the answer. Finishes are covered for one year, installations and habitability for three, the structure for ten, and once the damage appears you have two years to bring the claim. Tell us and we will help you route it, since the practical difficulty is usually not the law but getting somebody to turn up.
What was already checked, long before this
The handover check is the last of several, not the first. By the time somebody is walking your unit with a clipboard, the project has been through a set of checks that had nothing to do with paintwork, and it is worth knowing which questions were already answered so you know what this visit is and is not for.
- The developerWho stands behind the project, and what they have actually completed before. A track record is the best available predictor of how long your snagging list takes to clear.
- The building permitWhether the project is properly authorised. A defect in the paperwork is a different order of problem from a defect in the tiling.
- The bank guaranteeThat every payment you make before completion is covered in your name. This is checked before the money moves, not afterwards.
- The completion dateWhen the project is supposed to be signed off, which is the date the whole payment calendar hangs from.
- The occupancy licenceLicencia de primera ocupación, the document confirming the property may be lived in. The developer applies for it before keys are handed over, and utilities in your name depend on it.
- The build itself, while it went upWe follow the construction and send photographs and video as it progresses, so the handover is not the first time you see the finished building.
- The unit before it was closed up, where a developer allows itEverything the wiring, the pipework and the insulation will ever be is decided before the plasterboard goes on, and after that nobody can check any of it without breaking something. Most developments here will not let anyone onto a live site to look, and we would rather say that plainly than sell you an inspection that usually cannot happen. Where a developer does allow it, and on a project where it is worth the trouble, we ask for access at that stage and send a specialist in while the walls are still open. We ask early rather than assume, and we tell you when the answer is no.
If something substantial is missing at any of those points, we tell you not to buy. That is a decision taken long before the snagging visit, and it is not the snagging visit’s job to catch it.
What goes on the snagging list
A snag is not a structural defect. It is the ordinary gap between finished and properly finished, and it is found by somebody going slowly through an empty property with a checklist and a camera. This is the shape of that list. A specialist’s own version runs longer and is numbered and photographed item by item.| What gets checked | Why it matters at handover | What goes on the list |
|---|---|---|
| Surfaces and finishes | ||
| Walls and ceilings | Paint runs, missed patches, roller marks, shrinkage cracks at joints. None of it is serious and all of it is far cheaper to have corrected before your furniture is in the room. | Every affected wall photographed and located by room, so a painter can be sent to a list rather than on a tour. |
| Tiling and grouting | Research on Spanish handovers puts unfinished grouting at the top of the list of things buyers find, which tells you how routinely it is left. Ungrouted joints in a wet room are not cosmetic either. | Missing or incomplete grout, lippage between tiles, cracked or hollow sounding tiles, cut tiles at edges and around sockets. |
| Flooring and skirting | Scratches and chips from the final trades, gaps at the skirting, boards or tiles that sound hollow. The last people through a finished unit are usually not the flooring team. | Marked and photographed. Damage found after you have moved in becomes an argument about who caused it, which is an argument nobody wins. |
| Sealant and silicone | Around baths, showers, worktops and shower trays. It is the smallest item on the list and one of the few that turns into a real problem if it is left, because water goes where the seal is not. | Gaps, missing runs and poor finishing recorded room by room. |
| Openings | ||
| Doors | Alignment, closing, handles, locks and keys. A door that catches on the frame in February will catch harder in August, and internal doors are adjusted by the same carpenter who is currently still on site. | Every door opened, closed and locked, including the entrance door and the storeroom. |
| Windows, glazing and shutters | Sliding doors to a terrace are the hardest working element in a coastal apartment, and they are also where draughts, water and noise get in when the seals are not right. | Runners and rollers tested, seals checked, glass examined for scratches and chips, shutters and mosquito screens operated. |
| Railings, balustrades and glass | Terrace railings are a safety item, not a finish. Fixings and glass panels are checked because nobody wants to discover a loose one with a child on the terrace. | Fixings, height, glass condition and any movement recorded, and anything unsafe flagged immediately rather than added to a list. |
| Water, power and air | ||
| Electrics | Sockets that do nothing are among the most common handover findings, and every one of them is easy to fix now and awkward to fix once the furniture is against the wall. | Every socket, switch, light point and the consumer unit tested and labelled, plus the intercom, the doorbell and any pre-installations you paid for. |
| Water, pressure and hot water | Taps, mixer direction, pressure at the top of the building, how long the hot water takes to arrive. These are the things that annoy you daily and that nobody checks in a twenty minute visit. | Every outlet run, under sink connections checked for leaks, water heater or heat pump tested. |
| Drainage and falls | Shower trays, wet room floors, terraces and balconies have to run water towards the drain. A floor that is level rather than falling is a defect you only find by pouring water on it. | Water poured and watched. Standing water goes on the list, and a terrace draining towards the living room goes on it in capital letters. |
| Air conditioning and ventilation | Both modes matter, not just the one that is useful in the month you take the keys. Extractors and ventilation grilles are routinely connected to nothing on a snagging list. | Every unit run in heating and in cooling, extractors and mechanical ventilation checked, filters and drainage inspected. |
| Kitchen, bathrooms and outside | ||
| Kitchen and appliances | Cabinet doors that do not line up, an appliance that was specified and is not installed, a worktop chip under the protective film. The film comes off after you have signed, which is the point. | Every appliance run, every door and drawer opened and adjusted, worktops and splashbacks inspected with the protection removed. |
| Bathrooms | Alongside grouting, the wrong fittings in bathrooms are the most commonly recorded finding at Spanish handovers. Wrong is often not worse, just not what the contract said. | Fittings checked against the specification, WCs and cisterns run, shower screens aligned, extraction tested. |
| Terrace, storeroom and parking | The parts of the property people forget to inspect because they are outside the front door. A parking space that a normal car cannot enter is a real and recurring finding. | Terrace surface and drainage, exterior lighting and sockets, storeroom door and light, and the parking space measured and matched to the one in your deed. |
| Promised against delivered | ||
| The finishes you chose | On most projects you selected materials, surfaces and colours during construction, typically in the kitchen and the bathrooms. What was installed is not always what was chosen, and after handover it becomes your word against a sales file. | Each choice checked against your written specification and any change order, and any difference recorded with the document reference beside it. |
| The unit against the plans | Layout, orientation, room dimensions, terrace size, ceiling heights and the position of any wall you had moved. This is where an error is expensive rather than annoying. | Measured against the contract plans. A meaningful discrepancy is a legal matter and goes to your lawyer the same day, not onto a repair list. |
| The communal areas | You are buying those too, and they are the part most likely to be unfinished at handover. Pools, gym, gardens, lifts, gates, lighting and the parking areas were all in the brochure. | Walked and recorded in the same way as the unit. What is unfinished is either on a deadline or it is a conversation for the community once it is constituted. |
| What the eye cannot see | ||
| Moisture where there should be none | A wall that is drying out and a wall that is wet look identical under fresh paint. The reading is the difference between a snag you note and a defect that comes back every winter, and it is the finding a walk-through with a phone camera will never produce. | Where the specialist’s kit includes a moisture meter, this gets read rather than judged by eye, at the places a coastal build actually fails: below windows and sliding doors, around wet rooms, at terrace thresholds and on any wall that shares a face with the outside. Not every specialist carries the same instruments, so it is worth asking what his does before you book him. |
| Insulation, pipework and what is behind the plaster | Insulation left out of a section of wall, a pipe run in the wrong place, an underfloor circuit that is not doing anything. All of it is behind a finished surface by handover, all of it is expensive to reach afterwards, and none of it is visible. | A specialist whose kit runs to a thermal camera can look over the surfaces for this: it shows a cold gap in an insulated wall and traces a warm pipe run without anything being opened. Where he carries one, what it finds goes on the list with the image attached, and where the image raises a question rather than answering one, that is what the report says. Where he does not, this stays a visual check and we say so instead of implying otherwise. |
Where the handover check sits in the purchase
The whole purchase is fifteen steps from the first call to the keys. On a new build the last three are the ones that decide what condition you actually receive, and they can be separated by years.Steps 12, 13 and 14 of 15
- Payments and waitingTwo months to three years, depending on the phaseFrom the contract to handover can be weeks on a finished unit and years on something bought from the ground. Throughout it we watch what comes next and when: the further payments, the documents, the deadlines and the communication with your lawyer and the developer.New buildWe follow the construction for you and send photographs and video as it progresses. The payment calendar is set by the developer, and the last payment is the one that matters here.
- The handover checkBefore completionThis is the page’s step. The unit is walked, the list is written, and it is handed to the developer with a deadline. Whether it happens before or after ownership transfers depends on the developer, which is why we ask early. If you want a professional check by an architect or an inspector, we arrange that separately.New buildThe snagging list against the developer, then the repairs, then the re-check of the repairs.ResaleOn a second hand property this step is a different job: we confirm the condition matches what was agreed and the inventory is still in place.
- Notary and keysCompletion dayThe public deed is signed, the balance is paid and the property becomes yours. We are there, we watch the handover itself and we deal with whatever is needed until you have the keys in your hand. You do not have to attend in person if your lawyer holds the power of attorney.
Taking the keys alone, and taking them with us
The developer, the seller and their agent all want the transaction finished. That is their role and it is fine. Ours is different.| On your own | With Arevont | |
|---|---|---|
| Who walks the unit | You, for half an hour, with the sales agent who is also managing the handover schedule for twenty other units that week. | A specialist with a checklist and a camera, with us there, in a property that is empty and easy to inspect. |
| What comes out of it | A few things mentioned out loud and possibly noted on a phone. | A numbered, photographed list handed over in writing with a deadline attached to it. |
| Who argues about a defect | You, from Czechia, with a site manager, in Spanish, about something you cannot point at. | We organise the visits and lead the communication with the developer. It is a normal working conversation for us and we are on the coast. |
| After the repairs | The items get crossed off and you find out on your next trip whether they were actually done. | We go back and check the work, and anything not done stays on the list in writing. |
| After the keys | The agent’s role generally ends when the sale completes. | We stay with you afterwards, which is when the one and three year cover periods are running and somebody has to notice. |
| What it costs you | Nothing directly. The commission is inside the price either way. | Nothing. The same commission, except part of it goes to someone who is on your side of the handover. |
One ordinary defect, followed all the way through
The value of a snagging list is not in the walk. It is in what happens to each line afterwards. Take the least dramatic item imaginable, a shower tray where the water sits instead of draining, and follow it, because the mechanism is the same for the interesting ones.- It is found by pouring water on the floorNot by looking at it. The tray is level enough to pass a glance and the fall is not quite right, which is a thing you discover in about four seconds if you test it and never if you do not. It goes on the list with a photograph of the standing water.
- It is written down before anything is acceptedThe item is numbered, located by room and handed over with the rest of the list, and the developer accepts the list with a period to clear it in. Nothing about this is adversarial. It is the ordinary way a finished unit is accepted.
- The developer fixes it, and somebody goes backThe trade returns and the item comes back marked as done. We go and pour water on it again. Most of the time it is done. Sometimes it is done in a way that moves the problem two centimetres, which is exactly why the re-check exists and why it is not the same person who did the work.
- If it had not been found, it becomes something elseThe same defect discovered after you move in is a warranty conversation instead: an installation and habitability matter, covered for three years, with two years to bring a claim from when the damage shows. That route works. It just takes months rather than a fortnight, and it starts with you proving something rather than the developer agreeing it.
The list is not about being difficult. It is about the difference between an item that somebody owes you and an item you own.
How much does it cost you?
- Buyer0 €You pay us nothing for the handover coordination, whatever the list ends up containing.
- Developer
- New build
- 2,5 to 6 %
- Snagging specialistInvoices you directly for the inspection and the report. We take nothing for the referral.
Our part is free. Asking the developer which sequence they run, getting the visit into the calendar before completion, being there, holding them to the list and going back for the re-check costs you nothing, because as a buyer you never pay Arevont anything at any point.The repairs are the developer’s cost, not yours. That is the strongest sentence on this page and it is not ours, it is the law: defects in the finishes, the installations and the structure are covered for one, three and ten years respectively, and clearing a snagging list is what the developer does before you accept the unit as finished.The snagging specialist is arranged separately and quotes you directly. We do not publish a price because it is not our fee: it depends on the size of the unit and on who is sent. You get the number before anything is booked. On a small apartment where the list is short and the developer is one we know, we will tell you honestly if we think our own presence at the walk is enough.The one thing that is paid is later and optional. If a repair has to be supervised after you have moved in and you are not in Spain, renting a tradesman in and staying while the work is done is part of the paid management service, at 25 € an hour plus 25 € for the drive, and the drive is free when it lands on a visit that was already scheduled.
The property price is the same even if you go directly. For a new build, simply take the developer's price list and verify it.
The honest size of this problem
A new build is the easy case and we are not going to pretend otherwise. You take it finished, nothing has to be redone, everything is new and you have real warranties on it. Where money is concerned, the worst thing that realistically happens to you on a new build is lost time.Most snagging lists are made of small things. Grouting, alignment, a socket, a chipped worktop. None of it will stop you enjoying the property and a good developer clears the lot without an argument. The reason to do it properly anyway is that the same items cost you nothing today and cost you a tradesman and an afternoon in six months, and that the list is also the moment somebody checks the expensive things: the falls on the terrace, what the plans said, and whether the communal areas you paid for exist yet.We also do not send a specialist to every handover. Where the unit is small, the project is one we know well and the developer has a record of clearing lists properly, we will say so and walk it with you ourselves. An inspection arranged so the process looks thorough is not a service, it is an invoice.
Frequently asked questions about new-build handover inspections
- What is a snagging list, exactly?
- A written, numbered and photographed record of everything unfinished or badly finished in your unit at handover, produced by walking the empty property against a checklist. The developer accepts it with a deadline and clears it at their own cost.
- Who pays to fix what the list finds?
- The developer. Snagging items are defects in their work and the warranties on a new build run for ten years on the structure, three on the installations and one on the finishes. You do not pay for the repairs and you do not pay us for chasing them.
- Can the handover be done while I am in Czechia?
- Yes. The specialist does not need you present, the signature at the notary can be handled by your lawyer with a power of attorney, and we are at the property for the walk, the list and the re-check. You get the list and the photographs, and we go through them with you on a call.
- Are the communal areas checked too?
- They should be, and they are the part most often unfinished on handover day. The pool, the gym, the gardens, the lifts, the gates and the parking areas are all things you are paying for, so they get walked and recorded in the same way as the unit itself.
- What if the materials I chose during construction were not installed?
- That is one of the specific things the check exists for. Your selections and any change orders are documents, and each one is compared against what is actually in the property. A difference recorded on handover day is corrected. The same difference noticed a year later is a discussion.
- What if the developer simply does not fix something?
- First it stays on the list, in writing, with the dates recorded, which is most of the battle. If it is a genuine defect rather than a snag it falls under the warranty periods, and once damage appears there is a two year window to bring the claim. At that point it stops being a coordination job and becomes a legal one, and your lawyer takes it from us.
