BUILDING INSPECTION ON THE GOLD COAST

by Dwell Building Services | August 2020 | A Building Inspection Case Study

You wouldn’t think that a brand new concrete high rise on the Gold Coast would need a building inspection prior to purchase.  Theoretically, if everything has been done to code and approved by Council, it shouldn’t.  However.  March 2012 we were engaged to inspected a unit in a new complex in Coolangatta – at the time approximately only 1 year old.

It’s worth blogging about because buyers can get complacent about buying into a concrete block of units and might not think they need a pest and building inspection done at all.  The initial inspection was pretty good, as you would expect with a practically new unit, but there was a retaining wall with cracking to the base, and water was leaking through it all over the entry patio.  The body corporate (via the builder) was taking care of it for our purchaser before his contract went through.

It’s important, as a purchaser that you get at least a building inspection done, even if you don’t think you need one.  Any defects present to the block of units will, in time, end up costing you through your body corporate contributions. Your initial reaction to external issues may be “that’s a body corporate thing” but remember - it’s your money that goes into the body corporate, and eventually gets spent on those issues.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that if a complex is only a year old and already has a couple of problems showing up in a building inspection report, there might be more to come sooner than you’d like.

Best to do what our property purchaser did, and hold off on the transaction until the problem was fixed.