Off-plan handover in Dubai: the buyer's checklist
Check the property against the specification before you accept it, and get your objections on record before signing. Dubai has a defects liability period and a longer structural obligation, but both start from a date the developer sets, not from the day you get keys.
Before the handover date
- 01Confirm the completion certificate exists and covers your unit.
- 02Get the specification annexed to your sale agreement, and the unit drawings.
- 03Establish what you are being asked to sign and what signing it does.
- 04Check the outstanding payments and any service charge starting point.
- 05Arrange for somebody to attend with you, or in your place, and confirm the developer permits it.
On the day
- Air conditioning in every room, running long enough to test the drain as well as the cooling.
- Every socket, switch and light fitting, individually.
- Water pressure and hot water at each outlet, and every drain under running water.
- Windows, doors and balcony doors: opening, closing, locking, sealing.
- Falls in wet areas, and any standing water after a flood test.
- Finishes against the specification, room by room, with the document in hand.
- The inventory: appliances, fittings, keys, access cards, remotes.
The two periods, and when they start
New-build purchases in Dubai typically carry a defects liability period for workmanship and a substantially longer obligation for structural elements. Both are usually measured from the completion certificate rather than from your handover.
Where those two dates are months apart, part of your cover has already been used before you take possession. Find both dates in writing and diarise them; they are the ones that decide whether a claim is in time.
The signature
If there are outstanding items, they belong on the handover document or on an annex it references, signed by both sides on the day. A promise to fix a list afterwards, made verbally, is worth very little once you have signed acceptance.
Questions on this
Can I refuse to take handover?
Rarely without consequence, and the sale agreement usually says what those are. Signing with recorded reservations is normally available where refusing is not.
Who pays for a snagging visit?
You do, and it is among the cheapest parts of the purchase. The developer's own walkthrough is not the same exercise.
What if defects appear after I move in?
Report them in writing immediately and within the defects period. Dated photographs from before you took possession are what keeps the argument from becoming about when the defect appeared.
Read one before you buy one
The specimen shows the whole structure: status, what each payment was meant to buy, the forecast with its range, the photographic record and the limits of what was checked.