A friend of mine bought a property about 12 months ago in Cherrybrook, NSW as a PPOR.
While he has been conducting a reno recently, he found out that there was a serious termite problem – it was structural and he has to potentially demolish the house on the property.
There was no building inspection before the sale, but due to the extensive termite damage, it is obvious the problem has long been in existence before he bought the property.
3 questions:
1. Is it mandatory to disclose such a serious problem in a selling process? (I’ve looked on the NSW Fair Trading website and can find nothing)
2. What are his next steps if he decides to take action?
3. Any solicitors here or any recommendations of solicitors who have experience in pursuing a resolution like this?Please help…this is a big issue for him due to financing and all the associated costs with this.
– Wilson.
Hi Wilson,
Why were neither a building inspection or a pest inspection conducted? They should form the basis of your friends due diligence process. And common sense for that matter. Has he contacted the seller or their agent?
Did the seller mention any previous pest treatments? I'm pretty sure anything like that has to be fully disclosed. It could be possible that the owners were unaware of the matter as it required your friend to do a reno 12 months later to discover them. Given the timeframe, I would suggest obtaining the opinion of a termite expert to assess the damage and hopefully provide evidence that the termites have actually been there since before the house was bought. Termites are relatively slow to reproduce but a mature colony containing thousands could quite easily have been attracted to the house and created the damage in a matter of months so it's hard to tell.
If you can prove the termites were there before the sale and the seller was aware of this (the main point), then it's a breach of contract and you should be compensated. Otherwise, your friend will have learned a very expensive lesson.
Kind regards,
Derekwilson,
There is no mandatory disclosure of building defects – these are discoverable. Mandatory disclosure only relates to violent crimes, murders and the like which have occurred in the premises.
The question has to be asked as to why your friend, clearly not an expert in building matters, did not follow his solicitor's advice to get a building and pest inspection – pretty cheap insurance at less than $500 compared to the hundreds of thousands dollars now.
Even if the termites were active a year ago, leaving them for that length of time and not noticing activity would lead to a serious building problem which is not covered by insurance or legal liability.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. If you don't have an account, you can register here.
