The journal / Pune
Snag List Before Handover: What to Check When Your Builder Hands Over
A practical snag list for a new house in Pune: what to inspect room by room, how to document defects, and how to get them fixed before final payment.
Written by H&H SPACES — a Pune-based construction and civil contracting company serving Pune and PCMC.
Illustrative imageLast updated: 2026-10-06
What a snag list is and when to prepare one
A snag list new house inspection is the final quality check before you accept your home, and it is the last moment when fixing defects is clearly your builder's responsibility. A snag list is simply a written list of every defect, unfinished item or poor finish you find during a careful room-by-room walkthrough: a cracked tile, a door that sticks, a tap that leaks, a patch of paint that was missed. Preparing one systematically is how Pune homeowners make sure the house they paid for is the house they receive.
Structure and waterproofing
Schedule the inspection in daylight, because defects hide in dim light. Bring your agreement, the drawings, a notebook, a tape measure, a phone for photographs and a small torch. Start outside: check that external plaster and paint are uniform, that the terrace slopes drain water away, and that waterproofing areas show no damp patches or efflorescence. Walk around the building looking for cracked external tiles, unfinished plinth protection and debris left in drains or chambers.
Finishes: floors, walls and ceilings
Inside, work room by room in a fixed pattern so nothing is skipped. Check floors for cracked, hollow or uneven tiles by tapping and walking them; a hollow tile today is a loose tile next year. Walls should be free of visible cracks, paint drips, patchy putty and colour variation, and ceilings should show no water stains, which signal leaks from above. Look at every skirting, corner and the joint between wall and floor: these edges reveal how carefully the finishing was done.
Doors, windows and hardware
Open and close every door and window. Shutters should swing freely without scraping the floor or frame, latches and locks should engage properly, and there should be no visible gaps that let in dust or rain. Check glass for scratches and cracks, test sliding shutters on their tracks, and confirm that safety grills and railings are firmly fixed with no sharp edges. Hardware is small but telling: loose handles and misaligned hinges are easy to fix now and annoying to live with later.
Services: electrical, plumbing and drainage
Services deserve a separate pass. Switch on every light point, fan point and socket, and test every switch on the board. Run every tap at full flow, hot and cold, and watch the drainage: sinks and floor traps should empty quickly without gurgling. Flush every toilet and check for leaks at the base, fill a bathtub or bucket and release it to test the bathroom slope, and run the water in the kitchen. On the terrace and in balconies, pour water at the far end and confirm it reaches the drain.
Documenting and closing the snags
Document every snag with a photograph, the room name and a short description, and give the list to your contractor in writing with a clear deadline. Keep one copy for yourself. Re-inspect each item before it is signed off; a snag that is marked done but not actually fixed has a habit of staying unfixed forever. It is reasonable to link the final payment milestone to snag closure, because once full payment is made, your leverage for getting small defects fixed drops sharply.
Practical next step
A thorough snag list takes a few hours and can save you years of irritation. Take your time, document everything in writing, and do not accept handover until the list is closed to your satisfaction. H&H SPACES is a construction company in Pune doing civil, residential, commercial and turnkey work, and our handovers include a documented snag inspection so nothing is left unresolved. Call +91 84840 57448 or WhatsApp +91 84850 54612 before you sign your next handover.