The handover record: the lines that protect you

The contract comes into being with the agreement; handover happens later — sometimes minutes, sometimes days. The gap between them is where most disputes arise: the buyer says the scratch on the door was not there before. The seller says the mileage was different. Both remember accurately what they wanted to see.

The record closes that gap. It fixes a condition at a moment, signed by both sides. So it is not a contract and does not replace one; it is evidence — the only evidence both parties created together.

The second reason is about timing. From handover the risk passes to the buyer: what happens afterwards is his business, what went before is yours. Without a recorded moment that line is blurred, and blurred lines tend to be read against whoever could have documented them.

Date and time are the two most important entries in the whole document, and they are the ones most often left out. They decide who is charged with a speeding offence from the same afternoon, from when a parking fee stops being yours, and from when engine damage falls outside what you answer for.

Note the time the keys changed hands, not the time you met. Between arrival and departure a private sale easily takes two hours of viewing, test drive, negotiation and a trip to the bank, and during that time the prospect is already driving the car.

Where contract and handover fall apart — the buyer signs today and collects at the weekend — both moments belong in the document, and between them a line about who uses and insures the car in the meantime. That gap produces the most unpleasant cases: the car is paid for, still sitting at your place, and then a branch comes down on it.

The mileage is in the contract, and that is not enough. Kilometres can pass between signing and handover, and after a test drive the display shows a different figure anyway. Write the reading at handover into the record and photograph the instrument cluster together with something that carries the date and time.

The photo protects both sides, which is exactly why both agree to it. For you it proves the figure in the contract was correct at handover — the most common accusation against a private seller is a wrong mileage, and a picture ends that conversation in one sentence.

If the car has a digital trip computer, also photograph the service-due display and, where available, the tyre-pressure or wear readouts. These are figures nobody can claim retrospectively, and they show the buyer you have nothing to hide.

“Good condition” is not a description but an opinion, and opinions can be disputed after the fact. What works is a series of photos filed with the record and expressly referenced by it: “The condition at handover is shown in the twelve attached images, taken jointly by both parties.”

Shoot all round, in daylight, from about two metres, then again close up wherever there is something to see. Existing damage especially belongs in the pictures — not because it lowers the price but because otherwise it counts as new damage later.

Take the pictures together with the buyer, not on your own beforehand. An image you both watched being made is not disputed later; one from your archive could carry any date. If you disagree about a spot, put both views in the record — that is still better than leaving the question open.

The second block in the record is a list of what changed hands. It sounds trivial, and it is the reason a missing spare key becomes a claim three weeks later. What is on the list and ticked off was handed over; what is missing was demonstrably already missing at handover.

The list reads in both directions. The buyer also has an interest in recording what he did not receive — and a seller who offers that actively comes across as more credible than one who steps around the question.

Where something is missing, its consequence belongs alongside it. “Spare key not available, reflected in the price” is a line that disposes of a later claim before it arises. The same goes for a missing service book, a lost manual or a wheel brace that never turns up — named and priced in, it is no longer a defect but a feature of the deal.

The record should state expressly that the purchase price has been received in full and by what route. “Purchase price received in full, cash, counted at the bank counter” or “purchase price credited to the account, credit verified” are two sentences that save you an unpleasant conversation later. An announced transfer does not belong here, because then the price has not been paid.

The second sentence concerns registration. Record the state the car was handed over in — registered, deregistered, plates returned — and by when the buyer must re-register. Add that he bears every cost arising from the handover time onwards, including fines, fees and charges.

If you keep or return the plates, that belongs in the document too, with the number. Otherwise nothing records that they stayed with you, and a plate whose whereabouts nobody can prove is a poor starting position.

It is also the place to note that the buyer is responsible for insurance from that moment, and to settle whether your cover still exists at the instant he drives away. Both take two sentences and are, in the event of a claim, the difference between a notification and an argument.

Two identical copies, both signed by both, one each. If the photos are not printed, the reference in the text plus a shared timestamp is enough: send the buyer the images while you are still in the car park, so he has them with the same time as you.

Finally, photograph the signed record and the contract. Paper gets lost, and a picture on a phone has settled more disputes than any original in a folder.

Keep both as long as the buyer could still raise anything — the statutory windows are on the order of one to two years from handover, with the precise figure set out in the Code of Obligations or the Civil Code. The cost is a slot in a folder; the benefit shows up exactly once, and then completely.