WHAT DOES A BUILDING INSPECTOR DO?
by Dwell Building Services | August 2020 | Building Inspections Tweed Coast
Time to get to know your building inspector!! We get this question a lot, so I think it’s worth explaining what building inspections are all about and what you could reasonably expect your building inspector to do for you during a pre-purchase building inspection.
Building inspectors are all bound by the same standards and all building inspections are based upon the Australian Standard 4349.1 Inspection of Buildings Part 1: Pre-purchase Inspections – Residential Buildings – Appendix C.
Sounds like gobbledy-gook and unless you’re a trained professional it kind of is. What the Australian Standard does is set out the ground rules for what a building inspector is going to be doing on site and what they are required to report on, which in turn will affect the report you get.
Some key points to know about the Australian Standard are:
The building inspection is visual only – we won’t move furniture around, peek into drawers or look behind paintings. We can’t see through walls either, but we have ways and means to figure out whether or not there is a likelihood that there is damage there.
Some building inspectors don’t get up onto roofs, some do. We do unless it’s dangerous – it’s raining or else the roof is higher than 3.6m or has a dangerous pitch. If that’s the case, we will comment as much as we can.
If your property is on acreage, the inspection will only cover the site up to 30m away from the main property.
Building inspectors are looking for structural defects (major) and also maintenance items (minor) – whether or not they mention all the maintenance items is up to their discretion but we believe a complete report should. Within a year or two of owning any home, you will undoubtedly need to do at least some measure of maintenance - wouldn’t it be convenient to have a handy list of what needs doing?
The building inspection does not cover other trades such as electrical, plumbing, air conditioning or small appliances – for that to even be possible, a building inspector would have to be an expert in all of the above, which won’t happen. An experienced building inspector will notice and comment if he sees something un-usual or irregular with a building’s electrical wiring, a missing safety switch or a leaking tap, but the finer details (does my oven pre-heat to 200 in the correct amount of time?) are left to their respective tradesmen.
If you have any questions about building inspections, what is included and what is not, call us on 0424741616 for a chat.