PRE-PURCHASE INSPECTION

WHETHER YOUR BUYING A HOME THAT'S ONLY A YEAR OLD OR OVER 100 YEARS OLD, ITS VITAL THAT YOUR INTEREST'S PROTECTED WITH A PRE-PURCHASE INSPECTION.

There are serious risks when purchasing an established home, where its common for homes even 2 or 3 years old to have suffered structural movement. Deciding to buy a house, where your unaware of the potential future costs may seriously affect your future enjoyment of the home.

Many older homes may have had building works undertaken without a Building Permit, which raises serious issues for a prospective purchaser, as your insurance policy may not cover you, which you'll need to check carefully with your insurer.

A Pre-Purchase Inspection is a visual assessment of the property your intending to buy, which is conducted in accordance to an Australian Standard, where the advice is limited to the reporting of the condition of the Building Elements in accordance with Appendix A AS4349.1-2007. The inspection conducted, (unless otherwise agreed to by instruction, in writing), is non-destructive, so no damage is done to the property, to provide advice regarding the condition of the home, at the time of the inspection.

It's our experience that most people who have a "bad feeling", or simply not sure about the condition or standard of work, are then sometimes surprised to learn the extent of building problems, which only a comprehensive Professional Independent Building Inspection may reveal.

The news may be "not good", as documented within our report, which is an important first step to understand potential future costs, or problems that could develop, if you decide to go ahead with your purchase. The purpose of an Independent Inspection Report is to document key factual evidence to ensure that defects, which if they weren't seen by you, don't become a nasty surprise.

Its our experience that many people are not aware that non-compliant building work, (which has been done without a building permit), actually devalues a home.

A COMPREHENSIVE PHOTOGRPHIC REPORT IS INCLUDED AS PART OF THE INSPECTION UNDERTAKEN.

Our Pre-Purchase Inspection reports include :-.

  • A Summary of the Property
  • A Detailed Description of the Pre-Purchase Inspection undertaken, where any limitation are explianed, such as restricted acces, etc
  • A Recommendations List of what building work which must be carried out to avoid future Building Defects
  • A Recommendations List of what Building Work may have been done, without a Building Permit, for your solicitor/Conveyancer to undertake further checks on your behalf, since if they're unaware of any such building work, you'll be unable to request the Vendor to obatin a permit to certify the work, prior to settlement.
  • A COMPREHENSIVE PHOTOGRAPHIC record, identifying the defects observed, where we reference and label issues, so you fully understand the condition of the building. We will document deterioration in building elements
  • A Definitions page, with a reference list of further reading for you to research
  • A Copy of a a property planning report will also be attached, as a reference to you understanding the planning restrictions

    It is vitally important that you make your purchase subject to a Pre-Purchase Inspection being to your satisfaction, and that you clearly advise us on the time limitations for getting back to you. We normally will have a report with 24 hours to you, but on some occasions where there are quite serioius issues we will spend that extra time to research, and confirm a few things, just be sure that you'll get a report you'll be able to rely on for deciding on your purchase.

Its very clear that many people while looking to purchase a home, spend a lot of time sizing up the house for furniture, checking colors, and whether it will accomodate their family, spending perhaps around 20 minutes or so, looking future new home, where all the while their under the observation of a Real Estate Agent. Quite often, people are unaware of obvious defects, while othertimes, repairs may have been attempted to hide defects, which are less identifyable. This why a pre-purchase inspection is required, where, we spend at least 2 hours, to comprehensively your home overall, while making sure that structural movement issues carefully documented in our report to you.

Our aim during the inspection is to identify any building work which may have needed a Building Permit, so that any such work, (as reported) can be checked with by your solicitor/conveyancer, since if they're unaware, they cannot act on your behalf and insist the Vendor obtain a Permit, and have the work approved. Its a responsibility of a Vendor to disclose defect that affect the title to a property, which become a legal mess later, as only expensive legal action can be pursues, which many of the potential issues, can be address by having these identified by a Pre-Purchase Inspection.

The consequences of buying a house, where building work does not comply with a Building permit, is that it may become your responsibilty, where a municipla building Surveyor can make an order to the property owner to either rectify non-compliant building work, or arrange the work to be demolished, (at their own cost), which may become a burden for you as the new owner who effectively accepts responsibility for all associated costs. Its important that non-compliant work is potentially identified, as many people either choose not to buy, or use it as an opportunity to re-negotiate the price

PHOTO GALLERY OF ISSUES  WE TYPICALLY FIND

This home built on footing, with a timber floor covered by carpet has had movement.  The 2m level shown is supported by 9 x 50 cent coins, being approx 20mm out of level

The Roof sheeting installed to replaced the original roof has insufficient overlap into the guttering, and is defective. Water will find its way behind the fascia 

Structural Movement : Floor out of level approx 10mm where a 2m level rests on 4 x 50cent coins, (This House had  subsided 35mm from front to back)

Landscaping has been built up to almost the inside floor level, which is a risk for potential flooding, and also a potential threat of termites entering the home undetected

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

PRE-PURCHASE INSPECTIONS ARE UNDERTAKEN IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS & CONDITIONS AS OUTLINED IN THE FEE AGREEMENT.  ITS IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND THE LIMITATIONS OF AN INSPECTION. 

© Copyright 2021, Residential Building Inspections (RBI)– All Rights Reserved – Privacy Policy – All Inspections are subject to Terms & Conditions