What should you check at villa handover?

Handover is the point at which your position changes completely. Before you sign, the contractor needs something from you. After you sign, you need something from them.

Treat it accordingly, and do not let a completion date, a booking or a flight rush it.

Before you attend

Bring your architect or an independent surveyor. If you have used one through the build, this is the visit they exist for. If you have not, engage one now. A few hundred dollars against a USD 300,000 building is not a decision.

Bring the drawings and the specification, and check the building against them rather than against your memory of what was promised.

Allow a full day. Handover done in an hour is handover not done.

Go at different times if you can, including after rain and in the evening. Drainage and noise both reveal themselves on a schedule.

The documents

PBG, issued, matching the building that exists.

SLF, the certificate of fitness. Without it the building is not lawfully occupiable and it is significantly harder to sell.

As-built drawings, showing what was actually constructed including anything that changed during the build.

Service locations — where the water lines, electrical runs and drainage actually go. You will need this the first time something fails, and reconstructing it later is expensive.

Warranties for equipment, waterproofing and the structure, with their terms and durations.

Manuals and certificates for pumps, filtration, aircon, water heating, solar and anything else installed.

Keys, all of them, and a schedule of who else holds copies.

Water, which is where Bali buildings fail

Run every tap, shower and toilet. Check pressure at the highest point of the building, which is where it fails.

Test the hot water everywhere, from cold.

Check the water source, capacity and pressure. If the property runs on a bore or trucked supply, see the tank, understand the volume and establish the resupply arrangement.

Flood the shower trays and wet areas and leave them. Come back and look at the ceiling below.

Check the pool: structure, tiling, filtration, pump, skimmers, lighting, and whether the water level holds overnight.

Inspect drainage. Roof, terraces, garden. If it has not rained, run hoses. Bali rainfall is not gentle and inadequate drainage is the most expensive defect to fix after the fact.

Electrical and mechanical

Every socket, switch and light, individually.

PLN capacity, against what the property actually draws with all aircon running and the pool pump on. Undersized supply is common and upgrading takes time.

Every aircon unit, cooling properly, draining properly, quiet.

Earthing and safety cutouts, tested.

Internet, at the speed contracted, in every room you care about.

Gas, if installed, with its connections checked.

Fabric and finish

Walls, ceilings and floors for cracks, unevenness and staining. Every door and window opening, closing and locking properly and sealing against rain. Joinery — drawers, hinges, alignment. Tiling and grout. Paint, in daylight. External render and roof condition. Termite treatment evidence, which matters more here than most places.

The defects list

Write everything down, photograph it, and date it. Give it to the contractor in writing and keep a copy signed or acknowledged.

Agree a timeframe for each item and what happens if they are not fixed.

Do not release the retention. Five to ten percent held through a defects liability period is normal, and it is the only leverage that survives handover. A contractor with nothing outstanding has no reason to return.

Do not sign an unconditional acceptance while defects remain. Sign subject to the list.

After handover

Keep the defects list live and follow it. Revisit after the first heavy rain, which will find anything drainage-related. Check again at the end of the defects liability period before releasing retention.

And file everything — permits, drawings, warranties, manuals, the defects list — somewhere reachable from another country. A buyer years from now will ask for it, and so will you the first time something breaks.