Reforms Required for West Australian Property Contracts

Over the past few months I have had numerous clients complaining about the West Australian sales property contacts, for building and pest inspections. Many clients are unaware that it is a requirement to add a building and pest inspection clause into their contract.

The estate agents generally offer (at the purchasers request) the sale of the property subject to a structural building inspection. The problems arise when the purchaser is informed that the vendor is liable to only rectify structural issues and the sale price cannot be negotiated based on any other defects that may arise during the building inspection.

New South Wales and South Australia have an updated system where a cooling off period is enforced once the contracts have been signed, allowing the purchaser to conduct the building and pest inspections during this time. Any major issues identified by the Pre purchase inspections are then negotiated upon.

The current system in W.A is seemingly antiquated and heavily skewed in favour of the real estate agents and sellers. It is always recommended when signing a home purchase contract to add an addition clause that allows the purchaser to negotiate any Major defects as opposed to structural defects only. This allows for greater scope to cancel the contract should the vendor be unwilling to negotiate on rectification costs.

A well regarded Building Inspection company in Perth who can help is Master Building Inspectors.