Key handover before final acceptance?

Our BT wants to hand over the keys on Friday but has not yet given us a date for the final inspection. Is it normal for the keys to be handed over first? And then at some point the final inspection is carried out in the presence of a building expert? Can we accept the keys and still retain our right to have defects remedied? (Of course, we should not move in) Or is this somehow a trick by the BT to make us make a mistake and move in and thus lose the warranty on the defects?

The craftsmen working with the general contractor all had a key for the construction locks. I could imagine that this is simply meant to prevent any other craftsmen or people from entering again.

At some point, I realized that theoretically one can enter any other building under construction by the general contractor with the construction key, because all construction locks were the same. In our construction area, more than 20 houses were being built by the general contractor simultaneously. It would therefore have been easy not only as a craftsman but also as a builder to look into the other houses.

The craftsmen working with the general contractor here all had a key for the construction locks.

...because the same locks are installed in all the front doors by the construction company. That’s why the locking system or the key is very expensive: if one gets into the wrong hands or is lost, then all the locks on all construction sites have to be replaced.

Only after the completion of the interior trades is the correct locking system installed, for which there are then, for example, only 3 keys for the owner.

If he hands over the official key to the unique locking system to you before the handover, it could be that he is making use of a tacit acceptance. Warranty claims of course do not expire, but there would then be no handover protocol with the defects. However, I cannot imagine that a reputable contractor would make such an offer and later refuse the official final acceptance including a defect list.

However, I have to say that we also received this construction key like the craftsmen. We exchanged it through the responsible party at the final acceptance.
Tacit acceptance is usually talked about when you have already moved into the house by placing some furniture, tools, etc. inside. We took possession of our storage room so that we could store the equipment and paints for the work we were doing ourselves. When our construction manager saw this, he smirked and said something like: “Oops, you have already accepted the house.” Upon inquiry, he then explained it to us.

So I would decide that based on the general relationship of trust—and also on what advantages you should then have.

That’s my amateur opinion on this, regards Yvonne

P.s. For a final handover, signatures belong by the way—and separately the signature for the key handover

To my knowledge, however, there is a ruling that a few shelves and the storage of tools do not constitute acceptance.


I just found a post by a lawyer Jörg Klepsch on frag-einen-Anwalt.de.
Personal opinion: Maybe somewhere in writing record that the handover does not constitute acceptance and have it signed. Alternatively, ask the construction supervisor/lawyer.

Simply by installing the kitchen in the otherwise not yet fully finished apartment, no acceptance, not even partial acceptance, takes place. There is the so-called tacit acceptance through the use or occupation of the house or apartment, acceptance can also tacitly occur through the handover of the house key or through the unchallenged use of the respective work, i.e., the apartment. However, this does not concern partial use through the installation of a kitchen, but concerns the use of the property as a whole for its intended purpose, i.e., in the case of an apartment, by living in it. Simply having a kitchen installed does not mean the apartment is yet in use. It now depends a bit on what services still have to be provided by the developer. Tacit acceptance is generally excluded under case law if the contractor’s performance has not yet been fully rendered. (Compare e.g. OLG Düsseldorf OLGR 2007,206 or BGH 18.02.2003 X ZR 245/00)

The "handover" (by means of key) is an actual process (namely the possession transfer owed sooner or later) of the created work.

This must be strictly distinguished from the legal "acceptance" (= approval of the work as contractually agreed) within the meaning of § 640 of the German Civil Code, which triggers certain legal consequences.

In short:
Clarify during handover that no acceptance is declared thereby (also because of § 640 II German Civil Code).