Brian Cannan: Today I'm with Greg Jemmeson from Jemmeson Fisher Solicitors and Accountants. Good afternoon Greg.
Greg Jemmeson: Good afternoon Brian.
Brian: Our subject today is inspection registers. What's this all about?
Greg: Okay, so what's happened is Fair Trading have changed the regulations requiring that agents now keep a record of any pest, building or strata reports that have been prepared for any property that they have for sale, now there's no prescribed format or form in which these documents have to be maintained but there is proscribed information that the agent must maintain so he has to put down the particulars, being the date this inspection or property report was prepared on whose behalf was that prepared was it prepared for the vendor, the purchaser or by the agent themselves. The name of the person who carried out the report, their contact number and whether the report is available for repurchase.
Brian: So what you're saying is where every report that happened, you've got to keep a record of it, even if it's not available for repurchase?
Greg: That's correct and only if the agent is aware so if the vendor has a pest and building report of which they don't disclose to the agent then if the agent's unaware he doesn't have to keep it on the record. The intent of this legislation was to keep down the price that people were paying for external searches when they were missing out on properties at auctions, because this is one of the biggest complaints fair trading was receiving around the underquoting type legislation, I went to an auction, I paid for these reports, I missed out on the property itself for a lot more than I expected, the agent misled me, however if they're getting the report and they're buying it for a nominal amount they're not complaining as much because they're paying a lesser amount for these reports.
Brian: You've got to keep the record of report even if the report isn't available for sale for any other purchasers?
Greg: That's correct.
Brian: Okay and if it is available for sale and the purchaser purchases it, do the liabilities go with it, so do pest and building go with the purchase?
Greg: Yes. So the whole reason about this is quite often a number of agents may organize a pest and building, which they provide during the course of the auction program, a purchaser by then paying a nominal amount to the pest and building inspector can purchase that report and are then protected by the insurance policies of the pest and building inspector for anything that may be wrong in that report, okay, the other thing too is Fair Trading have said that the obligation to disclose any of the information in the register is only required to be given to prospective purchasers who asked for a contract so every single person who walks through an open home doesn't automatically get told about the register it's only somebody who has actually requested a contract and information about the pest and building and strata reports do they then have to be given that information.
Brian: I think that clears it up. Thank you very much Greg.
