How to Read a Deficiency List on a New Build

Twenty minutes in

You do the walkthrough before possession, clipboard in hand, and you start finding things. A scuff on the trim. A door that does not sit right. A cabinet slightly out of line. Twenty minutes in, you have fifteen items and you are wondering what you bought.

Here is what nobody tells you first. Every new build has a deficiency list. Every single one. A new home with nothing on the walkthrough almost certainly means nobody looked carefully.

Three piles

Cosmetic. Paint touchups, scuffs, small trim gaps, a scratched surface. Normal, expected and fixed quickly. Most of your list will be here, and it should be.

Functional. A door that will not latch, a drawer that binds, a fixture not seated properly. Still routine. These are adjustments, not build failures.

Structural or systems. Water where water should not be. Cracks that are more than hairline. Heating, plumbing or electrical not performing properly. Ground that slopes toward the house. These are different in kind, not degree.

The mistake

Buyers either panic over cosmetic items or wave through something in the third pile because it was buried in a list of twenty small things.

The list is not the information. The sorting is. And you are doing it under time pressure, on the day you are emotional about getting the keys, which is exactly when the third pile is easiest to miss.

How to protect yourself

Write everything down. Photograph every item. Sort before you sign anything.

Send the list to the builder in writing and keep a copy. New homes in BC carry third party warranty coverage, commonly called 2 5 10: two years for materials, labour and systems, five for the building envelope and ten for structure. Claims depend on written notice within the warranty timelines, so the paper trail matters.

Second set of eyes

I attend walkthroughs with my buyers. Ask me about it if your completion date is coming up.