Your property needs to be fully paid off before your developer hands it over to you.  Make sure all the perks, rebates & discounts that you were promised previously are on the statement (or at least in your email confirmation). The handover process is lengthy and requires multiple teams within the developer to work together. You must make sure they’re all on the same page and get reminded of your entitlement.

If you plan to finance your properties, engaging a financial broker will increase your odds of finding one with cheaper interest rate. You can easily do a quick mortgage rate calculation on our page here.  The financial broker is usually paid by the bank, so their consultation is usually free.  Additionally, you should also check with your handover account manager on whether they have any promotional deal with any specific bank to give you an even better rate. But bear in mind about the customer service level of the bank.  Once your property is mortgaged, you will have to liaise with your mortgage bank for a long time about many aspects, from title deed application to mortgage repayment after you leave the country.  The cheapest isn’t always best.

Snagging helps identify defects in your property for the contractor to fix before handover.  Although new properties enjoy a one year warranty period, it’s not always easy to get repairs carried out. Your tenants might refuse to give access for repairs, subcontractors might dispute its not their responsibility, or in some cases (as has happened before) the main contractor even ends operation/trading during the warranty period. Snagging and de-snagging is often overlooked as it’s incredibly time consuming to do it properly.

Some developers collect 1^st year service charges together with the final settlement and  some don’t. You need to satisfy their payment terms to proceed further with the handover.  In fact, Steps 4, 5, 6 and 7 all need to be fulfilled in order before the developer proceeds with the handover.

We’ve seen title deeds become incredibly important in 2020 to lease, sell or even to just get ADDC connection.  Different developers may have different processes to help you obtain your title deed, and the process also differs from whether your property is mortgaged or unmortgaged.  However, as a general rule, for owners with a valid Emirates ID, the application usually is done via your UAE pass, whereas for non-resident owners, you might need to visit ADM in person for your title deed application unless you have a Power of Attorney to do it for you.  We have also seen some developers help owners, residents or not, obtain the title deed via email.  Check with your developers about the specific assistance they can provide and the fee amount required to pay ADM. 

Once you complete the financial settlement and obtain your title deed, you need to request from the developer a NOC addressed to ADDC to allow changing of the owner’s name for your particular property from the developer to yourself. The request should be made to ADDC via contactcentre@addc.ae.  However, do expect that there may be a long delay from ADDC due to high demand.

After satisfying all their requirements, you need to have an appointment to visit the developer’s office for key handover.  Don’t be surprised if you find yourself having to sign stacks of additional contracts from Master Community Rule to Facility Management Agreement upon this handover appointment before you can get your keys.

If your property is inside an apartment building, you’ll need to set up a chilled water account with the billing company that the developer has already appointed. Different chilled water companies charge different security deposit amounts and they all have different tariffs.  Some charge monthly capacity charges to property owners, some pass it all down to the occupants who consume chilled water.  A chilled water account is generally not required for villas. Villas generally come with split type of ACs that runs on electricity.  However, we’ve also seen some exceptions where villas do get chilled water.  So you should also double check with the developer.  The same applies with gas, not every building or villa comes with gas supply. You need to double check this with the developer.

Tawtheeq is the official tenancy registration with Abu Dhabi government. If you ever want to rent out your properties, you need to be able to provide your tenants the tawtheeq and it can only be done through putting tawtheeq under your UAE pass.  It’s relatively straightforward for owners with a valid Emirates ID, but if you’re overseas or don’t have an Emirates ID, it gets substantially more difficult. You will need to have a power of attorney who has a valid Emirates ID to register your tawtheeq under his/her UAE pass.  So far, we have not come across a way around this yet. It’s best you speak to us first to get the latest update on tawtheeq registration.

Following Step 3, de-snag, de-snag, de-snag, and before anyone moves in make sure you check the snags that the developer or the contractor claims that they’ve fixed. Chances are, you’ll have to do multiple rounds of de-snagging before all issues are rectified.