The Work Continues

A house changes hands with its paper trail half missing, and the new owner usually discovers that one drawer at a time.

The seller hands over keys and remotes. What often does not come across is the file: the electrical compliance certificate, the plumbing certificate, the beetle certificate if one was needed, the approved building plans, the guarantee on the roof or the waterproofing, the details of the borehole pump and the age of the geyser. Some of it sits with the conveyancer or the agent, some with the previous owner's bank, and some was never kept at all.

Why does it matter? Because the next sale starts there. The new owner will one day be asked for those same certificates, and an alteration that was never on the plans becomes a problem for whoever owns the house when someone finally checks. It is far easier to ask for the paperwork in the first week, while the seller still remembers where it is, than to rebuild it years later from municipal records and a few phone calls.