Hi OzB,
Wanted a bit of recommendation / advise.
We are about to move into our newly constructed house and have been thinking of getting our home inspected by a professional.
Wanted to know if anyone here has had it done (for a new house), and what their experience has been. i.e., did you find something that you otherwise may not have found? Or is it more of a peace of mind.
I am very new to all this and and suggestions would be appreciated.
Cheers,
b
100% inspected by a professional.
Newly constructed home these days will come with defects, some of these you won't pick up yourself.
So who do you call? Another builder?
The original builder should fix them
Darbecca is a well know player in pre-settlement inspections.
An independent building inspector that doesn't work for the home builder.
Off course, it is best to do that considering it'll be one of your biggest purchase in life.
The builder will ensure that he/she does the best to make the most profit possible and therefore something will be missed… So YES get a new building inspection. Ask your conveyancer who does this if you do not know.
Ask, check simple things like doors closing properly, cupboards opening, shelves on straight. Also, if windows have locks, keys are there!
More things to look out for…
the house is properly secured re: tornadoes, floods, etc.
bathroom tiling and kitchen splashback tiling is straight and there are no cracks in the grout
tapping check and make sure no air gap under the tile.
yes, get an inspection. When we had our house built, the list of defects at final inspection was over two A4 pages long - right down to knowingly installing a bath with a major crack in it hoping we would miss it. We even found power points with no power, an internal wall that was so crooked you couldn't miss it. My sister in law paid extra for cable conduit installed in all the walls (otherwise they were just going to cut channels in the bricks and plaster over the cables). At a scheduled inspection we found that they had installed roof frames over the top of the conduit so it was blocked.
You have to keep an eye on them.
did you manage to get all the defects rectified?
a lot of the time you don't!
Basically don't make final payment till all defects are resolved. Keep in mind resolution might mean that price is reduced in exchange to not fixing.
these days it's in the contract you need to make final payment before defects are fixed.
@dasher86: We just finished a build and didn't pay till defects were sorted. Builder didn't ask for full payment nor argue about it either.
He did ask for partial payments as items got fixed, which were happy to pay as long as we still had enough money left over to cover any repairs we had to do ourselves if builder said no.
@MrHyde: Depends on your contract. I’m surprised this builder had it written that way. Almost every home world builder has payment before defects.
yup got them all fixed. It did take some arguing, for example the building company tried to tell me that a window that let wind through wasn't a building issue and I needed to chase it up with the window maker.
Highly recommend getting a certifed building inspector to do it. That way the builder knows they have less of a chance to bullshit you with either saying it is nothing or "normal" or just putting some paint over it. They will write a report with the remediation required in the appropriate language for the building to get on with it.
Probably $500-$1000 depending on the size of the property and the complexity of the building. Well worth it.
I wish I had ours inspected in hindsight. Didn't think people could f up what seems like simple tasks.
Ideally it is best to have Independent inspections during the build phase. Now you will pick up aesthetic defects only. Try handover.com these guys walk around with red dot stickers and stick em where there is a defect. Depends where you are try: https://www.google.com/search?q=handover+inspection&oq=hando…
Don’t waste your time on aesthetic things like a paint mark here and there, if you just focus on important defects then the builder will take you seriously and address it. But if you just list 50 marks on the wall they will know you are taking the piss and also realise your lack of understanding.
run all your taps at the same time for the duration of the inspection. Just in case pipes are blocked.
make sure your shower water falls to the drain and not a corner of the shower.
drop some water out of the shower and make sure it falls to the drain and do the same thing in the laundry.
flush toilets 4-5 times.
run external taps and see if they work.
run the taps connected to rainwater tank to ensure the pump in the tank is running and make sure they have signs noting which taps run on rain water tank.
run hot water for 5-10 minutes at all taps to check hot water works.
turn on your AC system and run your hand in front of every grille to see air. Run it on full cool and then full heat until you feel it.
zone your AC and check they have zoned correctly. I.e. your bedroom should run but lounge should not
turn on your appliances, particularly the oven and run it on full heat to see if any power trips from dodgy circuitry.
check all your power points work, the easiest way is a plug in light from Bunnings.
check the unders of all doors are painted particularly external and bathroom doors
check all handles, windows, sliding wardrobes, cabinets, doors, garage all operate smoothly
check all lights and fans are on and working
get all your keys
make sure things have not been missed from your contract such as tiling to an area, some lights or power points etc.
get all your project documentation - OC, architectural, structural, certificates from trades etc
Thanks. Very useful and appreciate it
check all your power points work, the easiest way is a plug in light from Bunnings.
-hair dryer is meant to be better as it requires a higher voltage draw and easier to carry around.
Nice I didn't think of that. Lol albeit I've never owned a hair dryer but that is really good because it effectively runs like a heater with the portability.
Small paint marks here and there is fine. I've seen homes that have big patches that stick out like dogs tennis balls and the walls were repainted.
Too late for you but for others I'd recommend getting an independent inspection at framing stage, this is where corners can be cut that can be quite important to the structure of the house that may cause issues years down the track (when the house is out of warranty). This is the chance to to have an independent professional check to ensure the house is being both built to the engineering and specifications on your plans and up to code, this is where inadequate drainage away from the site that could lead to slab heave later on can be identified etc etc. After framing stage much of these checks are very difficult and costly to check later on.
Will be watching the comments with shared interest as will be in a similar situation next year. I have been told that it may be worth having a professional photographer go through and take photos for you should you need to sell it or rent it out in the future. (Great time to do it without all the personal effects present)