What is a Pre Completion Inspection?
If you’re buying a new-build home, you may have come across the terms Pre-Completion Inspection (PCI) and Snagging Survey. Both involve an independent professional inspecting your new home for defects, but there’s an important difference between the two.
Many buyers understandably assume that a pre-completion inspection is the same process in snagging a house in the same amount of detail as we would after completion. However, that’s not quite the case.
A PCI is a more restricted inspection, whereas a full snagging survey can involve a much more detailed examination of the property, including the use of specialist equipment to identify defects that aren’t immediately visible and importantly raising those issues according to warranty standards (e.g. NHBC tolerances).
Understanding the difference is important, particularly when you’re deciding which inspection to book and when to arrange it.
What is a Full Snagging Survey?
Potentially, yes — but this depends on whether your developer is willing to permit it. Historically before the Pre Completion Inspection process was introduced in 2022, we were generally speaking never allowed to snag pre completion.
A full snagging survey before completion can offer an attractive combination: a more comprehensive inspection while there is still an opportunity for the developer to address defects before you move in. So it is always worth asking the question but important to clarify it is not a Pre Completion Inspection we’d be doing, rather an unrestricted Snagging Survey.
Developers that are members of the New Homes Quality Board are required to allow us in pre completion but they are not obliged to allow unrestricted access for a full snagging survey before legal completion.
If you are considering this option, we recommend clarifying the arrangements with your developer before booking. If they agree to a full snagging survey pre completion then we recommend getting this confirmation in an email from them.
Do I Need a Snagging Survey After Having a PCI?
It depends on the circumstances, your concerns about the property and the level of reassurance you’re looking for.
A PCI can identify a range of defects before completion, but it does not remove the possibility of other defects being present.
Some issues may be concealed, some may fall outside the permitted PCI inspection scope, and others may only become apparent once the property is occupied and its systems are being used.
For homeowners who want the most comprehensive independent assessment possible, a full snagging survey after completion may therefore still be worthwhile.
However, that doesn’t mean every buyer necessarily needs to pay for two inspections. The important thing is to understand what each service includes and decide what level of inspection is appropriate for your circumstances.
For most customers the decision rests on whether they want the extras that we offer with the full snag, particularly our thermal lite service which checks for heat loss. To avoid raising the same snags in both reports we recommending waiting for the site to fix the issues from the Pre Completion Inspection first.
What Types of Defects Might a Full Snagging Survey Find That a PCI Could Miss?
We’ve inspected tens of thousands of new-build homes, and some of the most significant issues we’ve identified are not necessarily those that would be obvious to a homeowner.
Examples include:
- Missing or poorly fitted insulation: Thermal imaging can help identify temperature differences that warrant further investigation.
- Draughts and air leakage: Gaps around windows, doors and other building elements can sometimes be detected using specialist inspection methods.
- Concealed construction defects: Borescopes can allow inspection of certain otherwise inaccessible areas, where access is appropriate.
- Roof defects: A more detailed external inspection using drones or cameras mounted on poles can identify workmanship issues that may not be visible from ground level.
- Installation and workmanship defects 0ut 0f tolerances: A comprehensive inspection may reveal issues that are overlooked during a more restricted assessment. Warranty standards are considerably broader and specific in measurements
When Should I Book a PCI or Snagging Survey?
If you’re arranging a PCI, you’ll need to coordinate the inspection with your developer during the appropriate pre-completion period. It’s worth making enquiries early, particularly once you’ve been given an anticipated completion date. Typically for Pre Completion Inspections we attend 1 week before the completion date but can be earlier if the house is ready. We do not want to go too early of course, to avoid a long list of limitations / works ongoing.
For a full snagging survey, we’d generally recommend arranging the inspection as soon as practical after legal completion. Booking the day of completion is not advised as often completion occurs in the afternoon whereas we will start our surveys earlier. Therefore for snagging surveys we recommend booking us the day after completion.
Inspecting an empty property can make it easier to examine walls, floors, finishes and other building elements without furniture or personal belongings obstructing access so we also recommend holding off moving in until we’ve been if you can.
However, if you’ve already moved into your new-build home, it’s certainly not too late to arrange an inspection. Most of our snagging surveys occur a week or so after moving in. The crucial time frame is within the first 2 months.
Many homeowners book a snagging survey after they’ve been living in their property for some time, particularly when defects start to become apparent. If you have moved in 10 months + then we offer our fundamentals survey. This will discount any cosmetic issues and concentrate only on issues out of tolerance that your developer may entertain. The Fundamentals survey is the option to go for if you are wanting peace of mind before the end of the developers 2 year warranty.
Which Inspection Should I Choose?
If your developer only permits a PCI before completion, having that inspection can still be an excellent opportunity to identify defects before you receive the keys.
If your developer will allow a full snagging survey before completion, that is the best of both worlds as long as the house is ready for us to inspect fully.
If you’ve already completed on your property, a full snagging survey will be the option up to 10 months. After 10 months living in the hose then the Fundamentals Survey would be best. For both it’s worth considering the additional inspection methods available as part of a full survey.
Ultimately, the best choice depends on your stage of purchase, the access your developer permits and how comprehensive an inspection you want.
How does a Pre Completion Differ than Snagging?
A Pre-Completion Inspection is carried out before legal completion, while the property is still under the developer’s control.
The inspection process was introduced as part of the New Homes Quality Board’s arrangements to give eligible buyers the opportunity to have their new home independently inspected before completion. Not all developers are part of the scheme as it is voluntary, but if you are buying from a large firm – such as Redrow, Barratt, Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon, Vistry etc – then they will have to allow us to inspect the house.
However, the scope of a PCI is restricted. Inspectors must work within the relevant pre-completion inspection requirements, which limit the extent of the inspection and the equipment and testing methods that can be used. For example on a snagging survey we would ordinarily use a drone or camera pole to check the roof from a high vantage, but this is not allowed in a Pre Completion Inspection. Furthermore we are not allowed to raise snags according to the warranty tolerances. Instead there is a checklist that we follow which is more basic than we’d like, but it does cover some important fundamental checks such as drainage and walls being reasonably plumb etc.
The aim is to identify defects that the developer can address before the buyer takes ownership, although there is no guarantee that every item will be rectified before completion. Instead the Pre Completion Inspection indicates they should be completed within 30 days of receiving the report.
Despite the negatives associated with it being less in-depth than a full snagging survey, for buyers who would otherwise have no opportunity to arrange an independent inspection before getting their keys, a PCI can be extremely worthwhile.
What is a Full Snagging Survey?
A full snagging survey is a more comprehensive inspection of a new build, normally undertaken after legal completion, when the homeowner has possession of the property.
Unlike a PCI, the inspection isn’t subject to the same pre-completion restrictions. This allows our surveyor to undertake a more detailed examination of the property, including the use of specialist equipment such as level levels and smoke machines. It also raises issues according the warranty standards (e.g. NHBC, LABC or Premier) and we include those standards in our reports. This is important because the tolerances are far more broad and intricate than the PCI checklist.
One of the other main differences is that we can carry out more specialist checks such as using thermal imaging cameras to carry out our “Thermal Lite” which helps identify missing insulation, draughts around windows and doors, and defects within areas that cannot be assessed through a straightforward visual inspection. Other checks only available alongside the snagging survey include using a borescope to spot check the cavity wall insulation.
Of course, no non-destructive inspection can identify every concealed defect, but the additional scope of a full snagging survey can make a substantial difference to what is discovered.
What is a Full Snagging Survey?
No. Although both inspections are designed to identify defects in a new-build home, a PCI is subject to limitations that do not apply to a full snagging survey.
This is particularly important when considering defects that are not immediately apparent.
For example, a newly built bedroom might look perfectly finished, with freshly painted walls, fitted skirting boards and no visible signs of a problem.
However, a thermal imaging camera may reveal areas of missing insulation or significant cold-air infiltration that would not be obvious from a normal visual inspection.
Similarly, certain construction defects may only become apparent when more detailed inspection methods are used such as using smoke machines to test extraction.
This doesn’t mean that a PCI is ineffective. It simply means buyers should understand its limitations rather than assume it offers the same level of inspection as a full snagging survey.
