Just a few days ago I was contacted by a lovely young lady with a disaster on her hands.
She bought a unit without pre purchase inspection and although she knew she shouldn’t have but at the time a lot was going on with her very sick parents and her own health issues that she missed a beat. Nevertheless he gave a contract to her solicitor for checking.
As it happens, neither her or her solicitor read the contract and she was unaware of engineering report in section 32 that found structural damage recommending underpinning and a replacement of tree root damaged sewer. Her cooling off period expired and she had unconditional contract.
To make matters worse, blocked sewer caused her toilet to flood inside unit and outside and bathroom walls begun to crack;
This is what I reported:
1. A summary of the opinion or opinions of the expert:
a. It is clear that engineering recommendations have not been carried out and from the plumbing report that plumbing blockages have not been fixed.
b. This unit has defective sewer drain that cannot be fixed until it is replaced.
c. Sewer drain at the time of inspection was blocked and leaking.
d. The unit is at risk of severe internal sewer flooding from the unit above due to blocked drain.
e. Strong smell of raw sewer gas is sickening and unhealthy.
f. Vendor’s attempts at fixing are nothing more than a cosmetic makeover and are unsatisfactory.
On the basis of the above, I have no hesitation in declaring that this dwelling is substantially defective and unfit for occupation until engineering recommendations are carried out and completed.
In email to me this is what unfortunate purchaser said:
Dear Branko,
Thank you for the report. It is indeed damning of the property and its state of condition.
Unfortunately, I did have to settle yesterday or I would have had to get a court injunction 10-15K and pay penalties to the owner.
I have requested the final bill from the solicitors who I have used from the beginning – including sending the contract which included the engineer’s report.
After that I can put everything in the hands of my new solicitors who can then pursue the negligent parties that I engaged to read the contract of sale.
As the repairs are urgent I would appreciate your ideas – should I email the report to the Body Corporate itself or lodge it straight with VCAT to get an order to repair.
Meantime I have to service the mortgage on this apartment which is unliveable. I will be collecting the keys in a few days and hope the sewerage has not already swamped the bathroom.
Again, many thanks for your report,
Sincerely,
Name withheld
There you have it, this lady is not well and this is a double whammy ” talking about being kicked when you are down”
Caveat emptor- get your inspection before you buy
Your call!
We purchased a house 8 years ago. Recently it has begun to have leakage issues. INspection shows that the lower wall has not been sealed in a way suitable for the use of the basement rooms. When applying for council plans, we find that the whole of the lower level living area has not been submitted to council for planning approval, and according to them is a workshop area only, so is all illegal. Do we have any rights against the previous owner who did this work himself and did not disclose that it was never approved? Our advertised 4 bedroom 2 living area house is now a 3 bedroom 1 living area house needing $100’s dollars of work to reac compliance. And yes, we had a building inspection done and conveyencing, but both failed to pick this up.
Oh dear that sounds like a terrible ordeal, that poor woman. But lesson learnt, always have a building and pest inspection done before you buy any property. It will save you thousands! Sue
Oh no the poor new home owner! Hopefully her situation was able to be resolved without to much stress and expense. You try to stress the importance of building and pest inspections before the purchase of a property but unfortunately when its overlooked the poor new owner is left out of pocket.
This is what truly happens when building inspection were skipped when buying or renting a property; the poor client will be surprised one day, all repairs will just fall hard right in front of him. The same instances happens when pest inspections were skipped. It’s just so sad, some people have to learn their lessons the hard way. We don’t have control on how these owners do care about the new owners or lessor of their property, most of them are in a hurry to just sell. But don’t get me wrong, some would still care and will hand you the property at its prime condition. But nonetheless, it’s better be safe than sorry.