Property Snagging Inspections in Ras Al Khaimah

Property snagging is a systematic inspection of a new or newly handed-over home for defects, called snags, so they can be listed in writing while the developer is still obliged to fix them. A new apartment or villa can hide hollow tiles, reversed hot and cold supplies, balconies that drain the wrong way, sockets with no earth and AC units that never reach temperature, none of which show on a walk round with the sales agent. Ras Al Khaimah is in the middle of a wave of handovers on Al Marjan Island, at Mina Al Arab and Al Hamra and across the city, and the buyers who come out of it best are the ones who signed the acceptance form with a numbered defects list already in the developer’s hands. That list is what our inspection produces.

Ideally between the developer’s handover notice and the day you sign the handover acceptance, so the snag list goes to the developer before you accept the unit. If you already have the keys, book before the furniture arrives and well inside the defects liability period in your sale and purchase agreement; defects you report during that period are the developer’s to fix. Many owners book a second inspection in the final weeks of that period as a documented last call, and a re-inspection once the developer says the rectification is complete. You can book from twenty-four hours ahead up to two months out.

It is a fixed price set by your property type and size, from a studio apartment to a large villa, and it is shown in full on the booking page before you confirm. There is no per-square-foot calculation, no quote to request and nothing added on the day; the price you book at is the price on your invoice. It covers the complete inspection on this page: every room, every applicable check, the tile grids, the marked-up photographs, the numbered PDF report and the developer share link. A re-inspection visit is a separate flat-priced item booked from your original inspection. Offices, shops, hotels and whole buildings are quoted individually.

The time on site depends on the size of the property: a studio or one-bedroom apartment takes a couple of hours, a large villa with several bathrooms, a kitchen, balconies, a roof terrace and a garden takes most of a day, because every tiled surface is sounded cell by cell and every socket, tap, drain and door is tested. The report is generated the moment the inspector submits the visit, with its snags numbered and its reference assigned, and it is released to you by email with the PDF attached, and in your Halo Clean account, as soon as your booking is paid.

A numbered PDF with its own reference, built from a record of the visit that cannot be edited afterwards. It lists every room inspected and, within each room, every snag in number order with its category, its severity of critical, major or minor, a description, a recommended action and up to six photographs marked up with arrows, circles or notes so the contractor can find the exact spot. Measured checks print their readings and limits, such as the AC supply air temperature at each unit, and every tile grid prints as a map with its hollow percentage and threshold. The report comes with a share link your developer can open without logging in, and if a report ever has to be corrected the new version gets a new number and the original is marked as superseded.

Yes, on every tiled floor and every tiled wall, cell by cell. The inspector sounds each tile with a rod and records it on a grid in the app as hollow, cracked or lipped. The system then calculates the hollow percentage for that surface and compares it with our threshold: ten per cent for wet areas such as bathrooms, kitchens, balconies, laundries and roof terraces, twenty per cent for bedrooms, living rooms and other dry rooms. A surface over its threshold raises a major snag automatically; one within it is still recorded as a minor snag with the affected cells marked. The grid map is printed in the report, so the developer’s tiler knows exactly which tiles to lift rather than re-sounding the room.

A sounding rod for the tile grids, a thermometer for the supply air at each AC unit after ten minutes of running, a moisture meter for the wettest point of each wet room, a socket tester for polarity and earth at every outlet, the test button on the distribution board for the RCD, a tape for room dimensions against the floor plan and for railing heights, and water: a pour test on every shower tray and balcony, a two-minute run under every sink and vanity with a tissue underneath, a timed hot-water arrival at every basin, and a flush, fill and drain of every toilet, bath and basin. Glass is checked in sunlight, doors and windows are operated and locked, and every appliance that is fitted is run. The readings are recorded with their limits, so a fail reads as a number against a number.

No. Many of our clients are overseas or at work. You arrange access with the developer, your agent or our keyholder service, the inspector checks in on arrival and out on submission, and the report reaches you by email and in your Halo Clean account. You are welcome to attend, and some clients like to walk the last room with the inspector, but nothing in the inspection depends on it.

The developer and its contractor, under the defects liability terms of your sale and purchase agreement. Our job is to make each snag hard to dispute: a number, a location by room, a photograph with the defect circled, and where it applies a reading against a stated limit. Developers can and sometimes do push back on individual items, and a cosmetic mark may be argued either way, but a hollow percentage, a shower tray that fails the pour test or a socket with no earth is not a matter of opinion. We do not negotiate on your behalf. When the works are declared complete you book a re-inspection and each original snag is marked verified or outstanding, which gives you a second dated document if the conversation continues.

The defects liability period is the contractual window after handover during which your developer must rectify non-structural defects in finishes, fittings, plumbing, electrics and air conditioning at its own cost. It is set by your sale and purchase agreement, and twelve months from handover is the usual term in UAE developer contracts, so check yours. Decennial liability is statutory. Under the UAE Civil Code, Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025, in force since 1 June 2026, Articles 821 to 824 make the main contractor and the engineer jointly liable for ten years from delivery for any total or partial collapse of the building and for defects that threaten its stability or safety, and any clause that tries to exclude or limit that liability is void. Snagging covers the first; a dated, numbered, photographed report is useful evidence if the second is ever raised.

Yes. A re-inspection visit is booked from your original inspection in your Halo Clean account as a flat-priced item, and takes around two hours. The inspector returns with the original snag list, judges each snag verified or outstanding, adds any new defects, and the system issues an outstanding-items report with the original numbers unchanged so your developer can match it line by line. When nothing is left outstanding the inspection is closed. You can repeat the round if a second rectification is needed.

Apartments and villas of every size, with townhouses booked as a villa by bedroom count. A recently completed apartment or villa bought second hand can be inspected on the same checklist, which is a sensible step before you commit if the developer’s liability period is still running. Offices, shops, hotels and whole buildings have different room plans and are quoted individually; contact us with the floor area and the handover date.

Both, honestly. Halo Clean is a licensed Ras Al Khaimah company, trade licence 64309, that has cleaned new villas and apartments across the emirate since before most of the current towers broke ground, and the snagging service was built into the same app and the same booking flow. The inspectors work from the fixed check library described on this page, every answer and photograph is recorded on site, and the report is generated by the system rather than typed up afterwards. Because we do not carry out construction repairs, we have no interest in finding more or fewer defects than there are. The post-construction clean that usually follows the rectification is a separate booking, made when you choose.