An apartment is one of the most complex products built with low-tech methods, and today's market makes it worse: contractors compete hard on price and schedule, and cut corners wherever they can.
Every project passes through dozens of different tradespeople, most of them outside subcontractors with almost no coordination between them. Getting a flawless result depends on integrating all of that work correctly, and with hundreds of people involved, the odds that every single one does a good job are close to zero.
Someone always does subpar or careless work, and without supervision and under time pressure, the damage gets plastered over, quite literally.
That is why there will always be some construction defects at handover, except in the rarest of projects. In our experience, repair costs in well-built areas run around ₪20,000-40,000; in areas of poorer construction quality, they can reach ₪70,000 or more.
A self-respecting contractor knows problems will surface and keeps a "warranty service" team on every project for exactly this reason. Defects are so built into the industry that many contractors price the cost of repairs into the apartment itself, the same way a hotel prices a night's stay to cover a share of the wear and tear its equipment will take.
Why it's best to schedule the home inspection at handover, or close to it
During the inspection period, the contractor is legally obligated to fix defects found in the apartment. The law binds it to a warranty period (the inspection period plus the warranty period), and the contractor has already priced for these repairs and kept crews on hand for them.
If you wait to inspect until after you have moved in, things get harder in three ways:
A. The crew is no longer on site and has usually already settled its accounts with the contractor. Calling someone back means paying again, and finding anyone available is difficult, so the contractor may try to dodge responsibility, make you chase it down, and argue that you caused the damage yourself while moving in or through everyday use.
B. Some damage, to doors or floors for example, is hard to prove was not caused by the movers or the other residents, which can drag you into a long court battle over who is responsible for the repair.
C. About 30% of new apartments have some dampness. Sometimes it is minor and easy to fix, but sometimes it is the start of a leak that will grow into something much bigger.
Inspect at handover, and the damage is still minimal: fixing the leak ends the matter. Inspect a few months after moving in, and you may have to vacate the apartment during the repair, with far heavier consequences, like replacing the entire floor or damaging new furniture and fresh paint. We have seen this happen many times.
The engineers of Arad Bedek Bayit, led by building engineer Ron Arad, whom courts appoint as their own expert on construction defects. The company has been inspecting apartments and buildings since 2001. Engineer Ron Arad · More about the company