Common Areas and Building Services: What to Check Before You Take Handover
Lift licences, DG changeover, STP operation, parking and CCTV — the shared systems that stop being the builder's problem the day you take possession.
Updated · 6 min read · by HomeGyan certified engineers
The short answer
- Common-area defects change owner at handover. Once the association takes charge, a shortfall stops being a snag the builder owes you and becomes a repair the owners fund themselves. This is the one category where raising it late genuinely costs you money.
- A lift that runs is not a lift that is cleared. Lifts in Karnataka are licensed under the Karnataka Lifts, Escalators and Passenger Conveyors Act and inspected periodically — ask to see the licence and its expiry, not just a demonstration ride.
- DG backup is a number, not a feature. Find out how many watts per flat were promised, then check that the changeover actually happens on its own and holds under load rather than needing someone to throw a switch.
- An STP that runs while you are standing there is not evidence of anything. Ask for the KSPCB consent and a month of operating logs — the common failure is a plant that is only run when someone is looking.
- Get your parking slot identified on the ground and in writing, with its dimensions. A slot that a car cannot actually turn into, or that loses half its width to a column, is a defect worth raising before possession.
The lift
Ride it to every floor and watch where it stops. Levelling error — the car floor sitting proud of or below the landing — is the most common defect and the one most likely to trip somebody carrying a box. A few millimetres is normal; a step you can feel is not.
Ask about the Automatic Rescue Device. In a power cut the car should move to the nearest landing and open, rather than holding passengers until the DG picks up. It is standard on new installations and worth confirming rather than assuming.
- Licence available, current, and covering the lifts actually installed.
- Doors reverse on obstruction, every time, at every landing.
- Emergency alarm and intercom reach somebody who answers.
- Machine room locked, ventilated and not being used for storage.
Power: DG backup and changeover
The specification usually promises a fixed backup load per flat, quoted in watts. Get that figure in writing, because it decides whether a power cut means the lights stay on or the whole flat does. A promise of "DG backup" with no number attached is not a specification. Separately, check the BESCOM sanctioned load for your flat matches what was sold — a builder-stage temporary connection is not the same as your permanent supply.
Ask for the changeover to be demonstrated: mains off, and time how long the gap runs and whether it recovers without intervention. Manual changeover on a building sold with automatic backup is a defect, not a preference.
Water in, waste out
The STP is the service most likely to look complete and not be operational. Consent to operate from the KSPCB, an operator on site, and logs covering the last few weeks are what distinguish a working plant from an installed one. Ask where the treated water actually goes — reuse for flushing and landscape is the usual design intent, and pipework that was never connected is common.
For tanks, ask for the cleaning record and check the covers lock. An accessible, lockable, recently cleaned tank is a low bar that a surprising number of new buildings fail.
- Garbage segregation points provided and sized for the number of flats.
- Chute doors closing and sealing, where chutes exist.
- Storm water drains connected and not discharging into the sewer line.
- Landscape and paving falling away from the building, not towards it.
Parking, EV and security
Stand in your allotted slot and check you can open a door with a car either side. Measure it if it looks tight. Then confirm the same slot number appears in your agreement — a slot shown on site and a slot recorded on paper are not reliably the same slot.
EV charging is increasingly promised and frequently provisioned as a conduit and nothing else. Ask specifically whether a point is live, what it is rated at, and how it is metered, because "EV ready" often means a pipe in a wall.
For security, check that cameras cover the entries that matter rather than only the lobby, that recordings are actually retained, and that the access control at the gate works with whatever fob or app you have been given.
Why to raise these before you sign
Defects inside your flat stay the builder's liability under Section 14(3) of RERA for five years from possession. Common-area shortfalls are covered on the same footing, but in practice they pass to the owners' association once it is formed, and an association chasing a builder for a lift licence or an unconnected STP line has far less leverage than a buyer who has not yet taken possession.
The practical advice is simple: walk the common areas with the same attention you give the flat, and put anything missing in the snag list before you accept handover.
Frequently asked questions
The building has an occupancy certificate. Does that mean the common services are all fine?
No. An OC confirms the building was completed substantially in line with the sanctioned plan and the statutory clearances. It is not a commissioning certificate for the lift, the DG or the STP, and it says nothing about whether your parking slot is usable or the CCTV records anything.
The STP smells. Is that normal for a new building?
No. A correctly operated plant should not be noticeable from the podium or the nearest flats. A persistent smell usually means it is under-aerated, overloaded or simply not being run continuously, and it is worth raising as a defect rather than accepting as a characteristic of the building.
Who pays if a common-area defect is found after we have taken possession?
It depends on whether the association can still hold the builder to the defect liability period, and on whether the item was recorded at handover. This is exactly why an undocumented common-area shortfall tends to end up being funded by the owners: with nothing on record, the argument becomes about whether it was ever promised.
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