What to check before signing off your building work

Practical completion is the moment your leverage drops. Before you say the work is finished and release money, there is a specific list to work through — and some of it is paperwork you will need years later when you sell.

The paperwork you must collect

• Building regulations completion certificate from building control or the approved inspector. Without it, your sale will stall.
• Planning decision notice and confirmation that any conditions have been discharged, or a Lawful Development Certificate if you built under permitted development.
• Structural engineer's calculations and any sign-off for the steelwork.
• Electrical Installation Certificate (Part P) from a registered electrician, plus test results.
• Gas Safe certificate for any boiler or gas work, and the boiler commissioning record and warranty.
• FENSA or CERTASS certificates for windows and external doors.
• Party Wall Award and the final schedule of condition, signed off with your neighbour.
• Air tightness, ventilation commissioning and SAP/EPC where applicable.
• Warranties and guarantees: roofing, damp proofing, underfloor heating, waterproofing, appliances.
• As-built drawings and a record of where services run under floors and behind walls. Photograph first fix before plastering.

The physical snagging inspection

Do it in daylight, with the heating on, unfurnished, with a torch, a spirit level and a phone camera. Work room by room and list everything with a photograph and a location.

• Doors and windows: open, close and lock fully; even gaps; no drop; trickle vents working.
• Walls and ceilings: flat under a raking light, no cracks at junctions, no visible tape lines.
• Paintwork: full coverage into corners, clean lines to trims, no roller marks.
• Floors: level, no hollow tiles, no bounce, consistent expansion gaps.
• Kitchen and bathrooms: silicone lines neat, doors aligned, extract fans running with adequate flow, no leaks under sinks after ten minutes of running water.
• Electrics: every socket and switch tested, dimmers correct, no exposed cabling in the loft.
• Heating: every radiator warms evenly; underfloor zones respond to their thermostats.
• Roof and rainwater: no ponding on flat roofs, gutters fall correctly, downpipes connected to the drain not the ground.
• External: pointing consistent, DPC visible and clear of ground level, air bricks unblocked, thresholds drain outwards.
• Test with a hose: run water at the new junctions and rooflights and look inside.

Money and retention

Do not release the final payment before the snagging list is agreed in writing with dates. Hold retention — usually 5% of contract value, half at practical completion and half at the end of the defects liability period, typically 6 or 12 months. Put a diary note two weeks before the defects period ends and re-inspect. That is your last chance to have things fixed at the contractor's cost.

After completion

• Tell your insurer the rebuild value has changed.
• Update your buildings insurance sum insured.
• Keep everything above in one folder — digital and backed up. Conveyancers ask for all of it.
• Live with the space for a few weeks before decorating fully; new plaster and timber shrink and small cracks are normal in the first heating season.

Next step

BuildWise Workspace stores your certificates, drawings and photographs against the project, with the defects-period review already on your programme, so nothing lapses quietly.