After completion: your first 60-day checklist

Completion is over, the keys are in your hand and the purchase feels finished. In practice, a short administrative phase has begun. Small omissions can leave bills in the wrong name, create an insurance gap, lose official letters or leave tax relief unchecked.

Treat the first 60 days as a sequence, not a loose moving list: preserve handover evidence and confirm registration first; then deal with contracts, insurance and the condominium; finally close address and tax tasks within the deadline that applies to your status.

On completion day: leave with a file

Before leaving Casa Pronta, the notary or solicitor, confirm what you receive on paper or digitally. Casa Pronta can combine the purchase, mortgage, charge and registrations in one procedure, but your title may use another route. Ask who submits each registration and how you can track it.

If you already have the permanent certificate code, keep it. The permanent land-register certificate shows completed entries and pending applications. Check it after the period suggested by the professional and confirm the acquisition, each buyer's share, the mortgage and promised cancellations. Evidence of an application is not the same as a completed entry.

The first 48 hours: fix the starting line

When possession is delivered, photograph every meter with its reading and serial number visible. Also photograph the rooms, included equipment, any damage and the number of keys, remotes or cards. Email a summary to the seller or agent if anything differs from the agreement.

Then:

• test water, electricity, gas, water heating, gates and alarm;
• find the electricity CPE and, where relevant, gas CUI on the latest bills;
• locate the water and gas shut-offs and electrical consumer unit;
• change locks and codes if you cannot know how many copies exist;
• do not start urgent works before recording the condition and checking insurance, condominium rules and any approval requirement.

The entry reading separates the seller's consumption from yours. If supply is already disconnected, first confirm whether the installation has a network connection and what the operator or supplier requires. Do not improvise ongoing use under the previous holder's contract.

The first week: contracts, insurance and condominium

Put energy and water in the right name

ERSE recommends that someone who bought a home has the electricity contract in their own name: the holder bears the obligations and exercises the contract rights. You may keep the supplier or choose another. Compare price, commitment period, add-on services and contracted power instead of automatically copying the seller's package.

For water and sewerage, the procedure depends on the municipal or intermunicipal provider. Ask for its document list and provide occupation title, identity, NIF, reading and meter data as requested. Keep the application and first bill for each service.

Confirm insurance without a one-day gap

If you bought with a mortgage, the lender normally required insurance before completion. Still check the start date, address, unit, insured capital, beneficiary and cover. ASF explains that fire insurance is compulsory for horizontal-property buildings and must cover the autonomous unit and its share of common parts.

Ask the manager whether a block policy exists and what it covers. A condominium policy does not automatically mean contents, water damage, liability or lender requirements are covered. Avoid both a gap and misunderstood duplication.

Introduce yourself to the condominium

Under Law 8/2022, the seller must notify the condominium manager by registered post within 15 days of the transfer, giving the new owner's name and NIF. Do not wait silently: write to the manager too and ask them to confirm the update.

Send your name, NIF, address, telephone and email. Ask for:

• charge amount, schedule and payment account;
• rules, current budget and manager contact details;
• the next meeting date and access to digital notices;
• reserve-fund position and already approved works;
• block policy and instructions for common-parts claims.

You should already have read the minutes and charges before buying. The task now is to enter the payment, notice and decision process correctly.

Address and IMI: buyers do not all follow one rule

If you changed your habitual residence and have a Citizen Card, request the change within a maximum of 60 days. It only completes after you receive and confirm the letter. The official Citizen Card address change also updates the address held by the Tax Authority, Social Security and SNS.

Without a Citizen Card, check your case in the Portal das Financas. The Tax Authority distinguishes changes that alter resident/non-resident status, with a 60-day period, from other address changes, generally with a 15-day period. Buying a home does not automatically make a non-resident tax-resident.

Then confirm in the Portal das Financas:

• whether the property appears in your assets with the expected details;
• whether the new fiscal address is effective;
• whether own permanent residence use is recorded correctly;
• whether temporary IMI relief was recognised or needs an application.

The current temporary IMI relief rule has conditions, including allocation to the buyer's own permanent home within six months of acquisition. Where recognition is not automatic, the application is generally due in the 60 days after that six-month period. Check eligibility, values, debts and the current procedure for your case; do not confuse that period with the 60 days for changing a Citizen Card address.

Your first 60-day calendar

Next step

Create one folder and one list today, with owner, deadline and evidence for every task. If you are still preparing completion, use our completion-day guide too. The purchase is truly organised when you can prove who owns the home, who receives the bills, which policy responds and where official notices arrive.