Cambodia Condo Handover Checklist: What to Inspect Before You Sign

By the time you reach handover day on a Phnom Penh off-plan unit, the developer usually holds about 90 percent of the price. The last installment, often 10 percent, is the final money to move, and it is also the last moment your signature carries real weight. A handover checklist is not a formality you perform after the decision. It is the decision. Accept the unit on the strength of a fifteen-minute walk-through and every unresolved defect stops being the developer's problem and becomes yours.

Why the last 10 percent is the whole negotiation

Off-plan schedules front-load your exposure, so most of your capital is gone before the finished building exists. The mirror image gets less attention: the final tranche is the one moment the developer needs something from you, and it lasts exactly as long as you withhold your signature. Most agreements tie it to a handover notice and an acceptance form, so a defect you record before you sign is a condition of completion. The same defect recorded a week later is a warranty claim, and warranty claims run on the developer's calendar, not yours. The snag list is the last clause of the contract, and you are the one who writes it.

Check the paperwork before the tape measure

The physical inspection is the visible part. The documents decide whether you can finance, rent, or resell on schedule. Before anyone unlocks the door, make sure you hold or have seen the following:

• The occupancy certificate. Cambodia's 2019 Law on Construction requires the building owner to obtain one, and a unit in a building without it cannot yet be lawfully occupied. Ask for the certificate number and issue date, not a promise that it is still in process.
• The title path. Get it in writing: when the individual ownership certificate will be applied for, which entity files it, and what you must supply. Confirm the name to be registered matches your passport exactly, since Latin-script names now appear on the certificate and a mismatch follows the asset for years.
• The building's operating documents. The management agreement, the first-year service charge budget, the sinking-fund contribution, and the house rules. A charge quoted per square meter means nothing until you know which square meters it applies to.
• Utility registration. Electricity and water meters registered to the unit and read on the day, with opening figures written onto the acceptance form, so construction-phase usage does not land on your first bills.

Measure the unit, then measure the contract

Gross-to-net area in Phnom Penh typically falls 20 to 25 percent, and agreements usually quote the gross figure. That is a known feature of the market, not a defect. The handover question is narrower: does the unit delivered match the unit contracted, within the tolerance the agreement allows? Most agreements carry an area variance clause, commonly 3 to 5 percent, beyond which a price adjustment applies, yet few buyers ever measure. A laser measure, the contracted floor plan, and twenty minutes will tell you whether the dimensions, ceiling heights, and balcony depth match the drawings. Treat the specification schedule the same way: the appendix listing sanitaryware, air-conditioning, and finishes is part of the contract, and substitutions should be documented and priced, not discovered later.

The physical checklist, in order

The order below follows where defects tend to concentrate in new Phnom Penh stock.

• Water. Run every tap, shower, and flush at once and watch the pressure. Check under sinks for weeping joints after a few minutes of flow.
• Drainage. Fill each basin and the shower tray, then release and watch how fast they clear. Slow drainage now becomes a blocked riser later.
• Waterproofing. Flood the bathroom floor shallowly, hold it thirty minutes, then check the ceiling below or the corridor ceiling outside the wall.
• Electrical. Test every socket with a plug-in tester, every switch and fitting, and the residual current device on the distribution board.
• Air-conditioning. Run each unit for twenty minutes, check condensate drainage, and listen for the compressor cycling.
• Windows and doors. Open, close, lock, check the seals, and look for daylight at the frame edges. Sliding doors should run without lifting.
• Tiles. Tap every floor and wall tile; a hollow sound means a void that will crack or lift.
• Paint and plaster. Inspect in raking light. Hairline cracks are cosmetic; straight cracks running across a wall or ceiling are not.
• Balcony. Pour water to check the fall toward the drain, and confirm the outlet is clear.
• Access. Test every key, fob, and card against every door it should open, and confirm the parking allocation on paper and on the floor.

Photograph each item with a date stamp and the room noted. The photo is the evidence; the list is the claim.

What the law puts under the contract

Article 71 of the Law on Construction sets minimum warranty periods that run from the construction handover date: at least ten years for reinforced concrete, composite, or steel structure, at least five years for exterior walls, windows, doors, and roofs, and at least two years for electrical, plumbing, and mechanical works. Parties can agree longer periods; shorter ones are void. Those terms sit in the contract between the developer and its contractor, so your own recourse runs through the sale and purchase agreement. Read its defect liability clause carefully. An agreement offering six months on plumbing is giving you less than the developer itself holds from its builder, and that gap is worth raising before you accept, not after. Where the agreement allows, make acceptance conditional: sign with the snag list annexed, release the final payment only once listed items are fixed, and put a second inspection in writing.

An independent inspection in Phnom Penh costs a few hundred dollars and takes a morning, which on a six-figure unit is the cheapest professional fee in the whole purchase. Handover is the only day you hold the pen, so it rewards treating acceptance as an inspection rather than a ceremony. This is general guidance, not advice on your specific unit; if it helps, the investinphnompenh.com team can arrange an independent inspection and draft the snag list with you before you sign.