You are now witnessing the moment when everything starts to settle down, with your certificate of occupancy released and legally attesting the existence of your custom house and with your wrapping up the lender’s requirements, but, to begin your domestic life in the new residence, you must make one last verification that the house is finished to your liking by taking the final contractor walk-through.
Because a custom house project is very complex and involves numerous stages and parts, it is unlikely that everything be perfectly done the first time. Only in rare cases does that ideal communication between the homeowner and the contractor exist, allowing the former to regularly spot-check along the way. Usually, you need a last contractor walk-through for this purpose.
Punch List during the Contractor Walk-Through
This step takes time as it requires scrutiny and minuteness, therefore make sure you reserve yourself a period particularly planned for it. While you and your contractor analyze every aspect in the house, pay attention to details and don’t forget to have a flashlight at hand. Thus, you identify any potential imperfection that needs to be fixed and write it down on a list, called a punch list.
As said earlier, this is not a job to do in a hurry or rush, hence take your time at snooping and sniffing below, above, and behind everywhere your flashlight can reach. After you have completed the inspection, ask your contractor to sign the punch list so that he takes the responsibility of the respective flaws upon himself and commits to repair them.
You may be advised by friends or acquaintances to withhold some of the funds from the contractor if he doesn’t raise up to your expectations in terms of professional standards. Our advice is to do so only if you both agreed upon this point of interest in the contract, establishing that the payment will be made after the punch list is complete. Otherwise, it is not recommended to use money as a lever against the contractor because more serious complications can occur. If he runs on slim margins, he might file a mechanic’s lien, which places a charge on your property and seriously interferes with the smooth development of your construction loan.
Therefore, in order to handle the situation in the optimal way, try to keep an open and friendly relationship with your contractor, being as updated on the progress of the work as possible. Resort to legal action only when it is absolutely necessary. In case the contractor is truly in the wrong, the legal system will force him to solve the problems and help you recoup all the losses. As the saying goes, good words cost nothing and are worth much. It is in the contractor’s interest to do his best because his license and livelihood are on the line.
Once the punch list is drawn out and signed by the specialist whom you have hired for the construction project, you receive a sort of written guarantee that all imperfections are to be repaired. Discuss and delineate a reasonable time frame for this procedure. The serious and messy repairs should be done before you move in, but be aware of the possibility that some of them could continue long after you have taken this step. The specialist may have to order new materials or work with the subs’ schedules to get the job done.
In conclusion, the key to a satisfactory final walk-through is to “take care of things” along the way, during the construction process. After the principle “a meeting a day keeps the anger away”, try to foster a good communication relationship with your contractor from the very beginning and regularly meet to discuss further details. Let him clearly know what you want and don’t want before the final contractor walk-through and also keep yourself up to date about the progress of the custom house project.