Everything to check outside and inside a new landed house at key collection, and how to write it up for the developer.
A landed house is inspected outside as well as inside: the roof space, external walls, apron and car porch, boundary walls and drains all sit inside the developer's Defect Liability Period, which runs 24 months from vacant possession. Walk the outside first while the light is good, then the roof space and top-floor ceilings, then every room. List each defect in writing with its location and a dated image, and send the list to the developer. ClickBina's guides put a structural engineer's crack assessment from RM500, and leak detection is a separate visit at RM300 – RM800.
A condo owner inspects a box: walls, floors, wet areas and fittings, with the roof, facade and drains left to the management. A landed owner inspects the whole building and the ground around it. The roof over your bedrooms, the gutters on your eaves, the apron along your walls, the car porch, the boundary walls and the drains in your compound are all yours, and all of them are covered by the developer's defect liability period.
ClickBina's defect liability period guide sets out the rule: the period is 24 months from the date of vacant possession, for landed (Schedule G) and strata (Schedule H) houses alike. Outside items are the ones owners most often forget to list, because nobody walks the garden on key collection day. This checklist puts them first.
Keep the vacant possession letter with the date on it; that date starts the 24-month clock. Bring a torch, a tape measure, a pencil, masking tape to mark defects, a bucket or large bottle of water for pour tests, a plug-in socket tester or a phone charger, and a phone with the date stamp switched on in the camera settings. Wear shoes you can kneel and climb in. If the house is double-storey, plan the route: outside, roof space, upstairs, downstairs, so you are not climbing the same stairs ten times.
If you would rather work from a printed list, you can tick your defects room by room and keep the results for the defect list you send the developer.
| Area | What to look for | How to check it |
|---|---|---|
| Roof space and top-floor ceilings | Daylight through the roof, water stains, wet insulation | Torch through the access hatch; torch held flat against each ceiling |
| Gutters and downpipes | Sagging runs, open joints, downpipes ending on bare soil | Look from the ground; note where each downpipe discharges |
| External walls | Cracks, hollow render, damp patches, stains below windows | Walk the full perimeter; compare with the inside face of the same wall |
| Apron and car porch | Gaps at the house wall, cracks, hollow tiles, standing water | Tap the tiles; pour water and see where it runs |
| Boundary and retaining walls | Cracks, leaning sections, blocked weep holes | Sight along the wall; mark crack ends in pencil with the date |
| Wet areas and yard | Ponding, slow floor traps, falls toward the door | Pour test at the far corner of each floor |
| Windows and doors | Gaps at frames, locks that do not catch, tracks that hold water | Open, close and lock each one; pour water into sliding tracks |
| Electrical and plumbing points | Dead sockets, lights that do not work, leaks under sinks | Test every socket and light; run every tap and flush every toilet |
The DLP guide's own handover list says it plainly: check the roof or roof void of a landed property for any daylight or water stains. Open the ceiling access hatch, shine a torch along the underside of the roof, and look for light coming through, damp or stained timber and insulation that has been wetted. You do not need to climb into the roof space to do this; looking from the hatch is enough for a first pass.
Back in the rooms, hold the torch flat against each top-floor ceiling. Raking light shows faint stains and fresh patch repairs that flat light hides, the same trick ClickBina's handover water-damage check uses. A freshly painted patch on an otherwise uniform ceiling is worth a written question to the developer: what was found there, and what was done?
Walk the whole perimeter. On the walls, look for cracks, render that sounds hollow when tapped, and damp patches or stains below window sills. Where you find a damp patch inside, find the same spot outside and record both. Look up at the gutters and note any run that sags or drips at a joint, and follow each downpipe to the ground: a downpipe that empties onto bare soil next to the house is worth listing, because water there softens the ground under the apron. Keep this part brief and factual; it is a list, not a diagnosis.
Porches and aprons are ground-bearing slabs laid on filled earth, while the house itself usually stands on piles or deeper footings. ClickBina's car porch and apron settlement guide lists the signs: a gap opening between the slab and the house wall, cracks across the porch, tiles that sound hollow, water standing where it used to drain, and gate tracks or drain covers that no longer line up. It also notes that, for a landed house, settlement caused by poor compaction or workmanship is the kind of defect to report within the 24-month period.
Pencil the ends of any crack with the date and measure any gap at the wall. Even if nothing has moved yet, a dated record from key collection is what shows later that the movement started after handover.
Most cracks in a new house are fine shrinkage cracks in plaster and render. ClickBina's guide to cracks in a new house separates them from settlement and structural cracks: diagonal cracks from door and window corners, stepped cracks through brickwork, cracks across beams or columns, and any crack that keeps widening point to movement. The same guide says to call a professional engineer before any repair when a crack is wider than about 3 mm. List hairline cracks too; they are the developer's to fix now and yours to fix later.
Boundary and retaining walls follow the same logic. A fine crack in a boundary wall is a list item; a retaining wall that leans, bulges or has blocked weep holes is an item to raise with the developer straight away and, if it is holding back a slope, one for an engineer to look at.
Inside, the checks are the same as in any new home, just more of them. Pour water at the far corner of each bathroom, yard and wet kitchen floor and watch it run to the floor trap and leave nothing behind. Tap floor tiles for hollow spots; the DLP guide lists hollow tiles as a defect. Open, close and lock every window and door, and pour a little water into each sliding track to see whether it drains outward. On a double-storey house, check the staircase and the landing as carefully as the rooms.
Test every socket and light point with a plug-in tester or a phone charger, as the DLP guide suggests. Turn on every tap, flush every toilet and look under every sink for drips. Before you leave, close every tap, record the water meter, wait, and record it again: movement with everything off means water is going somewhere it should not. Note anything that does not work as a numbered item; do not try to fix it yourself before it is reported.
Number every item and give the room, the exact position, what you saw and the date, with a dated image for each. Group outside items together so the developer can send one team. Send the list in writing, keep proof of delivery, and keep copies of everything. ClickBina's DLP guide notes that the statutory sale and purchase agreement requires the developer to make good within 30 days of receiving your written notice; diarise that date as well as the end of the 24 months. If the developer stalls, the new house defects guide covers the next steps, including the Tribunal for Homebuyer Claims, which hears claims of up to RM50,000.
Hold off renovating over anything you have listed. The new terrace renovation guide explains why: work that disturbs a defect makes it much harder to show whose fault it was.
A landed house has more to check than one afternoon usually allows, and outside defects are easy to miss when the keys are new. If you would rather have the walk done for you, ClickBina offers a defect inspection service in KL & Selangor: the house is inspected, the defects are written up for you to send, and anything the developer does not put right can be quoted for rectification afterwards. Inside the DLP the developer pays for its defects; once the period ends, the bill is yours. These published ClickBina figures give a sense of scale (indicative 2026, Klang Valley):
| Item | Indicative price | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Structural engineer assessment of cracks | From RM500 | Car porch and apron settlement guide |
| Epoxy injection (structural), per point | RM150 – RM400 | Car porch and apron settlement guide |
| Single room skim coat | RM600 – RM1,200 | Cracks in a new house guide |
| Leak detection and assessment, per visit (charged separately from the repair) | RM300 – RM800 | Handover water-damage check |
WhatsApp us your unit type, size and VP date for an inspection quote — we reply within the hour.
💬 WhatsApp for an inspection quoteWhatsApp us your unit type, size and VP date for an inspection quote. ClickBina is an experienced KL & Selangor contractor for whole-house refurbishment and trade coordination, so the team that finds a defect can also quote the rectification. We reply within the hour, and the price agreed is a flat price with no hidden charges. ClickBina is registered with SSM. A site visit to quote repair work is RM150, waived if you go ahead with the works; it is not the inspection fee.
Methodology: every RM figure is quoted unchanged from the ClickBina guide named beside it; they are indicative Klang Valley ranges for 2026. Legal points are general information, not legal advice; check your own sale and purchase agreement.
WhatsApp us your unit type, size and VP date for an inspection quote — we reply within the hour.
💬 WhatsApp for an inspection quoteTell us what you need — we reply within the hour.