GUIDE · REPORT TEMPLATE
Snagging report template: what a professional report contains
A professional snagging report identifies the property and the inspection round, summarises the snags by severity and area, and gives every snag a reference, a clear description, its exact location, a severity, a marked-up photo and the contractor responsible. Re-inspection reports add a verdict for every earlier snag.
What is a snagging report for?
A snagging report is the document that turns an inspection into work someone else can do. It goes to people who were not in the unit with you: the developer’s handover team, a site manager, a subcontractor’s foreman, sometimes a buyer who lives abroad. Each of them needs to find every snag, understand what is wrong and know who should fix it, without calling you. A good report therefore does three jobs. It identifies the property and the inspection exactly, so nobody confuses it with another unit or another visit. It describes each snag precisely enough that the fix is obvious and can be checked. And it keeps a record over time, so a re-inspection can show which snags were closed and which were not. Reports that fail usually fail on precision: a vague title, no location, a photo that shows a white wall and nothing else. Everything below is about avoiding that.
What goes on the cover and summary?
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Project, building and unit number | Identifies the property beyond doubt |
| Inspection date and round (R01, R02…) | Separates the first inspection from re-inspections |
| Prepared for | The buyer, investor or developer the report is addressed to |
| Prepared by | The inspector and the firm, with contact details |
| Report revision | Shows which version is current if the report is re-issued |
| Summary by severity | How many snags are minor, major and critical |
| Summary by area | Where the snags are: rooms, zones or trades |
| Scope and limits | What was and wasn’t inspected, for example “AC not tested, power off” |
What should each snag entry contain?
| Field | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Reference | SH/S-0014 | Unique, and kept the same in every round |
| Title | Grout gap at wall–floor joint, 3 mm | Short and specific: what and where |
| Description | Grout missing for about 300 mm along the joint between the wall tiles and the floor tiles | What is wrong, with a measurement where useful |
| Location | Bedroom 1 · en-suite, behind the basin | Room plus position; a floor-plan pin is better still |
| Category | Tiling | The trade that fixes it |
| Severity | Minor | Minor, major or critical, from a written scale |
| Photos | A close-up with the defect circled, and a wider shot | Mark the defect on the photo; keep the original |
| Assigned to | BuildCo Contracting | The company responsible for the fix |
| Due date | 7 days after the report | If the developer sets one |
| Status | Open | Open or closed, with the contractor’s completion alongside: submitted, approved or sent back |
What does an annotated sample page look like?
SH/S-0014 Minor
Grout gap at wall–floor joint, 3 mm
Grout missing for about 300 mm along the joint between the wall tiles and the floor tiles, away from the shower and basin.
- Reference: unique and stable across rounds, so round 2 can say "SH/S-0014 fixed".
- Title: what is wrong and where, in one line.
- Severity: from the written scale; minor here because the joint is away from the wet areas. The same gap inside the shower would be major.
- Photo: the defect circled on the photo; the original is kept.
- Location and assignee: the room, the trade and the company that fixes it.
How should severity be shown in the report?
Use a written scale and print it in the report, so the developer can see why each snag has its grade. SnagOwl uses three levels:
| Severity | Definition |
|---|---|
| Minor | A cosmetic or small finishing defect with no effect on use, safety or durability |
| Major | Affects function, durability or water-tightness, or is clearly visible and unacceptable to the occupant, but is not an immediate danger |
| Critical | A hazard to safety or health, a risk of serious damage, or it stops the space being used or handed over |
The full definitions, with examples and a decision table, are in snag severity: minor, major and critical.
What changes in a re-inspection report?
A re-inspection report, often called de-snagging, repeats every snag from the earlier round and adds a verdict for each:
- Fixed: the defect is gone and the fix is acceptable.
- Still open: the defect is still there or the fix is not acceptable; add a note saying why.
- Not inspected: the item could not be checked, for example because a room was locked.
New snags found on the visit are added with new references. The summary then shows how many snags were closed since the last round and how many remain, which is the number everyone wants to see.
Should the report be a PDF or a spreadsheet?
Usually both. The PDF is the formal record: it carries your branding, the photos and the signatures, and it can’t be edited by accident. The spreadsheet, a snag register with one row per snag, is what the developer’s team works from: they filter by trade, assign rows to subcontractors and track due dates. If contractors can fill in their status in the same sheet and send it back, you avoid retyping their answers.
You can download our Excel snag register template. It has the same columns as the register SnagOwl exports: reference, title, description, zone, location, category, severity, status, completion, assigned company, assigned person, due date, raised, closed, round, latest verdict and review note, plus three columns for the contractor to fill in: contractor status (done, not done or dispute), contractor note and completion date.
What makes a snagging report hold up in a dispute?
Precision and a clean history. Disputes with contractors usually start with “which snag do you mean?” or “it was already like that”. You avoid the first with a reference, an exact location and a marked photo for every snag. You avoid the second with dated rounds: the round 1 report shows the defect existed on the inspection date, and the round 2 report shows whether it was fixed. Keep the original photos, record who inspected and when, and get the report signed or acknowledged when it is handed over. A report that is checked before it is issued also helps: vague descriptions, safety issues graded as minor and wrong locations are the mistakes that weaken a report most. SnagOwl runs that check automatically before a report is issued.
Rules about how and when snags must be submitted, and how disputes are handled, are set by your SPA and the developer’s handover notice. Check them for each project.