A new Portuguese apartment carries two warranty regimes, and one signature at handover can weaken both. Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2024, de 8 de janeiro (DL 10/2024) removed the municipal verification that used to sit between a finished building and its deed, so nobody now checks the unit against its own specification except the buyer. Sign the acceptance document without reservation and Código Civil Art. 1219.º presumes you already knew about every defect that was there to be seen. The guarantee periods survive that signature. Your evidence does not. An independent snagging inspection in the days before acceptance converts a walkthrough into a dated technical record, which is the one thing that answers a developer who later argues the crack came from how you lived in the flat.
Table of Contents
- What does a new-build warranty in Portugal actually cover?
- Why does accepting the keys without reservation weaken your claim?
- Where does the 30-day deadline come from, and when does it apply to you?
- When does the warranty clock start on the common parts?
- What should you demand at handover?
- How a handover inspection turns a walkthrough into evidence
- Frequently Asked Questions
What does a new-build warranty in Portugal actually cover?
Two regimes run in parallel on a Portuguese new build: Decreto-Lei n.º 84/2021 gives ten years on structural elements and five on everything else.
Decreto-Lei n.º 84/2021, de 18 de outubro (DL 84/2021) has applied since 1 January 2022 and transposed Directive (EU) 2019/771. Where a professional sells habitation property to a consumer, it sets ten years for non-conformities affecting structural construction elements and five years for all other non-conformities. Both periods run from delivery.
Three features of that regime matter more than the headline numbers.
The burden reverses. A non-conformity that appears inside the guarantee period is presumed to have existed at delivery, so the developer carries the job of showing it came from later misuse or poor maintenance. On a private resale the buyer carries that burden instead, which is the single largest practical difference between buying new and buying second-hand.
The clock suspends. Periods stop running from the date the consumer communicates the non-conformity to the professional, and for whatever time the consumer is deprived of use of the property. A developer who takes eight months to answer does not eat eight months of your guarantee.
The notice has a form. Denúncia goes by carta registada com aviso de receção, or by email with a delivery and read receipt. A phone call to the site manager is not a denúncia. Remedies for immovables come without a hierarchy: repair, replacement, proportional price reduction, or resolution of the contract.
Running alongside it, Código Civil Art. 1225.º covers empreitada on buildings destined by nature for long duration. Where defects from vício do solo ou da construção appear within five years of delivery, the empreiteiro answers to the owner or to a third-party acquirer. Two consequences follow. A buyer can pursue the actual builder rather than only the developer-seller, which is the practical route around a single-purpose company that has been wound up. And under Art. 1225.º n.º 4 the same regime reaches a vendedor de imóvel que o tenha construído, modificado ou reparado, so a developer who built what they sold sits inside this chapter too.
Keep the two apart. They have different periods, different deadlines and different defendants, and merging them produces advice that fails in both directions.
One boundary nobody can draw for you yet. DL 84/2021 left the meaning of elementos construtivos estruturais to a portaria carrying an exemplificative list, and no publication of that portaria has been confirmed. The two periods are settled. Which specific building elements fall on the ten-year side of the line is not, so treat any confident list of them with suspicion.
Why does accepting the keys without reservation weaken your claim?
Código Civil Art. 1219.º presumes the buyer knew of apparent defects where the work was accepted without reservation, so the acceptance wording decides what survives.
This provision is the strongest argument for inspecting before handover, and it works by describing what the buyer loses rather than what an inspector provides.
Art. 1219.º presumes that defects which were apparent were known to the person accepting, where acceptance happened without reservation. A buyer who walks the unit, signs a clean auto de entrega and collects the keys has told the developer, in the only document that will matter later, that the visible condition was satisfactory. The guarantee periods keep running. The argument about what the flat looked like on the day is over before it starts.
Two things sit outside its reach. Defects that were genuinely hidden on the day, and structural problems that surface in year three, are not what Art. 1219.º addresses. Finish-grade and installation defects visible on the day are exactly what it addresses, and those are the bulk of what a new unit hands over with.
The practical consequence is that the reservation wording carries as much weight as the inspection report. A defect list attached to the acceptance document, with an express statement that acceptance is subject to the annexed list, keeps the position open. A signature on a form that says the work was received in good condition closes it. Developers use standard acceptance forms, and those forms are written for the developer.
If a defect list exists on the day, annex it and reference it in the body of the acceptance. If the developer refuses to accept an annex, record the refusal in writing before signing anything.
Where does the 30-day deadline come from, and when does it apply to you?
Art. 1220.º imposes a 30-day denúncia, but only on someone who commissioned works from a contractor, which a property purchase is not.
The 30-day figure circulates widely, and it is real law. Código Civil Art. 1220.º requires the dono da obra to denounce defects to the empreiteiro within 30 days of discovery, on pain of caducidade. That clock belongs to empreitada, Arts. 1218.º to 1225.º, the contract under which a person commissions works from a contractor. A homeowner who hires a builder to renovate a kitchen sits inside it.
A buyer sits somewhere else, and every buying scenario lands on one year.
Buying a completed home from a private seller falls under compra e venda, Arts. 913.º to 917.º. Art. 916.º n.º 2 gives one year from knowledge of the defect, within the five years following delivery. Art. 917.º then allows six months from that notice to file, with a hard cap of five years from the sale.
Buying a new build from the developer who built it runs through Art. 1225.º n.º 4, which places the builder-seller inside the empreitada chapter. The 30-day clock does not travel with it, because Art. 1225.º n.º 2 sets its own periods: denúncia within one year of discovery, and action within the year following the denúncia.
Buying new from a professional adds DL 84/2021 on top, with the reversed burden and the ten and five-year guarantee periods described above.
So a reader who has met the 30-day figure on a Portuguese forum or a builder's website has not met a fabrication. They have met a rule from a neighbouring contract type, and it does not govern their purchase.
One further point on timing, because it changes how a buyer should think about the first year. The denúncia clock runs from discovery of the defect, not from a fixed number of months after handover. There is no first-anniversary deadline to count down to. What runs from delivery are the guarantee periods themselves, and inside those periods the trigger is the day you find the problem.
When does the warranty clock start on the common parts?
For common parts, Supreme Court authority counts delivery from the constitution of the condominium administration, not from the day the developer finished the building.
Owners in a new block often assume the roof, the façade and the entrance run on the same clock as their own flat. Portuguese case law says otherwise.
Supremo Tribunal de Justiça authority on this point is constant and firm. Where the builder is also the seller of the fractions, delivery of the partes comuns, and therefore the start of the warranty period, counts from the constitution of the condominium administration. That is the moment the builder can hand administration of the common parts to the condóminos. Not the day the developer finished building, and not the first individual buyer's deed.
The qualification has to travel with the doctrine. That line of authority runs under Art. 1225.º and DL 67/2003 as amended by Decreto-Lei n.º 84/2008, de 21 de maio, with a five-year guarantee, and no Supreme Court decision applying the same start-date rule under DL 84/2021 has surfaced. Read it as established jurisprudence on the delivery-date question rather than as settled law under the current consumer regime, and do not assume the ten-year period attaches itself to the older case law. DL 84/2008 and DL 84/2021 are different instruments, one digit apart, and search results mix them constantly.
The common parts themselves are the soil and foundations, structural columns, pillars and load-bearing walls, the roof and cover terraces, entrances, stairs and common corridors, and the general water, electricity, gas and communications installations.
In a phased development where the administration is constituted months after the first residents move in, the roof terrace clock can still be running long after the clocks on individual units have started. That gap is worth knowing before a condominium assembly decides to absorb a repair cost the developer could still be answering for.
What should you demand at handover?
Five documents decide whether a later claim is arguable: the termo de responsabilidade, telas finais, ficha técnica, final energy certificate and acoustic reference.
The termo de responsabilidade comes first, and it comes with its SIGOE verification code. The code is what lets you confirm the technician's declaration is registered rather than a signed sheet of paper.
Telas finais, the as-built drawings, come second. Where they do not exist, ask for an explicit statement to that effect. A written "we do not have them" is more useful than silence, because it establishes what the developer could and could not produce.
The ficha técnica da habitação comes third. Decreto-Lei n.º 68/2004, de 25 de março still obliges the promoter to produce and deliver it. DL 10/2024 removed it as a gate at the deed, not as an obligation, and it remains the benchmark document against which materials, brands and installations get compared.
The final energy certificate comes fourth, and a pré-certificado is not it. Decreto-Lei n.º 101-D/2020, de 7 de dezembro requires the certificate to reach the buyer before the contract is signed, and its absence carries a coima of €250 to €3,740 for individuals and €2,500 to €44,890 for companies (DL 101-D/2020, Art. 35.º n.º 1). The certificate is issued by an ADENE-qualified perito. Our energy performance certificate guide covers the validity periods and the exemption set.
The acoustic project reference comes fifth, under the Regulamento dos Requisitos Acústicos dos Edifícios (RRAE), for the typology in question.
Add the licença de utilização where one has been issued. DL 10/2024 stopped the notary gating the deed on it, and the property still needs it to be lawful, financeable and resaleable. Unauthorised construction sits under the RJUE with fines running from €498.80 to €99,759.58 for individuals and up to €249,398.95 for companies, which is a liability that follows the property rather than the person who built it.
How a handover inspection turns a walkthrough into evidence
An independent inspection before acceptance produces the dated, photographed defect record that a reservation on the acceptance document then preserves.
The reversed burden under DL 84/2021 improves the buyer's legal position without settling the argument. When a developer answers a water infiltration claim by blaming the owner's maintenance, the presumption puts the work of disproving that on the developer, but the case still turns on a credible independent peritagem técnica. Portuguese courts weigh a competent independent report heavily, and produce nothing comparable from a buyer's photographs on a phone.
The contrast with the wider housing stock explains why this window matters. INE recorded in Censos 2021 that 35.8% of Portuguese buildings need repair, split into 21.8% light, 9.4% medium and 4.6% deep, which puts serious condition problems at 14% of the stock. A resale buyer in Lisboa, Porto or the Algarve takes that condition as they find it, with one year from discovery and a five-year outer limit. A new-build buyer holds two regimes and a named defendant. The acceptance signature is where those advantages are kept or given away.
Booking runs against the developer's schedule rather than yours, so the request belongs in the CPCV. A clause requiring the developer to permit an independent pre-handover inspection costs nothing to insert and is close to impossible to obtain later. Our pre-CPCV inspection guide covers the clause alongside the rest of the pre-contract position, and the pre-purchase inspection pillar sets out where inspection sits in the purchase sequence.
For the survey itself, its scope, timing and the defect categories that recur in Portuguese new builds, see the new build snagging inspection guide. For how findings are graded and presented once the survey is done, see what a property condition report contains.
Need document-level due diligence before the physical inspection? RealOS gives you the legal and valuation picture before an inspector visits. → realos.pt
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an NHBC 10-year warranty cover, and what is the Portuguese equivalent?
An NHBC Buildmark policy in the UK splits into a developer liability period for finish and workmanship, followed by insurance-backed cover for structural elements to ten years. Portugal has no equivalent insurance-backed scheme. What exists is a statutory guarantee rather than a policy: DL 84/2021 gives a consumer buying from a professional seller a ten-year period for structural defects with the burden of proof reversed, and the Código Civil Art. 1225.º chain governs the rest. The practical difference is who you claim against. Under Buildmark a British buyer claims against an insurer that survives the builder. In Portugal the claim runs against the developer, so if the developer dissolves, the guarantee is only as good as whatever entity remains.
How long is a new-build warranty in Portugal?
Where a professional developer sells to a consumer, DL 84/2021 gives ten years on structural construction elements and five years on all other non-conformities, both running from delivery. Código Civil Art. 1225.º runs alongside it with a five-year window from delivery for defects of soil or construction, enforceable against the builder directly. The regimes are separate and a buyer may hold rights under both.
Who pays for defects found after handover?
The developer or the builder, provided the defect falls inside a guarantee period and the buyer denounces it in time. Under DL 84/2021 a non-conformity appearing within the guarantee period is presumed to have existed at delivery, so the developer has to show it came from later misuse. Under Art. 1225.º the buyer can pursue the empreiteiro directly, which matters when the developer was a single-purpose company that no longer trades.
Does signing the handover document mean I have accepted the defects?
For defects that were apparent on the day, in effect yes. Código Civil Art. 1219.º presumes the buyer knew of apparent defects where the work was accepted without reservation. Attaching a defect list to the acceptance document and stating that acceptance is subject to that list is what keeps the position open.
Is the deadline for reporting a defect 30 days or one year?
One year, for anyone buying property. The 30-day rule in Art. 1220.º applies to a person who commissioned works from a contractor, a renovation being the usual case. A buyer of a resale home has one year from knowledge under Art. 916.º n.º 2, and a buyer of a new build from the builder-seller has one year under Art. 1225.º n.º 2, with a further year to bring the action.
When does the warranty on the roof and common areas start?
Supreme Court authority counts delivery of the common parts from the constitution of the condominium administration, rather than from completion of the building or from the first buyer's deed. That case law developed under Art. 1225.º and DL 67/2003 as amended by DL 84/2008, so treat it as authority on the start date rather than as a decided question under DL 84/2021.
Conclusion
Nobody checks a Portuguese new build against its own specification at the deed. DL 10/2024 ended that, and Art. 1219.º then rewards whoever documented the condition before acceptance. Two warranty regimes stand behind a new-build buyer, one reaching ten years and one reaching the builder personally, and both depend on evidence gathered while the developer still wants your signature.
An InspectOS Snagging Inspection produces that evidence before you sign the auto de entrega: a dated, photographed defect list, located against the floor plan and structured for the developer to action item by item. Set against promoter liability under Art. 1225.º, which reaches five years from delivery and follows the builder rather than the seller, the survey costs a fraction of what a single contested structural repair costs to argue without it.
→ Book a Snagging Inspection · get a quote at inspectos.pt/en/home-inspections
Updated August 2026 | Reviewed by the InspectOS Engineering Team, Ordem dos Engenheiros licensed | InspectOS Portugal
Sources
- Decreto-Lei n.º 84/2021, de 18 de outubro
- Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2024, de 8 de janeiro
- Decreto-Lei n.º 68/2004, de 25 de março
- Decreto-Lei n.º 101-D/2020, de 7 de dezembro, Art. 35.º n.º 1
- Decreto-Lei n.º 84/2008, de 21 de maio
- Código Civil, Arts. 913.º, 916.º, 917.º, 1218.º a 1225.º, in particular Arts. 1219.º, 1220.º, 1225.º n.º 2 and n.º 4
- Regime Jurídico da Urbanização e Edificação (RJUE)
- Regulamento dos Requisitos Acústicos dos Edifícios (RRAE)
- Directive (EU) 2019/771
- Supremo Tribunal de Justiça jurisprudence on the common-parts delivery date
- INE, Censos 2021
- ADENE
- Ordem dos Engenheiros