All Topics / Help Needed! / Hideous Building Report- Pull Out?

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  • Profile photo of jodes92jodes92
    Participant
    @jodes92
    Join Date: 2011
    Post Count: 3

    Hi Everyone!
    Your help would be greatly appreciated!

    I recently put down a .25% deposit on my first IP and undertook the relevant checks (building, strata, pest, conveyancing). The reason I put down the .25% deposit, is basically because I would rather have the property secured, then waste money on checks and get gazumped. Anyway, my advice relates to the builing inspection.

    The apartment is small, ex housing commission and old (approx 30-40 years). I knew it needed a little bit of work and had planned to do cosmetic things including new floors, paint, kitchen and bathroom.

    The report came back however with a mountain of "potential" issues including:
    – vinyl floor needs replacing.
    (I knew this but what I didn't realise is it may have lead or asbestos which could cost thousands to remove)
    – lots of internal issues including new tiles, new appliances etc. This is also fine as I had included replacement of these things in my budget.

    The things that concern me the most are building issues. Although the building is structurally sound and pest free, there are heaps of issues including potential breaches of fire and OHS requirements, high potential for termites to come in the future, lots of work needed fixing external walls, carport etc. Although nothing is BROKEN, the potential for it needing to be fixed in the near future is high.

    The thing that concerns me the most, is that although the majority of these things come under strata, the sinking fund for this strata plan is only around the $25k mark for approx 20 apartments- not nearly enough to cover even a small amount of these potential problems- hence perhaps a special levy would be raised?

    Should I pull out or is this something that all building reports will mention?

    Profile photo of Scott No MatesScott No Mates
    Participant
    @scott-no-mates
    Join Date: 2005
    Post Count: 3,856

    asbestos may be in many pre-mid 1980’s materials. Lead, mostly in paint.

    Building issues are a fact of life, so is risk.

    Profile photo of Jamie MooreJamie Moore
    Participant
    @jamie-m
    Join Date: 2010
    Post Count: 5,069

    Agree with Scott – most old apartments are going to have some issues.

    Also, building reports can often sound a lot worse than they actually are. Put a call into the inspector and speak with them directly about the issues.

    I remember reading a pest inspection for an IP I was looking at in Logan, QLD. The report sounded horrible – I then called the inspector and had a chat, his advice over the phone was much more rosier than the standard copy and paste text he inserted in his pest inspection report.

    Cheers

    Jamie

    Jamie Moore | Pass Go Home Loans Pty Ltd
    http://www.passgo.com.au
    Email Me | Phone Me

    Mortgage Broker assisting clients Australia wide Email: [email protected]

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