BTO defect check: do it yourself or hire a defect inspection company?
After key collection you have one month to report defects to your Building Service Centre (BSC). You can hire a defect inspection company or do the check yourself. Both work. Which one makes sense depends on your budget, your time, and how comfortable you are being thorough for a few hours.
What a paid inspection costs
Prices published by Singapore inspection companies in October 2026 range from about S$110 to around S$900 for an HDB flat. The price goes up with flat size and with extras such as repeat visits to check the repairs. A typical 4-room package with one inspection sits somewhere in the middle of that range. Ask for a written quote that says exactly what's included.
What you get when you hire
- Experience. An inspector has seen hundreds of flats and knows where problems usually hide.
- Their time, not yours. They do the tapping, testing and photos, usually in a few hours.
- A ready list. Most give you a report, and some submit it to the BSC with you.
- Follow-up visits in some packages, to check that repairs were actually done.
What doing it yourself involves
- A few hours in the empty flat, room by room. You don't have to finish in one visit: the one-month window gives you time.
- Simple tools: painter's tape, a marker, a coin for tapping tiles, a bottle of water for the floor traps, a phone charger for sockets. See what to bring.
- A system, so nothing gets missed and the BSC can find each defect: number every defect on tape, photograph it with the number, and keep one list.
Most defects in new flats are things you can find yourself with care: hollow tiles, chipped or cracked tiles, paint patches, doors that rub, windows that stick, floor traps where water pools, sockets that don't work. Our room-by-room checklist covers what to test in every room.
When hiring is worth it
- You can't get to the flat for a few hours within the first month.
- You'd rather pay than spend an afternoon tapping tiles.
- You want someone else's experience on your side at the joint inspection.
- The flat is large, or you've already found signs of bigger problems such as leaks or cracks you're unsure about.
When DIY is enough
- You have an afternoon or two and don't mind being thorough.
- You'd rather keep the money for renovation.
- You'll be at the flat often anyway, so you can check again before renovation starts and again before the one-year defects liability period ends.
Doing it yourself, properly
We built KeyDay Kit for the DIY route: a free room-by-room checklist on your phone, with numbered defects, photos you can mark up, and your floor plan. It's all free, including the PDF report for the BSC and the HDB submission helper. Prefer paper? There's a free printable checklist too.
Whichever way you go, report within the first month and before renovation starts, so there's no question about what was there from the beginning.