A commercial tenant's fit-out contractor handed back the space with a snagging list the tenant considered a formality and the landlord considered a dispute. Both were half right.
Most of the list was genuine minor snagging. A smaller number of items were structural or M&E defects that hadn't been through commissioning properly — the kind of thing that doesn't show up until the space is actually in use.
Sorting genuine defects from cosmetic snagging early is what stops a handover dispute turning into a dilapidations claim two years later.
