Condo unit inspection before transfer, a practical 60-point checklist

Key Highlights

• Handover day is the last moment you hold real bargaining power. Once you sign acceptance, you stop being a buyer waiting to take delivery and become an owner filing warranty claims.
• This checklist runs to 60 points across 6 groups you can walk through in one visit. Most of the pages ranking for this topic in Thai and English offer somewhere between 9 and 17 points.
• Thai condo warranties run on two different clocks. Structural work counts from the date the condominium was registered, while finishes and fittings count from your own transfer date, so the question to ask before paying a reservation fee is when the building was registered.
• Delaying handover has a price you can calculate. On a 3,000,000 baht unit with a 2,700,000 baht loan, a Thai individual buyer pays 570 baht in registration fees inside the current measure and 87,000 baht outside it, a gap of 86,430 baht.
• Foreign buyers sit outside that fee measure entirely, which for once works in their favour and leaves them more room to negotiate a later transfer date.

Why does handover day give you the most bargaining power?

Buyers plan transfer day down to the hour. The bank appointment, the cashier cheques, the Land Office queue. Handover inspection usually gets an hour and a signature on whatever form the developer hands over. That is the wrong way round, because on inspection day your final payment has not left your account and the title has not changed hands.

A condo unit inspection before transfer is not a ceremony you go through to collect keys. It is the one structured check that what you paid for matches what you are about to receive. This guide gives you 60 points you can work through in a single visit, what to do the moment you find a defect, and a clear rule for deciding when postponing handover is worth it.

Everything here assumes you are inspecting the unit yourself without hiring a surveyor, so every point can be checked with tools you can buy at any hardware store. Anything requiring specialist equipment has been left out on purpose.

Why do you inspect before the transfer and not after?

The short version. Before transfer you ask for a fix. After transfer you file a claim. Those two things differ in how long they take, who has to prove what, and whether you can live in the unit while it happens.

Thai condo warranties run on two different clocks

Most buyers assume the warranty is a single block of time starting the day they take ownership. It is not. Structural work counts from the date the condominium building was registered, which is a fixed date belonging to the building rather than to any individual buyer. Finishes, fittings and appliances count from your own ownership transfer date.

Two things follow from that. First, if you are buying leftover developer stock in a project registered several years ago, you inherit whatever is left of the structural warranty rather than a fresh five years. The question worth asking before you pay a reservation fee is not how long the warranty runs but what date the condominium was registered. Second, pushing your transfer back by 60 days consumes 60 days of structural warranty while you are still living somewhere else, but costs you nothing on the finishes and fittings warranty, which has not started yet. The cost of waiting lands on one group only.

The four warranty tiers most Thai developers work to

Work category	What it covers	Warranty period
Structural work	Piling, footings, columns, beams, concrete floors and roof structures	5 years from the date the condominium was registered
Building systems and fixed components	Electrical, plumbing, sanitation, fire protection, doors, windows, stairs and lifts	2 years from condominium registration or 1 year from ownership transfer depending on how your contract is written
Finishing materials	Paint, lightweight walls, flooring, ceilings and counters	1 year from ownership transfer
Consumable fittings	Light fittings, switches, sockets, taps and sanitary ware	6 months from ownership transfer
Repair window	The developer attends after written notice, and if it does not, the buyer may arrange the repair and claim the cost back under the contract terms	Within 30 days of written notice
Common exclusions cited by both sources	Normal wear, natural disasters, events beyond the developer's control, pest damage and unauthorised alterations	Not covered

The table above comes from Property 101 Thailand's page on condominium warranty work, published 22 October 2023 and updated 15 October 2024, and from the after-sales service page of Chaoprayamahanakorn Public Company Limited, which sets out the same four tiers. The legal anchor that can be verified is section 6 slash 2 of the Condominium Act, which requires that a condominium sale and purchase agreement follow the standard form prescribed by the minister, and provides that any part of the contract that departs from that form and is not favourable to the buyer has no effect.

One caveat worth stating plainly. These four periods are the framework most developers use rather than figures written into the statute itself. What binds your unit is your own contract, so open the warranty section before inspection day and compare it against this list.

What changes the moment you sign acceptance

Under the Civil and Commercial Code, a seller's liability for defects runs for one year from the date the defect is discovered. More important for handover day, a buyer who accepts delivery knowing the property is defective may be treated as having waived that particular defect.

In practical terms, a defect you saw on inspection day but did not write down becomes much harder to argue about afterwards. Recording beats remembering, and photographs beat verbal agreement with the site staff.

What to bring and how long to set aside on the day

Tools worth bringing, all of them ordinary

Tool	What it checks
Voltage tester screwdriver or socket tester	Confirms every outlet is live and properly earthed
Phone charger	Acts as a second way to test any socket where the tester reading is unclear
Torch or phone light	Lights up the space under counters, inside cabinets and into ceiling service hatches
Tape measure	Checks the unit area and the narrowest bedroom dimension against what your contract states
Marble or ping pong ball	Gives a rough test for whether the floor slopes consistently in one direction
Screwdriver handle or coin	Taps tiles so you can listen for the hollow sound of incomplete bedding
Masking tape and a marker	Flags each defect where the repair team can see it
Bucket or large bottle of water	Tests drainage on the bathroom floor and the balcony
Fully charged phone	Photographs every defect together with a reference point in the room
Copy of your sale and purchase agreement with the materials schedule	Lets you tick off delivered items one by one

Which day to book and how many hours it takes

Allow two to three hours per unit and book a daytime slot with natural light. Uneven paintwork, hairline cracks and damp staining on ceilings are very hard to see under the temporary site lighting developers use before handover.

Avoid booking the inspection on the same day as the transfer. If you find something that needs fixing, your only options become accepting it or collapsing both the bank appointment and the Land Office slot. Leave at least two to three weeks between inspection and transfer so there is room for repairs and a second inspection.

One more thing to arrange in advance is the debt-free certificate for common area fees from the juristic person. It can hold up your transfer if it is not ready, and it is not something to go asking for on transfer day itself.

The 60-point checklist in 6 groups, in walk-through order

The six groups follow the order you would naturally move through the unit, starting with surfaces you can see, working towards the systems hidden behind them, and finishing on the balcony, which is where most people rush. Work through one group completely before moving to the next rather than room by room, because switching between types of check is how things get missed.

Group 1, floors, walls and ceilings, points 1 to 10

• Tiled or laminate flooring neither bows nor dips, tested by walking firmly across every square metre
• Every tile tapped with a screwdriver handle, a hollow sound means incomplete bedding and a risk of cracking later
• Floor level is consistent across the unit, a marble placed on the floor should not roll the same way everywhere
• Transitions between different floor materials sit flush, with no sharp edges and no unusually wide gaps
• Wall paint is even, with no brush marks and no thin patches where the base surface shows through
• No diagonal cracking in the walls, which is the pattern that always warrants a further check by the developer
• Lightweight partition walls do not flex under palm pressure and give no unusual hollow sound near their fixings
• Wall corners are square, roughly checkable by pressing an A4 sheet into the corner and looking for a gap
• Ceilings are flat with no water staining and no yellowing that would indicate seepage from the floor above
• Ceiling service hatches open properly and close flush, with no construction debris left inside

Group 2, electrical system and outlets, points 11 to 20

• All lights switched on together with none flickering or failing to come on
• Every switch controls the light it should, matching the positions shown on the unit plan
• Every socket is live, tested one at a time with a tester or a phone charger
• Every socket is properly earthed, particularly those in the kitchen and bathroom
• The consumer unit is fully labelled and readable, so you can tell which breaker covers what
• The residual current device trips when you press its test button and resets cleanly afterwards
• Switching each breaker off in turn cuts power only to the circuit it is labelled for
• Socket positions actually work with the furniture layout and are not blocked by built-in cabinetry
• Prepared cabling for the air conditioning and water heater matches the cable size stated in the documents
• Mobile signal and the prepared internet point both work inside the unit itself rather than only in the lift lobby

Group 3, plumbing and sanitary ware, points 21 to 30

• Water pressure holds up with every tap open at once rather than dropping to a trickle at the second outlet
• Water runs clear from the start, with no sediment or cloudiness sitting in the system
• The toilet clears fully on a single flush and stops refilling within a normal cycle
• The toilet base and basin are firmly fixed with no movement, and the sealant around the base is continuous
• With every tap closed, the water meter does not move over ten minutes
• The bathroom floor falls towards the drain, with no pooling anywhere after you pour water across it
• Drains clear quickly, a full bucket poured in should disappear without gurgling back
• No odour comes back up the drains, which would indicate that not every trap is working
• The water heater and its inlet valve show no seepage at the joints
• Waste pipes under the kitchen sink and basin stay dry after running water through for five minutes

Group 4, doors, windows and water ingress, points 31 to 40

• Every door opens through its full arc without catching the floor or binding on the frame
• Handles and latches work on every door, and every key you were given actually turns
• The bathroom door has enough floor clearance for airflow and is made from a moisture-tolerant material
• Sliding glass panels run smoothly along the whole track with no catching and no scraping from a twisted rail
• Glazing gaskets and silicone beads are continuous, unbroken and free of air pockets
• No glass panel shows cracking, chipping at the edges or bubbling in the applied film
• Water poured along the window sill from outside leaves the interior completely dry
• Insect screens and window locks are present on every panel listed in the contract schedule
• No daylight shows through the joint between frame and wall, checked with the room lights off
• Walls below windows and in room corners are free of damp patches or blistered paint that would indicate ingress

Group 5, kitchen and built-in furniture, points 41 to 50

• Every cabinet door closes flush, with consistent gaps along the whole run
• Hinges and drawer runners move smoothly, drawers pull out fully and self-close
• The kitchen counter has no chipping at the edges and its joints sit level
• Silicone between the counter and the wall is continuous with no breaks
• The sink is firmly fixed, drains quickly and shows no leaks at the joints underneath
• The extractor works and its ducting connects to the prepared outlet rather than venting into the void
• The hob or prepared gas point works as described in the handover schedule
• Built-in wardrobes have every rail and shelf shown on the plan, and they carry weight properly
• No cabinet interior smells musty or shows damp staining, which would point to a ventilation problem
• Every item of furniture and every appliance listed in the contract schedule is present, correct model and correct quantity

Group 6, balcony and drainage, points 51 to 60

• The balcony floor falls towards its drain with no pooling after you pour water across it
• The balcony drain is clear of construction debris and takes water away quickly
• The balcony threshold is high enough to keep driving rain from running back into the unit
• The balustrade is firmly fixed, does not move, and matches the height shown on the plan
• The balcony slab shows no cracking that could become a seepage path to the unit below
• The external wall around the balcony is free of staining from water running down from above
• The air conditioning compressor sits on a stable platform with enough clearance to shed heat
• The air conditioning condensate pipe is connected to a real drainage point rather than discharging onto the balcony floor
• Any drying area or service opening shown in the plan is present and usable
• Every defect is photographed with a visible reference point in the room, kept alongside the written record

Point 60 is not an inspection step. It is evidence, and it is what gives the other 59 points weight when you sit down with the developer. A tight close-up of a crack proves nothing about where the crack is, so take two photographs every time, one wide enough to show which wall you are looking at and one close enough to show the defect clearly.

What should you do when you find a defect?

The three documents you should leave with

The inspection paperwork used across the Thai market comes in three parts. A cover sheet confirming buyer details, unit number, inspection date and whether defects were found. A defect schedule listing each item room by room. And a unit acceptance certificate you sign only once the repairs are done. Many developers now record all of this in an app, attaching photographs to a unit layout diagram, which works just as well provided you get a copy.

What you should insist on is that the paperwork carries both signatures and that you keep a copy. A defect list recorded by one side with nobody acknowledging it carries very little weight when the time comes to chase the work.

Writing it down and setting a repair deadline

Describe each defect so that someone who has never been in the unit could find it. Bedroom wall to the left of the bed head, roughly one metre above floor level, rather than crack in the bedroom wall. The more precise the location, the less chance of the wrong spot being repaired or an item being missed entirely.

Then put the re-inspection date into the document on the day of the first inspection. Do not leave it as a verbal promise to be in touch. The reference framework is that the developer attends within 30 days of written notice, and if it does not, the buyer may arrange the repair and claim the cost back under the contract terms.

On the re-inspection, check the areas next to each repair as well as the repairs themselves. Opening up one spot regularly creates a new defect beside it, particularly with paintwork and sealant.

When does it make sense to postpone the transfer?

Two questions you can answer while still standing in the unit

Advice that ends in it depends helps nobody. Use these two questions instead. First, would fixing this after transfer mean tearing out something already installed. Second, could you live in the unit while the work is done.

If the answers are no and yes, as with uneven paintwork or a cabinet door that does not close flush, accepting the unit and using the warranty process is reasonable. If the answers are yes or no, as with seepage through the ceiling, a bathroom floor that will not drain or a fault in the electrical system, postponing is almost always worth it, because after transfer you will be moving your belongings out and giving up the unit so the work can happen.

One more case calls for postponement without much deliberation, which is a measured unit area that differs meaningfully from the area stated in your contract. Measure it with a tape on inspection day and ask on the spot how the contract handles a price adjustment when the built area differs. You will get a far better answer then than you would after transfer.

Ministerial Regulation No. 55 of 2543 gives you a floor to measure against. A unit in a residential building must be at least 20 square metres. A bedroom must be at least 8 square metres with a narrowest dimension of at least 2.50 metres. A bathroom must have at least 2 metres from floor to ceiling. These are the minimums the law permits rather than dimensions that make a unit comfortable to live in.

What a delay costs, in money and in days

Pushing handover back two weeks and pushing it into next year are different decisions, and the line between them is a specific date rather than a feeling. A cabinet resolution of 30 June 2026 extended the reduction of the transfer registration fee from 2 percent to 0.01 percent and the mortgage registration fee from 1 percent to 0.01 percent, running to 30 June 2027. It applies where both the sale price and the appraised value are no more than 7 million baht per contract, only to Thai individual buyers, and only where transfer and mortgage are registered together.

Worked through, a Thai buyer taking a 3,000,000 baht unit with a 2,700,000 baht loan pays 570 baht in total registration fees inside the measure. If the new transfer date falls after 30 June 2027, that figure goes back to 87,000 baht, a difference of 86,430 baht. That is the number to weigh against the defects you are being asked to accept.

The second cost is structural warranty time running down while you are not yet living in the unit. As set out above, a 60 day delay consumes 60 days of that cover but takes nothing from the finishes and fittings warranty, which starts at transfer regardless.

As a decision rule, if the new date still falls before 30 June 2027, the cost of waiting is mainly structural warranty time plus your accommodation in the meantime. If the new date crosses that line, add the 86,430 baht from the example above to the equation before you decide.

What two extra points apply only to foreign buyers?

The fee measure above covers Thai individual buyers only, so a foreign buyer already pays the standard rates whenever the transfer happens. That sounds like a disadvantage, and in most contexts it is, but here it works the other way round. The 30 June 2027 deadline changes nothing in your calculation, which means you have more room to negotiate a later transfer date than a Thai buyer who is watching that date approach. Use it.

The second point is documentation and timing. Inbound transfers above 50,000 US dollars need a Foreign Exchange Transaction form from the receiving bank, with the remitter's name and stated purpose matching the name that will appear on the title. If you postpone handover, the money you have already brought in sits in Thailand while you wait, so agree the new transfer date in writing at the same time as you submit the defect schedule. Ask the developer to confirm in writing that the unit remains inside the 49 percent foreign ownership quota on that new date, because the quota is calculated by floor area and can be taken up by other buyers while you wait.

How do you print and use the 60-point checklist on the day?

The 60 points above are set out to print onto two sides of A4 and be used as they are. What works is groups 1 to 3 on one page and groups 4 to 6 on the other, with space left down the right hand side of each line for a tick and the number of the photograph you took.

Print two copies, one for you and one to hand to the developer's representative on the day. Handing over something written gets the conversation finished faster than reading items out one by one.

If two of you are inspecting, split the groups three and three and then swap for a second pass. That catches more than walking round together, because the second pair of eyes sees what the first has already stopped noticing.

Frequently asked questions about a condo unit inspection before transfer

What to check when inspecting a condo unit before transfer

Work through six groups in order, floors walls and ceilings, the electrical system and outlets, plumbing and sanitary ware, doors windows and water ingress, kitchen and built-in furniture, and the balcony with its drainage. That is 60 points in total using the checklist above. Give the most time to plumbing and water ingress, since those are the hardest problems to resolve once you have moved in, and photograph every defect alongside a written record that both parties sign.

Do I need to hire a professional inspection company

Not always. Most of the points here can be checked with ordinary tools. Hiring a surveyor clearly pays off in three situations, a large unit with complex systems, a unit already showing signs of water ingress on the first walkthrough, and any case where you cannot attend in person. If you do hire one, ask for a report that itemises each defect with photographs rather than a summary that only says pass or fail.

If I inspect and refuse to sign, am I in breach or liable for a penalty

Declining to sign acceptance because of properly recorded defects is exercising a contractual right, not defaulting. What matters is doing it correctly, which means giving written notice with the defect schedule attached and agreeing the re-inspection date and new transfer date in the same document. The deadlines and penalties that actually bind you are the ones written into your own contract, so read that section before inspection day.

How long is a Thai condo warranty and when does it start

The framework most developers use is 5 years on structural work from condominium registration, 2 years on building systems from registration or 1 year from transfer, 1 year on finishing materials from transfer, and 6 months on consumable fittings from transfer. The important detail is that the start dates differ. Buy leftover stock in an older project and you inherit less remaining structural cover, which is why the registration date is worth asking about before you pay a reservation fee.

Can I still get defects fixed after the transfer has gone through

Yes, under whichever warranty tiers are still running, and the Civil and Commercial Code sets a one year window from the date a defect is discovered. It becomes considerably harder for defects that were visible on inspection day and went unrecorded, because accepting delivery while aware of a defect may be treated as waiving it.

Summary

A condo unit inspection before transfer takes two to three hours, and they are the hours in which you have the most room to negotiate in the entire purchase. What makes an inspection count is not finding the largest number of defects. It is recording them precisely, putting the repair date in writing, and knowing which situations justify moving your transfer date once you have worked the cost out as a number.

Bring three things. Your contract with the materials schedule attached, this checklist printed out, and two questions for the developer's representative, what date the condominium was registered and how the contract handles a price adjustment if the built area differs from the stated area.

If you are still comparing units before you reach the handover stage, you can browse condos for sale across Bangkok on PropertyScout, alongside our guide to buying property in Thailand, which covers due diligence, and our explainer on the 49 percent foreign ownership quota.

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Prices and availability are subject to change and are not guaranteed. Property information is general guidance only. This content is not legal, tax, or financial advice. The warranty periods described are the framework commonly used in the market, so your own project contract governs.