BUILDING EXPERTS - BUILDING CONSULTANTS' LICENCE

Building consultants and experts have been required to be licensed for pre-purchase inspections by the Department of Fair Trading since January, 2004.

A pre-purchase inspector would inspect a house, home unit or villa for building defects prior to a buyer purchasing the property. A pre-purchase inspection covers many aspects in a building, including structural defects, renovations, waterproofing, as well as kitchen and bathroom renovations. Building defects can include cracks in concrete, defective roof construction, cracked brickwork, concrete spalling (cancer), dampness and water ingress. Other areas covered in a pre-purchase inspection and report include paint, flooring, including timber and floating floors, tiling including in bathrooms as well as leaking showers.

When assessing a defect, a building expert will refer to the Building Code of Australia as well as various Australian Standards, to determine compliance in a building as well as the likely cause of a defect.

In September 2009, the Department of Fair Trading decided to discontinue Building Consultants’ licences. This means that anyone can now call themselves an “expert” and provide a report. Previously, a person had to demonstrate suitable experience and qualifications. Now, that is not required.

It is expected than many people will not receive a report that is adequate nor meet their expectations in information provided. It is now up to a purchaser to firstly evaluate if their “expert” is suitably qualified and experienced to provide the standard of report that they expect. Shopping for the cheapest quote will only result in a very basic poor quality report.

Purchasers of a property can seek compensation where it can be proven that a pre-purchase building inspection was inadequate in that it did not report on defects or reasonable issues within accessible areas. The problem is that proving those omissions will cost time and money and requires an experienced senior building expert who is familiar with the various Codes and Standards.

Our company has been involved in pre-purchase building inspections since 1986. We also provide assistance to people who have purchased a property and later found reasonable defects that were not noted in their pre-purchase inspection. Contact our office on 9418 7750

or

d.hall@buildreport.com.au

The only advice that we offer is to check that the person or company undertaking your inspection is suitably experienced and that they provide an adequate report. Remember the old saying “price is forgotten when the house starts to crumble or is showing up major problems”. The cheap reports cannot and will not provide you with the same detail as a more expensive one.

Copyright © 2009 David Hall Building Appraisals. All rights reserved.