Taking delivery of a new apartment in Lima: what to check before accepting the keys

The message usually arrives by WhatsApp, after months of relative silence: your apartment is ready, and the developer is proposing a date for the handover. It is good news, and it is also the point in the transaction where a foreign buyer has the most to lose by moving quickly. In Lima this appointment is called the entrega, and it produces a document: the acta de entrega.

Our guide to buying off plan in Lima stops where this one begins. You have chosen the project, vetted the developer, signed the contract, followed the site and paid the instalments. What remains is to check what you are actually receiving, have the problems put in writing, and organise their correction. It is half a day's work, sometimes less, but it is the last window in which you still hold real leverage.

One warning first, because it governs everything that follows: do not mechanically transpose European reflexes. Peru has no equivalent of the French handover-with-reservations procedure, nor of the décennale guarantee as it is understood in France. The Peruvian framework exists and is real, but it is built differently: it rests on the contract, on the Consumer Protection and Defence Code, and on an administrative and registry chain that unfolds at its own pace. This guide describes that framework.

What "handover" actually means

The word "handover" in fact covers four distinct events, which almost never happen on the same day. Conflating them is the most common mistake among European buyers, and the most expensive.

The physical handing over of the keys

This is the physical event: the door is opened for you, you are given a set of keys, access fobs, sometimes a garage remote. In itself it says nothing about whether what you receive conforms to what was sold, nor about the legal status of the property.

The physical inspection

This is the inspection visit proper, during which you walk through the home, open, test, measure and photograph. Some developers arrange it as a separate step, before the keys are handed over, which is the most comfortable arrangement. Others fold it into the same appointment. It is worth asking in advance, in writing: the answer determines how much time you will really have.

Signing the acta de entrega

The acta de entrega is the handover record. It is a document with contractual weight: it records that the property has been delivered and it registers your position on what you are receiving. INDECOPI, the Peruvian consumer protection authority, sets out this right explicitly in its guide to real estate products and services: at the moment of handover the consumer may state in writing in the acta either their approval of the characteristics, conditions and general state of the property, or their disapproval if the property does not match what the purchase contract provided for.

The points you have recorded are called, in Peruvian Spanish, the observaciones. The term matters because it structures everything that follows: what is written in the acta becomes the basis for the subsanación, the developer's remedial work.

The administrative and registry position

This is the invisible dimension, and often the slowest. An apartment can be physically habitable, handed over and occupied, and still not have its own partida registral, its individual entry in Peru's land registry, the SUNARP. We set out that chain further down, in the section on what happens after the keys. For now, remember that it is separate from physical handover and follows its own timetable.

Preparing for the handover appointment

The quality of a handover is decided before you walk into the apartment. You can only spot a discrepancy if you know precisely what was sold to you, and that information is scattered across several documents signed on different dates.

The documents to gather

• The compraventa contract and all its annexes, including any amendments signed during construction.
• The contractual plans for your unit: layout, dimensions, exact position of the parking space and the storage room.
• The memoria descriptiva de acabados, the finishes specification: this is the document that names the materials, brands and models actually owed to you.
• The list of included equipment and of the common areas announced, as set out in the contract rather than as shown in the brochure.
• Written commitments obtained along the way: emails, messages, replies from the sales team about a change of material, an added appliance, an accepted layout change.
• A blank acta template, if the developer will send you one in advance: you will then know where and how the observaciones are meant to be recorded.

If you used our checklist of criteria for choosing an apartment in Lima during the selection stage, dig it out: the points you ranked as essential are exactly the ones to check first on handover day.

A word about the sales brochure and the 3D renders: on their own they do not define the developer's obligation. What binds are the plans, the memoria descriptiva and the contract clauses. That said, the Peruvian consumer protection framework takes account of the expectations created during the sales phase, and INDECOPI looks at advertising information as well as contractual information. So keep the brochure, even if it is not your first line of argument.

The practical conditions

Three practical conditions radically change what you will be able to observe.

Time. A proper inspection of a one or two bedroom apartment takes between an hour and a half and two and a half hours if you genuinely test the installations. A thirty-minute slot does not allow that work. Ask for the duration in advance and, if it is not enough, ask for another.

Natural light. A visit at the end of the day, or under temporary site lighting, hides a good share of paint, fitting and finishing defects. In Lima this has a second dimension: from June to September the garúa, the low, persistent cloud cover characteristic of the Peruvian coast, noticeably reduces available light. In the depths of the austral winter, an apartment facing a light well can stay distinctly dark at eleven in the morning. Set the appointment for mid-morning if you have the choice.

Water and electricity connected. Without water under pressure and without power you cannot test a tap, check a drain or switch on a light. Yet many handovers take place in exactly that state, because the definitive connections are not live yet.

What to bring

A charged phone with enough storage and timestamping switched on, a tape measure of at least five metres, a spirit level or its phone equivalent, a torch, a small charger or an appliance to test the sockets, a marble or small ball to spot floor falls, and the documents listed above, preferably printed. Add a notebook: writing by hand while walking is still faster than typing.

Checking what you receive against what was sold

Before the cosmetic inspection comes the conformity check. The question is not "is this well made?" but "is this what was sold?". The two are distinct and are not resolved in the same way.

Layout and dimensions

With the contractual plan in hand, walk through the home room by room. Check that the number of rooms matches, that the partitions are where they should be, that doors open on the right side, that the wardrobe promised in the bedroom exists, that the laundry area has not swallowed half the kitchen. Layout discrepancies are rare but not unheard of, particularly where the project was modified during construction.

Equipment and materials

This is where the memoria descriptiva de acabados becomes your main document. In principle it names brands and models. Compare it with what is in front of you: taps, sanitaryware, doors, ironmongery, floor finishes, worktops, kitchen units, water heater, any included appliances. Substituting one item for another, presented as "equivalent", is the most frequent point of friction. A genuine equivalent is not a problem; a cheaper equivalent, not announced and not accepted in writing, is.

Parking space and storage room

Do not settle for confirming that a space exists: check that it is your space, the one numbered in the contract, and that it is where the plan says. Measure it. A space that is compliant on paper can be unusable in practice if a pillar, a column or a services duct blocks the approach. Try the manoeuvre if you can, and look at what happens when the neighbouring spaces are occupied. The same check applies to the storage room or cellar: number, location, dimensions, headroom, and whether it can be locked.

Floor area discrepancies: what is true and what is not

This is the subject on which the most received wisdom circulates, so let us be precise.

First, a measurement taken with a tape measure during a visit settles nothing. The contractual floor area of an apartment is not measured the way you measure a rug: depending on the conventions applied, it may include or exclude the thickness of partitions, half of party walls, ducts, terraces, balconies and allocated common areas. Two different methods applied to the same home easily produce two results several square metres apart. Your on-site measurement therefore serves to detect a possible discrepancy, not to prove one.

Second, Peru has no general tolerance threshold applying automatically to every sale. Two bodies of rules intersect here, and they do not say the same thing.

The Peruvian Civil Code recognises the so-called ad corpus sale, where the price is set for the property as a whole rather than by reference to its area. Its article 1577 provides that in that case the buyer must pay the full price even if the real area differs from the one stated, but that if the difference exceeds one tenth of the area stated in the contract, the price is reduced or increased proportionally. Many Peruvian contracts for new apartments contain an ad corpus clause: it is worth checking whether yours does.

The Consumer Protection and Defence Code reasons differently, on the ground of idoneidad, the conformity of the product with what was offered and expected. In its guide to real estate products and services, INDECOPI expressly cites, among the defects that may give rise to correction, the case of an apartment whose floor area is smaller than the one advertised. The reference point is therefore not an abstract percentage but what the contract and the sales information promised you. A "tolerance", where one exists, comes from your contract: it is not presumed.

In practice: if your measurement suggests a discrepancy, do not settle it on the spot, and do not let it go either. Have it recorded in the acta that the delivered area appears smaller than the contractual area, with your measurement and the method used, ask for a joint measurement by a professional, and have your contract clause reviewed by a Peruvian lawyer. That sequence is the only one that protects your rights without exposing you to a claim you cannot support.

Inspecting the apartment room by room

A simple method beats an exhaustive one: enter a room, work round it clockwise, floor, walls, ceiling, openings, then move on. Nothing is noted from memory: every point found is photographed on the spot.

Three categories not to mix up

Not everything you find carries the same weight, and the distinction is made on site.

• The cosmetic defect: a paint splash, a scratch on a pane, an uneven silicone bead, a slightly proud tile. It is real, it gets recorded, it gets put right, and it is generally what is resolved fastest.
• The functional problem: a door that will not close, a window that will not lock, a drain that backs up, a dead switch, a drawer that will not run. It affects the use of the home and must be handled with a deadline, not merely noted.
• The sign that calls for a technical opinion: a crack running across a wall or continuing onto a second plane, a damp patch at the foot of a partition, a visible deformation of the floor, a persistent drain smell, traces of corrosion on a structural metal element. Your role stops at observing it, photographing it and having it recorded. The diagnosis belongs to an architect or an engineer registered with their professional college.

Floors, walls and ceilings

Look at the floor in raking light, crouched, from a corner of the room: that position reveals proud edges, hollow-sounding tiles and undulations. Tap the tiles with a key: a hollow sound signals debonding. Put a marble on the floor in the bathroom and the laundry area; it should run towards the drain, not towards the door. On walls, look for cracks, visible paint touch-ups, out-of-square corners and badly jointed skirting. On ceilings, look at the junctions, the neatness of the joints and any marks around the light fittings.

Doors, windows and glazing

Open and close each door fully, several times. It should stay where you leave it rather than drift. Check that each key opens its own lock, including those of the front door, the storage room and the letterbox. On windows, operate every leaf, every handle, every catch, including the heavy sliding panels of patio doors. Look at the glazing in raking light to spot scratches and chips, and check that the seals are present and intact. On balconies, check the fixing and the height of the balustrade, and how water drains: a terrace whose fall brings water back inside is a functional defect, not a detail.

Kitchen, bathrooms and storage

Open every cupboard and every drawer, and look inside: that is often where the sloppy finishing, badly cut backs and unadjusted hinges are. Check that the wall units are properly fixed. Around sinks, basins and showers, check the perimeter seals: a broken or hollow bead will let water through. In windowless bathrooms, find the ventilation grille and check that it is connected and drawing. A sheet of paper held against the grille should stay up on its own if the extract is working.

The points specific to Lima

Three local phenomena deserve particular attention, because they do not carry the same weight in Europe.

Damp. Lima receives almost no rain, which misleads many buyers, but relative humidity is high for much of the year, especially in the austral winter. Dark patches at the foot of partitions, staining in corners, a musty smell in a closed room and skirting that is coming away are all signals to record. In a new building, residual construction moisture is possible, but it is not an explanation to accept without being told which moisture and how it will be monitored.

Ventilation. Many Lima apartments have internal bathrooms, kitchens or laundry areas with no window, ventilated through service ducts. Those ducts are not always connected or clear at handover. An extract that does not work in a windowless bathroom, in a city with high humidity, becomes a problem in the months that follow, not on handover day.

Corrosion. Near the coast, in Miraflores, Barranco or Magdalena, salt-laden air attacks exposed metal. In a new building, look at balcony balustrades, external fixings, grilles, metal joinery and terrace fittings. Early signs of oxidation on new work are a legitimate ground for an observation: they say something about the surface treatment used.

Testing the installations you can safely test

There is what you can test yourself without risk, and what belongs to a professional. The line is clear and it is not negotiable.

What you can do

Plumbing. Open every tap, cold then hot, and let it run for thirty seconds or so. Watch the flow, listen for noises, look for leaks at the foot of the unit and under the trap. Fill basins and sinks then empty them all at once, to check that the drain takes the volume without backing up or gurgling. Flush each WC twice in a row, watching the cistern fill and shut off. Run your hand over the visible connections after a few minutes of use: any trace of moisture that appears is a point to record. If domestic hot water is supplied, time how long it takes to arrive and check that the temperature is stable.

Electricity, within normal use. Operate every switch and every light. Plug a small charger into each socket to check that it is live. Check that the face plates are present and fixed and that no wiring is exposed. Count the sockets and compare with the plan: missing ones are observed, not guessed. Locate the consumer unit and check that the circuits are labelled legibly.

The equipment supplied

For every appliance included in the contract, note the brand, model and serial number, and ask for the manual and the guarantee document. A water heater, extractor hood, hob or oven delivered without documentation is an observation in its own right, because the manufacturer's guarantee is claimed with those papers. INDECOPI notes in its guide that the developer must give the buyer a manual de uso del propietario, an owner's manual describing the components of the property, the maintenance it requires and the risks arising from misuse.

Common areas and ancillary spaces

A conforming apartment in an unfinished building is still a problem, and it is a frequent situation when the last units are unsold. So you need to look beyond your front door, while knowing what you can do with what you see.

What you can observe yourself

Walk a resident's real route: main entrance, lobby, entryphone, letterboxes, lifts, landings, fire escapes, access to the car park, access to the storage room. Take the lift to your floor and to the basement. Check that the circulation lighting works, that fire doors self-close, that safety signage is in place. Look at the state of progress of everything that was announced: lobby finished or not, bin store operational, gym, roof terrace, coworking room, pool. Photograph whatever is still under construction.

INDECOPI is explicit on one useful point: where defects affect the common areas, any one of the apartment owners in the building may file a complaint against the developer, without the junta de propietarios, the owners' association, or all the owners having to join in. In other words, you are not held hostage by your neighbours' inertia.

What is beyond you, and rightly so

Acceptance of the collective works, verification of the building's technical installations, checking the fire safety equipment, the condition of the structure and the compliance of the general electrical installations are not part of your visit. Those points go through professional inspections, through the municipal works conformity procedure and, once the co-ownership is constituted, through the collective management of the building. Your job is to observe and record what you see, not to validate what you are not equipped to assess.

One point is worth putting in writing, without dramatising it: if works are still under way in the building, ask which common areas are affected and what completion date is being given. Living or letting in a partly unfinished building has practical consequences, for noise as much as for access.

Documenting defects and signing with your eyes open

This is the heart of the matter. An undocumented defect has almost no useful existence, whatever was promised verbally.

How to document

Four requirements, in this order.

• Photograph with the date. Switch on the camera's timestamp, and take two images of each defect: a wide shot that places it in the room, and a close shot that shows it. A reference object in frame, a coin or a pen, gives the scale.
• Locate precisely. "Main bathroom, right-hand wall as you enter, 40 cm above the floor" can be acted on. "Crack in the bathroom" cannot, and will be disputed six weeks later.
• Describe in writing. One sentence per defect, factual, without adjectives: what you observe, not what you conclude. "Damp mark 20 cm by 15 cm at the foot of the partition" rather than "water ingress".
• Leave with a copy of the acta. Signed by both parties, the same day. If you are told it will be sent later, photograph every page before leaving.

A simple tracking table

The format below, kept in a shared spreadsheet, is enough to run the whole process. It has a secondary benefit: it makes chasing easy, because it shows at a glance what is still open.

The deadlines in this example are illustrative. The deadlines that actually apply are those in your contract, or those the developer undertakes in writing to meet at handover. Have them recorded: an observation without a deadline is an observation without a sequel.

Should you refuse the keys or withhold a payment?

This is the question that always comes up, and the honest answer is: it depends, and nobody can answer it for you without having read your contract.

Refusing handover has a cost. You do not take possession, you make no progress on letting or furnishing, and depending on your contract clauses that refusal may expose you. Withholding a payment beyond what the contract allows may amount, on your side, to a breach. Conversely, accepting without writing anything down a home in which an essential element is unusable leaves you in an uncomfortable position.

What is true in almost every case: the seriousness of the defect changes the answer. A poor bead of sealant, a scratch, a paint touch-up do not justify blocking a handover; they get recorded and put right. A home with no water, no electricity, an unusable bathroom or a disorder affecting the structure is a different conversation, and that conversation is had with a Peruvian lawyer, contract in hand, before the appointment if you can.

The Peruvian framework does provide several outcomes depending on the nature of the problem. Describing what it calls saneamiento físico, INDECOPI states that the consumer may, as appropriate, seek repair, a reduction in the price, or termination or rescission of the contract. That "as appropriate" is not a turn of phrase: it means the right remedy depends on the defect, the contract and the situation.

What a statement of conformity does, and does not, mean

Signing an acta bearing the words "received in conformity" is not a trivial act: it is a written statement by you, it will be held against your later claims, and that is precisely why INDECOPI regards it as indispensable to record the non-conformities observed at handover.

That said, such a statement does not mechanically wipe out every remedy. Two things explain why. First, INDECOPI makes clear that the errors or defects capable of being the subject of a saneamiento may be noticed at the time of receipt or later: a defect that was not visible on handover day does not become non-existent because you signed. Second, the guarantee periods keep running after signature, and we come to those below.

The sensible way to handle an acta, then, is to approve what can be approved, list the observaciones, and not sign a blanket waiver. If the document put in front of you contains wording you do not understand, do not sign it that day: have it reviewed.

Organising follow-up after handover

Handover is not the end of the file. It opens a phase that lasts, depending on the case, from a few weeks to several months.

Four follow-up habits

• A named contact. Name, role, email address. A developer's after-sales department is not the sales team that sold you the property, and each is happy to point at the other.
• A written channel. WhatsApp exchanges are convenient and they get lost. Restate every agreement reached by message in a short summary email sent the same day.
• A written timetable. A date for every observation. Without a date, remedial work slips of its own accord.
• Verification of the fixes. Work announced is not work done. Go round again, retake the same photographs from the same angle, and close a line in the table only after checking.

Keep everything: the signed acta, dated photographs, emails, tracking table, manuals and guarantee certificates. That file is your evidence, and INDECOPI points out that it is for the consumer to prove the existence of a defect, using circumstantial evidence where direct evidence is not available.

Contractual guarantees and legal protections

The two coexist and are worth keeping apart.

Contractual guarantees are those provided by your contract, the memoria descriptiva or the equipment manufacturers. Their length and scope vary from project to project and from appliance to appliance. They are read in the documents, not guessed at.

Legal protection comes from the Consumer Protection and Defence Code, Law 29571, which applies where the seller is a proveedor inmobiliario, that is, a natural or legal person who sells real estate as a regular business. A developer is one. Its article 80, as amended by Law 30534 published on 10 January 2017, requires the supplier to give complete information on the guarantee periods and distinguishes two regimes: for components and materials, the period is the one set by their supplier; for structural aspects, the minimum is ten years, counted from the issue of the certificate of completion and acceptance of the works by the municipality.

That starting point deserves emphasis: the Peruvian ten-year guarantee on structural aspects does not run from the handover of your keys, but from a municipal act that may well predate it. Ask for the date of that certificate and keep it.

The same Code requires the developer to run an organised after-sales service: competent staff, several contact channels for suggestions, queries, complaints and service requests, a reply within the period the supplier has set itself, and a simple, fast complaints procedure with registration and tracking.

Routes for complaint in Peru

They exist, most of them are free, and each has its limits. None of them ever replaces a documented file.

• The developer's Libro de Reclamaciones. Every supplier must keep a complaints book, physical or virtual. A complaint filed through that channel must be answered within a maximum of fifteen working days, non-extendable, a deadline set by Law 31435 of 22 March 2022. It is the first step, and it creates a record.
• INDECOPI's Reclama Virtual. A free digital tool: the institution reviews the file and calls the parties to a conciliation hearing. It is a route to settlement, not a sanction.
• The Defensoría del Cliente Inmobiliario. A private mechanism for direct resolution, free and specialised. Its limitation matters: it only works with real estate companies that have signed up to it. Check whether your developer is a member before counting on it.
• A denuncia administrativa before INDECOPI. The administrative contentious route, for lack of idoneidad in the product or the service. If the complaint succeeds, it carries a sanction for the supplier and a corrective measure in your favour. Note that the power to sanction infringements of the Code lapses two years after they were committed or after the consumer became aware of the facts, without prejudice to the ten-year period specific to the structural defects guarantee.
• Arbitraje de consumo. A voluntary, free and binding arbitration. It is the only one of these routes in which compensation can be awarded, provided the loss is established.

One point of practical importance: INDECOPI states that a supplier may not rely on the defects not having been notified to it in order to escape administrative liability. That does not make documentation pointless, far from it, but it does rule out an unduly pessimistic reading when something was missed on handover day.

Taking delivery from Switzerland or Europe

Some of our clients do not travel for the handover. It can be done, provided you know what can be delegated and what is lost.

The role of a local representative

Someone has to be physically in the apartment, with the time, the documents and a mandate to record what is wrong. It can be a relative, a trusted person or a service provider. What you expect of that person should be written down before the appointment: the list of points to check, the photographs expected, and above all what they are authorised to do in your name.

On that last point, a piece of received wisdom needs correcting: it is not true that a notarised power of attorney is always indispensable. What determines the form of the mandate is the nature of the acts to be performed. Attending a visit, filming, photographing, taking measurements and writing a report commits you to nothing legally and requires no particular form. Signing in your name a document with contractual weight, such as the acta de entrega, is another matter: that is an act of representation, and the developer will decide what it accepts. Some are satisfied with a simple written authorisation and a copy of the passport, others require a formal power. Put the question to the developer, in writing, before fixing the date.

Where it comes to signing the escritura pública before a notary, or performing acts that are recorded in the registry, a formal power becomes the rule. Our guide to buying an apartment in Lima without travelling to Peru sets out the two available routes, the consular power and the power signed before a notary in your country of residence, and their registration in SUNARP's register of powers of attorney.

What a video visit shows badly

A live video call is useful: it lets you ask for a door to be opened, for the lens to be brought closer, for a point to be revisited. It is not a substitute for being there. A phone camera compensates automatically for light, which erases differences in tone and light damp marks. It conveys neither smell, nor the feel of a floor that sounds hollow, nor the real noise of the street, nor the resistance of a handle. It renders flatness defects and hairline cracks poorly. And the connection, in a basement car park or a stairwell, drops exactly where you would need to look.

The formula that works best combines the two: a live call to steer the visit, and a full photographic report sent afterwards, following a template agreed in advance, room by room, which guarantees that nothing was skipped.

Three roles not to confuse

This is the most useful distinction in this section, and it applies just as much to those who do travel.

• Local coordination means arranging the appointment, being present, applying the inspection template, producing the report, chasing and verifying the fixes. It certifies nothing technically.
• Technical inspection is the work of an architect or engineer registered with their professional college. They alone can characterise a crack, or give an opinion on an installation or on a disorder affecting the structure. Instructing an independent professional for a handover inspection is a modest expense against the stakes, and it is particularly relevant when you are not on site.
• Legal advice belongs to a Peruvian lawyer: reading the clauses, the effect of a wording in the acta, whether a claim is worth bringing, which route to choose.

After the keys: documents, meters and charges

A few days after handover, a series of matters needs your attention. None is complicated, but they are handled badly from a distance when left late.

What to collect

• Keys and access devices, counted. Front door, storage room, letterbox, building fobs, garage remote. Record the quantities in the acta: it is the only moment when that happens without argument.
• The manual de uso del propietario and the appliance manuals, with their guarantee certificates.
• Meter and supply numbers for electricity and water, with the day's reading, photographed. That is what stops you paying for the site's consumption.
• The building's contacts: administrator, concierge, management company, lift maintenance firm.
• The reglamento interno of the co-ownership and the level of running charges. The internal rules define the permitted use of the units: they are what will tell you whether short-term letting is possible in the building.

The administrative and registry chain

This is the part European buyers understand least well, and it produces the most needless worry. Three documents come up constantly in conversation: the conformidad de obra, the declaratoria de edificación and the independización. They denote different stages, and above all successive ones.

The conformidad de obra is the procedure by which the municipality that granted the building licence certifies that the works were completed in accordance with the approved plans. The declaratoria de edificación is the technical description of the works as actually built, drawn up by whoever carried them out; that document, together with the plans, is what supports the application for conformity. The two are dealt with together, before the district municipality, and Law 29090 sets out the regime.

The detail of the procedure depends on the modality under which the licence was granted. For modalities B, C and D, which cover apartment buildings, the municipal urban control body has fifteen calendar days to check that the as-built drawings match the licence granted, to inspect the completed works and to endorse conformity on the single form. If that period passes without a reply, silence counts as approval. The law also provides, for multi-family housing, that conformity may be granted at casco habitable level, and that an anticipated conformity may be granted at casco no habitable level for certain financed projects.

Then comes the registry. The works conformity and the building declaration give rise to registration of the declaratoria de fábrica at SUNARP. The order matters: under Peruvian registry rules, the declaratoria de fábrica must be registered before the co-ownership's reglamento interno can be. Only then comes the independización, the operation by which each apartment receives its own partida registral, separate from that of the original plot, with its share of the common parts.

Local tax obligations

Acquisition triggers local declaration duties, and the two main ones do not have the same counter. For the Impuesto de Alcabala, the transfer tax, the SAT of Lima specifies that acquiring a property located in any district of the province of Lima gives rise to assessment and payment with it, at a rate of 3 % after exemption of the band corresponding to the first ten UIT, payment being due no later than the last working day of the month following the transfer. For the Impuesto Predial, the property tax, the declaration is filed with the municipality of the district where the property is located, the SAT providing that service only for the Cercado de Lima. The new owner may declare up to the last working day of February of the year following acquisition, on pain of a fine, but since the arbitrios, the municipal service charges, are due from the month after the transfer, the SAT recommends declaring before the end of that month. The cost items are set out in detail in our guide to the total cost of buying property in Lima.

Preparing for occupation or letting

If the property is intended for letting, two checks are better done now than later: what the reglamento interno permits in terms of letting duration, and the real level of co-ownership charges, which comes off the net yield. Our guides to long and short-term letting in Lima and to rental management with a local partner take it from there.

The checklist to take with you on the day

The condensed version, to keep open on your phone during the visit.

Before going in

• Contract, annexes, plans, memoria descriptiva and written commitments, printed or available offline.
• Phone charged, timestamping on, storage available.
• Tape measure, level, torch, charger to test sockets, marble, notebook.
• Written confirmation of the time allotted and of water and electricity being live.

Conformity

• Layout matches the plan: number of rooms, position of partitions, direction doors open.
• Materials and equipment match the memoria descriptiva, brands and models noted.
• Number and location of the parking space and storage room, dimensions measured.
• Floor area measured and compared with the plan, without concluding on the spot.

Room by room

• Floors in raking light, tiles tapped, falls checked in wet rooms.
• Walls and ceilings: cracks, touch-ups, corners, skirting, junctions.
• Every door opened and closed, every key tried in its own lock.
• Every window operated, glazing inspected, seals checked, balcony balustrade and drainage verified.
• Cupboards and drawers opened, interiors examined, wall units checked.
• Damp, ventilation of windowless rooms, corrosion on exposed metal.

Installations

• Every tap run, cold and hot, leaks looked for under the units.
• Drains tested by emptying a full basin, WCs flushed twice.
• Switches, lights and sockets tested one by one, consumer unit located and labelling checked, without opening anything.
• Equipment supplied: brand, model, serial number, manual and guarantee.

Common areas and closing

• Entrance, entryphone, lifts, stairs, car park, storage room, announced facilities, ongoing works photographed.
• Every observación written into the acta, with location, description and deadline.
• Items that could not be tested recorded as such, with a second appointment requested.
• Signed copy of the acta collected, or photographed page by page before leaving.
• Keys, fobs and remotes counted; meters read and photographed; after-sales contact identified.

Frequently asked questions