Off-plan handover in Dubai: the buyer's checklist

Check the property against the specification before accepting it, and get any objections on record before you sign. Dubai gives you a defects liability period and a longer structural obligation, but both are measured from the date the developer’s completion certificate is issued, not from the day you actually get the keys.

Before the handover date

1. Confirm the completion certificate exists and covers your unit.
2. Get the specification annexed to your sale agreement, and the unit drawings.
3. Establish what you are being asked to sign and what signing it does.
4. Check the outstanding payments and any service charge starting point.
5. Arrange 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.

Handover in Dubai comes down to checking the unit against its specification, recording objections on the signed document itself, and knowing that both defect periods run from the completion certificate rather than from the day you take the keys.