First New Zealand property inspection standard published
Standards New Zealand (SNZ), the national Standards body, has published New Zealand's first Standard for property inspections.
Entitled Residential property inspection (NZS 4306), the document was released at the end of February. SNZ's initial investigation into property inspections began some time ago in light of problems within the property markets relating to weathertightness and durability. These issues highlighted failures in design, material selection, construction and supervision, as well as the necessity for ongoing maintenance on all buildings.
Ongoing maintenance on the structure, roof, and plumbing, electrical and gas systems is often neglected, and yet poses high risk to the overall integrity of buildings. Therefore, SNZ decided to develop this Standard to introduce consistency and reliability into the inspection of residential properties.
The purchase of residential property is an important decision to most people and should be contemplated only with full knowledge of the property's condition. In order for the decision to be well informed, completely independent and objective advice is required. The Standard also provides assistance by:
- giving credibility to the property inspection sector through setting levels of competence
- maintaining nationwide consistency
- benefiting all parties with an interest in the property
- identifying deferred maintenance issues as well as other defects.
The Standard covers a range of issues concerning pre-purchase property inspections and includes:
- construction defects identification (structural, weathertightness, durability, workmanship)
- gradual deterioration identification
- competency required to carry out inspections
- reporting outline (what the various reports should include)
- reference to Standards and other documents that would be useful to consult
- product warranties, building consents, known property defects etc
- trade-specific testing (or reference to) and assurance relating to infrastructure services (plumbing, gas, electrical etc)
- positive attributes (insulation, double glazing, plumbing issues).
'This Standard will provide guidance to property inspectors and will provide homeowners, vendors and financiers with assurance that the property's condition can be assessed fairly and agreed to by all parties,' John Kelly, SNZ project manager, said.
'People selling property will be able to clearly demonstrate their "duty of care" using the new Standard and property buyers will have a consistent level of information regarding a specific property that will allow them to make informed decisions before they buy.
In addition to this, real estate agents and their vendors will be able to use inspections, carried out to the new Standard, as a marketing tool,' Kelly added.
Contact Standards New Zealand
Anyone interested in purchasing the Standard can do so by contacting SNZ via the SNZ web shop at shop.standards.co.nz or by contacting SNZ sales 0800 735 656
Fax (04) 498 5994
snz@standards.co.nz