Answer

What is a pre-completion inspection, and who attends it?

A pre-completion inspection is the walk through a finished unit or building in the last weeks before practical completion, room by room against a checklist, to find everything that is not finished or not to standard so it can be fixed before the client walks the same rooms. The builder’s own team walks first, the client’s representative second, and the certifier last; on residential jobs the purchaser often gets a walk of their own. In IssuesId the checklist is a reusable template with hold points, every Fail raises a defect linked to the question, and the client’s walk prints from the register as a Door Sheet.

ANSWERED FROM THE PRODUCT DOCS·UPDATED OCTOBER 2026

Before the tool

The last walk before someone else’s walk

Every pre-completion inspection is really a rehearsal for the next one. The site team walks so the client’s rep finds less; the client’s rep walks so the certifier finds less; the certifier walks so the owner, in month three, finds less. The list gets shorter at each stage only if what the earlier walk found was actually raised, issued and fixed, which is where the paper version fails: thirty-one crosses on a PDF that somebody has to type into a register that night. The inspection is the easy part. The job is making every Fail a defect with a photo, a trade and a date before the next person opens the door.

Who attends

Four walks, in order

The builder’s site team walks it first

The site manager or QA lead, with the foreman, a week or two before the certifier. They are looking for everything short of finished, and raising it, before anyone from outside sees the rooms.

The client’s representative walks it second

The superintendent, the developer’s PM or a consultant engaged for the purpose. Their list is the one the builder is held to at PC, so the builder’s own walk exists to make it short.

On residential jobs, the purchaser or their inspector

Many contracts give the buyer a pre-settlement inspection. It is not the PC inspection, but it is walked against the same list, and a defect the buyer finds that the builder did not is the expensive kind.

The certifier walks last

Practical completion is certified by the person the contract names, against the condition that the works are complete except for minor defects. The list from the walks above is what PC is granted subject to.

How it runs in IssuesId

One checklist, every unit, no typing up

1Build the checklist once, run it per unit
The checks live in a checklist template at organisation level: one observable thing per question, phrased so Yes passes. Allocate it across every unit on a level from the Locations page in one step, so forty units get the same fifty-five checks and the same reference numbers.
2Mark the hold points
The waterproofing certificate, falls to waste, the balustrade and the smoke alarm are hold points. A checklist with a hold point still open shows a marker on its row, and the organisation-wide checklists list flags every open hold point across every job until it is released.
3Let the Fail raise the defect
A No on a question raises a defect linked to that question, with the photo, at the moment it is answered. There is nothing to type up that night. When the defect is verified and closed, the question flips back to Yes on its own, so the inspection and the register never disagree.
4Send the trade’s stretch to the trade
Where a subcontractor answers their own section, a share link scoped to the questions between hold points goes to them with a due date; their No raises a defect exactly as an inspector’s would.
5Walk the client’s rep with the Door Sheet
The Door Sheet prints one page per room from the register, so the second walk is ticking rooms against what the first walk found. The Purchaser Report does the same for the buyer, one page per defect with photos.

Asked alongside this one

What is a pre-completion inspection, and who attends it?

The walk through a finished unit or building in the last weeks before practical completion, room by room against a checklist, to find everything not finished or not to standard so it is fixed before the client walks the same rooms. The builder’s site team walks first, the client’s representative second, the purchaser or their inspector often third on residential jobs, and the certifier last. In IssuesId the checklist is a reusable template with hold points, every Fail raises a defect linked to the question, and the client’s walk prints from the register as a Door Sheet.

What is the difference between a pre-completion inspection and a snagging walk?

Mostly the word. Snagging is the British and Australian name for the same room-by-room walk and the list it produces; pre-completion inspection is the contract’s name for the walk that precedes the certificate. The practical difference is formality: the PC inspection is walked against a checklist with hold points and its list is what practical completion is granted subject to.

How do you stop the inspection findings getting lost?

Make the Fail the defect. In IssuesId a No on a checklist question raises a defect with the photo at the moment it is answered, linked to the question, so there is nothing to type up that night; when the defect closes the question flips back to Yes on its own. The checklist is allocated to every unit on a level in one step from the Locations page, so forty units carry the same checks and reference numbers.

What is a hold point on a pre-completion inspection?

A check the unit cannot be signed off with open, whatever else passes: typically the waterproofing certificate for each wet area, falls to waste, the balustrade fixing and the smoke alarm interconnect. A checklist with a hold point still open shows a marker, and the organisation-wide checklists list flags every open hold point across every job until it is released.

Read on

Where this answer comes from

The docs behind this answer are inspections (templates, allocation, hold points, share links) and reports (Door Sheet, Purchaser Report). The fifty-five checks are the pre-completion inspection checklist, free in Excel and CSV. What practical completion itself means, and what it triggers, is in the glossary under practical completion; the register the certifier’s walk is granted against is the register you hand over.