The Last 5%: Why Handover Takes Longer Than Anyone Plans
The site looks finished long before it is finished. What separates a completed fit-out from an occupied one is testing, snagging, and the paperwork nobody scheduled.
HON Editorial
The site looks finished long before it is finished. What separates a completed fit-out from an occupied one is the work nobody puts on the programme.
Snagging is a loop, not a list
The first walkthrough produces a list. The list produces rework. The rework produces a second walkthrough. A programme that budgets for one round of snagging is budgeting for the version of the project where nothing needed correcting.
Testing and commissioning
Mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems have to be run, balanced and witnessed. Fire systems need their final inspection. None of this appears in a photograph of the finished space, and all of it sits between practical completion and the day the client can actually move in.
The paperwork is part of the build
As-built drawings, warranties, operation and maintenance manuals, supplier contacts. A handover without these leaves the client owning a space they cannot maintain.
Our take
As a turnkey contractor we carry the same team from design through to hand-over, so the closeout is never passed to someone who was not there for the build. We treat Hand-over as its own stage rather than the tail end of Fit-out, with its own duration and its own sign-off. It is the least visible part of the programme and the part clients remember.