How to Check Your New Home for Faults From Abroad, Before Anyone Signs for the Keys
The possession letter reached you in Dubai on a Tuesday night, and your earliest leave is weeks away, so your father will go to the site on Saturday with the handover form waiting in the sales office. He will hold up his phone on a video call while the site supervisor sets the pace, the signal will drop somewhere in the second bathroom, and he will come home tired and sure that everything looked fine. You want to take his word for it, because he gave up his Saturday for you, but a damp patch that appears in the first monsoon, behind a wardrobe your own carpenter has fitted, will be hard for anyone to place on one side of handover day or the other. There is a way to run that Saturday so that you see every room yourself before anything is signed.
Send someone you trust to record a slow, unbroken walk of every room and to photograph each snag where it sits. Watch the recording yourself, get the snag list dated and countersigned, and sign the possession papers only after a second walk along the same route shows the repairs done.
Why handover day matters more than any other visit
For many buyers handover is the first time anyone on their side stands inside the flat, because builders often keep buyers off the working floors until the end, and it is also the day the final payment and the possession papers change hands. If your flat is in India, the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 expects you to take physical possession within two months of the occupancy certificate (section 19(10)). From the date possession is handed over, you then have five years to bring structural defects, or defects in workmanship or quality, to the promoter's notice, and the promoter has to put them right without further charge within thirty days (section 14(3)), as the Act published in the Gazette of India sets out.
Those five years help most when you can show what the flat was like on the day you took it, and that gets harder every week as your interior work covers walls, ceilings and floors. When seepage in one Bengaluru flat came back after a first repair, the state regulator went through the messages and the inspection findings before ordering a permanent fix, The Realty Today reported in July 2025. A clear record from handover day helps the builder's team as much as you, because it settles quickly which snags were there before the keys changed hands.
Who can walk the flat for you
Each option leaves you with something different, and two together usually work best.
| Who walks the flat | What they do well | What tends to be missed | What you have afterwards |
|---|---|---|---|
| A parent or relative on a live video call | Being there, and knowing what your family cares about | Rooms seen at someone else's pace, a dropped signal, nothing to watch again | Memories and a few screenshots |
| A relative with a written list and photos | Snags on paper, signed on the day | Where each photo was taken, and rooms nobody photographed | A list and loose photos |
| An independent snagging inspector | The tests a relative won't know to run | The flat reaches you second-hand unless the walk is recorded | A numbered report |
| A recorded walk of every room, plus the inspector's list | You walk the flat yourself later, every room on a known date, each snag in its place | Anything inside the walls or needing a test | A dated record you can reopen for five years |
An inspector is worth the fee for the tests, whereas the recording is what lets you see the flat with your own eyes, so if the budget allows only one, ask the inspector to record the walk.
What to record on handover day
The person walking the flat should move slowly and keep the camera running from the front door, with the flat number in the first frame, so that you can follow the walk on the plan afterwards.
- Every room, along a route you can repeat on the second visit, with the camera turned to each wall, the ceiling and the floor.
- Each snag close up and again from a step back, so the close-up can be placed in its room.
- Every tap and the shower running, and a basin filled and drained, with the camera on the pipes underneath and the floor around each drain.
- Every switch and socket, the meter readings, and each door and window opened and closed.
What to ask the builder for before anyone signs
Send these requests in writing before the visit, because the answers decide what your father will be asked to sign.
- Agreement that the person attending is accepted as your representative for the inspection. What they can sign for you depends on the authority you have given them, which is worth a lawyer's look before Saturday.
- A snag list numbered room by room, dated and countersigned by the builder's representative, and emailed to you the same day.
- A date for each repair, and a second walk along the same route once they are done, so each fix can be checked against the first walk.
- The documents and plans you are entitled to after possession, including those for the common areas (section 19(5)).
- Any record of your flat from before its walls were closed, because that last look inside the walls shows pipes and conduits no snagging visit can see.
If you're the builder handing over the flat
Handover day is when an overseas buyer is most likely to doubt you, because a relative is doing the checking and any damp patch found later turns into a question about which side of handover it appeared on. If you record the handover walk yourself, along the same route as the buyer's representative and with every fault photographed where it sits, both of you sign against the same dated record. The later question is then settled in a minute instead of an argument, and the buyer can see you expected to be checked. How to send construction updates buyers trust covers the same routine for the months before handover.
- Watch it again laterThe walk stays online, so nothing depends on one live call.
- Pinned snagsEach snag sits on its spot in the 360° photo and on the plan.
- One link for the familyShare the walk with whoever is helping, without an account.
Where SpatialSense fits
SpatialSense is a platform for construction teams, and a handover walk fits it well. Whoever walks the flat records it with a 360° camera, and on the 30-day free trial, with no card, the photos upload in the browser. Each snag is pinned on its spot in the 360° photo, which fills in where it sits on the floor plan once the plan is added, and the list exports as a PDF report to attach to the papers. You open the walk from abroad through a share link that needs no login and can be revoked. After the repairs, the second walk opens side by side with the first from one locked viewpoint, and SpatialSense finds the matching photo on the other date, so you check each fix at the same spot. For a builder handing over a block to buyers abroad, the snagging list page shows how site teams run this floor by floor.
If it is one flat and one visit, a slow phone video of every room and a countersigned snag list may be all you need, and no camera can test waterproofing or wiring, which stays the inspector's job. SpatialSense earns its place when the flat will be walked twice and you want both walks and the list kept together for the five years that follow.
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See SpatialSense on your project
If you are walking a flat for someone who lives abroad, or handing over flats to buyers who do, you can run the full platform free for 30 days with no card and send the first handover walk before anyone signs. Support is 24/7 and one to one, from a person at Kodifly.
SpatialSense isn't only for big projects, and you don't need to learn every part of it to use it, because on a custom plan you can take the 360° viewer on its own. Book a demo and we'll go through the details with you.
FAQ
Can someone else do my snagging inspection?
Yes, a relative or an independent inspector can walk the flat for you. Agree in writing with the builder that they attend as your representative, and have a lawyer check what your authority lets them sign.
What should I check while taking possession of a flat?
Check every room, tap and drain, the switches and sockets, the doors, windows and meter readings, and have each snag photographed where it sits.
When should snagging be done?
Before you sign the possession papers and before any interior work starts, then again once the repairs are finished, along the same route as the first walk.
What is the defect liability period under RERA?
Under section 14(3) of the Act, defects in structure, workmanship or quality that you bring to the promoter's notice within five years of handover must be fixed without further charge within thirty days.