Create my accountPhase 4 · Handover
"All good for you?", and the client nods.But nothing is written, and the job isn't closed.
Handover is the moment the client accepts the works. It ends the job, starts your guarantees running and releases the final payment. Skipped, it leaves you with no starting point, and the balance in limbo.
What you live
The end of the job we never formalise.
The works are finished, the client is happy, they take possession of the place. You shake hands, you'll talk about the balance "soon". No paper says the works were accepted, on what date, with or without reservation.
Months later, a defect appears. Starting point of the guarantees? Nowhere to be found. Or the client withholds the balance for "reservations" never listed. The end of the job, for want of being recorded, turns against you.
Handover closes the contract. You still have to record it.
Handover isn't a courtesy: it's the act that closes the execution contract and starts your guarantees (perfect completion, and beyond). Accepted without reservation, it counts as acceptance of the visible works.
Tacit, by mere possession, it deprives you of a clear starting point and a clean list of reservations. In writing, it protects both parties and releases the balance.
A handover report, reservations included.
At the end, you draw up the handover report with the client: date, handover with or without reservation, reservations listed one by one. The starting point of your guarantees is fixed, in black and white, and the balance can be called.
And a clean handover raises your standing: it shows the client a tradesperson who sees it through, properly. Clearing the reservations is then tracked in the same place, up to the clean closing of the job.
What we get asked
Handover of the works, in plain terms.
How do I draw up a handover report?
By drawing up, at the end of the job, a dated document that you and the client sign: it states that the works are accepted, with or without reservation, and lists any reservations one by one. This report fixes the starting point of your guarantees and lets you call the balance. Without it, the end of the job stays unclear for both parties.
What are the consequences of handover without reservation?
Handover without reservation counts as acceptance of the visible works: the client acknowledges that, on that date, nothing visible is a problem. For you, it's protective (unreported visible defects are deemed accepted); for the client, it's binding. Hence the importance of honestly listing the real reservations on the day, rather than accepting everything hastily.
The client refuses to sign the handover, what can I do?
First propose a handover with reservations, which records the end of the works while listing what remains to be fixed: the client has fewer reasons to refuse it. Keep a record of your proposal and its date. A handover, even with reservations, is better than an end of job left unclear, for your guarantees as for your balance.
When do the guarantees start after the works?
At handover. It's what starts the guarantee of perfect completion (one year) and the longer guarantees depending on the nature of the works. Without a dated handover, the starting point is uncertain, which exposes you longer. Recording the handover therefore also bounds your liability in time.
Close your jobs for good.
Create your PRO account and record every handover, reservations included, in the same place as the rest of the contract.
€29.99/month, no commitment.