Handover & Possession Checklist (Word)

Registration transfers ownership. Handover transfers the actual flat — and it is where a smooth transaction turns sour if nobody made a list.

Two hours done properly prevents nearly everything that goes wrong afterwards. The most commonly skipped item takes ninety seconds: photographing the meter readings with the meter numbers visible. Without that, the first electricity bill becomes an argument with someone who has already moved.

For an agent, handover is the last thing a client remembers about working with you, and it is the moment they decide whether to refer you. Being there with the list is cheap for that.

What is in the file

• Meters and utilities — the readings and bills to capture on the day
• Keys and access — every set, counted, plus society cards, parking tags and intercom
• The physical walk with a torch: taps, flushes, sockets, geyser, windows, fittings, leaks
• The inventory check against what the agreement actually promised
• Documents to collect at handover — originals, NOCs, warranties
• Society formalities, and the post-handover transfers including mutation

Bring a torch and a charged phone

You will take fifty photographs. Under sinks, behind the WC, inside cupboards, and every meter.

Photograph anything wrong while the seller is standing there

Absent fittings and unreported damage are far easier to resolve before everyone leaves than by message the following week.

Change the main lock regardless

Count the key sets and record the number — then change the lock anyway. You cannot know who else has a copy.

Do the mutation

Buyers forget it constantly and discover the problem years later when they try to sell. It updates the municipal record so property tax comes to the new owner rather than the previous one.

Questions

This is a working template, not legal, tax or financial advice. Requirements differ by state and by transaction — have a lawyer and a chartered accountant confirm anything that matters before you or a client rely on it.