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The Department of Commerce, Office of Home Building is presently seeking submissions from the public and interested parties as to the theory and practice of residential building licences in the State. [c/- DFT Head Office 1 Fitzwilliam St Parramatta NSW 2150: call 13 32 20].
But ahead of the outcome of that enquiry they are also bringing in new rules for licencees. Now proof of identity is required of any person seeking to obtain any licence for work in the domestic building industry and those licence details can be checked on the web at the Fair Trading site.
A recent decision of the Consumer Trader & Tenancy Tribunal illustrates how careful purchasers and their solicitors should be in specifying the extent of the report which they wish a building consultant to make on a pre-purchase inspection. Hatzievgeniou v All Building Consultants was a case where the report did not indicate that the house was originally a weatherboard dwelling which had been bricked over so that it might be described as brick-veneered, and it failed to disclose the existence of a false ceiling in one room which had not been properly finished: a gaping hole could be seen through the manhole. The new owner sued the building inspector for damages of $35,000 but had no success in persuading the Tribunal that the report was defective. "The second ceiling covering up. does not, in my opinion, detract from the dwelling's stability, resources, use, appearance and suitability, for example, as a dwelling."
Unless you have your lawyer stipulate exactly what the building inspection must cover, you too could be left with the house you cannot live with. Nothing is as ever-present as one's residence: it is the most used, and cost-effective weekend escape in town. But it can be ruined if the defects expected to be revealed by a report are not.
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Spending a little more on your advisors could result in a conveyance of lasting value.
Unless you have your lawyer stipulate exactly what the building inspection must cover, you too could be left with the house you cannot live with. Nothing is as ever-present as one's residence: it is the most used, and cost-effective weekend escape in town. But it can be ruined if the defects expected to be revealed by a report are not.
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