A building inspection report has a certain structure and will contain specific information on the property you are about to purchase. It is an integral part of a building inspection and is a writer professional evaluation of the property you are going to buy. A standard report however will not give you a deep insight into defects and or any flaws in structural integrity but rather only describe a visual inspection. An inspection report should comply with the standards set by local law, for example inspection reports in Australia have a standard which is the Australian standard AS4349.1. Ensure that the report that you get from your consultant is in line with these standards so you know you get the best from their services.
Contents
The contents of a report will of course vary from property to property. The larger the property, the larger the evaluation. Your building inspector should evaluate all accessible parts of your property to give a 360 degree view of your property. A typical report would include information about the interior of the building, exterior of the building, site space, and the roof etc. A professional inspector would spend some quality time on the property to show you any significant findings and elaborate on them as much as possible. Things like corrosion and deterioration due to external factors like a close proximity to the sea should also be included in an inspection report. These findings can be found under the title “other findings.”
Who Should Conduct an Inspect Report
This is of course vital. Take the example of you buying a property or building in an Australian city like Adelaide. Usually, Adelaide building inspections are essentially only conducted by professionals, though there are still rogue inspectors in the market. There are minor laws which require licensed personnel to practice this trade, these are in place to protect any prospective buyers. It maybe a good idea to do some research on proof of a license which would assure you that you only get a high level of expertise from your consultant.
Factors Determining the Quality of the Report
There are of course quite a few factors that can determine the accuracy and quality of a report. We would like to think that an inspection report is always an accurate representation of the property we look to buy. This is not always the case. These include the quality and capabilities of the person conducting the inspection report, your level of information and communication with your chosen inspector and even certain odd factors that are hard to determine. For example you may not see the extent of a leak until it actually rains, so an inspector might not always be able to identify such defects in a structure without the presence of some factors or event. One must remember you cannot use an inspection report in a court of law or to show any compliance nor can you use this report for insurance purposes. It is solely to assist in making the decision of purchase.
