Alhamdulillah! Finally, after many years of waiting, your property in Dubai is ready to be handed over from the developer and you can soon start to see some return on your investment or move-in, live and enjoy the property yourself.
Reality check! The Handover & Snagging process can become much more complicated and stressful if you are not familiar with the processes in Dubai and/or if you do not have the proper guidance.
Below is a just a general guide to property Snagging and Handover:
As soon as the building is completed, your Developer will send out the completion notice and demand that you take Handover within 30 days or risk penalties being levied. The Completion notice which is sent to your registered postal and/or email address will contain the prerequisite (obligations) set forth by the Developer that you will need to fulfil prior to taking physical possession of your property as the new owner.
Before taking physical possession of your new property, it is always the best practice to carry out a detailed inspection of the property to ensure that the unit is in a move-in ready condition and is suitable for beneficial occupancy. This activity is called the Snagging Inspection and should be carried out “prior” to signing any handover paper works and/or taking handover of the key since any repairs or amendments made after this will never be easy and may involve a lot of follow up calls and emails.
Normally, your developer will give you an appointment to carry out the snagging before you collect the keys. Take note that if you fail to inspect your property within the allotted timeframe given by your developer, this might result to you waiving your rights to inspect the property and thus accept the property in as it is condition.
At the time of Snagging inspection, go through the property thoroughly and note down as much as possible defects or problems that you noticed. Make a written list of the defects and issues that you have observed and forward the same to your Developer will pass the list to the contractor for necessary remedial action within a reasonable time.
Make sure you retain a copy of your snag for any subsequent follow-ups with the Developer.
Note: If you cannot be present in Dubai to carry out the snagging inspection or perhaps the above just sounds like a massive inconvenience, you may benefit from appointing a 3rd Party Professional Inspector, Afterall snagging are one of those jobs best left to professionals.
Once the Contactor confirmed to have satisfactorily completed the snag rectification and corrective works based on your provided list of defects (also known as Snag List), your Developer will send out a Handover Notice through your registered email address informing you to make an appointment with the Developers Handover Team in order to receive and take handover the Key to your new property.
Along with the Completion Notice, you should also receive a Handover pack which includes the details of your completion/account statement with the developer which should outline clearly what you have paid and also what is pending and required in order for you to take possession of your property. Do note that this will vary from developer to developer but on the most part, the closing costs are standard across the board. Below are the briefs of the main ones
Once you are satisfied with the overall condition of the property and have made all payments to the developer, you will finally be in a position to take Handover of your property and receive the keys/access cards. The developer will give you an appointment to sign the final paperwork to take possession of the property.
All owners will need to be present personally to sign the Handover papers or alternatively they must be represented by a legally appointed Power of Attorney. You or the appointed POA must bring all original documents (including passports, sales & purchase agreements, utility receipts, payment receipts etc) to the appointment. The developer will prepare all of the paperwork, you will sign and then receive your Payment Clearance Certificate, Key Release Forms, keys/access cards etc.
Congratulations! you are now the proud owner of the new property. The property is now yours to move into, rent or perhaps re-sell. At long last, you are in a position to enjoy your property or start making some return on your investment.
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