New builds and warranties
You want to snag after completion. Why does the home survey you commission before completion not become the warranty claim?
Because a home survey and a warranty claim are different products. The survey you commission records condition for you. It does not open a claim and it does not bind the warranty body. NHBC describes Buildmark as a ten-year warranty and insurance product. A snagging list you raise after completion still has to go to the builder or the warranty body under that product's own process. The survey can help you see defects. It is not the claim form, and the surveyor does not lodge it. Completion does not convert the report into a warranty notification.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
Snagging is a list of unfinished or defective items. A survey written before completion can include some of them, but the warranty body decides what it will cover. The surveyor has not applied those rules and has not said which items Buildmark would accept. Things you notice only after you live there also sit outside a report from an earlier day. The PDF remains a survey. Any claim is a later step you or your solicitor take with the builder or the warranty body.
Keep the survey as your record of what was visible on the inspection day. Ask the solicitor how notices to the builder or the warranty body should be given. Do not expect the surveyor to send them, and do not describe the report as a claim already opened. If you snag after completion, walk the plot again and record the items as they are then. The pre-completion survey has not become that later list and has not started the warranty process.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which defects in the survey do you also want on a list to the builder?
- Do you hold the warranty documents, or only an assumption that a policy exists?
- Who will notify the builder, given that the surveyor will not open a claim?
What are the typical next steps?
- Keep the home survey as your record, not as a claim form.
- Ask the solicitor what the warranty process requires after completion.
- Walk the house again when you snag, and send that list through the proper route.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
Does a defect in the survey automatically fall inside Buildmark?
No. The survey notes condition. Buildmark cover depends on the warranty terms, the timing and the nature of the item, which this report has not applied. NHBC describes the product as a ten-year warranty and insurance policy. Whether a crack or a leak is covered is for that process, not for the surveyor to award.
If you snag only from the survey, what can you miss?
Anything hidden on the day, unfinished later, or outside the survey's scope. A visit before completion records a sample of condition. It does not promise that every snag already existed and was written down. After completion, look again. Use the survey as a starting record, then add what the earlier walk did not show.