Posthandover Housing Defects: Sources and Origins

In Spain, the high levels of inexperienced workers and the long chains of subcontracting contribute to the poor quality of dwellings. Although the Ley reguladora de la subcontratacion en el Sector de la Construccion (subcontracting law) has established quality measures, the number of customer complaints is still increasing. In this paper, a total of 2,351 posthandover defects derived from four Spanish builders and seven residential developments are classified according to their source and origin. The research reveals that the most common defects identified by customers at posthandover were derived from bad workmanship and were related to construction errors and omissions. Typical defects were found to include incorrect installation, appearance defects, and missing an item or task mainly related to finishing and considered to be minor. No defects were caused by poor design because they are mainly detected and resolved during construction or become apparent after some years of use. This study demonstrates the negative impact of redoing defective work during the final stages of construction and provides knowledge to define measures to improve the quality of the finished buildings, such as understanding customer expectations and preferences, training programs for workers, specialization of subcontractors, and tightening external controls prior to handover.