Independent inspection to AS 4349.1 by a registered building contractor. What you are buying, read by someone who has built. Report within 24 hours.
St James is a 1.8-square-kilometre inner suburb shared between the Town of Victoria Park and the City of Canning, and its pre-purchase building read follows its divided origin. The suburb’s northern part was Bentley until 1957, so those streets carry the postwar Commission and War Service stock of a rental-market suburb, now in their seventies and with the maintenance history that long tenancy produces. The southern part, closer to Victoria Park, has been pushed by subdivision and infill from its position six kilometres from the CBD. The pre-purchase read at St James is about knowing which of those two characters is in front of you.
On the northern formerly-Bentley stock, the pre-purchase concern is the same as in Bentley itself. Homes from the late 1940s and 1950s at around seventy years old, with tile roofs and original wet areas due, carry the additional weight of a rental and investor ownership history that defers maintenance rather than attending to it. A freshly listed home in that part of St James earns a careful read of what is behind the presentation, because the deferred decisions are still sitting in the building.
On the infill and subdivided stock, the pre-purchase read is about density and modern build. Battle-axe lots, grouped dwellings and survey-strata homes on what were once larger blocks get the modern read of waterproofing and roof plumbing, and the shared-boundary and drainage read of homes that now sit very close to their neighbours. On a narrow inner-suburban lot, what runs between dwellings, drainage, dividing walls and shared rooflines, is part of what a buyer is committing to.
For homes on or near Albany Highway, the commercial strip and arterial frontage are a site context that belongs in a pre-purchase decision alongside the building condition.
A pre-purchase inspection gives you the building scope on its own, to AS 4349.1, with the defects that matter set out plainly and separated from the cosmetic. In St James, where the suburb’s two halves read differently, that inspection tells you which home and which character you are buying. The report follows within 24 hours.
We run the same inspection across the area, including nearby East Victoria Park and Bentley.
MISSING: phone number · Book online → · Flat $440 inc GST, report within 24 hours.
A building inspection to AS 4349.1 that reads structure and fabric before you buy, where the suburb's two characters, formerly-Bentley postwar stock in the north and CBD-proximity infill in the south, shape the read.
No, it is the building scope only. If you want the pest check too, the combined building and pest inspection covers both in one visit.
The same as Bentley: tile roofs and original wet areas at around seventy years, with the additional deferred-maintenance layer that investor and rental ownership produces over long tenancies.
The modern build read of waterproofing and roof plumbing, plus the shared-boundary and drainage considerations of homes now sitting close to neighbours on narrower inner-suburban lots.
On a battle-axe or grouped-dwelling block, drainage, dividing walls and shared rooflines can carry shared costs. Knowing what connects your home to its neighbours is part of what you are deciding before you sign.
A freshly listed investor-held War Service or Commission home can present well while carrying unrenewed tile-roof mortar, wet areas on the original membrane, and original wiring, all of which are the buyer's cost after settlement if not found before it.
For homes near the highway, the commercial strip and arterial context is noted as part of the site picture so it is a known element of the decision.
Yes. It sets the defects that matter out plainly and apart from the cosmetic, giving you a concrete basis to renegotiate or to proceed with confidence.
It does not change the building read, but planning and Council requirements for future work can differ depending on which LGA the home sits in.
Within 24 hours of the inspection, with photos and a plain read of what matters, so you can act before your offer conditions close.
Also available as a combined building and timber pest inspection in St James — both scopes in one visit to AS 4349.1 and AS 4349.3, one report within 24 hours.
Combined B&P 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.
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