Handover is not a formality: it is the moment your guarantees are decided. What you sign — and what you refuse to sign — that day shapes everything after. Here is how to prepare it, run it and close it without letting anything slip, with the PontBat safety net.
General information article: the exact terms of your handover are those set out in your contract.
A successful handover is prepared like any site milestone: with a method, proof, and an order to follow. On our reference build, Villa Yasmine, it closes the last of the 8 milestones.
You do not show up to a handover empty-handed. Gather the plans, the contract and its annexes, and list everything that must work: taps, electrics, joinery, shutters, water heater. The PontBat reflex: the project file is already in the app — plans, amendments and specifications in one place, at hand during the visit.
Joint means: you (or your representative) AND the company, together, in front of every element. You test, you open, you run the water, you flip every switch, you photograph anything that raises a question. A rushed handover always benefits the same side — never yours.
Every defect observed becomes a punch-list item: precisely described, located, written into the handover report — each with its own deadline to be fixed. An item that is not written down does not exist. The PontBat reflex: items are logged in the app during the visit, photo attached, before anything is signed.
The company fixes, then you verify: a new visit confirms each item has been cleared, with photo evidence filed in the app. No clearing on someone's word or on a “it's fixed” message: every correction is checked, item by item.
Once every item is cleared, the handover becomes final: the retention money is released from escrow, and the company hands over the as-built file — final plans, equipment warranties, invoices. That file will serve you for the entire life of the building.
On handover day, the urge to be done with it is your worst adviser. Four mistakes come up again and again — all avoidable.
It is a share of every payment — in practice 5–10% — kept in escrow until the final handover. As long as punch-list items remain, it stays locked: the company has a concrete interest in coming back to fix, and you keep the upper hand without having to chase anyone.
Handover starts the clock on the ten-year warranty: it covers the structural soundness of the building for ten years after handover. On the PontBat platform, this insurance is verified at professional admission — not discovered when the damage appears.
From abroad, a handover is only worth its records. Whatever is said gets lost; whatever is recorded protects you.
The handover report is drawn up and signed electronically in the app: a certain date, identified signatories, no paper copy that goes missing.
Every item is described, photographed and timestamped at the moment it is recorded: no arguing later about what was visible that day.
Each item carries its own deadline. The app automatically reminds the company as the due date approaches — you do not have to play debt collector from abroad.
Final plans, equipment warranties, invoices: the as-built file is archived in the app, accessible for life — not in a cardboard box at the company's office.
A joint walkthrough, written and photographed punch-list items, retention released only after verification: everything this article describes is already built into the platform.