How to Report Defects After Buying New

Summary

    – Reporting defects with the guarantee of defects and lack of conformity

    – The lifting of reservations: signing the discharge

    – The after-sales service

On the day of delivery of your apartment, you are invited to express your reservations. You try to be as exhaustive as possible, but once the keys have been handed over and you notice some malfunctions and defects after several days in your apartment. It is not too late to report them. This post tells you how to report defects after buying a new home. 

Reporting defects with the guarantee of defects and lack of conformity

The guarantee for defects and lack of conformity is valid for one month from the property’s delivery day. To implement this guarantee, you need to send a registered letter acknowledging receipt to the promoter, listing on a separate sheet of paper the defects, faults and lack of conformity that may have been overlooked or not visible on the day of delivery. This letter is called the “one month letter”.

For example, some defects such as a non-functional socket or switch, a defective toilet flush, a silicone seal that comes off can be noted in this letter.

Some reservations may not be taken into account by the developer in the context of the one-month letter. In particular, those related to impacts and cracks on the walls, windows, etc., which the displacement of furniture could have caused during the installation.

Good to know: we advise you to include the reservations made on the day of delivery in your letter, not forgetting to mention them as already recorded in the delivery note.

After the promoter receives the letter, an analysis of your reservations is made to judge their admissibility. A reply letter is sent to you in which the developer confirms whether or not your requests have been taken into account.

The reservations are then transmitted to the companies. You are the only one to have the keys to your home, and the company will then contact you quickly to make an appointment to remove the reservations. As the companies work during working hours, it is rarely possible to agree on an intervention date in the evening or weekend. The disadvantage is that there will be as many appointments to make as there are trades concerned by the reservations in your home.

Good to know: some promoters organize special days to lift reservations. All the companies are present on the same day of the week in residence. This makes it possible to group the interventions of all the trades without tying up the owner’s or tenant’s schedule.

The lifting of reservations: the signing of the discharge

The discharge is the document noting the lifting of the reservations. This document requires your signature only after all the reservations formulated in your delivery report and those validated by the developer in the one-month letter have been removed. If you refuse to sign the discharge after the work has been completed, you must contact the developer to justify your refusal. Whether it is a question of repairs that you consider unsatisfactory or another reason, the developer remains your contact for lifting reservations.

Good to know: the signed discharge does not release the developer or the companies from their responsibilities. Indeed, the legal guarantees of perfect completion, good working order and ten-year guarantee continue to cover the disorders during their respective durations although the discharge was signed.

The after-sales service

Not all developers have after-sales services. The handover from the operational department (commercial, program and technical managers) to the after-sales service generally takes place 2 to 3 months after the delivery of the units, i.e. after the majority of the releases have been signed.

A letter will often be sent to you giving you the contact details of your new contact person responsible for managing the entire new property program during the after-sales service phase. It is with this person that, if need be, the disorders and damages related to 

the guarantees of perfect completion (up to one year from delivery), good functioning (2 years) or ten-year damage insurance (10 years) can be declared, whether they concern the structure of the building in its entirety or the apartments.