No Development Approval Completion Inspection

Discussion in 'Legal Issues' started by mojorising, 6th Mar, 2019.

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  1. mojorising

    mojorising Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    1st Mar, 2017
    Posts:
    79
    Location:
    Gold Coast, QLD
    I am buying a house and the Approval certification entry in the council online database has no entry for the completion date.

    It was DA approved in 2000 and completed in 2001

    My lawyers are advising me that this may mean that no final inspection was ever carried out.

    What are the implications of buying a house where no such completion inspection was done?

    I bought a house a few years ago (2009) where the sellers (self-builders) told me that they had not got a completion inspection in order that they could go on making modifications more easily.

    In that instance I required them to get completion certificate for the sale.

    In this instance the owner has not said anything but it appears that the lack of a completion date on the approval entry may mean that this house is in the same situation.

    I am not sure if this is a big deal or not (I was not really sure last time either). So does anyone know if it is a big deal?
     
  2. Paul@PAS

    Paul@PAS Tax, Accounting + SMSF + All things Property Tax Business Plus Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    23,319
    Location:
    Sydney
    No cert of occupancy ? You may be acquiring a dwelling that council could ask to be demo'd.

    Ask council / lawyers what it means. I would have thought the lawyers would have told you what this means.
     
  3. mojorising

    mojorising Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    1st Mar, 2017
    Posts:
    79
    Location:
    Gold Coast, QLD
    It turns out that the building consent was granted but the final inspection was never done so the council status is awaiting final inspection instead of complete.

    This only came to light when my solicitor forwarded a status report obtained from the council database.

    My solicitor advises that the QLD contract does not provide any recourse in the situation where approvals are discovered to be incomplete during the settlement process.

    I was a bit surprised by that.

    Whose responsibility would it normally be to check that approval processes are complete and at what point in the purchase process would this normally occur?