Do you go along to the building & pest inspection?

Hi everyone

I've never gone along to a B&P inspection before. Just sent the builder who called me after to discuss before issuing reports.

There's a property on the market that's of interest, it's a couple streets away. I happen to be available at the proposed inspection time.

The agent will be there to open up the property but the owners won't be home.

Have you gone along to one of these before? Did you find it useful?

What's good practice if I do decide to go along? Do you let the builder do his own sweep of the property on his own first and form his views, and then go around again with him to ask specific questions you might have? Or is it better to just let the builder go himself and report back afterwards.

Would greatly appreciate any experience you can share on this front.

Thank you

 

I always meet onsite with the B&P inspector. This is pre-arranged with the inspector and is scheduled for me to arrive just as they are finishing.

We have a verbal discussion about they have found and, for any major issues, I get them to walk me through the property and point them out to me (in most cases, they point out every issue).

I then get the report, review it, have a phone call with the inspector and then finalise my decision whether to proceed or pull out.

 

I've always been at the inspection and find it handy to see any issues first hand, sometimes they tell me things as they find them, sometimes we have a chat at the end.

 

thank you that's very good advice from everyone! will take up the suggestion
cheers

 

We have a regular guy who does our B&Ps and i always do my best to be there. His background is building anyhow, and he will often mention things that don't make it into the report, for one reason and another. You'd be amazed how much info a good B&P guy can give you - definitely worth being there, and building a rapport with him if you don't know him.

 

Always meet and discuss.
The written reports are usually doom and gloom to cover their legal disclaimers and will list every little thing.
But when we talk to the inspector he usually adds, "but it's a great property".
You can also bring up any little niggling doubts you may have.
Marg

 

I have very little experience with house maintenance, but the B&P inspectors I went with didn't leave me with much confidence in them. I went along to the inspection and actually had to point out at the end several things they'd missed. Some were very obvious like discolored ceiling possibly caused by leaking (confirmed after I pointed it out).

 

Sounds like you got a dud inspector.

There are good ones out there. Use the Search function on PC to uncover them.

 

I initially tried with one of the more recommended ones. They must've been really busy since I couldn't get a hold of any one in the 2 days I was calling.

 

PM me if you want to know who I have used.

 

We always go and arrive at the start.

It's a chance for us to inspect the property again while they are doing their thing.

At the end (or if they call us during), we are shown the (major if not all) issues they found.

Definitely recommend being there. Yes, also to get first hand impression if they are good or not (for future purchases).

 

I like to attend all of mine and if I cannot attend I will get someone else I trust to visit for me.

Reasons being;

1. They will point out the actual issues including minor ones and tell you things like 'I would or wouldn't bother with this'.
2. Estimated cost if you were to fix it or a cheaper fix if possible.
3. The biggest one - Education, so you can learn for the future, sure you might not pick up 100% of their inspections but once someone points it out to you even if you took away 2-3 things after 10 reports that is 20-30 items you might be able to identify without the building inspector so you can either engage them to fully report or move on from the property.

The building inspector I used most recently in Brisbane (found from forum) I used twice as we had two contracts. The first one had major structural issues and we couldn't find an agreement but the second one he made out that there was some really big problem as the REA was hovering around and then when I spoke to him after he said he would still proceed.

Depending on if I wanted to inspect the property again I would either organize to be there at the same time (but don't hang around them let them do their thing) or just meet at the end to get a verbal summary.