Entry 1
The order of events
From the Queensland Government’s cooling-off page and QBCC’s buying advice, a private sale runs like this.
- Before you sign
The seller must give you the seller disclosure statement, Form 2, before you sign the contract. It does not cover the structural soundness of the building or pest infestation. Tab 5 reads the form.
- In the contract
QBCC recommends making the inspection a condition: you must be satisfied with it before you will buy the house.
- Day 1 · the signed contract arrives
Cooling-off starts on the day you receive a copy of the contract signed by both parties, even if a representative takes it for you. If it arrives on a weekend or public holiday, it starts on the next business day.
- Day 5 · 5pm
The period ends at 5pm on the fifth day. To cancel before then, you give the seller or the seller’s agent a written notice, sign it, and deliver it before 5pm on the final day, in person, by email or by fax; making sure it arrives in time is your responsibility. The seller must refund the deposit within 14 days and may deduct a penalty of up to 0.25% of the purchase price.
- From the contract date
In most cases, the Queensland Government says, you should take out home insurance from the contract date.
When there is no cooling-off
Auctions have none. Nor does a private contract signed within 2 business days of an unsuccessful auction of that property, where the buyer was a registered bidder at it. A buyer can also choose to waive or shorten the period, by written notice to the seller or their agent.
Entry 2
Two inspections, two licences
A “building and pest inspection” is two inspections. Both can be done at the same time if the inspector holds the right licences for each.
The building inspection
Only a licensed residential building inspector can do a pre-purchase building inspection. QBCC’s licence for it covers inspecting a completed building and preparing a report in line with Australian Standard AS 4349.1–2007, and an applicant must show 5 years’ experience in the scope of work, under a builder’s licence or as a building surveyor, assistant building surveyor or building surveyor technician. Contracting for this work needs a QBCC licence whatever its value.
The pest inspection
Only a licensed pest controller can do a termite inspection. QBCC’s booklet recommends a pre-purchase timber pest inspection as well as the building inspection, carried out by a contractor appropriately licensed by QBCC. Tab 1 sets out the termite licence classes.
QBCC’s advice is to check the inspector’s licence before hiring them. Its lists and registers page carries the licensee register.
Entry 3
What each report looks at
Summarised from QBCC’s buying page and from its termite booklet, which describes the two Australian Standards.
| Report | What it looks at |
|---|
| Pre-purchase building inspection (AS 4349.1) | Obvious defects or areas of concern. QBCC adds that it is not a warranty against future defects. |
|---|
| Termite inspection | Termites, evidence of termite damage, and any termite management system already in place. The inspector should also explain how to look after an installed system, and whether the property is in an area at risk of termite attack. |
|---|
| Timber pest inspection (AS 4349.3) | Non-invasive: a visual inspection with non-marking sounding and a check of moisture content, covering the house and the property within 30 metres of it. The report should comment on present or past timber pest activity and damage, signs of previous treatment, how susceptible the building is, and conditions that raise the risk, with recommendations where needed. It is not a search for every pest: the standard’s definition of timber pests takes in wood decay fungi, borers of seasoned timber, and subterranean and damp wood termites, but leaves out drywood termites and mould. |
|---|
Borers of seasoned timber are the subject of Tab 2.
Entry 4
What a report cannot see
QBCC’s booklet is plain that any timber pest inspection is limited by the inspector’s competencies and by whatever stands in the way on the day. Its examples of what can get in the way:
- pest activity that has been deliberately concealed;
- areas or items that cannot be inspected, for any reason;
- the weather at the time;
- how good and how accurate the information from the owner or their representative is.
Entry 5
After you move in
Two rules reach past settlement. First, if you buy a house with defects or subsidence you knew about before purchase, you cannot later claim for them through the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme. Second, if you find a problem your building and pest inspection did not pick up, the action against the inspector is yours to take: QBCC says you first lodge a complaint with it, and it gives you a letter to take the matter to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT).
Both reports belong in the house file, beside the termite notice from the meter box. The papers a house file keeps are listed on the first page.