By Sarah Mills

Buying property is a huge expense so the one thing you shouldn’t stint on is surveys and inspections. These are the best protection you have against buying a white elephant. The number of surveys you conduct will ultimately depend on how prudent you want to be. Given pre-purchase costs can add between five and six percent to the cost of an average home, this will be an important consideration.

The vendor usually supplies copies of previous surveys with the Contract of Sale to try and speed the purchase process. While this is a good guide when deciding whether to buy the house in the first instance, it is still prudent to conduct your own investigations before settlement. It is also a good idea to use surveyors and inspectors with professional indemnity insurance so that you have some recourse should an error be made.

Pest inspections, building inspections and property surveys are the three most common types of reports home buyers commission and they offer a broad level of protection.

Following are a list of inspections, surveys, costs, and general tips

Termite inspection

In Australia, this is a must. Termites can completely destroy a home and the owner rarely has recourse to house insurance where termites are concerned. Cockroaches can also be problematic. Average cost: $100.

Building inspection

Building inspectors check the structural soundness of a house. Subsidence, age, earthquakes and poor construction, can all affect the integrity of a house and are rarely covered by house insurance. Many sellers try to hide defects by strategically positioning furniture, painting over cracks and signs of damp, and ventilating well to hide damp. A trained eye should be able to pick up any deficiencies you have missed.

The building inspection should also cover most drainage issues. If you are considering buying on the low side of the road, it may also be worthwhile asking the building inspector to check the absorption pit, and that the downpipes have not been connected to the sewer pipes. This practice is quite common but illegal. The water board checks large areas at once (which it does easily by injecting red smoke into the mains that eventually rises through the downpipe and surfaces from the gutter). The water board employees then stand back and observe the red smoke emerging chimney-like from several houses at once. If yours is one of these, it can cost thousands to fix.

By law, the Contract for Sale must include a drainage diagram. It includes maps of drains, pipes and mains and this can be a good thing to check and share with the inspector.

The average cost of a building inspection ranges between $200 and $1000, depending on the property.

Property surveys

Property surveyors survey the land on which the house is built and must provide a certificate of completion within 30 days. They fix property lines, peg boundaries and calculate the land area. This is to ensure that the property you are being sold is the property you think you are buying. Often buildings have been built in the wrong places — sometimes even on different blocks — so it is important to get it right. Property surveys stop encroachment by neighbours and establish important issues such as easements and right of way. They advise on the status of land ownership, on the rights, restrictions and interests in the property.

By law, you must use a licensed surveyor to prove the dimensions of your property and failing to do so incurs a $10,000 fine. It also means the survey will have no legal status in any ensuing boundary disputes.

Surveying errors are more common with older houses. Sometimes a house may have been built a few inches over the neighbouring property. If this error was discovered decades ago it will be written into the title. This is a sign that the government forced the various parties involved to be civilised and have accepted the error. This is rarely an issue for the buyer.

The problem for buyers comes when these discrepancies have not been listed on the title, especially if it has been the result of more frequent activity by the vendor.

Quantity surveying charges vary depending on the property’s location, size, age, design and complexity, but the average cost is about $500.

Share This