info@ppbi.com.au

1300 396 585

Research before buying a property – Ensure you research some general information to inform your decision.

Discover how easy it is to save time and money finding the property you want. Whether you are looking to buy, sell or rent a property.

Premise Inspection’s pre-purchase building and pest property report is a comprehensive building and pest appraisal of the property, undertaken for a prospective buyer or seller.

The following links can assist you in making an informed decision, especially to establish its assets, liabilities and evaluate its commercial potential.

Due diligence

Premise Inspections are a specialist in providing the best building and pest inspections across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and, the Sunshine Coast.

Our licensed and insured building and pest inspectors are dedicated to providing frank and fearless detailed information about your property. Including, pool safety compliance. Utilising the latest thermal and microwave screening and aerial drone technology, Premise Inspections examine all major components of the property to expose structural defects, termites, insulation and moisture abnormalities.

Premise Inspections pre-purchase building and pest inspection is a full written inspection report, presented in an accurate, easy to understand format, which includes digital photos of any defects or findings. This is to assist you in making an informed asset decision for the property.

Premise Inspections offer pre-purchase and pre-sale building and pest inspections as well as annual timber pest inspection services. A visual inspection is carried out on the entire property, which includes, general plumbing and electrical observations, identifies any major structural faults or minor defects. Alongside, provides insight into maintenance issues and safety hazards.

Why choose Premise Inspections for your Building and pest inspection?

Frequently asked building and pest inspections

What are building and pest inspections?

A building inspection (or property inspection) can identify structural, conditional design defects or problems in the interior and exterior of a property. Some of which, may not be visible initially.

These can include:

• Rising damp
• Structural cracks/ Subsidence
• Leaks
• Illegal construction
• Faulty roofs
• Termite damage/ infestation/ wood decay
• Hidden building construction issues

Thermal screening, movement radar, and aerial drone photography technologies

Can assist in identifying hidden building construction issues, identify moisture intrusion, detect energy loss/missing insulation, and many basic electrical connection and load problems.

A building and pest inspection professional will typically prepare what’s known as a ‘property inspection report’ which, must comply with the Australian Standard to be authentic.

A correctly-worded building and pest clause may give you the right to withdraw from the contract if the report is not satisfactory.

The wording, ‘structurally sound’ should ring alarm bells. It means that you must buy the property unless it has major structural defects.

Death by a thousand cuts, most properties are structurally sound, but may still have significant problems such as rusted gutters, rotten windows, broken plumbing, non-functional smoke alarms, air conditioning, cooktops, ovens, garage door opener, and other costly repairs.

Why should you pay for a building and pest inspection?

Identifying and fixing problems before you purchase a property, could save you thousands of dollars down the track if problems are left unchecked. You could potentially also use the information to negotiate a lower price for the property (i.e. by highlighting that you’ll have to pay for some repairs).

What is not included in a building and pest inspection?

A building inspection report generally won’t include an estimate of any cost associated with repair recommendations or information on parts of the property that weren’t/couldn’t be inspected. A building inspector will not usually check things such as plumbing/drainage, electrical wiring, appliances or paint.

Cost of building and pest inspection Brisbane?

Typically, a building and pest inspection will cost hundreds of dollars. To keep the cost down, we offer a combined building and pest inspection service for less than the cost of separate inspections. Whilst you house hunt, you may order more than one building and pest inspection report, therefore it is necessary to factor this into your budget.

Who should conduct a building and pest inspection?

Make sure you always use a licensed building and pest inspector, builder, surveyor or architect, and timber pest technician. Ensure, that the building and pest inspector also has adequate insurance cover, particularly for professional indemnity. You can check whether a tradesperson is licensed on the QBCC (Queensland Building and Construction Commission), in Queensland https://www.qbcc.qld.gov.au/ or your state or territory’s Fair Trading (or equivalent) website

When should you arrange for a building and pest inspection?

Seek advice from your solicitor, conveyancer, bank or financial institution. However, ideally, the building and pest inspection should be conducted before the exchange of contracts or during the cooling-off period. If the building and pest inspection property report convinces you not to go ahead with buying the property and you have already exchanged contracts, it’s important for you to know your cooling-off rights and implications of exercising those rights.

Termite management systems

All houses in Queensland are required at construction to incorporate a termite management system to help prevent termite attack. It is important to understand that properly installed, and maintained termite management systems, impede and discourage concealed termite entry into buildings. However, they do not always prevent unconcealed entry and therefore, do not prevent a termite attack.

A pre-purchase building and pest inspection report from Premise Inspections will identify what termite management system has been installed and what type of chemical and/or physical system has been installed (e.g. concrete slabs, exposed slab edge, metal shielding, stainless steel mesh or graded stone), if termite resistant materials have been used, or what combination of chemical and/or physical and/or termite resistant materials are in use.

Termite management is required below and around the perimeter of the building. Generally, physical systems will be designed to last for the lifetime of the building with proper maintenance.

Chemical systems have a limited life and therefore require ongoing treatment. Houses treated with an approved chemical Organochlorines (Heptachlor, DDT and Chlordane) to deter subterranean termite attack, in accordance with Australian standards 2057 or Australian standards 2178, have now expired. After 1995 ... now with non-repellent transfer poisons, Fipronil (Termidor), Imidacloprid (Premise) and the more recent, Chlorantraniliprole (Altriset termiticide), there is a shorter recommended life.

House styles in Brisbane- recognising housing styles

Periods of construction in Brisbane

The first house in the Brisbane region was built in 1824 for the commandant of the Redcliffe settlement. This house and many other early timber buildings have been demolished or removed.

Newstead House, constructed in 1846, claims the title of the oldest existing house in Brisbane.

Bulimba House (1850), the Deanery (1855) in Brisbane City (first known as Hobbs House), and Bardon House (1863) are other examples of substantial 19^th century houses.

Cottages from the late Colonial period are located in the inner suburbs of Petrie Terrace and Spring Hill. However, most of the typical 19^th century houses around inner Brisbane date from the 1880s. Examples of these period houses can be seen in Paddington, Red Hill, Highgate Hill and East Brisbane.

Houses epitomising the Federation-era include those constructed in masonry, as well as larger decorative timber homes in suburbs such as Clayfield, Ascot, Hawthorne and Graceville.

The interwar building boom saw the construction of the porch-and-gable and, multi-gable bungalows. These houses characterise much of Brisbane’s timber-and-tin housing, particularly in suburbs such as Ashgrove. Many houses from this era were built through the Queensland Government Workers’ Dwelling Scheme.

To a lesser extent, the 1920s and 1930s also gave rise to more derivative domestic architecture. These include the Californian bungalow as well as Spanish Mission, Old English, Functionalist and Art Deco style houses and flats. Often constructed in masonry, there are examples in suburbs such as New Farm, Coorparoo and Chelmer.

Brisbane grew rapidly in the late 1940s and 1950s as a result of the immigration and the baby boom. Many of the post-war austerity houses in suburbs like Stafford, Camp Hill and Mitchelton were constructed of fibro sheeting. Overseas contractors also began to mass-produce houses (the Dutch at Coopers Plains and the French at Zillmere) to cater for the chronic housing shortage after the war.

From the 1960s, brick-veneer project houses built on concrete slabs began to fill the outer suburbs including Centenary Park, Carindale and Carseldine. However, there are some examples of International-style housing in St Lucia and Indooroopilly.

Some houses combine several different design elements and do not fit into a specific style. Some architect-designed houses or unusual houses require historical research to be reliably dated.

Most styles stretch for at least a decade before and after their era of popularity, and some are revived later. This is the case with Queensland’s traditional timber-and-tin housing.

Late Colonial period 1870s-1880s

Federation period 1890s-1910s

Interwar period 1920s-1930s

Post-war period 1940s-1960s

Click to expand image