What is a snag list? Snagging explained for new builds and handover

What a snag list is

A snag list is a written record of the minor defects, unfinished work and damage found when a newly built or refurbished property is inspected before handover. Each snag is numbered, located, described and usually photographed, then sent to the builder to fix. The list is checked again and closed when every item is done.

Snagging is the inspection that produces the list. The items are called snags because most of them are small: a door that catches on the carpet, a missed run of sealant behind a basin, a scuffed skirting. None of them stops you moving in. All of them are the builder’s job to put right, and the list is the only formal record of what was wrong when the building changed hands.

A snag list is not a check that the house was built to the drawings or the building regulations. It assumes the building is substantially finished and looks at the standard of the finished work. Bigger problems do turn up during snagging, but they are dealt with as defects under the contract or the warranty, not as snags.

What counts as a snag

Four words get used loosely on site, and a builder will use the difference between them to decide what to accept.

A snag is a minor finishing or cosmetic item that needs no investigation. Paint runs, grout gaps, a sticking latch, a missing screw cap. The fix is obvious and quick.

A defect is work that does not meet the contract, the drawings, the building regulations or the warranty provider’s technical standards, or that does not function. Water tracking under a threshold, a boiler that will not hold pressure. A defect may need diagnosis and may mean opening up finished work. It belongs on the list, but it usually runs through the warranty as well.

Damage is work that was fine when it was installed and has since been chipped, scratched or marked, usually by a following trade. If you find it before you accept the keys it is the builder’s problem. If you find it a month after you move in, the builder will usually say it is yours, so the handover inspection is the moment to catch it.

A design preference is something you would have done differently that nonetheless matches the plans and the specification. A radiator under a window, a kitchen run that ends in a narrow filler strip. A builder is entitled to refuse these, and putting them on a snag list dilutes the items that matter.

Normal shrinkage sits in its own category. New plaster, timber and masonry dry out for months after completion, and hairline cracks at joints, above door heads and along the line of the ceiling are expected. Warranty providers publish tolerances for this; NHBC’s standards set width limits for cracks, and anything within the limit is treated as normal drying out rather than a defect. Record it and photograph it, but expect it to be filled and painted at the end of the first year rather than straight away.

When snagging happens

There is no single snagging inspection. On most jobs the list is built, or rebuilt, at three points.

Before completion. This is the inspection with the most leverage, because the builder still wants your money or your signature. In the UK the New Homes Quality Code, run by the New Homes Quality Board, gives buyers from registered developers the right to a pre-completion inspection, either themselves or through a professional snagging inspector. In Ireland the term snag list is standard and the snag list is normally done before the sale closes; the buyer’s solicitor holds off completing until the snags are cleared or agreed.

At handover. Whether or not you inspected earlier, walk the property again on the day you get the keys. This is when damage from the final clean and the last trades shows up, and it is the last moment where a chipped worktop is unarguably not yours.

At the end of the first year, or the defects period. UK new-build warranties such as NHBC Buildmark normally make the builder responsible for defects reported in the first two years, with structural cover running on after that. Shrinkage cracks, doors that have moved as the house dried, and anything that only appears once the heating has run a winter go on a second list raised before that builder period closes.

On commercial work the equivalent moment is practical completion. The contract administrator inspects, the snag list is issued alongside or attached to the completion certificate, and the rectification period runs from that date. The guide to practical completion covers what has to be true before that certificate is signed.

Who does it

On a new home the buyer can snag it themselves. It takes a few hours, a torch, a spirit level and a phone, and the guide to snagging a new build yourself walks through it. A professional snagging inspector does the same walk with a trade background and a longer list, and produces a report the site manager cannot easily wave away. Inspectors find things a first-time buyer would not know to look for, such as roof-space insulation stopping short of the eaves or a boiler condensate pipe run outside without lagging.

The site manager should have snagged the plot before the customer ever sees it; most builders run an internal snag before they release a home for inspection. A clerk of works, where the client employs one, inspects on the client’s behalf throughout the build and keeps a running list rather than a single one at the end.

On a commercial contract the contract administrator, usually the architect or a project manager named in the contract, holds the pen. The contractor snags its own subcontractors first, and the two lists are reconciled into the one that goes with the completion certificate.

What goes on the list

A snag list is a register, so every entry carries the same fields. A reference number. A location, meaning the room and the element, not just the room. A description that says what is wrong rather than where to look. One or more photographs. The trade responsible. A priority. The date raised, the status, and later the date closed. Written out, an entry looks like this.

Snag 14. Bedroom 2, window wall. Sealant between the window frame and the plaster reveal is missing along the top 300 mm of the left side, leaving an open gap to the frame. Photos 14a (whole window, for location) and 14b (close-up with tape measure). Trade: window fitter. Priority: normal. Raised 3 October. Status: open.

The description is the part that fails most often. “Sealant bedroom 2” sends a trade to the room with no idea what to bring. The version above tells them the element, the extent and the fix before they leave the van. Site Audit runs these same fields on an Android phone, with several captioned photographs per snag, no signal and no account needed, and turns the walk into a numbered PDF. One project is free, including the finished report with a small footer credit line; Pro is a one-time A$29.99, with local pricing varying.

What happens after it is sent

Send the list to a named person, in writing, with the date on it. On a new home that is the site manager or the customer care team; on a contract it is whoever the contract says notices go to.

Builder response. Ask for a written answer against each item: accepted, disputed, or already done. Expect shrinkage, design preferences and anything within tolerance to come back marked as not a defect. That is normal. What you want is a reason against each refusal, so you can check it against the warranty standards rather than take it on trust.

Timescales. Ask for a date per item, not a general promise. Builders group snags by trade and wait until there is enough work to justify a visit, so a single stubborn item can sit for months unless it has its own date. Where a contract or customer charter sets a response period, quote it.

Re-inspection. When the builder says the work is done, walk the list again with the original photographs and take a closing photograph of each item. Close what is fixed. Reopen what is not, with a new photograph and the date, so the history of each item stays in one place.

Escalation. If items stall, use the builder’s formal complaints process first and keep the correspondence. Under a warranty such as NHBC Buildmark, the warranty provider has a resolution route for defects reported within the builder’s two-year period. Buyers from developers registered under the New Homes Quality Code can take an unresolved complaint to the New Homes Ombudsman Service. Both will ask for the dated list, the photographs and the builder’s replies, which is why the record matters more than the argument.

Other names for it

Snag list and snagging list are the usual British and Irish terms. The same document is a punch list in the United States, a deficiency list in Canada and a defect list in Australia and New Zealand; on contract work you will also see defect register and defects schedule. The vocabulary, and where the process genuinely differs, is covered in punch list, snag list, defect list: one job, three names.

If you are about to walk a property, start with the room by room snagging checklist, then read how to write a snagging report a builder will act on and take the free snag list template with you.