A contract review and a building inspection answer different questions. Your conveyancer checks the legal position: title, zoning, rates, encumbrances and the vendor's disclosure. Those checks say nothing about the physical condition of the building. A property can have its legal paperwork in order and still have structural defects, water damage, roof or drainage problems, illegal works or termites.
In NSW, Victoria and Queensland, the buyer takes the property in its present condition unless the contract says otherwise. A building and pest inspection is your protection against those physical problems. The report matters, but so does the point at which you receive it: your ability to act on a finding depends on the contract and the deadline that applies.
Keep the legal and physical checks together when making your decision, but keep their purposes separate. A title search cannot tell you whether the roof has a problem, just as a building inspection cannot tell you whether a special condition protects your right to withdraw. You need both answers before committing.
What a building and pest inspection covers
A qualified inspector carries out a visual, non-invasive inspection to Australian Standard AS 4349.1 for the building and AS 4349.3 for timber pests. The two inspections are usually done together. They address the building's condition and timber pest issues, rather than repeating the legal searches your conveyancer orders.
Non-invasive is an important limit. The inspector does not open walls, move furniture or test every service. Read the report as an account of that inspection, not as confirmation that every part of the property has been examined. A building and pest report is not the same thing as a report on every possible issue.
Special-purpose reports exist for pools, electrical work, plumbing, asbestos in pre-1990 buildings and engineering issues. Keep that distinction in mind when reading what the inspection does and does not cover. The building report and the contract review work alongside one another; neither replaces the other.
NSW: inspect before exchange or negotiate a condition
The NSW standard contract gives you no building and pest condition. For a private treaty sale, the buyer has a five business day cooling-off period after exchange, or ten business days for an off-the-plan contract. Rescinding during that period costs 0.25 per cent of the purchase price.
Most buyers therefore inspect before exchange, or negotiate a special condition making the contract subject to a satisfactory report. Do not treat the cooling-off period as a free opportunity to change your mind after seeing the building's condition. The penalty still applies if that is the right you use to withdraw.
At auction there is no cooling-off period, so inspections must be done before bidding. A vendor sometimes supplies a report, but a buyer can rely on it only if they take their own copy from the inspector. Seeing a report and having a report you can rely on are not the same thing.
Our NSW buying guide explains where inspection fits alongside exchange and the cooling-off period.
Victoria: the section 32 is not a building report
The section 32 vendor statement does not cover building condition. It is part of the legal disclosure, not a substitute for an inspection. Read it with the contract of sale, and arrange the physical checks separately.
A three business day cooling-off period applies to private sales only, with a penalty of $100 or 0.2 per cent of the price, whichever is greater. It does not apply to auctions or within three clear business days of one. The standard LIV/REIV contract has no building and pest condition unless a special condition is added, and buyers are entitled to negotiate one before signing.
Where an owner-builder has done work worth more than $16,000 in the last six years and six months, the vendor must give a defects inspection report and, for work over $16,000, warranty insurance under section 137B of the Building Act 1993. This is a specific disclosure obligation, rather than a reason to treat the section 32 as a general inspection of the home.
Use the Victorian buying guide to put these checks in order before you sign.
Queensland: complete the inspection date and meet it
The REIQ standard contract includes a building and pest inspection condition when the parties complete the inspection date in the reference schedule. The date is not just a reminder to book an inspector. It is the deadline for obtaining the reports and dealing with the condition.
If the buyer is not satisfied, they may terminate by written notice by 5pm on the inspection date. The buyer must act reasonably and cannot terminate over trivial matters. Send the report to your conveyancer so that the findings and the condition can be considered together, rather than assuming any defect automatically ends the contract.
The seller must give access for the inspection. Queensland's seller disclosure statement, introduced from 1 August 2025, does not cover building condition. Termite risk is high across much of the state, so a timber pest inspection is standard. Pool safety and smoke alarm compliance are separate obligations with their own certificates.
The Queensland buying guide explains how the inspection condition sits alongside the other contract conditions.
Apartments and townhouses: look beyond the individual home
For an apartment or townhouse, a strata or owners corporation records inspection matters as much as the building report. The body corporate carries the common property defects and the levies. A report on the building's physical condition and an inspection of those records address different parts of what you are buying.
Do not treat an inspection of the apartment as an answer to every common property question. Read the building findings alongside the strata or owners corporation records, and send them to your conveyancer with the contract documents.
Using the findings before the deadline
Buyers use the report to walk away where the contract allows, negotiate a price reduction or repairs before the contract becomes unconditional, or budget for works. The report does not create a termination right that the contract does not give you.
Get it before the deadline that applies: before exchange or auction in NSW, before signing in Victoria, and by the inspection date in Queensland. You engage the inspector; your conveyancer advises on the contract condition and deadlines. Sending the report through is part of making the inspection useful, not a separate task to leave until the contract is unconditional.
The starting point is not simply whether you dislike a finding. It is what the report says, what your contract permits and whether the relevant deadline is still open. That is why the report needs to reach your conveyancer, not just stay in your inbox.
For the full process, read our buying guides for NSW, Victoria and Queensland.
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