FAQs

Unfortunately, in September 2009 the department of Fair trading removed the need for Building consultants (who complete pre-purchase inspections) to be licensed or hold suitable insurance. This means that anyone who wishes to do pre-purchase inspections can legally do so! Don’t be fooled by builders who say they are qualified in timber pest inspections. The standard only requires people who wish to do pre-purchase pest inspections to complete only two units of the entire pest management course.

You will see that many builders say they are qualified- they are only qualified to do pre-purchase inspections. They can’t treat for termites; they can’t do annual termite inspections as per AS3660.2 for exiting home owners and they can not get their license to trade as a pest controller but yet they can inspect your potential future home for termites. Please only use a suitably qualified pest technician for your Pre-purchase pest Inspection.

We at Clear View are licensed Builders and Pest management technicians. Our licenses can be checked with EPA and Department of Fair trading.

Ask the following questions:

Can you provide a copy of your builder’s license?

Can you provide a copy of your pest management license? Be careful with this one as they will provide a statement of attainment for units 8 and unit 10 completed of the pest management course. This qualification does not allow you to treat termites nor get your license for pest management. What you want to see is a license from the EPA qualified in PMT – this will confirm they have the relevant experience.

Ask to see insurance, although this is no comfort as the templates for the inspection reports are provided by the insurance company’s anyway to cover their back side!

A thorough inspection by a qualified inspector should take approx. 4hrs for an average size home. Most pre-purchase inspectors are doing average homes in under 2 hrs for both the building and pest which is why you pay $400 -$600 for these inspection reports.

We at Clear View allow a minimum of 4hrs to be able to do a detailed thorough inspection and report.

Well, that would depend on the business you acquire to do your inspection. Some may not want you to see how fast they skim over the property!

We at Clear View don’t mind our clients onsite, although we request you leave questions till the end of the inspection.

Generally, this is arranged after you have agreed on a price and put your deposit down. You will have a cooling of period of 10 days which will give you time to arrange your inspections. DO NOT be pressured into a 5 day cooling off as this is not long enough.

Alternatively, you could arrange an inspection prior to deposit and this could save you losing your deposit if you pull out of the deal.

You can also put a clause on the deposit advising if the building inspection does not return satisfactory, you can have your deposit returned.

If you are purchasing a property at auction you must arrange Pre-Purchase building and pest prior to the auction. There is no turning back after you win the auction!

1: You have found your dream home, next step is to go to our online enquiry page and request a call back or call us to arrange your inspections.

2: We will then discuss pricing and send you our agreements.

3: Once invoice is paid and agreements returned we will contact the realestate agent to arrange the inspection

4: We will then advise you of the date and time of the inspection.

5: On the day we will complete a detailed pre-purchase inspection report which we will send to you on the same day or within 24hrs, followed by a phone call from the inspector to discuss inspection findings.

Building inspectors will inspect all accessible areas of the home. These include floors, walls, ceilings, rood cavity, sub-floor, fences, roofs, bathrooms, kitchens, etc. They will look at the condition of the property, detailing the major and minor defects.

A termite inspection includes an assessment of each of the following areas:

• Interior of the building
• Exterior of the building including trees, stumps and timbers embedded in the soil on or within the property boundaries, up to a distance of 50m from the building.
• Any accessible sub-floor space.
• Any accessible roof voids

These are two different types of inspections. Termite inspection as per AS3660.2 is completed at least annually by existing home owners to ensure their homes are termite free. This is recommended by the Australian standard annually but more is preferred. The reason for this is that termites can consume a home very quickly and create devasting damage which is not covered by insurance. The more frequent the inspections the better chance you have of finding the termites before they do major damage.

Pre- Purchase Timber pest inspection as per AS4349.3 is for Pre-purchase and covers as it says timber pest ie wood borers, termites, fungal decay (wood rot)

Clear View Property Inspections have the qualifications to complete either of these inspections. You will find other inspectors can not and will not complete termite inspections because they are not Pest management technicians. They only have enough training for Pre-purchase Pest inspections.

Yes, absolutely!!! At Clear View we will call you to discuss our findings and the report. This is not standard within Business as they try to avoid talking to the purchaser and perhaps give negligent advice. We encourage you to ask us questions and call us as many times as it is required for a clear understanding of the inspection report.

We will send you an invoice which you can pay via direct deposit, credit card or pay over the phone directly.

Many new homes have physical termite barriers installed during construction phase and although you would assume the home is protected and would not require termite inspections its quite the opposite. You actually require annual termite inspections to maintain the warranty of the system installed. Failing to do the required inspections will void the warranty. The reason you require inspections is that termites can build over the termite barrier and create a bridge to access the building. The termite inspections will find this during the inspection allowing treatment.

This is the same theory with homes that did not have a physical barrier installed. Homes with no physical barrier require the home have an exposed slab edge of 75mm around the entire perimeter. The reason for this is that the termites will be found during the termite inspection when the inspector checks the slab edge.

Things can become tricky though as most of the time home owners are unaware of this detail and build paths and landscaping around the property removing the slab edge creating the possibility of concealed termite ingress.

Other concerns can be cracks in slabs and termite ingress via plumbing pipes. Generally, this can be controlled by putting pipe collars during the construction phase.

In short, the answer is yes you must do at least one annual termite inspection to keep your home safe!

No, we do not use contractors or employees nor do we have time constraints on our inspection process.

You will have the owner of the business himself inspecting the property in detail.