News – Pre-Sale Inspections
There was a media release from Premier Jacinta Allan on Thursday, 12 March 2026, announcing that the Labor Government intends to introduce compulsory pre-sale building inspection reports. Under the proposed changes, vendors would be required to organise, pay for, and provide a building inspection report to all prospective buyers.
We encourage you to read the media release in full.
Since the announcement, we have been contacted by several people both for and against the proposal, asking for our thoughts. We felt it would be worthwhile to share our perspective.
Some Questions and Answers
Will this save purchasers from paying for pre-purchase building inspections and reports?
Potentially, yes. If the pre-sale inspection is completed to a sufficiently high standard by a suitably qualified and insured professional, it could reduce the need for purchasers to obtain their own report.
However, if the inspection is not thorough enough, or if it is completed by someone who lacks the necessary qualifications, experience, or insurance, the report may be misleading or fail to provide buyers with adequate information and protection.
The key factor will be the legislation itself and how it is enforced.
Will this create more work for your inspection company?
We believe it could go either way.
If the legislation sets a standard that allows us to provide the same level of detailed reporting that we currently offer, then it could result in more work because every vendor would require an inspection report.
However, if the legislation requires a lower standard of reporting than we consider acceptable, we may lose work to companies willing to provide reports that meet only the minimum requirements.
Another concern is that this could become a price-driven market, where vendors simply seek the cheapest report available. Unfortunately, when price becomes the primary consideration, report quality and thoroughness can suffer.
Will purchasers still be able to obtain their own inspection?
We would certainly hope so.
However, it is possible that obtaining access to a property for an independent inspection could become more difficult. It may also become harder for purchasers to include a “subject to building and timber pest inspection” clause in their contract.
Our Thoughts and Concerns
We would welcome a system that delivers exactly what has been advertised: a pre-sale inspection completed at the vendor’s expense that purchasers can genuinely rely on and be protected by.
However, until the legislation is drafted and released, it is impossible to know how the system will operate in practice.
What we do not want to see is legislation that results in vendors providing the cheapest possible report—one that fails to give purchasers the information and protection they need.
The primary purpose of a pre-purchase inspection is to protect the buyer. That objective should remain unchanged.
For now, it is very much a case of waiting to see how the legislation develops. This proposal could be highly beneficial, it could be problematic, or it may end up somewhere in between.
A Real-World Example
Without naming names, it is fair to say that the pre-purchase inspection industry is already a mixed bag.
The Australian Standard for pre-purchase inspections is relatively broad and leaves considerable room for interpretation. It states that inspectors must be “suitably qualified and experienced”, but it does not clearly define what those qualifications or experience levels should be.
As a result, inspectors come from a wide range of backgrounds, and the quality and depth of reporting can vary significantly. We have seen many examples where different inspectors have assessed the same property and reached very different conclusions.
Below is one such example.
To protect privacy, all property addresses, client names, and identifying information have been removed. The example compares a vendor-supplied report that was provided to our client before purchase with the independent pre-purchase inspection report we subsequently completed.
The two reports tell very different stories.
We encourage you to review the examples with an open mind and draw your own conclusions.
We present these examples simply as food for thought when considering how a vendor-supplied report may compare with an independent pre-purchase inspection commissioned by a purchaser.
Our Pre-Purchase Inspection Report
