Despite snag lists being an unregulated area, buyers must realise that they too have a responsibilty to get it right says John Boyle, builder and author of the 'Irish Homebuyer's Guide to Snagging' As a builder, I've found that a lot of new home buyers have problems doing their snag list. The biggest problem is that most people don't know what a snag list is, so they don't understand why their property can't be "nished right the first time. As a result, builders tend to get a bad name, people think they haven't done their job properly. But it's really down to the buyer to sort out the snag list.

A snag is simply a defect or a jagged edge. Doing your snag list is an opportunity to confirm that the work is completed as agreed in the contract, and to ensure that the finished quality is satisfactory.

Snagging is generally understood to cover cosmetic items such as paint splashes, incorrectly hung doors and leaks.

You'd be amazed at the kind of things people put on their snag list, more often than not it's the stuff of wish lists. They ask for things like sockets to be moved three foot to the right because they have a unit that they want to go in a certain position. That's not a snag, that's a request for additional work.

Or else they think that you need a professional to do a thorough snag which can cost upwrads of 600. There is no specific snagging qualification . . . so check your snagger's background carefully. In fact the best person to do a snag list is the person buying the house. You just need to know what to look out for and to do it systematically. That's why I wrote The Irish Homebuyers Guide to Snagging. Or you can download the free Universal Snag List (www. snagbook. com).

Doing your snag well is the difference between a dream home and a nightmare. A new property is not like a new car, built on a production line by computers. Most of the surface items you need to check are in fact finished by hand so a completely uniform 'factory finish' is simply not possible. For a builder with an eye to the big picture of reaching target dates, minor items may be overlooked.

But for many people arriving to do a snag, it's actually the first time they've seen a new house, so it's a totally new experience and they're often unprepared. They hop around the place getting distracted by this and that, which means they're more likely to miss something and then complain about it to builders after they've moved in. But by then it'll be too late. Taking an erratic approach and not paying enough attention to detail are the main reasons for an inadequate snag list.

The first thing you should do when you go in is to turn on your heating because it takes a while to work. Then you can check your radiators and while you're doing your list, you can see how the heating affects the doors. Leaks are the most important thing to check after that, you should really take a lot of care over the kitchen and that everything is working all the doors and presses are as you want them. You should also, flush all the toilets, run your shower, bath, sinks and check you can access the stop cock. Another simple thing to do is to bring a hairdryer to see if the sockets are working.

The snag is the final transition between the owner and the builder before the handover of a big amount of money. So why not do it right. Buyers have a speci"ed time to complete the snag, but after this, it becomes a lot more difficult for a builder to keep coming back over cosmetic details.

'The Irish Homebuyers Guide to Snagging' by John Boyle.

Published by Liberties Press. 9.99 www. snagbook. com