Our method
The report is the product
Anyone can walk a property and write down what they see. What decides whether a developer closes a defect is the document that lands afterwards: how completely it was gathered, how precisely it was recorded, and whether a contractor can act on it without ringing you to ask what you meant.
The software
We inspect on software built by someone who had read too many bad reports
We do not write reports in Microsoft Word. Every inspection is recorded in purpose-built inspection software, on site, as we work. We chose it rather than commissioned it, which we think is the more useful fact.
It was developed by a specialist we have known for years, for exactly the reason that brought us to Dubai: too many snagging reports are assembled by hand afterwards, from memory and a camera roll, and it shows. He built the tool he wanted to exist. When we set up here we tested what was available and used it, because nothing else enforced completeness the way it does.
The alternative, a surveyor typing up notes in the evening, is where reports quietly lose their value. Items get dropped. Photographs are matched to the wrong room. A finding is described rather than measured. None of that is dishonesty; it is what happens when the document is assembled separately from the inspection.
What that rules out
A checkpoint quietly passed over because the room was occupied
Photographs that cannot be tied back to a specific finding
“Poor finish to bedroom wall” in place of a measurement
Numbering that shifts between the original list and the re-inspection
A report that arrives four days later, after the developer has closed the file
Findings and photographs
Every finding sits beside its own photograph
This is the difference you will notice first. Most snagging reports put the photographs in an annex at the back, or in the footer of each page, leaving whoever has to fix the defect flicking between two halves of a document trying to work out which image belongs to which line. Contractors do not do that. They fix what they can identify and leave the rest.
In our reports the finding, its location, its measurement, its severity and its photograph occupy the same block on the page. A contractor can be handed one entry and act on it without reading anything else.
Typical report: photographs in an annex
Annex A, page 24
Fig. 41–43. Which line do these belong to?
Ours: one block per finding
2.14 · BEDROOM 2
Floor level deviation 7mm over 2m straightedge, north–south. Tolerance ±4mm.
2.15 · BEDROOM 2
Door leaf binds on frame at latch edge. Reveal 2mm at head, 6mm at floor.
Sketch, not a screenshot. The published sample report is the real thing →
Completeness
Nothing can be skipped, because the software will not let us
412 checkpoints in an apartment, 488 in a villa. Each one is a discrete record that must be resolved as passed, failed with a measurement, or marked not applicable with a reason. There is no way to close an inspection with a checkpoint left blank, and no way to submit a failure without the evidence attached to it.
Structured, not a blank page
The checklist is generated from the property itself: every room, every element in it, every check that applies to that element. A five-bathroom villa produces five sets of bathroom checks, not one to be repeated from memory.
Evidence is mandatory
A failed checkpoint cannot be saved without a photograph and a measurement where one applies. The evidence is captured at the point of the finding, not gathered afterwards.
Located and timed
Every entry carries its room, its position within that room, and the time it was recorded. A developer disputing whether we were on site, or for how long, is arguing with a timestamped record.
The standard
British tolerances, written into the checks themselves
The tolerances we measure against are not ours. The Dubai Building Code and UAE Civil Defence requirements govern what may be built and what keeps it safe, and we reference both — but neither sets a finish tolerance. So for finishes we apply the figures British homes are built and warranted to: NHBC Standards and BS 5606 on accuracy of construction. Those figures are built into the checklist as numbers, so a finding is either inside tolerance or outside it.
This is the whole reason the practice exists. Dubai construction is fast and largely good, but handover inspection here is often opinion delivered as a list. British surveying practice starts from a published figure and measures against it. That is a harder thing to argue with, and a far more useful thing to hand a developer.
Measured, not described
“7mm over a 2m straightedge against a ±4mm tolerance”, not “uneven floor”. The first is actionable. The second is a conversation.
UK experience behind it
The judgement of what matters, and what a developer will reasonably close, comes from inspecting British new-build stock, not from a checklist alone.
Severity is consistent
Major, minor and observation are applied against defined criteria, so the same defect is graded the same way in every report we issue.
The figures
What we measure against
These are the principal tolerances in the checklist. They are drawn from NHBC Standards and BS 5606 — the standards our founders learned on British new-build, and the only published figures that cover residential finishes. Where a developer’s own specification is tighter, we work to the tighter figure. Life-safety items are checked against UAE Civil Defence requirements instead.
How severity is graded
Critical
Affects safety, water-tightness or the ability to occupy. Raised with the developer the same day, not left to the report.
Major
Outside tolerance, or a failure of function. Requires rectification before the unit is accepted.
Minor
Cosmetic or within tolerance but below the standard of the surrounding work. Listed for correction, not a reason to refuse handover.
What a snagging inspection does not cover
A non-invasive inspection has limits, and saying so plainly is part of the standard. We do not:
open up structure, lift finished floors, or remove fixed panels
test concealed services, pressure-test pipework, or certify electrical installations
access roofs, façades or plant rooms that require equipment or permits
test or certify pool plant, lifts, or building-wide common systems — we record their visible condition only
value the property, or advise on whether to buy it
Where something needs a specialist beyond our scope, we say so in the report and tell you what to instruct.
Turnaround
The report is with you before we leave
Because the report is written on site rather than assembled afterwards, it is substantially complete when we leave. There is no evening of typing between the inspection and the document. What remains is review, and issue.
That matters more than it sounds. The days immediately after handover are when a developer’s snagging team is still mobilised and still willing. A list that arrives four days later, once the file has been closed and the contractors have moved to the next tower, is a harder thing to get actioned.
01
On site
4–6 hours for an apartment, a full day for a villa. Every finding recorded, measured and photographed as we go.
02
Before we leave
A verbal summary of what we found and what we would press hardest on. You know the position before you have read anything.
03
Before we leave
The full report issued: findings, measurements, photographs, severity, and a schedule the developer can work from.
04
Then we stay
Re-inspections are recorded against the original entries, so the list closes item by item rather than starting again.
One record, not three
The same record follows the property for a year
Your inspection is not a document we hand over and forget. It is a live record, and everything that happens afterwards is written back into it.
Item 2.14, over three visits
Sketch of the record structure. One item, three visits, one numbering.
See for yourself
We publish a full report, unredacted
Every claim on this page is checkable against a real document. The sample report is a genuine inspection with the address removed and nothing else changed. Read it before you decide anything.
Before the keys change hands
Tell us the property and the date. A fixed fee comes back the same working day.