Snagging a Building You Cannot Visit: Running the Inspection Remotely

The snag list is the last moment an owner has real leverage. Here is how to produce a serious one when you are not the person walking the rooms.

Snagging is the systematic inspection of a finished building against the specification and the drawings, producing a list of items to be corrected before acceptance. Done properly it takes days, produces hundreds of items on any real building, and is carried out by someone competent with a list rather than by an enthusiastic walkthrough. Done from abroad it needs structure decided in advance.

Before stage one

You cannot snag a building that is not finished, and contractors under pressure invite inspection too early so that the list is diluted with items still in progress. Agree in advance what state the building must be in before snagging begins, and hold to it, because an inspection of unfinished work wastes the one inspection you have leverage over.

• A written definition of the state required before snagging starts, area by area.
• An independent inspector appointed, separate from the contractor and ideally from the designer.
• The specification, approved samples and drawings available to the inspector.
• A standard list format agreed, with location, item, reference and severity.
• Agreement that the snag list attaches to the completion certificate rather than being informal.

Stage 1: Fix the standard before the inspection

Snagging arguments are almost always about the standard rather than the fact. Collect the approved samples, the specification tolerances and the benchmark areas agreed during construction, and give the inspector a reference for what acceptable looks like on this project.

• Deliverable: A reference pack of approved samples, tolerances and benchmark records.
• Owner: Supervising engineer with the design team.
• Approval gate: No inspection until the acceptance standard is documented.

Stage 2: Inspect systematically, room by room

Work through the building in a fixed order with a checklist per room type: floors, walls, ceilings, doors, ironmongery, glazing, sanitaryware, electrical accessories, air outlets, joinery, sealant. Systematic beats intuitive, because intuitive inspection finds what catches the eye and misses categories entirely.

• Deliverable: A room by room list with a unique reference and photograph for each item.
• Owner: Independent inspector.
• Approval gate: Every room visited and recorded, including plant rooms and roofs.

Stage 3: Test rather than only look

Operate everything: taps, drains, doors through their full swing, locks, sockets, switches, lights, extract fans, air conditioning in each room, and every window. A visual inspection of a finished building misses most functional defects, and functional defects are the ones you will live with.

• Deliverable: A functional test record for services and openings in every space.
• Owner: Inspector with the contractor present.
• Approval gate: No area signed off on appearance alone.

Stage 4: Separate defects from variations and from design

Items fall into three groups: work not built as specified, work built as specified that you do not like, and items where the design is the problem. Only the first is the contractor obligation, and mixing the three destroys the credibility of the whole list.

• Deliverable: A categorised list identifying defects, change requests and design queries separately.
• Owner: Inspector with the owner representative.
• Approval gate: Categories agreed before the list is issued to the contractor.

Stage 5: Issue the list formally with dates

Issue the categorised list under cover of a formal letter, with a required completion date for each severity band, and state that acceptance is withheld pending closure. An informal list handed over at a meeting becomes a suggestion.

• Deliverable: A formal issue of the snag list with dates and a statement on acceptance.
• Owner: Owner or representative.
• Approval gate: List issued in writing before any completion certificate is considered.

Stage 6: Re inspect and close item by item

Verify each closure individually rather than accepting a returned list marked complete. Photograph the closed condition. Expect a proportion of items to have been closed on paper only, which is not dishonesty so much as the predictable result of a long list and a hurried crew.

• Deliverable: A re inspection record with a closure photograph for each item.
• Owner: Independent inspector.
• Approval gate: No item closed without verification, and no exceptions for small items.

Stage 7: Carry the remainder into the defects period

Items that remain open at acceptance must be listed, valued and covered by retained money, with dates. Anything that simply moves to a general promise will not be done, and it will resurface as your maintenance cost in the first year.

• Deliverable: A schedule of open items with values retained against each.
• Owner: Owner representative with the certifier.
• Approval gate: Retention reduced only by the value of items actually closed.

Handovers between stages

The weakest point is between the inspector and whoever will operate the building, because the operator inherits the open items without having seen them. Bring the property manager or facilities team into the re inspection so the open list transfers with context. The second weak point is between snagging and the defects period, where an item nobody closed becomes an item nobody remembers.

How you know it is finished

Snagging is finished when every item is either verified as closed with a photograph or listed as open with money retained against it, and when the categorised list, the closure records and the retained value all sit in one document. A list marked complete by the contractor is not a finished inspection.

Domira designs, builds and manages projects across Saudi Arabia for owners who are based abroad: land appraisal, feasibility, design, construction, handover and asset management under one accountable contract. Send us the plot or the brief and Domira will put the numbers in front of you before you commit.