Rushed buyers at risk of purchasing homes with termites and structural issues, inspector warns

Experts say an independent property inspection is a must before buying. (AAP: Glenn Hunt)

A Gold Coast building inspector believes homebuyers are being pressured to sign contracts without doing due diligence, after receiving regular calls to newly-purchased properties with structural or termite issues.

Dan Golin, who has undertaken more than 8,000 building and pest inspections during his 18 years in the industry, said there was a heightened risk of buying defective or damaged homes as Queensland’s property market continued to boom.

“I have seen a lot of heartache in this field and I can’t see it going away in a hurry,” Mr Golin said.

“They have got no equity. There is no spare money to spend, so when they realise there is structural damage and it’s not just thousands, it’s tens of thousands, it’s heartbreaking.”

Mr Golin said termites were “everywhere” and estimated he found two or three homes each year in south-east Queensland that were a complete write-off.

Mr Golin was the man called in to help Zara and Shaun Sarson, whose Gold Coast home was so badly riddled with termites it had to be demolished within months of their family moving in.

The couple bought the house after having it checked by a different building and pest inspector, who told them it was fine.

The Sarsons said the real estate agent who sold the property knew it had termites, but did not tell them.

They believed the damage was deliberately concealed.

But Mr Golin said to a trained eye, the termite damage was not difficult to spot

“It was terrible,” Mr Golin said.

“I knew straight away, within 10 or 15 minutes, that the home would be a write-off.

“For an inspection to pass — that’s the worst one I have seen.”

Red flags for termites

Mr Golin said there were some red flags for termite damage that were noticeable even to the untrained eye.

He advised buyers to check for “cover-ups” such as new skirting boards or architraves that looked like they had been replaced, or did not match the paint on the walls.

“That’s a bit of a giveaway,” Mr Golin said.

“It’s a hard one to control because sellers always lie when it comes to termites and agents don’t want to know about it — they don’t ask, because they would rather not know.”

Decoding the building and pest puzzle

Master Builders building and planning services manager Karen Haworth said pre-purchase inspections were usually visual only.

“A lot of people will still have furniture, they might even have boxes that are packed up in the house,” she said.

“The inspector actually can’t go and move things to look for things.”

She said it was important for buyers to ask if there was still furniture in the house or boxes everywhere before they got the inspection done.

Ms Haworth said a building and pest inspector could do additional thermal imaging scans to check for water or termite activity if the house was full of furniture.

She also said roofs were usually not included in standard inspections because scaffolding was often required.

For auctions, Ms Haworth said building and pest inspections were often arranged by the seller, with real estate agents commissioning reports before a property hit the market.

While the Sarsons did everything right by paying for an independent inspection, Mr Golin said engaging an inspector recommended by the sales agent or trusting a report provided by the seller was a recipe for disaster.

“Because [the real estate agent] gives [the inspector] the majority of their work, they let things slip that you usually wouldn’t,” he said.

“In a way, they are paid to let things slip.

“You will never really get an independent report done when that is the dynamic.”

Commission extra inspections

Ms Haworth said if a building and pest inspector recommended further investigation, buyers should take their advice.

“When an inspector says, ‘Please follow up with further inspections’ people just think, ‘Oh no, I want to buy this house, I just want to get in and I’ll deal with it later’,” she said.

Ms Haworth said over the past decade she had seen many buyers opt out of pre-purchase inspections.

“We find most of the time, the consumer just sort of pushes that line of thought away and doesn’t get someone else in … [due to] the short time frame to buy a property,” she said.

She said the speed at which properties were being sold likely made the decision harder for buyers.

“Everyone’s … rushing to get that sale and to buy rather than stop and get those inspections done,” she said.

Ms Harworth advised buyers to make sure the person doing the inspection was recognised by the Queensland Building and Construction Commission, and recommended being willing to spend more for a report, which could range from $200 to $800.

“I think it’s like anything in life, if it is at the lower end of the scale of cost … are they going to do a lot more thorough investigation?” she said.

“It is a bit more money but definitely if it’s an older home and we have had all this wet weather, it might be worthwhile just paying that extra for peace of mind.”

Buyers move away from auctions

But Gold Coast real estate agent David Marshall said some buyers were turning away from auctions as a method of purchase, as they were spending on independent building and pest reports then being trumped at auction by those willing to move forward with only the buyers’ pre-prepared reports.

He said purchasers were shelling out hundreds for independent reports only to later miss out on securing the property auction.

“I do come across a lot of buyers who are frustrated by that process,” he said.

“They’ve bought and paid for the building and pest reports and turned up at an auction and not been successful in buying a property, so therefore they have burned their money from the inspection and they’re scared off that method of sale and look to other more transparent methods of selling.”

Mr Marshall said termites aside, most properties would have some defects unless they were new builds.

“First and foremost, we should acknowledge that in most cases houses do have something wrong with them,” he said.

“A report is probably a good guide to the condition of the property, but buyers should not have an expectation everything’s going to be absolutely perfect.”