A long PDF and a waiting buyer
A buyer instructs your practice to snag their new home before or just after completion. The surveyor goes through room by room: paint defects, sealant gaps, doors that do not close, missing trims, a radiator not fixed properly, a gap at the skirting, loose tiles. Each is photographed and noted.
The result is a long PDF, sent to the buyer, who forwards it to the developer's customer care team. On site, the list is split by hand between trades. Weeks later, the buyer is unsure which items have been fixed and asks your practice to re-inspect. Your surveyor works through the old PDF and ticks items off by hand.
Why snag lists stall
- The list is ordered by room, but developers work by trade.
- Items are not individually referenced, so nobody can say which are closed.
- Photos are embedded in a PDF and hard to extract.
- Buyers cannot see progress without phoning the developer.
- Re-inspection means working from an old document.
What that costs the buyer and your practice
Buyers wait longer for fixes and feel ignored. Developers' teams waste time splitting lists. Your practice spends time on re-inspections that could be quicker, and on buyers' calls asking for help chasing. The value of your snagging service depends on items being fixed, which happens outside your control.
| Need | PDF list | Shared snag list |
|---|---|---|
| Developer works by trade | Split by hand | Filtered by trade |
| Knowing what is closed | Unclear | Each item marked fixed with a date |
| Photos | Embedded in PDF | Attached to each item |
| Buyer sees progress | Phones the developer | Views the shared list |
| Re-inspection | Works from old PDF | Opens the list, checks items marked fixed |
The snagging system we build
- On site, the surveyor records each snag by room and location on a tablet, choosing a category and trade from a list, with a photo and short description.
- The finished list is issued to the buyer as a report in your format, and as a shared list with each item referenced.
- With the buyer's permission, the developer's customer care team gets a link to the list, filtered by trade if they wish.
- Developers or their trades mark items as fixed, with an optional photo.
- The buyer sees progress on the shared list without needing to call.
- At re-inspection, the surveyor opens the same list and checks the items marked fixed, recording confirmed, not accepted or new.
- A final report shows the closed and open items, with photos before and after.
Whether an item is a defect and whether a fix is acceptable are the surveyor's judgement. The developer's obligations are between the buyer and the developer, and we make no claims about them.
A snagging service that sees items closed
Buyers get a clear, trackable list rather than a PDF. Developers can work from it by trade. Re-inspections are quicker and more precise. Your practice can offer a service that follows items through to closure, which is what buyers really want from a snagging surveyor.
Over time, the categories and trades recorded across many inspections also show which kinds of snag come up most on a given developer's homes. That is useful context for your surveyors going into a new development by the same builder, and it stays within your practice's records.
Is your snagging stuck at the PDF?
- Snag lists are issued as long PDFs.
- Buyers call you to ask what has been fixed.
- Re-inspections mean ticking items off an old document.
- Developers split your lists by trade by hand.
- You have no record of when items were closed.