You’ve found the home of your dreams, and now you need to figure out how much money you’ll need to pay for a building inspection, settlement fees, insurance, and moving companies. This article clarifies the prices associated with getting a building inspected in Perth, Mandurah, Bunbury, and the rest of Western Australia’s Greater Southwest. Costs in Western Australia range widely from $250 to $1495 for inspections of single-story homes. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed or dissatisfied when evaluating options because of their significant price and quality gaps.
Anxiety might cause you to base such a significant decision on factors like “who has the least pricing,” but this is a mistake. You are about to make a decision that will profoundly impact your future financial security. A reliable inspection firm should be prioritized.
This blog post details the cost of a building inspection you may require when buying a home in Perth.
7 Main Factors that Affect the Price of Your Building Inspection
How much an inspector will charge depends on various criteria, including the nature and extent of the requested inspection. In this article, I’ll discuss the five most significant aspects of determining how much your review will cost.
- Inspection of a Building Before Its Purchase
A pre-purchase building inspection aims to identify significant flaws in the building’s structure and systems. Footings, a ground slab or floor frame, external walls, inner walls, a ceiling frame, a roof frame, and any retaining walls connected to the main dwelling are all considered structural components. Ceilings, tiles, and roof coverings are examples of non-structural features often left out of a report of this type. When signing a REIWA agreement, it outlines the scope as a Structural inspection which includes and excludes as explained above. Many unqualified and untrained inspectors would offer you the world and include a lot of items completely invaluable to you as you already signed an agreement outlining the scope.
Expect to Budget: $330 to $990 based on size, location, and scope.
Jim’s Building Inspections starts at minimum $330. Most of our qualified and fully insured Inspectors are also qualified Termite & Timber Pest Inspectors, however, we also work very closely with our fully licensed Jim’s Termite & Pest Control division so that we can always, offer a combined Pre-Purchase Structural, Termites and Timber Pest Inspections. A combined inspection could range anything between $450 and $1450 depending on the location and size of the building.
- Termite & Timber Pest Inspection
A Timber Pest Inspection aims to visually identify any signs of timber pest activity, timber pest damage, or conducive conditions to timber pest activity. Termites, borer insects, and fungal wood deterioration are among the problems with Perth’s timber.
Expect to Budget: Spend between $220 to $450, with the price fluctuating with factors like the square footage and expertise of the inspection.
Timber Pest Inspections alone cost between $330 and $550 when engaging a qualified professional at Jim’s your biggest household name in Australia. Take note, this inspection is in our opinion is far more important than the Structural Inspection. Many times, structural issues are directly related to termite damage. Don’t take this too lightly by engaging a non-professional. We have learned over many years, builders and building inspectors can easily walk over termite damage or termite activity, hence we have a dedicated pest control division and our inspectors trained by licensed pest technicians. Yes, our Building Inspectors do full comprehensive termite training and install termite management systems to be qualified to do Termite inspections.
- Any concerns regarding Asbestos?
Some good advice is to add any conditions to the purchase agreement. So, if the building is constructed prior 1989, then you have a good reason to get it inspected for Asbestos but take note, buildings were constructed with Asbestos as late as 2004. Most of our Inspectors are qualified to do visual or sampling Asbestos Inspections. A visual Asbestos inspection added to a Pre-Purchase could start from $220 depending on the location and size of the building. Asbestos Inspections alone could start from $380 and sampling for Asbestos roughly $85 per sample. These fees vary from Inspector to Inspector, this is just an average and good indication what to expect from Jim’s Building Inspections Perth.
- Depreciation Schedules
Hands down the best service if you are buying an investment. Did you know you could claim depreciating assets when doing your TAX each year? Well not many Buildings Inspectors van do this, combining your Structural, with Termite and Timber Pest, perhaps an Asbestos report and on top of that also do a Depreciation schedule for you. The Depreciation schedule depending on the size of the building, starts at $660.00
5. Dimensions of Typical Western Australia Homes
The building inspector will have to spend more time at your house if it’s enormous, so that’s another issue that might drive up the price of your inspection. Rural properties could have multiple buildings forming part of the contract sale. Larger homes or those with many levels may incur additional fees from some inspectors. Keep all of the factors in mind.
Expect to Budget: Many Perth inspection companies charge more for multi-story properties, while others charge per bedroom. With Jim’s Building Inspections, depending on the location, it is rarely we charge extra for a double story but keep in mind, external roof cover is now a limitation but again, roof cover is not a structural element.
6. Safe to Rent Inspections – Property Condition reports for Rental.
Just another service if your purchase is an investment, whether you buy it though your savings, part of your investment portfolio or through your super, always consider getting a property condition report done or a safe to rent report done prior any rental agreement is put in place. Many property management companies also offer a condition report. In most cases it is a terrible report with lots of photographs and taken by property managers or their assistants. Inspectors that have a focus on defects and qualified and trained how to make a defect stand out in a report have a much higher focus on the outcomes for the client. Our property condition reports start at $250 depending on the size of the building. Simply add the safe to rent scope and make it a property report you can use for annual maintenance as well and the cost would start at approx. $440.00
7. Vendor Reports
Thinking about selling your home? Ever thought about getting a Building Inspector through to do a condition report before selling? This way you could know upfront of major issues that could hold up the sale. This way you could also rectify anything that was identified on the building Inspectors report. A vendor report including inspecting for Termites and timber pests would cost approximately anything from $660 but massively valuable to the seller. With a defect free well-presented building, you could easily sell the home for more.
Should My Building Inspector be a Registered Builder in WA?
Wow, this is a myth, hands down! Ask yourself, Am I building a home or am I buying a home? Did you know, you could be a sparky and become a registered builder in WA? Even Civil Engineers can become a registered builder? So, if anyone tell you it MUST be a registered builder, they are completely wrong because it is not legislation in WA. Registered Builders doing Inspections only applies to Inspectors in Queensland under the QBCC and they also enforce a CRBI (Complete Residential Building Inspectors) certification. In Jim’s Building Inspections, we qualify all our Inspectors with CRBI – Complete Residential Building Inspection training and they do an annual refresher compliance course. They need a Diploma in Building & Construction or relevant trade with minimum 5 years’ experience. We have over 150 Inspectors across Australia, many registered builders, Engineers, and you name the trade, we have them. The Insurance are a huge support behind us simply due to the level of training we put behind our Inspectors.
Conclusion.
Take it from this perspective, it is a very expensive investment to purchase a home. When you google, there are hundreds of inspectors, and you feel completely lost not knowing who to engage. Our advice is simply to make sure you get a reputable company with a high reputation regarding customer satisfaction. Most independent Inspectors have little to none support or guidelines how to report in accordance with the relevant standards. The Jim’s household name has over 4500 Franchisees and the only way we keep up with 100% customer satisfaction is to call the clients from our call center and review the service they received. Simply something no competitor offer here in WA. Looking for the best building and pest inspection Perth provider who will give you reliable and high-quality service for your inspection? Jim’s Building Inspectors has Perth’s most trusted team of trained, qualified Inspectors. Check out our google reviews here. Click here for a quick quotation on our full range of home inspection services to help you budget. You can book and pay online.
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