Snagging an apartment block: handling volume
Snagging one house is a list. Snagging forty apartments is a logistics problem, and the methods that work fine on a single dwelling fall apart quietly at volume — usually around the point where somebody asks which of the three lists called "Level 2" is current.
Numbering that survives repetition
The defining feature of a block is that the same defect recurs: the same door binds in thirty units because they were all hung the same way. If your numbering is a single running sequence across the whole building, item 214 tells nobody anything.
Number per unit and keep the unit in the reference — a defect is "Apt 12, item 4", not "item 214". It sorts correctly, it tells a subcontractor where to go, and it means two people can snag two units at once without colliding. Keep the numbers stable across revisions, so item 4 is item 4 at the re-inspection.
Sequence by trade, not just by unit
Inspecting unit by unit is the obvious order and the wrong one for close-out. The decorator does not want forty separate lists; they want every decoration item in the block. Record per unit — that is how you inspect — but be able to produce a per-trade view for issuing.
This is exactly why a defect wants a trade tag as well as a location: the same record then serves the inspection walk and the work order without being retyped.
Do not leave common parts to the end
Corridors, stairs, lifts, plant rooms, bin stores, car parks, external landscaping and roof areas belong to nobody's unit, which is precisely why they get inspected last and rushed. They are also where the safety-critical items cluster: fire doors, guarding, dry risers, emergency lighting, escape signage.
Give common parts their own list per zone from the start, and inspect them on their own visit rather than as a tired afterthought at the end of a unit run.
Phased handover means phased everything
Blocks hand over in sections, and each section starts its own defects period on its own date. That is easy to say and easy to lose track of: a defect in a unit handed over in March sits on a different clock from one handed over in September.
Record the handover date against the unit, not just against the project. When the end of a liability period approaches, you need to know which units are close to expiry, and no amount of searching a flat list will tell you.
Re-inspection is where lists die
By the third visit the risk is not missing defects, it is losing track of which are genuinely closed. An item marked complete that was never done is worse than one still open, because it stops being looked at.
Close items against the original numbering, keep the dates, and issue each visit as a new revision of the same list rather than a fresh document. Being able to see that Apt 12 item 4 has been open since March is the whole point — and it is what makes the final sign-off defensible rather than optimistic.