It was the moment Georgina and Charles Barnes had spent three years saving for: collecting the keys to their first home. Then a Welsh snagging company inspected the brand new property days later and identified 150 defects, including incorrectly installed fire barriers, signs of a previous leak, and what they described as "exceptionally poor" workmanship.

The company, Swansea-based New Home Quality Control, was founded by John Cooper after he got tired of being asked to hide things from customers on building sites. Because apparently that was a job requirement.

According to the National House Building Council (NHBC), it is the responsibility of developers to ensure new-builds meet regulations. The couple are not alone: written evidence submitted by the New Homes Ombudsman Service cited the Home Builders Federation national new homes customer satisfaction survey, published in March 2025, showing 93.7% of new-build buyers reported defects or snags to their developer after moving in. Just over a quarter found more than 15 problems.

"We just wouldn't have known," said Georgina, 36. "If there had been a fire, that's one thing that could have happened and been very detrimental."

She and her husband saved for three years before falling in love with a development in south Leicestershire. As moving day approached, social media served her a steady stream of new-build horror stories. After paying £299,995, 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."

Alas, the report also flagged improperly installed roofing defects, low water pressure, and "exceptionally poor" installation of the gas meter cabinet and gas pipe. More than a dozen additional cosmetic and finishing defects were recorded throughout the property. A two-year warranty from the developer meant the issues were fixed.

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

Vistry, responsible for the developer Countryside, which built the 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, 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. While working as a contracts manager in 2018, he said: "The site manager asked me to hide something from a customer that was moving in the next day." That 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. "It's always going to be carpentry issues and bricklaying issues," he said. "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 - 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 signs 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. "There were some quite serious issues in their new property and they had spent all their life savings on it." His long-term goal is for every new-build home to undergo an independent inspection before its owners move in. "If someone's spending their life savings on a house, they deserve to get what they paid for," he said.

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.

The 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, they can seek resolution via NHBC. The organisation said it carries out inspections at "key stages of the build" and "provides feedback" on quality.

The 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.

In other news: a woman grieving the death of her sister won £10k-a-month for 30 years; Katherine Jenkins said she won't apologise for hard work and ambition; and the first minister said there was 'no turning back' in the independence journey at a rally.