Home Truths About Building Inspections

by Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.B Queensland Solicitor & Consumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au

What of worth could a suburban solicitor say to a bunch of hard-nosed building consultants about home-buyers’ building inspections? Well, lots.

At the Institute of Building Consultants Information Evening, to which I’d been invited as guest speaker, I not only spoke about protecting real estate consumers (and building inspectors into the bargain) but also prompted considerable discussion and first-hand stories about house inspections.

Firstly, I explained “where we are now” on home-buyers’ building inspections. The Real Estate Institute’s and Law Society’s joint standard residential contract used by most estate agents makes provision for a “building inspection date” and the name of the “inspector”. (If no date is inserted, the contract is not subject to a building inspection report and the inspection clause does not apply.)

My closing words were:

“The first rule of real estate remains – buyer beware – but so too should the building inspector.”

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