Snagging surveys – a worthwhile investment!

You've set your heart on purchasing a new-build property. There may be a number of reasons why you've chosen such a home over older properties that might have been on the estate agent's books.

Perhaps it was the location. Maybe it was the views from the upstairs rooms. Or maybe the garden held great promise.

Or, as is often the case, it's the belief that there really won't be much to do other than decide where your furniture is going to look best.

However, this will not always be the case.

New-builds will come with a list of problems that need to be fixed to your satisfaction. Some of them will be aesthetic, such as poor joinery, plastering issues, slightly sticking doors and so on; quite a few will be more serious, such as insulation issues, structural problems (e.g. resulting in cracking in walls), heating and plumbing glitches, damage to bathroom or kitchen furniture, and so on. The list can be seemingly endless.

That's not to put you off buying a new-build property, of course.

Inevitably there will be little niggles that need to be resolved to your satisfaction. After all, you are paying a lot of money for the home so it's not unreasonable for you to have high expectations of a quality finish.

One of the key problems with identifying the list of snags (as they are known in the trade) is that it is a time-consuming process at a time when you are already very busy and stressed with all the other things going on with purchasing your new home. Furthermore, it is unlikely that you'll have the skills and knowledge to do a thorough job.

In fact, if you are buying the new place with the benefit of a mortgage loan, your lenders are almost certainly going to need a structural survey of some kind to ensure that the risk of lending you the money is sound and can be backed up with the state and price of the home.

So, rather than trying to identify all the problems that might exist on the property, you should instruct a qualified Chartered Surveyor to perform a snagging survey. They will provide the clear detail of any problems they have unearthed during a thorough survey.

While some builders will push you to provide them with a snag list within a short space of time, don't be bludgeoned into accepting that timescale, either.

You should also instruct your surveyor before you complete on the sale contract, so that any problems such as leaks, poor finishes, ill-fitting windows and doors and so on can be included on the survey and passed on to the builder for immediate rectification. This will give you a powerful weapon since completing on the property will be reliant on the problems being resolved.

If you have already completed, you should still organise a snagging survey as soon as possible after you've been handed the keys to the home. By law, you have up to two years to get any problems rectified (as well as any damage that has been created by the problem), but the sooner you get the snagging survey moving, the better.

Do you want a thorough snagging survey completed by a qualified and focused chartered surveyor? Do you need to discuss your new-build's snagging survey?

That's where it is really worth contacting Surveyor Local! 

Surveyor Local only works with members of RICS to offer home buyers a comprehensive range of surveys that are affordable and will provide the information required on a property. 

Your appointed surveyor will be local to the property you are buying so they will know the area and bring that knowledge to their assessment and their analysis of the issues with the new home.

Not only will the surveyor work hard to find all the problems affecting the property, they will also be keen to adopt new and proven technology in order to give the best survey possible.

Surveyor Local will provide a quote that will not change - what you are quoted is what you pay. 

Next-day bookings are usually available, and your appointed surveyor will look after arranging access to the property with the estate agent and the seller. Once the survey is complete, they will send you a PDF copy of the report by email.

Call  to get your survey quote started, or to discuss your concerns with the acquisition of your planned property.

Or you can get a quick quote, using Surveyor Local's easy-to-use quote generator. We'll do the rest once you confirm your acceptance of the quote.