What have been your experiences with building inspections?

Mofflepop · Jan 04, 2024 10:34 pm

I’ve recently discovered a popular YouTube channel of a building inspector highlighting newly built houses that are non-compliant and requiring rectification.
This scares the bajeezus out of me as I already felt that a truly independent and comprehensive inspection (either at each stage or even at hand over) would probably not be achievable for my build (I am yet to pick a builder and will be asking many questions about their inspection process when making my choice).

Maybe I’m too cynical but considering what the industry has just been through, I know ‘cost-saving’ techniques will be utilised everywhere!

I’d love to hear about your experiences…. what you were told by your builder about the inspections allowed during the process (private independent inspector allowed or only builder’s inspector?) if you challenged this, and what you did if issues were identified, and were they resolved properly - etc! Thanks 🫣

Pedro4137 · Jan 05, 2024 10:12 am

The builder doesn’t do inspections.

A registered building surveyor has to do the inspections and is requirement of building permit.

Check in your state how to appoint the building surveyor.

With most domestic building contracts, when final invoice is presented that is the time when the nitty gritty starts.

can ignore everything from you, pay for the house, wait for faults to arise. Like any other product purchase

Mofflepop · Jan 07, 2024 9:07 am

Pedro4137

The builder doesn’t do inspections.

A registered building surveyor has to do the inspections and is requirement of building permit.

Check in your state how to appoint the building surveyor.

With most domestic building contracts, when final invoice is presented that is the time when the nitty gritty starts.

can ignore everything from you, pay for the house, wait for faults to arise. Like any other product purchase

Sorry if I didn’t make it clear in my question.
I have the feeling there is different terminology for different states (please Queenslanders, correct me if I’m wrong) but I believe (after more research) there are mandated inspection milestones for the build process, and these are completed by a building certifier who is ‘independent’ to the builder but never-the-less may have an ongoing relationship with that builder (I am yet to learn more about this sort of thing).
I have read varying bits of information and been told lots of things by people in the industry but it seems that a customer/home owner can either choose to employ a private building inspector in addition to the certifier doing their mandatory work (but this private inspector’s report findings will not be binding or enforceable) OR the builder might give the customer a choice to just use their own PI? (not sure about this but I read it in this forum that someone was told this by their builder).
I’m a little confused about the seeming interchangeable use of the title ‘surveryor’ and ‘certifier’ and ‘inspector’ as it seems they actually all do different roles.
I was thinking the surveyors do initial surveys of pegging out the land, contour survey etc. Whereas building inspector inspects for any completed work not meeting code and the building certifier certifies and ‘signs off’ each stage of the build process and if they deem work to not be adequate or completed then the next stage cannot commence (?? Not sure if this is actually the case but I hope it is).

My original point was - regardless of the independence of the building certifier used to sign off each stage (I was using the term ‘builder’s inspector’ in my initial question, based on information from someone saying the customer was told they had to use the builder’s inspector, not a private inspector - but I see now this terminology may be confusing) I worry that they may not truly be independent and may have a ‘good working relationship’ with the builder that ensures things move along ‘smoothly’ haha.

I’m keen to hear of people’s experiences so I can learn from them.

🙂

noviice · Jan 07, 2024 7:20 pm

You have mandatory building inspections and privately engaged building inspections.

The difference between the two comes down to inspecting the building so it's safe and inspecting thr building so it meets good building practice.

What differentiates the two is the way in which it is built will determine will it deteriate over time to the point of failure or bad to begin with vs' does it look sh*t.

Example includes will a column support a balcony vs' a cracked tile on the porch.

Mandatory inspections comes from the national construction code where engineering principles are put to test, the latter are commonly manufacturing guidelines.

Your inspections that you seen on YouTube could be looking at any two but standard building practices follow satisfying the mandatory building stages as per minimum so it's easy for the impletmentsiron of inspections - everything is set up to follow due course such as timber used meets building code and building procedures ensure the house stays up.

It can get messy when it comes to private inspections where along the way building practices used go lazy throughout implementation for example, you can erect a stud frame wall to support a house but it is lazy practice if you use a timber that is bowed and you don't correct it at plaster stage which therefore creates your plaster wall looking buldged. Your frame.still stands up and performs, with such interconnected trades, thus you get non mandatory building practices about. For example.

Hope helped.