New home snag list: the quick fixes and serious issues a builder needs to address

There has been a remarkable improvement in construction standards over the last decade or so. The introduction in 2014 of Building Control (Amendment) Regulations made builders more accountable. The requirement for an assigned certifier supervising matters has improved a previously lacklustre approach to quality and compliance on site. Today, a finished house is more likely to be structurally sound and constructed in compliance with building regulations.
Many new homes will also come with a 10-year warranty and that provides a lot of comfort to home buyers. But that doesn’t mean things can’t go wrong and shouldn’t be checked. Before new buyers hand over their cash to the builder, they should get a chartered surveyor to go through their new home in detail to check that everything is in order.
The snag list, as it is called, is an itemised list of uncompleted works or faults. These issues, which the builder should attend to before closing the sale, can range from scuff marks on a painted surface to missing fire seals on the party wall in the attic.
While it is a simple concept, the snag list can often end up being contentious. While the purchaser, quite rightly, wants to ensure their new home meets the highest standards of quality and safety, the builder sees it as something to be gone through before his final payment. Therein lies the tension.
When you are looking to get someone to do the snag list, you should avoid the temptation to get a builder friend to do it for the price of a meal out. Home purchase will probably be one of your biggest financial transactions; taking short cuts is a false economy.
When choosing a chartered building surveyor, don’t be afraid to ask about their qualifications and experience. Ask them how long it will take to complete the inspection. A proper inspection of a typical three-bed semidetached house, with due care and attention to detail, will take about 2½ hours on site. Also, be clear about what is included in the fee; will they return to do a recheck once the builder advises all snags are attended to, for example?
Consider asking your surveyor to review the construction drawings and specifications in advance of the inspection. This way, the surveyor can compare the property as built with the intended specification of the architects.
In addition to identifying unfinished works, your chartered surveyor should look for issues of noncompliance; for example, while the attic may have the required thickness of insulation, is it of a standard that will meet the regulations?
A thorough survey will include checking the boundaries of the plot on the ground and ensuring they are accurately reflected in the title maps. The surveyor should also check for a main drain running through the site that might restrict the potential for an extension to the property in later years.
The classic snags and typical remedial actions include:
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More serious snags may occur externally, such as:
More serious compliance issues could include:
And don’t forget:
Have your chartered surveyor come back and do a recheck after about a week, which is how long it will take most snags to be rectified. At this stage you should be down to five to 10 items with which you are not happy. You now have to make a commercial decision: close or hold out. Your surveyor should be able to assist you with that decision; perfection is not possible on a building site and often a reasonable meeting of minds is called for. However, if you’re not happy and your surveyor supports your concern, hold tight.
Don’t panic. Call back your surveyor, have them prepare a defects analysis report and issue it to the builder. There will be a year for the builder to sort out any post-completion defects. If settlement cracking appears internally or externally, leave it for a year or so and take care of it during the next redecoration programme.
Pat McGovern, founder of McGovern Surveyors in Dublin, is a chartered building surveyor and a member of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, scsi.ie
*This article was first published on February 21st, 2024