Commercial Property Inspection in UAE

Client project: Commercial office fit-out, Sharjah

An occupier preparing to accept a newly completed commercial office fit-out in Sharjah engaged The Snag Master for a full interior fit-out inspection before sign-off. The space presented as complete - marble washrooms, timber-slatted boardrooms, and frameless glass meeting rooms - is the kind of interior that photographs beautifully and reads as finished at a glance. The client wanted independent confirmation that the systems behind those finishes had actually been installed to specification.

Our engineers inspected the fit-out system by system against RERA Standards of Practice: civil and finishes, including flooring, walls, ceilings, partitions, cladding, glazing, doors and joinery; mechanical and HVAC, covering air distribution, grilles and diffusers, FCU diagnostics, ventilation and exhaust; electrical, covering distribution boards, sockets and terminations, earthing and bonding, and lighting; plumbing supply, drainage, fixtures and fittings; and fire and life safety, covering detection, alarm panels, suppression, extinguishers and hose reels.

The finishes held up. The systems behind them did not. Smoke detectors were still wearing their plastic protective covers - detectors that physically could not detect. The fire alarm control panel was not operational at the time of inspection. Earth bonding had been left disconnected at floor boxes and distribution panels, removing the safeguard between an electrical fault and a person. Exhaust ventilation did not run, wiring was left exposed at light fittings, and cracked cladding and unsealed openings were recorded - the kind of defect that quietly inflates running costs as a cooling system works harder than it should.

None of these were visible on a standard walkthrough. The inspection was carried out by InterNACHI-certified civil engineers rather than technicians running a checklist, working to RERA Standards of Practice and RICS methodology, and supported by diagnostic tools such as thermal imaging and moisture mapping where they added value. The result was a documented, decision-ready list of what the fit-out contractor still had to put right - delivered while corrections were still the contractor's responsibility and retention was still in play.

This is the value of inspecting before a document is signed rather than after. A polished commercial fit-out can look completely finished and still not be complete or safe, and once the works are accepted and the contractor released, the cost and disruption of putting things right increasingly land on the occupier.