House is the biggest investment for most families and it is an exciting and anxious time for the buyers. As a home buyer, you need a building inspection report to know the true condition of the property you are considering buying. A building inspection report provides you with detailed information about the condition of the building. But as a property buyer, you should know about the inspection report. Building Inspection Council has compiled 5 important points about building inspection report as follow:
1. What Is A Building Inspection Report?
A building inspection report is a document that describes the condition of a building and is prepared by a professional building inspector. A building inspector inspects your home and lists out all the findings which are building defects (minor and major), health risks(mold, chemicals), and fatal risks (Damaged structure, fire risks), etc. The building inspection report must comply with Australian Standard (AS: 4349.1 -2007)
2. What Is In The Building Inspection Report?
Building Inspection Report has the following information:
Table of Content: Like any other professional document, the first part is a table of content outlining the position of the content.
Client, Property, and Inspection Information: The report contains information about the client, property details, and inspection details.
Description of inspection and defects: This is the main part of the report and contains the description of inspection and defects such as the name of element inspected, the scope of the inspection, any defect found, name of defects, the extent of defect, etc.
Conclusion and summary: This part provides the summary of findings in the property such as major defects of concerns, overall condition of the building, etc.
Terms and Conditions: The inspection report contain the accessibility clause, scope of the report, the purpose of the report, legal limitation of the report, copyright information of the report.
General property maintenance Guidance: Some inspection companies do provide specific or general property maintenance guidance as an add-on.
For detailed information about the content of the report, you can read “WHAT IS IN THE BUILDING INSPECTION REPORT?
3. Why Do You Need A Building Inspection Report?
According to research (source), 100% of properties have building defects that cost you huge money to repair. The research says that homeowners have spent $10.5 Billion to repair the building defects. The average cost of repairing building defects in houses and apartments is $5,893 and $6,434respectively. 1 in every 20 house buyers has to fork out more than $20,000 to repair defects and 1 in every 20 apartment buyers has to spend more than $50,000 to fix the building defects.
The vendor will do anything to sell the property and the agent is working for the vendor. Building Inspection Council has seen thousands of cases where serious building defects are concealed through creative ways. It’s an independent building inspection report that provides you detailed information about the building defects and protects you from future losses.
For a detailed list of benefits of the building inspection reports, you can read “7 MUST REASONS FOR BUILDING INSPECTION“.
4. Who Can Make A Building Inspection Report?
A qualified and licensed building inspector can make a building inspection report. A building inspector must have knowledge of Building Acts, the Building code of Australia, the Building Regulations, and local building practices. The building inspector should be from the building industry and knowledge gained can help in efficiently detecting the building defects. The building inspector must have knowledge of different building trades such as gyprocking, tiling, roofing, bricklaying, etc.
The building inspector should have excellent communication and customer service skills. They should be able to explain the content of the report in easy to understand language. Inspector should be patient to answer the question from the client. For detailed information, you can read “WHOM TO HIRE FOR BUILDING INSPECTION?“
5. How Much Building Inspection Report Cost?
The average cost of a building inspection is between $400 to $600 for a house of average size in Australia. The starting prices in the market are $225 to $1200 in the upper ends. The cost of the building inspection report depends upon the size of the property, location of the property, type of the building, Age of the building, style of the building, etc. Of course, the larger the property, the higher would be the cost of the inspection report. Similarly, the complexity of the building design pushes up the price of the report. For detailed information on the cost of inspection, you can read “HOW MUCH BUILDING INSPECTION COST?“.
6. How To Order A Building Inspection Report?
Finding a good building inspector is challenging but you can follow the following steps to order a building inspection.
Contract Signing: Sign the contract with the clause “subject to building inspection report”. The wording of the clause should be in your favor.
Request the Quotes: Do your research or visit the Building Inspection Council website for multiple quotes from building inspectors.
Finalize the Inspector: Verify the building inspector on the basis of the license, qualification, and experience. Refer to the online reviews and observe any pattern present.
Manage the schedule: Once the building inspector is final, communicate with the agent and vendor to schedule the access for inspection.
Discuss the report: Once you receive the report, discuss it with the inspector to understand the finding and concerns. Do not hesitate to ask any questions.
For detailed information, you can read “HOW TO GET BUILDING INSPECTION?
A good building inspection is better than expansive repair. The building inspection report is a small investment to protect you from the expensive money sinks in the form of building defects and pays for itself.
Building Inspection Council is a not-for-profit community service helping Australian property buyers with free quotes from local expert building inspectors. The best thing about being a not-for-profit organization is that we do not have to compromise for profit and you get genuine and honest quotes. For Free Quote, Please Click here.