Both scopes in one visit — building to AS 4349.1, timber pest to AS 4349.3. The fuller check, by a registered building contractor. Report within 24 hours.
Bentley is the suburb of Curtin University, and what a university suburb does to a housing stock is the central fact of a building and timber pest inspection here. Curtin’s main campus dominates the eastern half of the suburb, and the concentration of students has created a rental market that has kept much of Bentley’s older residential stock in continuous tenancy for decades. The 1940s and 1950s War Service Homes and State Housing Commission houses that make up that stock are now seventy to eighty years old, and they have been rented, handed between investors, and maintained to the minimum required rather than to the standard their age would ask if an owner occupied them. A building and timber pest inspection at Bentley reads for that specific history of hard use and deferred care.
Rental-pattern maintenance is what the inspection attends to first in the older stock. A War Service or Commission home from the late 1940s that has been in continuous tenancy for forty years does not wear in the same way as a well-maintained owner-occupied home of the same age. The roof is touched up when it leaks rather than replaced when it is due. The wet area is re-grouted when the grout fails rather than re-waterproofed when the membrane does. The wiring and the switchboard are left until compliance is forced rather than upgraded when best practice calls for it. We read the sum of that history, not the most recent coat of paint.
The War Service Homes themselves have a specific construction read. Built to the Commonwealth specification of the late 1940s, typically single-storey cavity brick with a hip roof and tile cover, they are sound homes that were built to last. What they need at seventy to eighty years is the same age read the Manning and Willagee stock requires: the roof and its bedding, the original wet area, and the electrical services, all of which have been on a deferred rather than a maintained schedule in Bentley’s rental environment.
The former Brownlie Towers site, where twin ten-storey public housing blocks stood from 1969 until their removal in 2019, is now being redeveloped, and the new infill homes on and around that site earn the fresh modern read of waterproofing and roof plumbing on cleared and rebuilt ground.
The timber pest side follows the age and the maintenance history. A War Service home that has been in continuous tenancy, with a subfloor that was not inspected between tenants and a garden that was not maintained between owners, can carry a well-established termite pathway that was never found because no one was looking. We read subfloor, roof void and the perimeter carefully in Bentley.
What you get is a plain reading of the Bentley home behind its rental history, with the report inside 24 hours and the real defects separated clearly from the cosmetic.
We run the same two-scope visit across the area, including nearby St James and Manning.
MISSING: phone number · Book online → · Flat $616 inc GST for both scopes, report within 24 hours.
Its rental history. Curtin University's presence has kept much of Bentley's 1940s-50s War Service and Commission stock in continuous tenancy for decades, producing a maintenance pattern that differs significantly from owner-occupied homes of the same age.
Roofs touched up when they leak rather than replaced when due, wet areas re-grouted rather than re-waterproofed, and wiring left until compliance forces an upgrade. The sum of that history is what the inspection reads.
Built to the Commonwealth specification in the late 1940s, these are sound homes at seventy to eighty years. The read is the tile roof and its bedding, the original wet area, and the electrical services, all on a deferred rather than maintained schedule.
Yes, and that is the whole point. A freshly touched-up War Service home in a rental suburb can present well while carrying years of deferred maintenance beneath the presentation.
The new infill earns the modern read of waterproofing and roof plumbing on cleared and rebuilt ground, without the rental-history layer.
Yes. A subfloor not inspected between tenants and a garden not maintained between owners can carry an established termite pathway that was never found because no one was looking for it.
Wary is the wrong word, but a careful read is exactly the right approach. The inspection does what the tenancy history did not: looks at the building properly.
That is a real-estate question rather than a building one, but the building read is what tells you the condition of what you are buying regardless of its tenancy profile.
Yes. The building inspection to AS 4349.1 and the timber pest inspection to AS 4349.3 are done in one visit, with a single report within 24 hours.
A flat $616 inc GST for both scopes, report within 24 hours.
Buying in Bentley? A pre-purchase building inspection — building scope only, report within 24 hours — gives you the documented record before exchange.
Pre-purchase inspection →Our office is at Suite 55, 15 Labouchere Road, South Perth WA 6151 — on the Swan River foreshore near the Perth Zoo.
Tell us about the property and what you need. We'll come back to you with a firm quote and a time.
PERTH