Construction
Answering to a hundred buyers
The project ended and a hundred new relationships began, each with its own file, its own warranty and its own way of writing.
On handover day your work does not end: **it changes shape**. Until then you had a project, a contractor and a supervising team; from there you have a hundred private clients who do not know each other, who write through different channels and who will ask you things for years. It is a completely different documentary problem from building, and almost nobody prepares for it before needing to.
What changes on handover day
| What changes | During the works | After handover |
|---|---|---|
| How many people you deal with | A few | A hundred, separately |
| What they ask about | The project | Their home |
| How long it lasts | Months | Years |
| **What is needed to answer** | **The project file** | **Each unit's file** |
Important
**The file you need afterwards is not the project's, it is each home's — and it can only be built while building.** That is the structural error in this position. Everything archived during the works is organised by work packages, contractors and phases, which is how it is executed. But every question that arrives later starts with «in my flat...», and translating from one organisation to the other after the fact is work nobody is going to do.
What to set up before handing over
- 1
What each buyer receives, on record
With acknowledgement: half the complaints start with «nobody gave me that».
- 2
One place for them to raise issues
Without it they arrive by phone, by email and by text.
- 3
Which contractor answers for what
You know; the buyer has no reason to.
- 4
And the trail of each issue
Because the same one will reopen a year from now.
Watch out
The issue repeated on every development is **the one affecting several homes and arriving one at a time**. Four owners report the same thing over four weeks, each is dealt with separately, and nobody sees the pattern until the fifth. Handled together there is one cause, one contractor and one repair; handled separately there are four visits, four conversations and four versions of the answer that later contradict each other between neighbours.
Worth knowing
What documentation must be handed to the buyer, what warranties cover what and for how long, and what retention duties you carry **is determined by the applicable rules and the contract, and settled by your adviser**. Here we cover the organisational part: how to have the per-home file built before handover and how to run issues without losing them.
›Must I keep everything from the works after handover?
At least whatever answers questions about each home, for the period your adviser sets.
›How do I stop everyone writing wherever they like?
By giving one clear place from day one. Afterwards is too late.
›What if the same issue appears in several homes?
That is the normal case. Seeing it together saves half the work.
A real case
The situation
An owner says they never received their documentation.
What you do
- Keeps what was handed to each one and when
What you get
Handover is demonstrable rather than remembered.
The situation
Issues arrive by phone, email and messaging.
What you do
- Offers one place to report them
What you get
Everything stays in one thread and nothing is lost.
The situation
The same issue appears in four homes separately.
What you do
- Shows issues together and by development
What you get
The pattern is visible before the fourth visit.
The situation
The file is organised by work package and questions come per home.
What you do
- Allows organising documentation by unit
What you get
You answer in the terms the question is asked.
The situation
Nobody remembers which contractor answered for a package.
What you do
- Stores which firm executed what, with the file
What you get
The issue goes straight to whoever resolves it.
The situation
A complaint reopens a year later.
What you do
- Keeps the trail of what was done on each issue
What you get
You answer with what was done at the time.
This article answers
- documentation to hand over to the buyer
- managing warranty issues on a development
- each owner claiming separately
- what to keep after handing over homes