What to do if your builder won't fix snags

The best way to avoid a “my builder won’t fix my snags” situation is to never get into one — and a lot of that comes down to expectations being set properly from the beginning. A good sales advisor or site manager will have told you, before move-in, what’s normal and what isn’t. If you know going in that some shrinkage cracks and a bit of settlement are coming, half the disputes never happen.

But if you’re past that point and your builder genuinely isn’t actioning your list, here’s how it works.

The instinct is to march into the sales office and complain. Resist it. The sales advisor is, in most cases, just as powerless as you are — they don’t control the trades and they can’t make the site manager move. (Unless they’re me, in which case they get things done — but I’m the exception, not the rule.)

Here’s the part most buyers never realise, and it’s the most powerful card in your hand.

Every builder is waiting on a survey — the customer satisfaction survey that comes from NHBC or LABC, usually around six weeks after you move in. To you, that survey might feel like junk mail. To the builder, it’s a big deal. Site managers and sales advisors are measured on those scores, and a bad one stings.

And here’s the bit they’re banking on: most people who’ve had a rough ride never send theirs back. Builders quietly rely on that. The buyers who do return it are the ones the site manager comes knocking for — because they need a good score, and they know it.

So if your snags genuinely aren’t getting done, use it. I’ll be honest, because I’ve worked inside the business: tell them you’ll be returning the survey, and that as things stand you can’t recommend them and the score won’t reflect well — because the work isn’t finished. Some people will call that a threat. I’d call it telling the truth about your experience, which you’re completely entitled to do. The builder just happens to care a great deal about that truth being written down.

In my experience, an honestly poor survey — or the clear prospect of one — gets outstanding snags completed fast. Often the very next day. Write “no, I would not recommend” and a 0 on the satisfaction question, with “my snags weren’t completed” in the comments, and watch how quickly your list suddenly gets actioned. That’s not a trick. It’s the system working exactly as it’s meant to: the survey exists so your experience counts for something, and a builder who knows you’ll report it accurately has every reason to put things right first.

Be realistic about the catch-22 too. If something major turns up — a main wall out of plumb, say — the honest truth is the builder isn’t going to rebuild it, and you’ve already completed. For those rare structural items, the route is your warranty provider (NHBC or LABC) and, ultimately, the New Homes Ombudsman — not the site manager. The survey leverage works brilliantly for the normal snag list; it isn’t the tool for a genuine structural dispute.

Get your list right first — complete, clear, with photos. A builder can’t fairly be accused of ignoring a list that was never properly given to them. David, our free AI snagging assistant, will help you build that list and hand it over in clean PDF format, which makes the whole conversation easier from the start.