There is a very good summary of the law behind a prepurchase inspection on find law website which compliments this blog
click to read.
Find the house you want to put an offer on and get the building inspection done prior to putting in your offer. You will then have an expert report stating what needs to be done, you will know the cost of the items and you can subtract that from the asking price. You can be sure you are not buying into a money trap and that you are paying a fair price for the property..simple!!
Generally speaking signing a contract of purchase binds you to do two things:
Buy signing you agree to purchase the home provising you get finiance and provisding there are no structural defects (from timber pest activity or poor building work etc..)
The first part of the agreement is to buy the house providing that you get finiance. The intention of this clause is to prevent people from being bound to purchase a house when they do not have the money to do so. This is an "out clause". What most people dont realise is that you have not stipulated from whom you choose to get the finianc from and therefore at what rate. By signing the purchase agreement you have just agreed to buy the house providing someone (anyone at any rate) lends you the money.
Most of the time this is not a problem, most people have made inquiries of their lender prior to looking to know how much they can borrow and have a pretty good idea that they will get the finance from the lender of thier choice. This item is mentioned as food for thought, just consider what you are actucally agreeing to...
Real estate agents seem to be keen to lock in the offer prior to a building inspection. The thinking seems obvious: to obtain the best price for the property, maximise profit which is what they are paid to do. But you may well ask who is looking after your interests as the buyer. To a great degree the law does, but you must know how to excercise your rights.
Do I have the right to organise a prepurchase report prior to offer? Yes you do.
Do I have the right to include my own provisions in the repoert such as stipulating conditions in which you agree or do not agree to to buy the home?
Yes you do.
Will a real estate agent notify and encourgae me regardingt the above . In our experience they will not. Mostly we find real estate agents will say that an inspection cannot be made prior to an offer being made and must be done between noffer and settlement. This is the wrong information.
The second part goes something like this: I agree to buy the home providing that the home is structurally sound, or pending the result of a structural prepurchase inspection. All good yopu may say seems important right?
Well yes and no. Although ensuring the home you are about to buy is structurally sound is obviously a good idea, there are many, many things that can be wrong with a home which are not structural defects and they can (and often do) cost considerably more than most structural defects to fix. One such case is the following recent example:
Sue and John engaged a building inspector ( it was Christian from SHS Building Consultants) to assess the home they had put an offer on. The inspector duly noted that there were tewo major defects.
1.The roof covering had reached the end of its serviceable life - requiring replacemnent and
2. There was also a sagging timber member in the roof cavity.
The first item would cost approx. $12,000 - 15,000 to rectify and it needed to be done immediately. You may think that the selelr would need to take care of this right?
Wrong...This was not considered a structural defect because the roof covering had deteriorated with age and although it protects the structure of the home from deterioration and the occupants from getting wet it is not actually a structural building component. The buyers were unable to negotiate a change in the contract to cover the new roof. (which is not surprising really... why would a seller agree to losing $12 - 15K on the purchase price when they had no legal obligation to!!)
The second item, the sagging roof timber cost $225 to fix (an underpurlin was provided with a new support in the roof cavity). the sellers were required to fix this item because it was a structural defect to a structural building component, all in accordance with the contract
Not very fair eh?
SO...., The best thing to do?
Find the house you want to put an offer on and get the inspection done prior to putting in your offer. You will have an expert report stating what needs to be done, you will know the cost of the items and you can subtract that from the asking price. You can be sure you are not buying into a money trap and that you are paying a fair price for the property..simple!!
