The walk-through of every unit, the items the buyer raises, the contractors who put them right and the warranty that keeps running afterwards, all held in one case file — from the pre-handover inspection through to sign-off by whoever is entitled to give it for that event.
01 · The problem
The unit is finished and the buyer arrives to take possession. They walk the apartment with a printed sheet, note what they find — a door that catches, a leak under the kitchen sink, a missing fitting — and sign. From that moment the list scatters: part of it goes to the main contractor, part sits in a messaging thread with the finishing foreman, and part travels back to the sales agent, the only contact the buyer has a name for.
Follow-up runs on whatever is at hand: a Microsoft Excel workbook per building listing the items raised in each apartment, photographs on the handover coordinator’s phone, email to book the contractor’s visit, and a separate form for warranty requests. Each piece does its job, and none of them shows which item is still open today, who owns it, by when, and who signed it off.
The developer measures the project in units handed over; the buyer measures it by the one defect nobody has turned up to fix.
02 · The solution
Every unit gets its own case file and an agreed sequence: pre-handover inspection, the walk-through with the buyer present, each item captured with its assessment and its owner, assignment to the contractor responsible, re-inspection of the completed work, and sign-off from whoever is entitled to give it for that item: the buyer for what they undertook to verify, the authorized owner or the designated system, or technical inspection. Once the unit is handed over, that same case file goes on taking warranty requests, showing the trade involved and the period still running.
Each handover is built on what the Operational Graph already holds as approved: the project, the phase and the building, the unit layout and its specification, the contractor behind each trade, the warranty running on each, and the buyer with their purchase agreement. BPMflow provides the workflow underneath — cases, assignment, due dates, authorizations and evidence — so a one-off defect and the same defect across twenty units of one layout can be read side by side.
Project Handover to Operations covers a stretch that sounds similar and works differently. There the receiving side is an internal team about to run a service or an asset, and the evidence is acceptance conditions, support owners and current documentation. Here the receiving side is the buyer, the object is their apartment under a purchase agreement, and the evidence is the signed certificate, the signed-off item and the warranty on each trade. A developer doing both needs both paths, not one bent to serve the other.
The commercial work that precedes it — channels, qualification, viewings and follow-up — is Real Estate Sales Operations, and this path picks up where that one leaves off. Where a third party works on the building itself, that job keeps its own clearance and acceptance in Contractors, Assets and Interventions.
03 · Capabilities
Units sit in a queue by phase and by building, with the handover date, the open items and their turnaround dates in plain view. Max answers about the case file within the authorized context: it explains which item is still open, shows the evidence on record and proposes the next owner.
Records the internal walk-through that precedes the appointment: which trades were inspected, what was flagged before the buyer was called in, and what has to be put right for the unit to be ready to hand over.
Captures each item in the apartment, with a photograph and the room it belongs to, and records the buyer’s decision: accept, accept with items outstanding, or decline to take possession, with the signature the certificate calls for.
Separates finishes, building services, fittings, damage from use after handover, and common areas: each type sets who puts it right, which warranty applies and what turnaround is committed. An item can also be assessed as not covered, with the grounds recorded and communicated.
Routes the fix to the contractor or trade responsible, with the unit, the room and the agreed access, and keeps the proof of what was carried out: the work performed, the person who performed it and the date.
Re-checks the completed work before anything is treated as closed, and stores the sign-off from whoever is entitled to give it. Where an item comes back, the case file shows it against the same unit and the same trade rather than opening as a fresh complaint with no history.
Keeps the warranty period for each trade and the channel through which an owner raises a request after handover. Anything that recurs across one unit layout stands out as a project-level pattern and reaches the people who set the specification for the next phase.
04 · Roles
The items owners raise, the visits they agree and the sign-offs they give sit inside the case file, not in a customer-service channel running beside it.
Prepares the unit and runs the walk-through.
What they see
The handover schedule by building, the pre-inspection status of each unit, and the open items with their owner and turnaround.
What they do
Books the buyer, completes the certificate, assesses each item with its owner, and tracks the dates committed.
Looks after the unit once it has been handed over.
What they see
Warranty requests by project, trade and age, alongside the evidence from the original handover and from earlier repairs.
What they do
Accepts the request or declines it with stated grounds, routes it to the right trade, and records the sign-off where verification does not rest with the owner.
Puts right what falls to them.
What they see
The items assigned to them with the unit, the room, the photograph on record and the access date agreed, in their own case file with scoped access.
What they do
Arranges the visit, carries out the repair, records what was done together with the proof, and returns the item for verification.
Takes possession, raises items and signs them off.
What they see
The status of their own unit: what they raised, what was committed, by when, and which warranty is still running on each trade.
What they do
Walks the unit and raises the items, agrees the repair visits, and grants or withholds sign-off on what they undertook to verify.
05 · Implementation
Implementation starts from a specific handover already in the diary: the context of that phase, its unit schedule and its contractors is enough, with no prior architecture project.
1 · Agree on the outcome
Which items are in scope, how they are assessed, who puts each type right, what turnaround is committed, who may rule an item as not covered, and which sign-off closes each case.
2 · Bring in context and connect sources
Draws the project, the phase, the building and the unit schedule from the construction system; the buyer and the purchase agreement from the commercial system; and integrates with the project document repository where that is the authorized source for drawings, specifications and certificates.
3 · Test the path and adopt it
The path is tested against the handovers of the building currently in progress; the team tunes assessments, turnaround and sign-off criteria; and day-to-day operation stays with the client team.
06 · Typical scenarios
Several buildings handing over at once, contractors whose construction contract has already closed, and warranties running to different periods by trade: familiar ground on a project in handover. The scenarios below are illustrative.
A handover is closed when the unit has been taken over with its certificate on record and every item carries the sign-off of whoever is entitled to give it for that event: the buyer for what they undertook to verify, or the authorized owner or designated system where it does not rest with them. Starting from one building and its first handovers is the practical way in.
Property Handover and Aftersales is an EAFlow industry accelerator on the Operational Graph, supported by the BPMflow automation capabilities. Real Estate Sales Operations covers the commercial work before it; Contractors, Assets and Interventions covers third-party work on the building. Project Handover to Operations answers a different question, with a different receiving side and different evidence. The contractual and legal steps of the sale keep their own owners and procedures.
