Hiring someone to snag a new house!?

Blingy

Need to get someone to snag a new house for us. Have gotten a couple of quotes and one is twice the price of another as he is a qualified property surveyor. I suppose I am looking for others recommendations. Do we need a qualified surveyor or are any of the snagging companies sufficient? Any tips would be good.

Gumbo

Your uncles cousin can do it as long as they are competent.
You will have no come back on a registered Surveyor even if something is missed (I’m a Registered Building Surveyor btw) as the snag is purely a cosmetic inspection and making sure everything opens, closes and works etc

AmberGold

Pay someone competent, a company that charges VAT and will provide a quote/invoice. Not someone who'll do it on a Saturday morning as a nixer.

My advice is to get a registered engineer with indemnity.

We didn't, he missed a significant issue he should have seen and we had no comeback.

Gumbo

AmberGold wrote: »

Pay someone competent, a company that charges VAT and will provide a quote/invoice. Not someone who'll do it on a Saturday morning as a nixer.

My advice is to get a registered engineer with indemnity.

We didn't, he missed a significant issue he should have seen and we had no comeback.

That doesn’t sound right.
A snag list is a cosmetic inspection. Drains, water, electrics and more is inspected.

But if something significant is missed, you have comeback on the Builder through the defects warranty period.

Can you confirm if you bought a new house and what the significant problem was?

Blingy

Thank you for the replies. This Has helped me make a decision.

AmberGold

The problem I had was caused by pyrite, it was well before the epidemic and wasn’t heard of at the time. The slab had effectively broken in the middle of the house and one half of the house wasn’t level, losing an inch or two over 18 ft. I can’t remember the exact details of how much it was out but it was particularly evident across the front of the fireplace. We had snagged, moved in and installed expensive floors when it was spotted.

The guy I had used for the snag was an architects draughtsman, for him the job was money for a few pints. He was about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike. I’m convinced the builder knew what the issue was, with the draughtsman fighting our corner we were at a significant disadvantage.

Unknown to us the future trouble in store we sold the house well before the pyrite appeared in anger.

I have since heard of snaggers not spotting serious plumbing issues and problems with a gable wall, in the case of the gable wall it was 13 years after the build outside the HomeBond. In this instance the owner is convinced that if he had used a chartered surveyor he would have a case, the builder is long gone.

Would you buy an old house without a surveyors report, why not do the same for a new one. If more did use surveyors or engineers over the years maybe issues created by men like Tom McFeely would have been picked up earlier.

If you trust your builder implicitly by all means do a cosmetic inspection as an earlier poster has suggested, given my experiences in over 7 property purchases I wouldn’t.

the_pen_turner

personally I wouldn't get in any kind of engineer or architect.
you need someone who has hands of skills in several trades and a good eye for detail along high standards.

sometimes when you are looking too closely at the details that you miss the blindingly obvious

Gumbo

AmberGold wrote: »

The problem I had was caused by pyrite, it was well before the epidemic and wasn’t heard of at the time. The slab had effectively broken in the middle of the house and one half of the house wasn’t level, losing an inch or two over 18 ft. I can’t remember the exact details of how much it was out but it was particularly evident across the front of the fireplace. We had snagged, moved in and installed expensive floors when it was spotted.

The guy I had used for the snag was an architects draughtsman, for him the job was money for a few pints. He was about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike. I’m convinced the builder knew what the issue was, with the draughtsman fighting our corner we were at a significant disadvantage.

Unknown to us the future trouble in store we sold the house well before the pyrite appeared in anger.

I have since heard of snaggers not spotting serious plumbing issues and problems with a gable wall, in the case of the gable wall it was 13 years after the build outside the HomeBond. In this instance the owner is convinced that if he had used a chartered surveyor he would have a case, the builder is long gone.

Would you buy an old house without a surveyors report, why not do the same for a new one. If more did use surveyors or engineers over the years maybe issues created by men like Tom McFeely would have been picked up earlier.

If you trust your builder implicitly by all means do a cosmetic inspection as an earlier poster has suggested, given my experiences in over 7 property purchases I wouldn’t.

Pyrite would never, and still would never be picked up on a snag list.
Pyrite is caused by the full material under the floor slab. How on earth would you expect a snagger to snag this and then take a sample and test it in lab conditions.

Pyrite was a quarry/Builder problem that is now covered under the building regulations and the construction product regulations. A snag list is not a check on compliance with these regulations.

You are mixing up snag lists and surveys.
All houses should be surveyed before buying but the snag list is a different cosmetic inspection.

Also, many people
Think they may have a come back if they get the survey by a surveyor or engineer, check the back of the report. It’s a visual inspection based on the condition of the property at that time. The reports are very clearly typed to not take on any liability

RORY O CONNOR

A snag list is simply that: A list of snags! Small, badly finished works or omitted works that individually you might let go but cumulatively spoil the finish on a new home. When you are building a new house sometimes you can't see the wood for the trees and a fresh pair of eyes cast over a new house can often find stuff that was never seen by the site staff.

There can be more serious issues like a party wall in a timber-framed house that has not be completed correctly to give the correct fire rating resistance, soil pipe or extractor fan ducting not connected to roof outlets, lack of or incorrect levels of roof insulation.

New developments these days have assigned certifiers so things have got better but there are still omissions and poor finishes to be found.