InsightsHandover
Snags closed before handover, not after.
Most arguments at handover happen because three different things are being called the same thing. Here is what a snag list is, what a defects liability period is, and what the law gives you on top of both.
Structure is either right or it is not, and it is hidden either way. What a client lives with is the plaster, the tile joints, the door gaps and the silicone lines. That is why the last five per cent of a build generates more disagreement than the first ninety five, and why we treat it as part of the work rather than as a list to argue over at the end.
In short
- A snag list is contractual, between you and your contractor, and it is closed by agreement.
- A defects liability period is a term in your contract, commonly twelve months, not a law.
- Decennial liability is statutory, runs ten years, covers structural safety, and cannot be contracted away.
- Snagging as the work proceeds costs less than snagging at the end, because access still exists.
Three different things, routinely confused.
Almost every disagreement we have seen at handover comes from treating these as one thing. They are not. They differ in what they cover, who owes what, and how long they last.
- The snag list. A record of work that is incomplete or not to the agreed standard at the point of handover. Contractual, specific to your agreement, and normally closed before final payment.
- The defects liability period. A period after handover during which the contractor returns to fix defects that appear. It is a clause in your contract. Twelve months is common in the UAE, but it is negotiated, not granted.
- Decennial liability. A statutory liability under the UAE Civil Code. It makes the contractor and the supervising engineer jointly liable for ten years from delivery where a building collapses in whole or in part, or develops a defect that threatens its stability or safety.
The practical consequence is that a cracked tile and a failing structure are not the same conversation, and they do not run on the same clock.
This is a description, not legal advice. Decennial liability is strict, which means you do not have to prove fault, and it cannot be excluded by a term in a contract. The detail of how it applies to your project depends on your contract and your facts, and it is worth taking advice on both.
What a real snag list looks like.
A useful snag list is not a walk round with a phone camera. It is organised the way the building is, so that the person fixing it can work.
- By room, then by element. Every item names a location and a specific element, not a general impression. "Second bedroom, east wall, tile joint open at skirting" can be closed. "Tiling poor" cannot.
- With a photograph and a date. So there is no argument later about whether it was there at handover.
- Separated into defects and incomplete work. A missing item is a different problem from a badly made one, and the two are fixed by different people.
- With an agreed status per item. Open, closed, or disputed. A list where everything stays open until the end tells nobody anything.
On a villa the finishing trades produce most of the list, which is unsurprising: they are the visible ones. Shadow gaps, seals, silicone lines, ironmongery and the details people touch are where the work is judged.
A snag found while the scaffold is still standing is a correction. The same snag found after handover is a return visit.
Liability after you have the keys.
Once handover is signed, two clocks run at once.
The first is your contractual defects liability period. This is where paint, sealant, door adjustments, minor leaks and similar items sit. It is finite, it is what you negotiated, and it depends on the contractor still being in business and still answering the phone. That is worth weighing when you choose one.
The second is decennial liability, which runs for ten years from delivery. It is narrower in scope, because it is about the stability and safety of the structure rather than about finish quality, but it is much stronger: it does not require you to show that anyone was negligent, it applies even where the problem originates in the ground, and it survives your having accepted the building.
A useful way to hold the two apart: the defects period is about whether the building was finished properly. Decennial liability is about whether it was built safely.
Closing snags before handover.
The reason we take the position in the headline is not principle. It is access.
While a site is live, the people who made the item are still there, the scaffold is still up, the spare material from the same batch is still in the store, and the trade can be brought back at no notice. After handover, every one of those is gone. The same defect now needs a visit arranged around an occupied house, a colour that may no longer match, and a conversation about who pays.
What that means in practice is inspecting at the points where a mistake would otherwise get covered over, rather than at the end. Levels, line and plumb before finishes close over them. Services tested while the pipework is still reachable. Circuits labelled and tested before the walls close. That is the same argument as holding the trade sequence, seen from the other end.
If something appears after you have moved in.
Four things make the difference between a defect that gets fixed and one that becomes an argument.
- Report it in writing, early. A message with a date, a photograph and a location starts a record. A phone call does not.
- Do not have it corrected by someone else first. Bringing a third party in to fix the work usually ends the original contractor's obligation to fix it, and removes the evidence of what was wrong.
- Separate the trivial from the structural. A sticking door and a crack running across a slab belong in different conversations, and the second should be looked at by an engineer rather than added to a snag list.
- Keep the handover set. The signed snag list, the as built drawings, the test certificates and the warranties are the documents any later claim rests on. They are worth more than they look on the day.
None of that is adversarial. It is the ordinary administration of a building, and a contractor who runs jobs properly expects it.
It is also why the last stage of a build is not a formality for us. Finishing is where a build is judged, and the snag list closed before handover rather than argued about after it is the point of the exercise.