The Final Inspection
Your last hour of leverage before the house becomes yours: what to check, how to record meter readings, and what to do if something is wrong.
The final inspection (eindinspectie) is the walk-through you do shortly before signing the deeds — usually one to two hours before the notary appointment, with the seller or the selling agent present. It is the last moment at which a problem is still the seller's to fix. An hour later, it is yours.
Weeks or months normally pass between signing the purchase agreement and the transfer. In that time the seller has moved out, taken furniture with them, disconnected appliances and possibly caused damage on the way. The final inspection exists to check that the house you are about to pay for is still the house you agreed to buy.
Why this hour matters more than it looks
Once the transfer deed (leveringsakte) is signed, visible defects become your problem. Dutch law gives a buyer little recourse for something that was there to be seen on the day and was not raised. You keep protection against hidden defects that make normal use of the home impossible, but a cracked worktop, a broken oven or a garden full of rubble is not a hidden defect once you have walked past it.
This is also why the inspection happens before the notary appointment, not after. Your leverage exists only while the seller still needs your money.
What to bring
- The purchase agreement and the Lijst van Zaken (list of items). This is the contractual record of what stays and what goes. Print it or have it open on your phone.
- Your phone, for photographs. Photograph anything you might later need to prove — including the meters.
- A torch, for the meter cupboard, the crawl space hatch and the back of the shed.
- The agreed number of keys, so you can count what you are handed against what was promised.
The walk-through
The house should be empty, bezemschoon (broom-clean), and free of anything not listed as staying. An empty house is revealing — you will see floors, walls and skirting that furniture hid on every previous viewing.
- Appliances: switch on the oven, hob, extractor, dishwasher and washing machine connections. Anything on the Lijst van Zaken as staying must actually work.
- Water: run every tap, flush every toilet, check under sinks for leaks and watch the pressure.
- Heating: fire up the boiler (CV-ketel), check the pressure gauge, and confirm every radiator warms up. Ask where the service records are.
- Damage: look for cracks, holes and scrapes that were not there before — particularly on stairs, door frames and walls, where movers do most of their harm.
- Inclusions: tick off the Lijst van Zaken item by item. Curtains, light fittings, garden sheds, floor coverings and kitchen appliances are the usual disputes.
- The extras: the loft, the cellar, the crawl space, the garden, the shed, the garage and any storage box. These are the places sellers leave things behind.
- Smoke alarms: since 2022 every floor of a Dutch home must have one. If they are missing, they are now your legal obligation, not the seller's.
Meter readings
Record electricity (both the high and low tariff registers, if you have them), gas and water. Photograph each meter so the reading and the meter number are legible in one shot.
These numbers close the seller's energy contract and open yours. Getting them wrong is not dramatic, but it produces a wrong opening bill that takes months to unpick. Both you and the seller should sign the inspection form recording them.
A smart meter usually reports itself to the grid operator, but note the readings anyway — you want your own record if the automatic one is disputed.
If you find something wrong
Do not sign and hope. You have three realistic routes, and the notary can arrange all of them if you call before the appointment:
| Route | How it works | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit (depot) | The notary withholds part of the seller's proceeds under a depotovereenkomst recording the defect, the amount, the deadline for fixing it and the conditions for release. | The default answer for anything of real value. |
| Price reduction | You agree a figure for the repair and deduct it from the purchase price on the settlement statement. | The damage is easy to cost and you would rather fix it yourself. |
| Postponement | Signing is delayed until the seller delivers as agreed. | Serious problems only — mortgage offers and redemption statements have expiry dates, so this creates work for everyone. |
A depot costs a little extra in notary fees. It is still the cheapest insurance available at that moment, because once you have signed, your only remaining option is to pursue a seller who already has your money.
The penalty clause is not automatic
Purchase agreements carry a penalty — commonly 10% of the purchase price, or 3‰ per day for late delivery. It is widely misunderstood as something that simply applies when a seller falls short. It does not.
To claim it you must first formally give the seller notice of default (ingebrekestelling) and a reasonable period to put things right — often around eight days. Only if they still fail can the penalty be pursued. Treat the clause as a lever for negotiation, not as compensation that arrives by itself.
After the inspection
You go straight to the notary. Read The Notary Appointment for what happens there and what it costs, and The Key Transfer for when the house actually becomes yours. The whole sequence is laid out in the closing timeline.