Pre-settlement inspection

Days before settlement. Has anything changed since you inspected? Has the seller removed something that was meant to stay, or damaged something on the way out?

When you need it: Settlement is imminent.

What it costs

$440 flat feeinc. GST ($400 + GST)

The last look before it is yours

Settlement is close, the property is meant to be handed over in the condition you agreed, and this is the inspection that checks whether it is.

It is a narrower job than a pre-purchase inspection and it answers a different question. Pre-purchase asks whether the house is sound. Pre-settlement asks whether the thing being handed over on the day matches the thing that was agreed weeks ago.

What changes between contract and settlement

More than people expect, and most of it happens as the sellers move out.

Fixtures that were present at the home open and are not present now. A dishwasher removed. Light fittings swapped for cheaper ones. Window treatments taken. If it was in the contract as included, its absence is a settlement issue, not a shrug.

Damage from the move itself: scraped walls, a cracked splashback, gouged floors, a torn flyscreen, gate posts clipped by a truck. Furniture that has been in place for years also comes away to reveal what was underneath it, which is frequently the first time anyone sees the floor.

Agreed rectification work that was a condition of the contract, and whether it was actually done or merely promised.

Services that were working and now are not, because something was disconnected during the move.

The two things WA requires at transfer

These are the seller's obligations and they are far easier resolved before settlement than after.

Compliant smoke alarms. Mains-powered, in working order, no more than ten years old, and compliant with the current standard. Battery units do not satisfy this except in a narrow exemption where there is genuinely no cavity to run wiring — a concrete ceiling, or a flat roof with no ceiling space — and even then the battery must be a sealed ten-year type.

Two residual current devices on the switchboard, covering the circuits.

We check both and report which way they fall. A $1,000 infringement attaches to a home offered for sale without a smoke alarm, and neither item is expensive to remedy while there is still leverage.

Timing

As close to settlement as the agent will allow, and after the sellers have vacated. An inspection carried out while the house is still full of furniture cannot see the walls or the floors, which is half the point of doing it.

Book it early enough that a finding can still be actioned. Discovering a missing dishwasher on the morning of settlement leaves you with a conversation and no time.

Cost and turnaround

A flat fee of $400. The report is with you within 24 hours of the inspection itself, which on a pre-settlement job frequently means the same afternoon, because the window is usually measured in days.

If you have not yet had the property inspected properly at all, this is not the substitute — a pre-purchase inspection is a different and much broader piece of work.

The question this inspection answers

A pre-settlement inspection is not a second building inspection, and it is not the place to discover the house has structural problems, that is what the pre-purchase inspection was for. This inspection answers one question: does the property being handed over match the condition and the inclusions that were agreed in the contract? It is a comparison, not a diagnosis, and it happens in the narrow window before settlement while you still have the standing to insist on it.

What actually changes between contract and settlement

More than most buyers expect, and most of it happens as the sellers move out. Fixtures that were present at the home open and are gone now: a dishwasher unplugged and taken, light fittings swapped for cheaper ones, window treatments removed, an air conditioner uninstalled. If the contract listed it as included, its absence is a settlement issue, not something to shrug at. Then there is damage from the move itself: scraped walls, a cracked splashback, gouged floorboards, a torn flyscreen, a broken tile where something heavy was dropped. And there are the things that only show once the furniture is gone, the water stain under where the bed was, the damaged floor beneath the rug, the wall the wardrobe was hiding.

Why timing is everything

The power of this inspection is entirely in when it happens. Before settlement, the balance sheet is on your side: the seller wants the sale to complete, and a genuine defect or a missing inclusion identified now can be negotiated, remedied, or held against the settlement. After settlement, that leverage is gone. The house is yours, the missing dishwasher is your problem, and recovering the cost means chasing someone who already has your money. The pre-settlement inspection exists to catch these things while they can still be fixed at the seller's cost rather than yours.

How we run it

We walk the property against the contract and the condition it was in when you inspected it before offering. We check that the included fixtures and fittings are present and working, that the systems that were operating still operate, and that no new damage has appeared. We photograph anything that has changed, so there is a dated record rather than a disagreement. The report goes to you in time to raise anything with your settlement agent before the money moves, because after it moves the conversation is much harder and the outcome much worse.

The walk-through the agent offers is not this

Most buyers are offered a pre-settlement walk-through by the agent, usually a quick lap of the house a day or two before the keys change hands. It is better than nothing, but it is not an inspection. You are looking at a house you are excited about, often for the second time in your life, with an agent beside you whose job is to get the sale over the line. Things get missed. The fall on the shower floor, the flashing that was never finished, the crack that opened up after the furniture came out, the switch that does nothing when you flick it. None of that shows itself to someone doing a happy lap of the lounge room.

What we bring is a checklist and no emotional stake. We go through the house the way we would any inspection, methodically, comparing what is in front of us to what the contract said would be there, and we write it down with photographs. The difference between "it looked fine" and a dated, photographed record is the difference between a conversation you win and one you lose.

Vacant possession is where the surprises live

A house you inspected at the home open was staged. There were rugs on the floors, art on the walls, a lamp in the corner of every room, and furniture over the parts of the house nobody wanted you to look at too closely. Settlement day, or the day before, is usually the first time you see the place empty, and empty is honest in a way that staged never is.

The rug was covering a patched section of floorboard. The wardrobe was standing in front of a water stain that runs down the wall from a window that has been leaking for a while. The pot plant in the corner was hiding a cracked tile. The picture over the bed was there because the plaster behind it is damaged. None of this is necessarily deal-breaking, but all of it is worth knowing about before you own it rather than after, and vacant possession is the only chance you get to see it before the leverage is gone.

What we do when something is wrong

If the inspection turns up a genuine problem, a missing inclusion, new damage, a system that has stopped working, the report goes to you in time to raise it with your settlement agent before the money moves. That timing is deliberate and it is the whole value of the exercise. Before settlement, the seller wants the deal done, and a defect identified now is something they have a reason to fix or compensate. After settlement, the same defect is your problem and your cost, and the person who could have fixed it has already banked the proceeds.

We do not tell you what to do with what we find, because that is a decision for you and your settlement agent, and often your conveyancer or solicitor. What we do is give you an accurate, photographed, dated account of the condition of the property at the point you take it on, so that the decision you make is an informed one rather than a hopeful one.

Where it sits against the other inspections

Seeing the pre-settlement inspection alongside the others is worth doing, because buyers sometimes assume one inspection covers everything and it does not. The pre-purchase inspection, done before you commit, asks whether the house is fundamentally sound: the structure, the roof, the wet areas, the things that would change whether you buy at all. The pre-settlement inspection, done at the very end, asks a narrower and different question: is the house being handed over in the condition and with the inclusions that were agreed. One is about the building; the other is about the deal. They are not substitutes, and on a purchase where the gap between offer and settlement is long, or where the property was tenanted or is being vacated, having both is not belt-and-braces, it is two different checks answering two different questions at the two moments each one matters.

For a new build, the equivalent final check is the practical completion inspection, which serves the same "before you sign off" purpose against the builder rather than the seller. The principle is the same across all of them: the moment before you commit or accept is the moment your position is strongest, and an inspection timed to that moment is worth more than the same inspection done a week too late.