Settlement after major defect

Good evening all,

I’m in the process of purchasing a property in perth and the building report has come up with multiple major structural defects (all linked to each other). The seller has agreed to rectify this and my settlement agent has issued them a defects notice with settlement to happen 3 days after completion of works. he stated that this is normal but the more I think about it the more concerned I become with the 3 day turn around.

I will have 3 days to get an engineer in and report on the state of the rectification as well as get finance approval.

Is this normal and achievable? What happens if the engineer finds issues and settlement is supposed to be the next day?

I will be talking to my agent again regarding my concerns but thought I would get a different perspective

 

How serious are the works? Why do you need to get your own engineer in again afterwards?

 

I'll start with the obvious which is 'what does your contract say'. What is the timeline in the contract and annexures that you agreed to, state about when settlement is to occur after completion of works.

You should continue getting finance as per normal, there is no need to wait until rectification works

You could have the people who did the original B&P to inspect the work if you wished. if they (or your nominated professional) say it hasn't been fixed to code then you report this and don't settle until someone can prove it does meet code.

 

Its a pretty large job. It’s a defect on a recently fixed thing, the sellers are using the same builder that didn’t follow their engineer approved plans in the first place. Call it a trust issue.

 

finance is fully approved awaiting settlement (this structural situation hasn’t been a quick process), I’m more concerned if the bank could settle on 3 days notice

 

Apologies for multiple posts.

contract is just the standard REIWA contract, which states 3 days (attached). I just personally feel that’s pretty tight to get approved and settle, and wanted thoughts as it’s the first time I’ve had to go through this, but hey if that’s what the standard contract is then I’m sure it’s achievable.

My concern is that the contract states ‘certified by the sellers builder’ which I now know to be pretty unreliable otherwise we wouldn’t be in this predicament

 

You have 3 days grace after a settlement date should your bank need extra time but generally yes 3 days is enough time as everything is in place, it's just booking a time for money to swap hands.

 

I don't think I'd like it to be certified by the sellers builder, to be honest.

Years ago we had a B&P on a property, which showed up a plumbing issue. We got them to give us a quote to fix it. We then went back to the seller & said there's a problem with the property and it's going to cost X, we won't settle unless you take that amount off the purchase price, which they did. After settlement we got a local plumber to quote the works, which came in at 1/5 of the price.

 

If the works are conducted by the vendor builder then you may have a statutory or other warranty over their work if it isnt correct, complete or to acceptable standards. It may be a implied / statutory rather than an express warranty under consumer law between the consumer and the builder. You may stand in the consumer shoes as the new owner. . Your soliitor should be advising on that

Its like buying a two month old car. Its still under warranty.

 

+1 on this. I presume the Sellers are getting the current builder to fix it under their warranty as he didn't do it right in the first place. The warranty is passed on to new owner but I would get the professional that noted it wasn't to code to inspect and confirm it's ok before proceeding to Settlement