You are entitled to a pre-completion inspection
17 August 2026 · 4 min read
The most under-used right in new-build housing costs nothing and takes an afternoon. If your developer is registered with the New Homes Quality Board, you are entitled to inspect the home before you legally own it — while defects are still the developer’s to put right on their programme, rather than your problem to chase afterwards.
Most buyers never use it.
What the Code actually says
New Homes Quality Code, section 2.8
- The developer must give the customer an opportunity to visit the new home and to have a pre-completion inspection carried out, before the completion date and within the five days after the notice to complete has been served — or earlier if both parties agree.
- The inspection should be carried out and recorded using the NHQB’s template Pre-Completion Inspection Checklist.
- The completion notice period is usually expected to be at least 14 calendar days.
- The inspection is not intended to delay or prevent completion — but the developer must respond to what it finds, under Part 3 of the Code.
Source: New Homes Quality Code, Part 2 (Legal documents, information, inspection & completion), published by the New Homes Quality Board.
Check your reservation date, not your completion date
There are two versions of the Code in circulation, and the one that applies to you is decided by when you reserved — not when you complete.
That catches people out, because a reservation can sit six to eighteen months ahead of completion on an off-plan purchase. If you reserved in January 2026 and complete this autumn, you are on V1, even though V2 has been in force for months.
- Reserved before 2 March 2026 — Code V1. The route set out is appointing a suitably qualified inspector to carry out the inspection on your behalf. In practice this covers most people completing during 2026.
- Reserved from 2 March 2026 — Code V2. Keeps the right to appoint a professional, and adds the option of carrying out the inspection yourself using the NHQB checklist. The change was made in response to feedback that the cost of an independent inspector was a barrier.
The NHQB is clear that the checklist was designed to be used by someone qualified to survey residential property, and that an unqualified person may miss or misread things. That is a fair warning rather than a discouragement: doing it yourself with the checklist is far better than not doing it at all, and a professional inspection is better still on a purchase this size.
Why the timing decides the outcome
A defect raised before completion sits inside the developer’s programme, with trades still on site and nothing in the way. The same defect raised in week three of occupation becomes an aftercare appointment around your working week, with furniture in front of it.
The Code also requires that completion only happens on a complete new home, and that the developer must not offer an incentive to complete on one that is not. If you are being encouraged to move into something unfinished, that is worth knowing.
Do it the Snagga way
- Check your reservation date — that decides which version of the Code applies, not your completion date.
- Check your developer is on the NHQB register.
- Download the NHQB Pre-Completion Inspection Checklist and read it before the day.
- Build your own checklist in Snagga from it, so nothing gets missed on the day, and upload your home’s floor plans so you can drop a pin on exactly where each item is.
- Book the inspection as soon as the notice to complete is served — the window is short.
- Raise each snag against its checklist item, with a photo, a pin and a date. Then send the report through Snagga to be put right, or export it as a PDF. The record is what makes the follow-up straightforward.
Turn the walk-round into a record
Photo, note, assigned — and a report you can send. Free while in beta.
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