Each Dubai based developer has a handover process. Here we take a look at the Damac Handover process.
Step 1 – Handover Notice
The first step in the Damac Handover Process is Receiving the Handover Notice. This is the official notice from Damac that your property is “ready”. I put the word ready in quotation marks as this is not normally the case. None the less, you will now be able to book in for the Initial Inspection. Damac will normally need approximately 2 weeks’ notice when allowing you to book in for the Initial Inspection as their team will actually use this time to complete the finishing and aesthetics of the interior of the villa. It is worth noting that the Warranty or Deficit Liability will start from the day that Damac issue the Handover Notice, not from when you actually take possession of the property.
Step 2 – Booking in Initial Inspection
In order to book in and start the Handover Process with Damac, they will request that you download their Damac Living App and register using the email address that you registered with them when you purchased the property. This is the only way in which Damac allow you to carry out the handover process. Once you have completed the registration on the app you should be able to login and navigate to the handover section at which point you will be able to select a date and time for the Initial Inspection. This will normally be approximately 2 weeks away from the day that you book.
Step 3 – Carrying Out initial inspection THE MOST IMPORTANT
The date has finally arrived and you are now able to carry out the Initial Inspection. You will need to head to the Damac Handover Office of the development that your property is located. Damac have on site handover offices for each of their developments.
With Damac the Initial Inspection is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT as Damac will receive any and all comments only ONCE. If you do not raise the issue during the Initial Inspection they WILL NOT rectify the issue before the handover unless it falls under MEP. This basically means that anything Aesthetic, such as broken tiles, damaged cupboards, light switches not working, dirty AC ducts, dirty water tanks or anything similar will not be rectified by Damac if it is not raised on the initial inspection.
This is why we seriously recommend a professional.
Step 4 – Submitting Initial Inspection Report to Damac
If, as an owner you decide to carry out the inspections yourself, then a Damac representative will be present throughout the inspection and will note down any issues on an iPad, but be aware, they are trained to minimize the report as much as possible so it is a good idea to check that all issues you raised with them are actually on their iPad before they put it in front of you to sign. They will also only allow you to inspect for 1.5 hours and most of that time will have been used in their office when you arrived while they arrange the keys. At the end of the inspection they will ask you to sign ion the iPad at the end to confirm the completion of the Initial inspection.
If you employ a 3rd party to complete the property inspection, there will be no Damac representative present throughout the inspection. Damac will send someone to open the door to the property to allow your 3rd party to carry out their own inspection. If it is a villa project, Damac no longer allow roof access. Using a 3rd party means that there is no time limit when inspecting as the Damac employee leaves. Once the 3rd party completes the inspection they have 3 days (including inspection day) to submit the snagging report to the owner, or Damac.
Step 5 – Waiting a month
Once Damac have received the report they allow themselves 30 days (1 month) to rectify the issues provided to them in the property inspection report. This is probably the most frustrating part for owners and investors as they have no follow up, Damac do not keep you informed of progress, nor do you have any direct contact with any of the team. You will only be provided with an email address atyourservice@damacproperties.com and asked to address your queries to your CRM representative or Handover representative and it can take up to 3 days for the emails to be seen by them. During this waiting period however, Damac will start pushing to get some things done.
Step 6 – While You Wait
During the 30 days that Damac allow themselves to rectify the snags from the Initial snagging Inspection Report, they will start pushing owners and investors to complete some of the CRM Team’s (client relationship management) targets. This includes registering DEWA, paying any outstanding balance, paying advanced service charges and signing a document called “The Handover Checklist”. All of these things I advise to do as close to the date of the De-Snagging inspection as possible. The reason for this is:
- that once the DEWA is registered, the bills now come to you and Damac are still carrying out work in the property. Meaning that any work, cleaning, building or maintenance happening, you would end up paying for the electricity and water during that period.
- The Service charge payment is the same, you do not have use of the property or the surrounding facilities so why start paying before you do, or as close to it as you can?
- The Handover Checklist is a document that states that you accept the villa and have completed and accepted all terms and conditions of the Handover Process. At this stage the villa is not ready, so why sign a document that states that it is?
It is worth noting that all of the above have to be completed by the date of the De-Snagging Inspection. It just seems worthwhile to hold off as long as you can. Damac WILL NOT allow the De-Snagging Inspection to go ahead without all of the above complete. In some cases they do not even allow you to book the De-Snagging Inspection. So my advice is to wait, at least until you have received the email stating that Damac have rectified and completed all issues raised on the Snagging Inspection.
Step 7 – Receiving Email saying its Ready
Eventually, after approximately 30 days you will receive an email informing you that the property has had all issues fixed and you can proceed to “Key Handover”. Once you receive this email, It will say in the email to log on to the Damac Living App and book your appointment. In my experience with Damac Handovers, 100% of the time, the properties have not been ready at this stage. So we consider this a De-Sagging Inspection.
Step 8 – Booking De-Snagging Inspection
You will have to book the appointment for the next inspection through the Damac Living app. This is the stage by which you will have to complete the DEWA registration, Clear any outstanding balance, pay service charges 3 months in advance and sign the Handover Checklist or the app may not allow you to book in the appointment. Appointments at this stage are normally a 2 week wait.
Step 9 – Carrying out De-snagging Inspection
If you carried out the Initial Inspection yourself then you will need to return to the Handover office for your development and again, a Damac Handover Representative will accompany you to the property along with an iPad. You will then go through point by point with them to check if the issues raised have been fixed or not. If they have not, the Damac Handover Representative should “re-open” the issue. They will attempt to tell you that they cannot fix that particular issue or that they will get someone there to fix it now. This is an attempt to push you to take possession that day.
If you hired a 3rd party inspector then they will attend and carry out the De-Snagging and at the end if they property truly has been fixed completely then they will inform the owner and let them know that the property is complete and if the owner has provided approval to Damac they can collect the key on your behalf. As I mentioned earlier, the property is most probably not going to be ready and the 3rd party will have another 3 days to submit the De-Snagging report to the owner and/or Damac.
Step 10 – Waiting for email
Once the De-Snagging report is provided to Damac, they allow themselves between 2 weeks and 1 month to complete the remining rectifications reported on the De-Snagging Inspection report. All you can do during this time is wait until they send the email.
Step 11 – Receiving Email saying its ready
As before, once they believe that they have rectified the issues, they will send an email to the registered email address informing the owner that the property is finished and all snags have been rectified.
Step 12 – Booking in Key Handover and Carry Out Final Inspection
This is the last and final time that Damac allow anyone to visit or inspect the property before the handover is complete. It is therefore extremely important that anything that you are not happy with is mentioned and the Damac representative will have to and will most likely call the contractors to the villa and they will be instructed to rectify any issues on the spot. This is fine for small things but please make sure that if there are any large issues, such as broken tiles, leaks, damage or Air conditioning faults that you do not accept the villa at this stage and insist that these be fixed before you proceed to sign and collect the keys. It is perfectly acceptable to receive keys and complete all formalities if you have personally seen the contractors attending to the small issues that may still be pending but larger issues they will not be able to complete that day.
If there are still any significant issues at this stage, Damac aim to have them complete within 3 days and will communicate with you via phone rather than email to arrange the final key collection.
Step 13 – Signing release
If everything is fine and you are happy with the rectifications, or you can only see some small issues and the team are attending to them there and then, you will head back to the Damac Handover Office and this is where the Handover team will complete the financial clearance checks and issue you the handover completion document and key collection documents to sign. You will have a 30-40 minute wait in the office while they complete these clearances and then they will come back and present you with a Damac box containing your properties keys, a notepad, and a USB with the community information on it.
Congratulations, you a have just completed handover of your property.