Secret horrors being hidden from Aussie homebuyers
Shocking problems with homes for sale not listed in official reports are being exposed by savvy homebuyers amid pleas to authorities to shut loopholes.
Locked up termites and roofs in danger of collapse – these are some of the things being omitted from vendor-commissioned Pest and Building reports.
While getting a Pest and Building report has long been considered a crucial step in purchasing a property, buyers agents are warning not all reports can be trusted.
Sydney buyers agent Bianca Field from Bought Agency said first home buyers are often tempted to save money by using a Pest and building report commissioned by the vendor or selling agent rather than forking out for their own.
But opting for a vendor-commissioned report could cost far more than you bargained for, she said.
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“A lot of building reports that are utilised by selling agents are not as thorough as a building report that’s commissioned by the buyer,” she said, explaining that in her work as a buyers agent in Sydney she usually downloads the vendor’s free or comparatively cheaper report before commissioning one on behalf of the buyer.
She said about 50 per cent of the time, the vendor-commissioned report doesn’t provide as much detail in its description as the report commissioned by the buyer, with the most common difference being that important areas like the subfloor and roof space haven’t been inspected.
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She recalled a property in the inner west suburb of Marrickville where there were no significant issues identified in the vendor-commissioned report. The report stated that the subfloor and roof space couldn’t be accessed.
When she called the building inspector to ask about the lack of access, she was told that these two areas were locked at the time of inspection.
The buyer then commissioned their own inspector to conduct a pest and building report.
He accessed the two “locked” spaces by simply “pulling the bolt open” – and discovered about $100,000 worth of repairs that needed to be done.
“All of the beams in the roof were rotten,” Field said. “All of the tiles that you couldn’t see from the outside needed replacing.”
There was also rot in the subfloor as well as prior termite activity.
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Sydney Buyers agent Michelle May has had similar experiences when doing “side-by-side comparisons” between vendor and buyer commissioned reports.
“We have walked away on numerous occasions because our pest and building person found really expensive issues to fix,” May said. “We got a free report on a property last year and then got our guy to come through.
“He subsequently told us, ‘do not buy this house, it’s going to cost you an extraordinary amount of money.’
“None of the things he found were mentioned in the report that the vendor supplied.”
The builder found that a recent renovation hadn’t been done to code and would need to be completely undone in order to address subfloor issues with the piers. But that wasn’t all.
“The roof structure was actually insufficient to carry the roof itself,” she added. “So, the beams were not adequate enough to carry the load of the tiles. That was never mentioned in the vendor supplied report.
“Our guy was saying, ‘you need to immediately get someone to fix this because you’re basically in danger of collapse’.”
Field said she has heard of an instance where a vendor repainted their property and locked their subfloor after being unhappy with an unfavourable pest and building report that had identified termites under the house. They had a second report done that didn’t include the subfloor space (since it was locked) and the buyer unfortunately discovered the active termite problem after purchasing the house and deciding to install subfloor ventilation.
Rethink Property Lawyers managing director Sam Saad said while different states have different requirements when it comes to being certified as a building inspector, there are no nationally enforced rules around what proportion of a property needs to be inspected for a Pest and Building report to be considered valid.
“There isn’t a national code, unfortunately, for all inspectors to tick off a minimum level of things,” he said. “There’s hundreds of providers out there and they all do different detail across the board.”
He said buyers in all states should always commission their own report, because if there is an error in the report, and it was commissioned by the vendor, the buyer doesn’t have the ability to pursue the inspector.
REBAA president Melinda Jennison from Streamline Property Buyers said buyers should commission their own report if a vendor-commissioned report is lacking detail due to the “liability risks” involved.
Field said before downloading a vendor-commissioned report, buyers should check with the agent that the subfloor, roof void and “the entirety of the property” have been included in the inspection.”
Buyers should also call the builder and ask what they found in the roof and under the house and if they recorded dampness in the walls.
“If the report is a little bit too good to be true and you’re in with a good shot of buying that home, I would always commission your own report,” she said.
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Originally published as Secret horrors being hidden from Aussie homebuyers
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