It was the day Georgina and Charles Barnes had waited three years for – collecting the keys to their first home.

But when the brand new property was inspected just days later by a Welsh snagging company – the final quality check by independent inspectors – they identified 150 defects, including incorrectly installed fire barriers, signs of a previous leak and what they called “exceptionally poor” workmanship.

Swansea-based New Home Quality Control was set up by John Cooper after he became fed up of being asked to hide things from customers on building sites.

It is the responsibility of developers to make sure new-builds meet regulations, according to the National House Building Council, external (NHBC).

The couple are far from alone when it comes to issues with new houses.

Written evidence submitted by the New Homes Ombudsman Service said the Home Builders Federation national new homes customer satisfaction survey, published in March 2025, showed 93.7% of new-build buyers reporting defects or snags to their developer after moving in, external.

Just over a quarter of buyers also found more than 15 problems in their new-build home.

“We just wouldn’t have known,” said Georgina.

“If there had been a fire, that’s one thing that could have happened and been very detrimental.”

Georgina, 36, and her husband saved for three years to buy a house, before falling in love with the development in south Leicestershire.

As moving day approached, social media began serving her a steady stream of new-build horror stories

After paying £299,995 for the house, she said getting it snagged was “non-negotiable”.

“It just felt unbelievable that we’d finally done it,” she added.

“We actually finally got our own place. This is ours. This is ours to do what we want with. It just felt great.”

But the report also identified improperly roofing defects, low water pressure and what inspectors described as “exceptionally poor” installation of the gas meter cabinet and gas pipe.

More than a dozen of additional cosmetic and finishing defects were also recorded throughout the property

As they had a two-year warranty from the developer, it meant they fixed the issues.

“I would say for any new-build buyer, 100% no doubt, I recommend a snagger,” Georgina said.

Vistry, responsible for the housing developer Countryside, which built Charles and Georgina’s house, said it supported “appropriately conducted independent inspections as an additional source of reassurance about build quality”.

It said each home is checked by its teams and independent inspections take place and, two to three weeks after customers move in, the build team meets to discuss and agree any snagging work.

Such issues are not new to John Cooper, 50, co-founder of New Home Quality Control.

He said, while working as a contracts manager in 2018: “The site manager asked me to hide something from a customer that was moving in the next day.”

This was the tip of the iceberg after he had seen poor quality workmanship over about six years.

“From that moment on, I thought to myself ‘I’ve got to make a change in this industry somehow. This can’t continue’,” he said.

Cooper spoke to his supervisor at the time, Lee Challenger, 42, and the two men quit their jobs and started New Homes Quality Control.

“We’ve never inspected a house and found absolutely nothing wrong with it,” he said.

The most common defects involve brickwork, carpentry and roofing, he said.

“It’s always going to be carpentry issues and bricklaying issues.

“I just think that there’s not enough quality bricklayers to build the amount of properties that the developers are building across the UK on a yearly basis.”

The team also regularly identifies missing or incorrectly installed weep vents – which are installed in exterior walls to let moisture escape.

Cooper said some developments had even featured “fake” weep vents, where decorative plastic pieces had been fitted instead of functioning openings.

“They thought they could get away with it,” he said.

Cooper said before new owners get the keys, the NHBC inspects the property and sign it off.

“I’m sick of hearing every property being signed off, because if that was the case, then we wouldn’t have a company,” he said.

Many of Cooper’s clients get emotional when they see how many issues there are with their new houses.

“We’ve had people cry,” he said.

“There were some quite serious issues in their new property and they had spent all their life savings on it.”

Cooper said his long-term goal was for every new-build home to undergo an independent inspection before its owners moved in.

“If someone’s spending their life savings on a house, they deserve to get what they paid for,” he said.

The inspections take between two and four hours, depending on the size of the house, and cost about £349-£499.

Among the arsenal of tools the snaggers use are drones, GoPro cameras, cavity cameras, thermal imaging equipment and laser levels.

But not everyone can afford their services as they spend all their money on the house.

“Money is tight for a lot of people.”

NHBC said it is the responsibility of the builders to ensure they meet building regulations and homeowners must raise any issues with the house builder within two years – if they are not fixed can seek resolution via NHBC.

The organisation said it carries out inspections at “key stages of the build” and “provide feedback” on the quality.

Home Builders Federation (HBF), which represents the building industry said: “New homes are not made in a factory.

“They are bespoke products, built by numerous tradespeople, often on sites exposed to all weathers, and it is inevitable that on occasions there are some snags.”

It said the “vast majority of snagging issues are minor” and there was no evidence that quality standards were not keeping pace with the rate of housebuilding.

While there is a need for more homes, house-building levels are flatlining due to “major barriers” preventing their construction, it said.

But “quality and service levels remain extremely high” and there is “no evidence” that labour shortages are affecting the new homes.

“Although the industry does face skills challenges in some areas, as does the wider construction industry, we are currently building around 200,000 homes a year versus a need to deliver around 300,000 with no sign of output increasing,” it said.

HBF said it would support statutory registration for builders with the New Homes Quality Board but warned that snagging inspectors were not regulated.

“Customers need to take care that any inspector they use is suitably qualified and accredited by a professional body, such as RICS,” it added.

“We do not believe additional blanket inspections are necessary. There is already a comprehensive framework of regulation, building control, warranties and builder quality assurance in place.”

Property developers Taylor Wimpey refused to comment, and Watkin Jones, Barratt Redrow and Persimmon Homes did not respond for comment.

The Welsh government said it was committed to making sure homebuyers get high quality and are protected if things go wrong.

The UK government said it was investing £39bn in affordable housing and pledged £625m to train up to 60,000 construction workers.