Our House Inspections
Pre-Purchase House Inspections
Today almost all prudent buyers obtain a house inspection prior to purchase.
All A Buyer’s Choice Home Inspections inspectors are qualified house inspectors and have professional indemnity insurance covering all inspections.
It just makes good sense to know all about the condition of a property. Electrical, plumbing, weathertightness, ventilation, heating and insulation should all be checked and included in a house inspection.
Sleep easy knowing that A Buyer’s Choice building inspectors check inside and outside and report any identified areas of concern.
Renovation Deficiency Inspections
You’ve watched those shows on TV and know the nightmares that can arise from home renovations when done improperly. Sub-standard materials, poor workmanship or jobs left unfinished. We can assess a renovation job near completion to make sure everything is being done correctly – before you make that final payment!
House Maintenance Inspections
Regular timely maintenance is a good idea not just for your car but for your home as well. A typical home will be worth many times that of a car so it makes sense to undertake regular maintenance. Just as a car has a regular warrant of fitness to find out what repairs and maintenance is required so too should a home have a home maintenance inspection. A Buyer’s Choice Home Inspections will be able to provide a detailed report which allows you, the homeowner to deal with any urgent problems and to plan for maintenance that will soon need attention. A home maintenance inspection can save you money as it is usually much cheaper to maintain than to replace when there is no alternative. A good example would be that it is much cheaper to maintain a roof than have to replace it after it leaks and damages the interior.
Pre-Sale Home Building Inspections
Sellers of property can gain many benefits from having a house inspection available for potential buyers. It can be costly for a buyer when searching for a new home. A LIM report, valuation and a pre-purchase building inspection are usually required before buying a property.
If unsuccessful the buyer then has to pay for these again for another property. Many sellers realise that if they provide these items they will attract more buyers and potentially a better sale price.
Unlike many other house inspectors, A Buyer’s Choice House Inspections are transferable. The successful buyer is then covered by the A Buyer’s Choice Home Inspections professional indemnity insurance underwritten by Lloyds.
Healthy Homes Compliance Inspections
In July 2019, the healthy homes standard introduced specific and minimum standards for heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture and drainage, and draught stopping in rental properties. Ensure your investment is up to standard with a Healthy Homes Compliance Inspections and report.
New Home Warranty Inspection Services
Many new homes come with a builders warranty perhaps for 7 – 10 years. A Buyer’s Choice Home Inspections offer an inspection service which checks out all the homes components, many of which are not easily observed, so that before the builders warranty expires any defects can be reported and fixed while under warranty. With the shortage of trades people in the building industry the risk of faulty or defective work is high. Remember the CCC (code compliance certificate) is not a guarantee that all work was done correctly. There are thousands of leaky homes that homes that have a CCC.
Asbestos Inspections
Asbestos is no longer used as a building material in New Zealand. There are still however many tens of thousands of homes that have Asbestos containing materials that were used when they were built. By the mid 1980’s Asbestos was no longer used in any component of house building. So if your property was built later than the mid 1980’s it is highly unlikely to contain Asbestos.
Prior to that time Asbestos was used as a component of textured ceilings – “porridge ceilings”, “Glamatex” or “Whisper” were common names. Asbestos was also used as a component of Asbestos cement used as a cladding either in sheet form or as weatherboards plain and profiled “fibrolite”.
Asbestos cement was also used as a roofing material and had a corrugated profile similar to galvanised iron roofing used today. Older vinyl floor coverings as sheet vinyl or tiles often contained Asbestos. So are these products dangerous to your health?
As long as the Asbestos products such as those described are not treated in such a way that they produce dust there is no real danger. That means do not sand (for painting), saw cut (producing sawdust = Asbestos dust) or high pressure waterblast which when the blasted off material dries will expose the fibre. Also do not scrape off textured ceilings applied earlier than the mid 1980’s without testing for Asbestos first.
For vinyl flooring definitely don’t floor sand to either remove it or to provide a surface for new vinyl to go on top if it may contain Asbestos. There is certainly no need to panic or be scared of these products. Your A Buyer’s Choice Home Inspector can have your materials tested for Asbestos if you are concerned.
On April the 4th 2018 new regulations concerning Asbestos became law in New Zealand. The new regulations make it compulsory for property managers to implement an Asbestos management plan for properties likely to contain Asbestos that they manage for landlords.
If you are a landlord and have a rental property managed for you by a property manager, then you may have to authorise the property manager to engage a suitably qualified professional to identify Asbestos or Asbestos containing material in a property.
An Asbestos management plan must be in place before any repairs or other work on a property takes place. What needs to be in the Asbestos management plan is as follows:
- The identification of Asbestos or Asbestos containing material.
- Decisions and reasons for the decisions regarding the management of the risk arising from Asbestos.
- Procedures for detailing incidents or emergencies involving Asbestos or Asbestos containing material.
- The workers who can carry out work involving Asbestos, including their roles and responsibilities, training they have and any health monitoring that has been or will be undertaken.
There is worksafe guidance set out in the Approved Code of Practice, see:
https://worksafe.govt.nz/topic-and-industry/asbestos/management-and-removal-of-asbestos/#If-doc-27958
Frequently Asked Questions About Asbestos:
Third Party (Safe and Sanitary) Reports
We can help when a property does not have a building permit or a signed off council final inspection. Sometimes many years ago perhaps building additions or alterations may have been undertaken and no permit was obtained.
Perhaps a building permit was obtained but the required council inspections were not completed. This situation may lead to someone wanting to buy such a property being refused finance by a bank or mortgage lender.
The council will normally accept an inspection by a qualified third party (i.e. a suitably qualified building inspector). A report is added to the council held property file / LIM report.
With a satisfactory Third Party Report lodged at the council, banks and mortgage lenders are usually prepared to then lend. All A Buyer’s Choice Home Inspections building inspectors are qualified to produce Third Party Reports.
"Loved dealing with a Buyer's Choice from the get go. We had emailed around several building inspection companies and they (out of ~10) were the only ones to call us to discuss options - much nicer than emails! They were super helpful, quick with responses and flexible to everyone's needs. The report was clear and easy to understand, they helped explain some things over the phone. 10/10 would hire again!"
Sandra, Christchurch
