If the handover of your new-build home is delayed, the finishing moves with it: you pass on the new date and we reschedule the job survey and the work. For your walls a delay is no problem, as they simply get longer to dry. Just do not fix your move until the new handover date is certain.
Handover delayed? Keep your finishing on schedule anyway
Pass on your new handover date and our own tradespeople will reschedule the job survey and the finishing.
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Why is a new-build handover delayed?
A new-build project depends on many links in the chain. Material deliveries run late, bad weather holds up the structural shell or the roof, and installations and inspections have to line up. In a project with dozens of homes, one delay often passes on to all the homes that follow.
The contractor or developer usually announces a delay first with a provisional date and only later with a final one. Your rights in case of delay are set out in your purchase agreement or building contract. Read it or ask your contractor, as this differs from contract to contract.
What does a delay mean for your planned finishing?
The finishing only starts once you have the keys, so our schedule moves with the handover. Pass on a new date as soon as you know it, even if it is still provisional. We then take it into account in our tradespeople’s schedule and set the job survey around the new key handover.
If the job survey has already been done, for example during a viewing day, it usually does not need repeating. The walls do not change significantly while the house stays closed up. If something does change, such as extra rooms or a different choice of finish, we adjust the quote.
How do you plan sensibly around an uncertain handover date?
The biggest mistake with a delay is fixing the move, ending your rental or having furniture delivered on a date that may still slip. Leave room between getting the keys and moving in, so the finishing can be done in an empty house.
So work out carefully how long wallpapering a home takes before you set a moving day. As soon as you have the keys, finishing after the key handover can begin.
Is a delay bad for your walls?
No, that is an understandable but unfounded worry. As long as the house is closed up and dry, a longer build time gives the materials more time to lose their construction moisture. At key handover the walls are then often drier than with a handover at the original date. And less construction moisture in new-build walls is exactly what you want before wallpaper or paint goes on.
At handover, do watch for damage that may have occurred during the extra build time, such as damp patches from a leak or damaged corners. Record this at the handover inspection. Also check that the walls were delivered as agreed. Do you know what wallpaper-ready means at handover?
Who does the finishing once you have the keys?
The finishing is done by our own tradespeople: 40 wallpaper hangers, 32 plasterers and 25 painters on permanent contracts. Each year they finish more than 600 new-build homes, so a shifting handover date is nothing unusual for us. Because we do not bring in subcontractors, we can adjust the schedule ourselves.
You do not have to wait until the new date is fixed. Simply request the free quote, which you receive within 24 hours, with the provisional date and the floor plan or the m² per room. If the date shifts, we shift with it. The job survey follows once you agree, on a viewing day or around the key handover.
If more neighbours in your project face the same delay, sign up together. We then schedule the homes one after the other and the neighbour discount per m² applies. Otherwise the process when you have your new-build home finished runs as usual, just at a later date.
By the Bouwsector België team, 97 in-house tradespeople · reviewed by