I was recently reading the ancient Greek story of Troy and the Trojan Horse and this reminded me that the Trojan Horse was also new… and it to should have been inspected.
It’s interesting that most people make false assumptions that can lead to significant losses. For example when buying a brand new home many people just assume it must be ok. The consequence of this belief is that most new homes are purchased without any pre-purchase inspection or even an adequate pre-settlement inspection or final handover walkthrough inspection. Defects are not discovered until it is too late.
If a safety problem or a functional defect becomes apparent after you move in, hopefully your builder will honour any builders warranty if he has one.
There are three main Myths that I think lead buyers to forego the benefits of a pre-purchase building inspection:
- The home was inspected and approved by the local shire or council inspector or a private building surveyor.
- The builder has a great reputation in town for building quality homes and is ethical and competent
- The home is fully covers by the builders warranty
Lets examine these assumptions in more detail.
The local council inspector or private building surveyor: These inspections are carried out by various regulatory agencies throughout every state, and can be (but not usually) as thorough and exacting as you would hope and reasonably expect. These inspections do not consider quality of materials or quality of workmanship. These agencies are usually run on a shoestring budget and are understaffed. Where as an independent property inspector would spend up to a few hours or more to inspect and detail his report on a single residence, the council inspector may have 15 to 20 homes to inspect in any one day and often only spend as little as 10 to 15 minutes at any property and this only amounts to a quick spot check.
Worse still! in large subdivisions sample inspections are typically conducted on a representative number of homes leaving many properties entirely uninspected. The result of this incomplete process is that many defects and building code violations escape detection and slip through the building inspection process.
Leaving only your expert independent property inspector as your last line of defence!
The Builder: The most ethical and highly qualified and reputed builder may construct an excellent home, but no one can build the perfect house. To put it bluntly, the best builder is human and so are all the contractors, installers, and tradespeople who work on the house. The newly finished home can be of the highest quality, but with thousands of components, innumerable details and various people performing numerous jobs, the poor person charged with overseeing all the work has neither the time to scrutinise every aspect nor the infallibility to get it all right every time.
We are all human and as such regardless of how qualified or reputable the builder is, some defects will inevitably slip through the process.
Leaving only your expert independent property inspector as your last line of defence!
Builders Warranty: Builders insurance, builder’s warranties and defects or maintenance periods are all wonderful if they are backed by an ethical builder. Those with reputations for quality work and a genuine concern for the satisfaction and financial well being of their clients. Unfortunately, not all builders fit this admirable description. In too many cases the integrity of the builder can render any warranty completely worthless, leaving the home buyer with costly defects, lawyer’s bills, years of aggravation and in some cases a home that is very difficult to resell.
The horror stories that fit this category are endless. The best time to claim on the warranty or a defect/maintenance period is before the settlement or the before the final handover of the property. When the builder wants to get the money – this is the motivating factor that will encourage him to repair any defects found.
Again leaving only your expert independent property inspector as your last line of defence!
A quick word of warning; many builders will welcome an independent inspection as an added quality control service that provides a final confirmation at the end of a project. However some builders can be very uncooperative and employ various degrees of resistance to prevent any inspector from entering the building site. These unfortunate practices range from unmistakable unfriendliness to outright teeth-clenching refusal to admit an inspector onto the property. Please remember you do have the right to a professional inspection before you hand over your hard earned money. Builders like this only make us wonder ‘what are they trying to hide from me?’ and most in cases it becomes very obvious when we finally get to do our inspection.
Again leaving only your expert independent property inspector as your last line of defence!
The previous paragraphs further underscore the importance of pre-purchase inspections on brand new homes, of course this is also true for near new homes as all the same scenarios still apply. Perhaps even more important as a home a few years old has had a chance to settle and defects become much more obvious and more expensive to repair.
Some common defects we often find in new homes are
- Water leaks, taps, pipes and shower screens
- Incomplete work
- Substandard workmanship
- Numerous roofing defects
- Incorrect surface drainage around the dwelling
- Inadequate subfloor ventilation
- Improperly installed insulation
Get an expert on your side before you finalise any new property purchase. Just because everything is shiny and new doesn’t automatically mean it is right.
That’s why you will need an independent property inspection before you buy