The contractor does, until every item on the list is closed — handover starts the clock on deficiencies, it doesn’t hand them to the owner.
Short answer
On a commercial project, the contractor stays on the hook for punch-list items after handover — moving in doesn’t discharge the obligation, it starts the countdown on it. CCDC 2 builds “prerequisites for Ready-for-Takeover” into the prime contract for exactly this reason: a deficiency list at handover is a normal, expected document, not evidence something went wrong.
Handover, substantial performance and Ready-for-Takeover are three different milestones, and only one of them is a contractual finish line. CCDC 2 – 2020 Stipulated Price Contract describes itself as the “industry standard prime contract between Owner and prime Contractor,” and its coverage explicitly includes “prerequisites for Ready-for-Takeover” alongside “early occupancy by the Owner” as separate, named concepts. That separation is the point: an owner can move in and use the space while a punch list still sits open against the contractor, because occupancy and contractual completion are not the same event.
Who actually tracks that list, and how the deficiencies get resolved without becoming a dispute, is the job of the contract administrator. CCDC 20 frames this as “the administration of a construction contract” and is written “primarily for the contract administrator (e.g. the Consultant)” — the same party who, in most projects, is also the one certifying that Ready-for-Takeover has actually been reached.
In practice the list is a live document, not a one-time inspection form. Procore’s Punch List tool is “used at the end of a project to keep track of remaining items to complete, assign responsibility, and maintain due dates,” and it keeps a running history of who closed what and when — the record a general contractor needs if a trade disputes that an item was ever actually theirs to begin with. Items that are still open once the owner is in and using the space don’t become the owner’s problem by default — they stay assigned, dated, and chased against the trade or the general contractor who owes them.
A house built by a licensed builder in Ontario doesn’t use CCDC language at all, but the same principle holds: possession doesn’t erase what wasn’t finished. Tarion states plainly that “by law, all new homes built in Ontario are provided with a warranty by the builder,” and that coverage “begins when you sign the Agreement of Purchase & Sale, and remains in effect for up to 7 years even if the home is sold.” Items noted at the pre-delivery inspection or shortly after possession don’t need to be chased down informally — they become part of a warranty record the builder is contractually and statutorily obligated to close, backstopped by Tarion rather than left to the buyer’s memory of a verbal promise.
The mistake is treating “we moved in” as “the list is now ours.” It isn’t — not on a commercial job, where the contractor’s obligation to complete Ready-for-Takeover items survives occupancy, and not on a house, where the statutory warranty exists precisely because possession isn’t the same thing as a finished home. What shifts at handover is leverage, not obligation: once an owner is in and using the space, the due dates matter more, not less. See also occupying before final inspection, a related but separate question about whether you can move in at all before the municipality signs off.
A 30-minute call is enough to tell you whether your closeout process is actually tracking what it should.
