I am selling my PPOR and yesterday had a contract taken out on the property. Today I was informed by the RE agent that council searches have revealed that no final plumbing or building inspections were carried out when the house was completed in 1980. We purchased the house in 2001 and our solictor at the time has billed us for council searches (although his invoice doesn’t state which searches were carried out and no copies of searches were given to us) and we were never informed that inspections hadn’t been carried out. Today I went and saw council who are sending out a plumbing and building inspector to carry out these inspections at a cost of $320. Being a plumber myself the plumbing side isn’t a problem but i suspect the carport and patio may not have had approval. Is the solictor responsible for any costs incured in getting this problem rectified or do i l have to cop it on the chin and learn from the experience.
HI there
it depends what state you are in what a Council search will showfor example, in Queensland, to find out if plumbing etc final inspections were done – you would have to do a building compliance search that is normally separate from the normal Council search which shows what rates are paid till when and has some general zoning details.
It may be possible to backtrack from the fees you paid to find out what searches were done – but if you weren’t trying to find out if the carport was ok etc – it is likely just the bare minimum was done. There should have been a general report on what the searches showed and if there were problems – they should have been brough to your attention.
Unfortunately – you may have to wear the problem – because I think you may be outside the limitation period (6 years for a contract) to take it up with your solicitor
Just out of interest QLD now has a conveyancing protocol which sets out the bare minimum that a solicitor must do and advise the client about – it also sets out what searches should be done.
If you are in another state, you may need to check to see if there is something equivalent
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