During cooling off period

Hi all

We got our offer to buy the first property accepted by the vendor couple days ago with cooling off period of 10days in NSW.

Thing we had done so far :

-Arranged unconditional loan from bank
-Building and pest inspections
-Solicitor reviewing the contract

Couple questions we have :

-How do I check if the vendor had done unapproved renovation ? I believe the building and pest inspection isn’t part of it ? Is there any kind of certificate I can get from council?

-Do I have right for another inspection before exchanging contract?

Appreciate everyone thought who had gone through the same process.

 

If the offer has been accepted and you're in cooling off, the contracts have been exchanged.

Standard cooling off period is 5 days not 10 days.

Your solicitor should be organising these other things or answering your questions.

 

Have you requested for the extension of cooling off from 5 days to 10 days?

You can request to inspect the property again. For our recent purchase, we inspected 3 times even during the lockdown - one during the cooling off to double-check the items in P&B report. It may be quicker to go through the agent to arrange it.

Regarding the renovation, ask the solicitor to check if you suspect any specific work (eg garage or extension). You can check with the council directly too. But you may only get verbal indication. The docs such as evidence of application/approval could take a few weeks if not publicly available already in the council's site.

 

Or your Buyer's Agent

- Andrew

 

Reading between the lines you've had an offer 'accepted' by the vendor with an agreed extended cooling off of 10 business days (@Scott No Mates is right, standard in NSW is 5 business days which, for all intents and purposes, is a week) and you're still waiting to exchange? Be wary, you're wide open for gazumping at this point and in my books, we never view an offer as accepted until contracts have exchanged.

To answer your question, you need to firstly ask the question, via your solicitor. This is generally a waste of time as they'll come back with 'make your own enquiries' as anything they are willing to disclose is usually disclosed in the contract in the special conditions anyway. Further to that I would have the building inspector look for seemingly obvious additions or alterations and then go to the relevant council website and look for an old DA or CDC that matches that finding. If you can't, then the chances are it's old enough to have the DA/CDC data archived in which case the only way you can find it is via a GIPA request, which can take up to 28 working days - impractical in most markets.

Having said that, any addition that has been archived is really unlikely to be an issue as councils don't make a habit of knocking on doors and the only real way you'll "get caught" is if a neighbour makes a complaint. If no one has complained within the time frame it's needed to be archived then it's unlikely they will, which is why new and recent additions are more of risk than old ones. Most council development officers will flat out tell you that technically, yes, they could ask for approval data and make you tear it down, but in reality they don't care and half the houses in any given suburb have unauthorised alterations.

Hope that helps.

- Andrew

 

Thank you for the detailed reply.

I meant to say that the offer was accepted and the contract exchanged with agreed 10days cooling off period for my due diligence and finance. I'm surprised when the Building inspection completed within 2 days and my bank is ready for unconditional within 4days given the current lending situation.

It's exactly what happened to us regarding finding out the unapproved build information

The solicitor advised that I need to personally check with council to verify any unapproved build.I cheked the RP data information to see if anything popped up there - nothing availabe. Then I went to council and been advised that there isn't any record of the DA. Council said it maybe because the house is too old or they just don't have it.
Yet the landlord advised through their solicitor that they enclosed part of their alfresco to sunroom about 20years ago. Seems quite reasonable conversion. It's approx about 5sqm. I'll take chance and bit the bullet if someone complained then I will tear down the enclosed area.

Is it normal to see long list of the minor defects in the building inspection ? I spoke with the inspector and he mentioned given the age of the property it's expected to have those list.

 

Finally , I can tie up the time for another inspection to make sure all intact and will take lot of the pictures LOL .

Any tips you can share what to look apart from the items in Building report at the subsequent inspection ?

 

I wouldn't worry about it if it's that old. More than likely just archived and if they haven't asked anyone to tear it down to date then they likely won't. Just be aware of the risk - DD isn't about making sure everything is perfect, it's about finding out as much as you can, assessing associated risks from that knowledge and deciding whether you're willing accept them. No property is perfect.

Yes, it's normal to see a long list of minor defects and as with above on DD, you need to decide how they will affect you and whether you want to accept them or not. Most B&P reports are made to look like the property is about to fall down so have someone more experienced read over it and always give the inspector a call to ask some pointed questions like "Would you buy it in its current condition?" (a lot won't answer that but many will). You can ascertain a lot of info in a 5 min call as to what they really thought about the property and many will open up given it's not on record. I always make this call regardless of what the report says.

Good luck!

- Andrew

 

Have you found any issue that B&P didn't identify? Most B&P inspectors over-report than under-report. You also need decent knowledge and experience to be able to identify potential issues. So slim chance you would find much.

Most problems originate from water, so I normally look for leaks, overflow, drainage, etc. If you don't know how to check, don't worry too much as you already got P&B. Relax and enjoy.

 

Thank again for your information which definitely ease my mind.

It does feel like the house is about to collapse the next minute I deposited the 10% hahahaha.

Will reach out to you if I’m looking for BA in the future.

 

Congrats

As you have already done council.....
1, Google the property, you may be able to find pic's online from when the current vendor purchased, so you can compare
2, Google earth (or council website), you can often view by years to see if the building footprint has changed

As stated, if it hasn't been noted by council (and is well over 7 years) then it shouldn't be a problem (an extension or converting a garage would be).

Yes, the B&P will list many items, even minor, no house seem's to get a clean bill of health (kinda point out everything so you can't come back at us ).

Was anything major noted on the B&P ????

Everyone starts second guessing after they have signed
Even some who have bought many many properties, there is always a moment when you think "did I check/what if".....

 

Never think about the google earth. Good tips. Will use it for next purchase if any. .

No major in the report however two full pages of minor one.
The inspector mentioned the downpipe from the shed that wasn't connected properly to storm water and the downpipe falls is a little bit off so he suggested to get this fixed as priority.

The rollercoaster emotions sometime quite high during this time lots of second guesses like you said. I guess nothing is zero risk in the property and nothing gonna be perfect.
We'll put aside the offset account for rainy day.

Thank again for all of the replies and insights.