Snagging app for new-build handovers in the UAE

Handover is the best moment to get defects fixed in a new apartment or villa: before your furniture arrives, and before anyone can say you caused them. A snag list with a clear photo for every item is something the developer's team can act on.

What to check at a UAE handover

• AC: every unit cools, the drain runs freely, and there are no leaks or stains on the ceiling around it.
• Bathrooms and kitchen: water pressure, drainage, sealant, grout and any drips under sinks.
• Balcony doors and windows: they slide, lock and seal, without gaps where dust gets in during a sandstorm.
• Walls and ceilings: cracks, patchy paint, damp marks and uneven joints.
• Floors: chipped or hollow-sounding tiles, uneven levels and scratched timber.
• Electrics: every socket, switch and light, and labels on the distribution board.
• Joinery and appliances: wardrobe doors, kitchen units, hinges and anything supplied with the unit.

Build the snag list room by room

Walk the property in a fixed order, starting at the front door, and give each snag a reference made of the room and a number: Living 01, Kitchen 03, Master bath 02. Use that reference as the photo label in the job, and write a short description in the notes or work list. Take a close-up of the defect and a wider shot from the doorway, so the developer's maintenance team can find it without calling you.

For a large villa, or a tower where you are snagging several units, create one job per unit. Each unit then has its own link and its own list, and nothing gets mixed up between apartments.

Sending the snags to the developer

Developers and their contractors usually have their own way of receiving defects, such as a form, a portal or an email to the handover team. Ask what they want and follow it. Whatever the format, a link with every snag as a labelled photo makes your report clearer and harder to set aside. It opens on any phone, needs no account, and shows your logo if you are a snagging company.

If a photo is only for your own records, such as a close-up you took to check something, hide it from the link.

Re-inspection

When the developer says the snags are fixed, go back with the same job. Open each snag, take the after photo, and the original shows faintly on screen so the new one lines up. Items that are still not right stay open, and the link updates as you go. That record of what was reported and what was fixed is worth keeping if a problem comes back after you move in.

For snagging companies

Assign each unit to an inspector with a location pin and a due date, and the dashboard shows which units are open, overdue or finished. The crew screen uses big numbered steps in English, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Bengali or Malayalam. Photos save on the phone in basements, lift lobbies and new towers where the signal isn't connected yet, and upload once the inspector is back in range.

Questions