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How do I snag and hand over a small building job?

Last checked 24-10-2026. A plain guide, not legal advice: check the official guidance below for your job.

Snagging is a walk round the finished work to list small defects and unfinished items so they are put right before the client takes over. Do your own snag first, agree the list and completion in writing, then give the client a handover pack.

What snagging is and when to do it

A snag is a minor defect or unfinished item: a paint run, a door that catches, a missing sealant bead, a socket plate left off. It is a builder's word, not a legal term.

Good practice is to snag your own work before the client sees it. Go room by room with the drawings and specification a few days before handover, fix what you can and list the rest. Then walk round with the client, add what they find, and agree which items are snags and which are new requests to price.

Writing a snag list that gets fixed

Good practice is one numbered list per job, with:

  • Location: room and element, for example "Bedroom 2, north wall, left of window".
  • Description: what is wrong and what right looks like, for example "Plaster crack 300 mm long, fill and repaint".
  • Photo: a wide shot and a close-up, dated.
  • Who: the trade or person responsible.
  • By when: a date, not "soon".
  • Status: open, fixed, or signed off, with initials and date.

Give the client a copy the same day. Re-inspect fixed items yourself and sign them off.

Agreeing completion

Once the snags are done, or the remaining ones are agreed in writing with dates, ask the client to sign a completion sheet. Good practice is for it to give the date, list anything outstanding and say when the defects period starts, if your contract has one. Check how your contract defines practical completion.

Where the client is a consumer, such as a home owner, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats the contract as requiring reasonable care and skill. If the work falls short, the client can require you to redo it at your cost (sections 49, 54 and 55), and a contract term cannot remove that duty (section 57).

What goes in the handover pack

Legal points are marked with the rule. The rest is good practice.

  • As-built drawings, marked up to show what was built and where services run.
  • Building control completion certificate, in England: if you applied by building notice or full plans, you must tell building control within five days of completing the work (regulation 16). Where the local authority is satisfied, it must give the certificate within eight weeks of that notice (regulation 17). A registered approver issues a final certificate. It is evidence of compliance, not a guarantee of the work.
  • Competent person scheme certificates (electrics, boilers, windows): the installer must give the occupier a copy within 30 days of completion (regulation 20). GOV.UK tells owners to expect it within 8 weeks, so diary it and chase.
  • Electrical installation certificate: Approved Document P says a registered electrician completes a BS 7671 certificate for every job and gives it to the person ordering the work.
  • Gas: HSE says anyone working on gas appliances in homes must be Gas Safe registered. Ask for their commissioning paperwork. Approved Document L says the Benchmark checklist can show a heating system was commissioned, and building control may withhold its certificate until it has the commissioning notice.
  • Manuals and operating instructions: in England and Wales, where the Part L energy requirement applies, you must give the owner enough information on the building, fixed services and their maintenance within five days of completion (regulation 40).
  • Guarantees and warranties: competent person schemes carry insurance-backed warranties (GOV.UK). Add manufacturers' guarantees and any structural warranty.
  • Keys, codes and meter readings: client signs for keys, readings recorded with a dated photo, and shown the stopcock, consumer unit and gas isolator.
  • Health and safety file, where CDM 2015 requires one. See our guide to the health and safety file under CDM 2015.

Defects period and retention

Many contracts include a defects period after completion, in which you put right defects that show up. The contract sets its length and what counts as a defect, so check yours, diary the end date and log every call-back with photos.

Retention, where the contract has it, is usually tied to completion and the end of the defects period. Our guide "What is retention and when do you get it back?" covers release and how to ask for it.

Sources

Tools that help

Part L photos PROThe photos building control and the energy assessor need for Part L, plot by plot: checked, reviewed and put together in one PDF.Letters and documents PROLetters, notices, memos and minutes on your letterhead, from ready-made starts: letters to neighbours, notices of delay, practical completion. Word or PDF.Job register PROEvery job with its number, client and value, and what's been invoiced so far. Close a finished job and its folders move to Past jobs.

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