Handover (entrega de llaves) is when you are given the keys and asked to sign that the home has been delivered. Most buyers bring a list of things to check: walls, tiles, taps. Doors and locks are easy to forget, and they are the things you will use every single day.
Take twenty minutes for them. You need nothing but the keys and your phone for photos.
Front door checks
- Every key, every way. Try each key you are given in the cylinder from outside and from inside. It should turn smoothly without pulling or pushing the door.
- Lock it with the door shut. All the bolts should throw without forcing. If you have to lean on the door to make the key turn, the door is out of line with its frame.
- The latch. Let the door close by itself from half open. It should click shut and stay shut.
- The gap. Look at the gap between door and frame: it should be even all round.
- How the keys came. Sealed in a pack with a card, or loose on a ring? Note it. Why that matters.
The terrace slider
- Slide it open and shut with one hand. It should not grind or catch.
- Lock it and try to slide it from inside. The hook should hold.
- Look at the track for building dust and grit; it will turn into sand-in-the-track trouble within a season. What sand does to a slider.
The storeroom and the garage
If your home comes with a trastero or a closed garage space:
- Open and lock it with its own key.
- Check the door is not rubbing the floor or the frame; new storerooms in basements can swell.
Who fixes what
| Fault | Who |
|---|---|
| Door rubs, latch does not catch, bolts need forcing | The builder: note it on the list |
| Slider grinds or will not lock when new | The builder |
| Storeroom door rubs or will not lock | The builder |
| Keys came loose, or you do not trust the cylinder | You decide: a replacement can be fitted straight away |
| Community gate or street door of the block | The community, through its administrator |
Spain’s building law (the LOE) makes the builder answerable for defects in finishes for one year from handover, so anything that should have worked from day one goes on the list, in writing, with a photo. Cylinders you simply want changed, and doors that start to drag after the first summer, are the kind of job a locksmith does in the weeks after you move in.