Instructed by buyers, never by builders
Snagwright is a small independent practice in Bristol. The entire value of what we produce rests on who is paying for it — so it is worth being precise about that.
Why independence is the whole product
Plenty of firms inspect new builds. A good number of them also take work from developers — remediation sign-offs, pre-handover checks, contractor quality audits. Those are legitimate lines of work, but they sit on the other side of the table from you.
An inspector who wants repeat instructions from a housebuilder has a quiet interest in a manageable list. We removed that conflict by declining that work entirely. It costs us money and it is not a marketing position.
Credentials, plainly stated
- Member of the Residential Property Surveyors Association (RPSA)
- Professional indemnity insurance of £2m, certificate supplied on request before you book
- Inspectors hold CSCS cards and are site-safety inducted
- Calibrated moisture meters and thermal imaging equipment, with calibration dates available
We are not RICS chartered surveyors, and we do not claim to be. Snagging is a distinct discipline from a valuation or a building survey, and where you need one of those we will say so and step aside.
What we are not. Not structural engineers. Not damp specialists. Not a legal service. We identify, evidence and grade defects; where a problem needs a discipline we do not hold, the report says so rather than guessing.
How we work
The person who inspects your property is the person who writes the report and the person who takes your call afterwards. There is no call centre and no subcontracted inspector network — which is also why we cover a defined area rather than claiming national coverage.
We publish under the practice name rather than individual bylines. Reports are signed by the attending inspector; correspondence comes back from the same people.
On the state of the industry
It would be easy to write this page as an attack on housebuilders. The more useful framing is structural: build volume rose faster than the skilled trades base, quality control is largely self-certified, and the incentives at handover point one way. Individual site managers are often as frustrated as the buyers.
What changes outcomes is not outrage but documentation — a list that is specific, evidenced, graded, and referenced to the standard the developer already signed up to.