What is a New Home / Pre-Settlement Inspection?

A ‘New home inspection’ or ‘Pre-Settlement Inspection’ is carried out when a property has been recently completed – ‘as new’.

Normally a pre-settlement inspection is conducted before the home builder receives their final progress payment from the owner. This means that if anything serious or major is found, the client still has ‘financial leverage’ with the builder. Making it easier to get major problems fixed but also a good ‘sanity check’, just to make sure the building is as it shoud be.

Most of our clients are new home builders or buyers, in new land release areas where the home builders are almost exclusively project home builders. That means they build a large number of homes each year, working on relatively small margins and relying on volume. The homes are ‘off the shelf’ designs and a construction ‘template’ is used, to standardise the construction process, making it cheaper and faster for the builder to produce these homes, when compared with a ‘custom design’ or one-off building.

Why should I get a New Home inspection?

New properties and project homes can contain significant problems, poor workmanship or incomplete items of work.  All new properties have at least some minor defects or incomplete items of work at settlement. These issues need to be identified and documented before purchase, before handover or preferably pre-settlement (prior to the builder receiving final payments). This provides a level of ‘security’ if problems are present. The builder can then rectify the issues before you move in – you may decide to not proceed with the sale depending on the nature of the defects and the Builder’s attitude towards rectification. Based on experience we find that most builders are responsible professionals and are happy to fix things where problems arise. Having a professional building defect report helps incentivise good building practices. The reports also give the owner some peace of mind at the end of the construction process.

In addition to identifying defects, poor workmanship or incomplete items, our building consultants will also recommend a list of documentation that should be obtained (where relevant) such as building approvals and certificates. These should be obtained from the builder or owner prior to purchase or handover.

Our Building Inspectors…

Sydney PrePurchase Building Inspectors have betwen 15-20 years experience, are accredited Building Consultants, Licensed Builders and are fully insured for Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance.

Our building inspectors and pest inspectors have literally completed thousands of inspections and reports.

The inspections and reports comply with the relevant Australian Standards, AS 4349.0, AS 4349.1 and AS 4349.3.

Book Online Now…  or call Chloe in the office on  0488 900386