01 / Journal
You get an appointment, a set of keys and a defect liability period that starts running immediately. What you do in that first week decides whether the developer fixes the problems or you do.
The defect liability period starts the day you accept the keys. What you do in the first week decides whether the developer fixes the problems or you pay for them two years later.
It obliges you to settle the balance and attend within a set window, and it starts a clock. Do not treat it as an invitation. Read what it says about the inspection you are entitled to before you accept anything.
Diarise the window the day it arrives. Most notices give a fixed number of days to settle and attend, and missing it can hand the developer a right to charge or to hold the keys. Read the inspection clause in the same sitting, because that is what tells you whether you may bring your own surveyor.
The final payment, the conversion of the interim registration into a title deed, and the utility connection all have to happen in a particular order. Getting them out of order adds weeks and occasionally a second trip.
The order is settle, register, connect, then inspect. Title cannot issue before the balance clears, the utility account usually wants the title or the tenancy, and the surveyor needs power and water to test anything. Ask the developer for their own sequence in writing; it varies by building and it is rarely on the notice.
An independent firm checks the things you will not: falls to the drains, glazing gaskets, the air-conditioning balance, the earth bonding, the door reveals. It costs a few thousand dirhams and it routinely finds work worth many times that.
Book it before handover day, not after. Good firms are busy at the end of a quarter when a tower completes, and the value of the report falls with every week it is late. Walk the unit with the surveyor if you can, because the photographs make sense in a way the list alone does not.
Developers vary from two weeks to three months. Submit the report through the channel the agreement names, keep the acknowledgement, and re-inspect before you sign the works off.
What protects you is the paper trail. Submit through the named channel, keep the acknowledgement with its date, and photograph each item before and after. A second inspection costs a fraction of the first, and it is the only thing that proves the work was actually done.
Workmanship and materials, not wear and not anything you changed. It is time-limited and it is the reason the snagging report has to be dated and acknowledged.
Read it as a definition, not as a guarantee. Workmanship and materials are covered. A mark you made, a failure you caused by not servicing the air conditioning, and anything you altered are not, which is exactly why the dated report matters. It separates what was wrong on day one from what happened afterwards.
The structure carries a long warranty; mechanical, electrical and plumbing carries a much shorter one. Most of what actually goes wrong in the first two years is in the shorter category.
Ask which clause covers which system. Chilled-water valves, drainage falls, extract fans and the electrical distribution board sit in the shorter category, and those are the things that fail. Knowing when that shorter period ends is what tells you to spend a small amount on a survey rather than a large amount on a repair.
Charges begin at handover, not at occupation. If you are not moving in until the following quarter, you are still paying from the day you take the keys.
Model it from the notice date. If you are letting the unit, the first quarter of charges lands before the first month of rent, and on a large apartment that gap is real money. If you are moving in later, it is simply a cost of holding the keys.
Tenancy registration, a holiday-home permit if you intend to short-let, an inventory with photographs, and a set of keys you have counted. The inventory is what the deposit dispute will eventually turn on.
Do the inventory before a tenant sees it. Photograph every room, every appliance and every existing mark, date the file, and give the tenant a copy with the tenancy. A deposit dispute is decided on evidence, and the evidence has to exist before the tenancy starts.
Material variation from the annexed specification is a different conversation from a snag, and it is one to have in writing before you accept handover rather than after.
The test is materiality, not preference. A different tap is a snag. A bedroom noticeably shorter than the annexed plan, or a specification substituted for a lower grade, is a variation. Raise it in writing before you accept the keys, because acceptance is the moment your position changes.
Day one, settle and collect. Day two, independent snagging inspection. Day three, submit the report. Day four, utilities and registration. Day five, re-inspect the urgent items. It is unglamorous and it is the whole game.
Two things make the week work. Book the surveyor and the utility appointment before you fly, and keep every acknowledgement in one dated folder. None of it needs expertise. It needs somebody doing it in order, in a week when most owners are busy being pleased.
Where this leads next
Savanna at Creek Beach
02 / Keep reading
A 70/30 plan is not 70% during construction and 30% at the end. It is a schedule of dated obligations, and the first year is heavier than the headline suggests. What each structure actually asks of you, and when.
Off-plan is cheaper per square foot, pays in instalments and produces nothing for three years. Secondary is dearer, mortgageable today and earns rent from month one. The answer depends on whether you need income.
03 / The guest list
One article a month, the listings before they are advertised, and an invitation when we are running an evening at the showroom.