What is a snagging inspection and do you actually need one

A snagging inspection is a walkthrough of a finished property that lists everything not built to specification, so the developer fixes it before you take possession. You need one before signing any document that accepts the property. It examines the finish, and it cannot tell you anything about how the building was actually constructed.

What it actually covers

A snagging specialist walks the completed unit and compares what is in front of them against the specification annexed to your contract and against what competent workmanship looks like. The output is a list, item by item, room by room: a cracked tile, a door that does not close, a socket with no power, a radiator the drawings show and the room does not have.

The list goes to the developer. In most contracts they are obliged to work through it, and the defects liability period gives you a window in which they do it at their cost rather than yours.

Why you need one even if the property looks fine

Most of what appears on a snag list is invisible to somebody who is not looking for it, and obvious the moment it is pointed out. Falls on a shower tray that run the wrong way. A window that opens into the swing of a door. Grout that has been used to fill a gap left by a tile cut short.

The other reason is procedural. What you can require the developer to fix later depends heavily on what you recorded at the point of acceptance. An unqualified signature and no list is the strongest thing you can hand somebody who would rather not do the work.

What it cannot tell you

By the time a snag list exists, the structure is finished, the services are inside the walls and slabs, and you have paid most or all of the price. Waterproofing under a terrace, reinforcement in a slab, the route of a drainage run: none of it is visible and none of it appears on the list.

That is not a failure of the specialist. There is nothing left to look at. Anything that was going to be found about the construction had to be found while it was going up, which is a different activity done at a different time.

When to commission it

1. Before you sign any document accepting the property, without exception.
2. Early enough that the developer has time to act before your acceptance deadline.
3. With the contract specification in hand, so the list can cite it rather than describe a preference.
4. Again after the fixes, so what was actually done is recorded rather than assumed.

Who does it

We do not sell snagging. It is done by a local firm you engage; what we sell is the visit during construction and the report that comes out of it — see pricing.

A snagging inspection is worth having on every purchase because it is your only formal record of the finish before you accept it, but it comes too late in the build to say anything about the structure, services or waterproofing behind the walls.