What to check before buying a new home

Check well before buying a new home

The problems with leaky buildings that have emerged in recent years reinforces that old principle of buyer beware, given that buying a home is often a person’s biggest lifetime investment.

The Department of Building and Housing’s Weathertight Homes Resolution Service, which administers the resolution of claims for the cost of repairing non-weathertight homes, suggests prospective homebuyers do their homework well rather than risk becoming a claimant.

Monolithics are particularly representative, though other cladding systems are included and should be checked out also.  The features of those houses that exacerbate the risk of non-weathertightness include:

• complex roof design
• lack of eaves
• balconies
• recessed windows and doors
• inadequate or no flashings on windows and doors in general

In some cases it may be very easy, simply by walking through a house, to see if there is a weathertightness problem. For example, potential buyers should look out for:

• visible water damage
• musty smells
• wet or rotting
• cracks in the external cladding
• claddings that extend into the ground or hard onto decks or paving, instead of stopping above these surfaces with good clearances
• the insides of outer walls showing signs of bulging, staining, paint blistering, wallpaper peeling, cracking or bubbling
• balconies and parapets showing signs of water intrusion or structural damage
• handrail bracket attachments that are into the top surfaces of balcony walls

However, damage may not always be apparent - or may have been covered over or subject to a "quick fix". There are various other things people can do to find out if there is a problem. For example, they can:

• ask the vendor or their agents
• require the inclusion of a warranty of weathertightness in the sale and purchase agreement
• check whether the local council’s Land Information Memorandum (LIM) on the property notes a claim against it. Local authorities are advised of dwellings that are subject to a claim, but there is no absolute requirement that they note this on the LIM
• engage a building professional to inspect the house, with a special focus on weathertightness if it was built since the early 1990s. The inspector should use a moisture meter that can detect the presence of unusually high levels of moisture, including water leaks. Not many existing homes will come up with a completely clean slate - there will always be some maintenance needed - but a property report enables a potential purchaser to make an informed decision about whether the problems are so severe that they should not proceed with the purchase. Using a building professional is a good idea for any house purchase. If there is the possibility of the house "leaking", using one is essential
• check the WHRS website details of adjudicated claims. Once resolved, these claims are not subject to privacy rules, and full details - the parties to the claim, property details, the adjudicator’s summary of evidence, findings and payment orders are public information

For more information, see our Leaky buildings section.