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13:11
Anyone can print a business card, build a website, and call themselves a building inspector in New Zealand and that caught us completely off guard. We sit down with Evan to unpack what “unregulated” really means for buyers, sellers, and anyone leaning on a pre-purchase building report to make a call on a home. If you have ever assumed there must be a licensing body making sure inspectors are trained and consistent, this chat will reset your expectations fast.
We get practical about what to look for instead: voluntary professional membership (including NZIBI), the difference between a general inspector and a building surveyor, and why banks can demand a weathertightness report for higher-risk homes like monolithic cladding properties. Evan also breaks down why building inspector insurance exists in the first place, how liability works when something is missed, and why clear scope and careful wording in a report can protect everyone when disputes end up in front of lawyers.
From there we zoom into the real-world limits of a “visual inspection”. Furniture can block access, inspectors generally should not move your stuff, and that can leave hidden leaks and rot undiscovered until the day you move in. We talk about the two zones that too often reveal the truth roof spaces and subfloors and why moisture staining, timber decay, and vermin entry points matter. We also touch on the less sexy but crucial side of buying: future home maintenance, and how access and height can turn a simple repaint into a major cost.
If you found this useful, please follow or subscribe, share it with a mate who’s house-hunting, and leave a review so more Kiwi buyers can find it. What’s one thing you now want every building inspector to show you in their report?
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If you listen to my previous episodes where I'm having a rant about unregulated industry in New Zealand, I've talked about property managers being unregulated and how that should really be regulated. Now, part two of my rant of the building inspectors not being regulated that I just found out. Hello, Evan.
SPEAKER_00
Hi, how's it going?
SPEAKER_01
Well, I'm in shock. Tell me more.
SPEAKER_00
So in New Zealand, you actually there's no there's no regulation for being a building inspector. If you got the right insurances in place, you could go out and do a building inspection tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01
That's insane.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah. There are there are industries in New Zealand, and if you're a registered member of them, it obviously looks great. And some banks are being more I guess anal about you know, you have to have a registered building inspector. Some agents also only allow registered building inspectors on site because there are cowboys, there are a lot of cowboys in the industry. Yeah, it's it's pretty bad.
SPEAKER_01
Wow, I'm in shock because I thought that you guys would have some sort of body that regulates you, make sure that you undergo various training and have the nose.
SPEAKER_00
Negative.
SPEAKER_01
So anyone can wake up tomorrow and go, I'm gonna be a building inspector and get a fancy AI created business card and a website. And off they go.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah. So I mean, and it's not just, you know, it's not just builders, it could be you're an architect that wants a bit of a slower pace. You understand how something's been built, but not necessarily you don't have like the the practical knowledge of how to put together. And also just as a qualified builder,
doesn't make you qualified to comment on building inspections as well. So I mean, I am a member of NZIBI, New Zealand Institute of Building Inspectors. There's also Boines as well, and then there's obviously the building surveyors. You can be a registered building surveyor as well, and they're kind of the next step up. They do a lot on monolithics and they can do full weather tightness reports. And I'm currently going through that that part, and hopefully I think it's gonna take about three years doing it part-time. I'll be a registered building server, so I'll be qualified to absolutely take apart a house and tell exactly what's wrong with it.
SPEAKER_01
Wow, that's cool because that's what we usually, as you said, right about the banks when it is a monolithic property. The banks do come back to us and they say we require weather tightness report performed by do do do do do do.
unknown
Yep.
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah. But yeah, honestly, yeah, you could uh go out, get the proper insurances, it'll cost you a lot because they'll look at you and be like, you don't really have the qualifications, but yeah.
Why would you have an insurance as a building inspector?
SPEAKER_00
Well, if anything goes wrong, if I miss something, if something comes up later down the track, I need to make sure because my name is on the report, I'm liable for that inspection. So if I carry out building building inspection and something drastically gets missed, then if I get pulled into a court case, I'll I'll go bankrupt. So having the proper insurances in place will prevent that from happening. The excesses are outrageous, but yeah, it it it covers up, I don't know, a million, two million, something like that. On my part, I guess the the thing is it'll the court proceeding will, I guess, identify how much I'm actually liable for the potential damages for missing something. So if it's been unconsented work and it's happened over a long period of time, then maybe I'll only be liable for you know X amount, whereas like the builder who carried it out or the designer who designed it, or the council that may have signed off on it, but maybe never got code of compliance. And if I do an inspection, I can't know everything in the background unless I've been given the documents. So if I miss something, but I've said that I've looked at the LIM report, and the LIM report clearly shows a different floor plan to what I'm inspecting, I should be commenting on that. So if there's walls being removed or an addition that's not actually on the floor plan, then clearly there's unconsented work. Well, maybe not unconsented, that that might be going too far, but there's been work and it should be checked whether or not consents were required. That there just that little bit of wording could save me from I might have to be part of the court proceedings, but I might not be held liable for anything. I don't know. It's never happened to me.
SPEAKER_01
So touch wood.
SPEAKER_00
I don't I don't know how that kind of side of it works, but I'm sure a couple of building inspectors have been through that and been held liable, and insurance will have to pay out if they had insurance, otherwise they're no longer in the building interesting. I would assume.
Yeah, that would really bankrupt someone. I have a client at the moment, and unfortunately, they bought an absolute lemon, and apparently the building report hasn't identified any issues, the real estate agent hasn't identified any issues, the vendors have cleverly put furniture around places that people couldn't access. And then when they moved out, the buyers realized that it's an absolute lemon, you know, the wallpaper was peeling off, the leaks were quite severe from the shower, from the roof, whatever it's going on. So they're currently going through a bit of a case of trying to see who is responsible.
SPEAKER_00
It's really hard because during the building inspection, if things are if furniture's in the way, technically we're not meant to move it because there've been bits in the past where we've moved furniture and then you know the homeowner might say, Oh, you've damaged it or you've damaged the floor, or like now you've put there's marks on the wall and you have to replace it or repair it, and it's like, well, we didn't do that, but so yeah, I mean it's under our like access limitations, like what we can and can't see, and it is literally a visual inspection that we do. So I I I feel for the building inspector, if they've done a good job and things have been missed, but they couldn't inspect it. Hopefully they don't get done for something that was clearly outside their scope, but that's why you have to identify clearly identify your scope of works and where you can and can't get to.
SPEAKER_01
Well, Megan and I were talking yesterday about building inspectors and why you should really have a building inspector instead of your Uncle Bob to come and check it out. And she said something very inappropriate. I was going completely different direction, and she went, Well, because maybe they will be bigger and they can't get into places. Uncle Bob. I don't know why, in her opinion, Uncle Bob was a bigger person. Because I was telling her that, you know, when I had an interview with you, we talked about getting into those hard places, hard-to-reach places under the floor and over and the roof spaces.
SPEAKER_00
And the roof space.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah. I mean, I'm I'm not a I'm not a small guy. I'm 6'2, and I don't know, like 90 something kgs.
SPEAKER_01
You've got a healthy BMI, we can ensure you really well. Yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_00
Um carry on. But you know, I know my limitations and where I can and can't get into. So it does take a very small hole for me to not be able to get into somewhere.
But yeah, even even just assessing something from an access point gives you a better indication than not getting up into a roof space or not opening the subfloor hatch. Yeah, it's it's pretty telling when something doesn't get assessed and clearly could have.
SPEAKER_01
Clearly could have. Could've shoulder.
SPEAKER_00
Laziness, I guess.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, and that's the thing, right? Like this is why you do your job, you've done it long enough now to to know where potential damages could also be.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah. And what can cause those are the two areas that should be assessed every single house, subfloor and roof space, because it's nine times out of ten, you can't see the defect on the roof. And especially if you can't get up there and walk around on a roof. And with the subfloor, it's exactly the same. You have to get underneath the, especially if it's got a concrete ring foundation, and the uh bottom plate is just sitting on top of so a stucco-clad house, the bottom plate will be sitting right on top of that concrete ring foundation, and that's where water will pull and you'll get rot. So you need to be getting into the subfloor, and and in the roof space, you can see if there's potential leaks because you'll be able to see moisture staining or historic moisture staining, timber decay, broken rafters, uh, insulation that's you know missing, that's a pretty minor thing, but uh gaps where you know birds or vermin can get in. And I at the moment we've got an issue at my house where rats have gotten in. We don't have a roof space because it's it's a scillion ceiling, and and the ceiling linings uh follow the the roof, the roof line. And they just they annoyed me so much I chucked poison up in it and now they're dead and it stinks. Now it stinks. So yeah, we're trying to we're almost to the point where we're gonna cut holes in the ceiling to try and get it out. That's completely diverted from the building inspection side of it. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01
But that's important to know as well, you know, for people, because if you are looking to get certain type properties, you've got to be aware of certain issues. I mean, I had a bird issue when we first moved in here. The swallows decided to build a nest outside my front door. And at first I was like, Yeah, cool, that's fine. I love birds, and then they decided to have babies, and then every time the door would open and shut, the birds would obviously
freak out and fly out and then come back. But then when the babies were born and the babies started to drop out of the nest and die, at that point, I was like, No, I shouldn't laugh. Yeah, it was very sad. And I was like, I don't want dead birds on my conscience. So I had to put spikes up. I put spikes on one side, they went onto the other pipe, I put spikes on the other pipe. Then they discovered they can go even higher onto the second floor. So I had to get a very tiny person to come in because he he was the only one that could actually safely walk on my roof space without damaging the roof because I'm I'm not that tiny and I didn't want to damage my own roof. And um, and I'm probably scared of heights, and I didn't want to fall off the second story. That would be a really good insurance story. And he managed to install spikes all around the house now. So I can't get the swallows in. And also they've caused a lot of crap on on the roof and on the ground. I had to like water blast quite a lot to get it off.
SPEAKER_00
It's terrible.
SPEAKER_01
Home maintenance. And that's the other thing as well, right? Like whatever property you buy, you've got to think about the home maintenance as well for the future. Like it's one thing that you do the report, but it's also the buyers need to understand from that report what's the home maintenance.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I think we've talked about in the past where you know there's a big difference between a single-story weatherboard house and a two-story weatherboard house, you know, there's it's gonna be a significant cost difference with just repainting because of scaffolding and you know, access and all that jazz. So yeah, that there, even though it's the exact same house but just with a second story, the cost is gonna be more significant. So that would get brought up in a builder's report because just for like an observation or like a recommendation that you've got to keep in mind that maintenance is gonna be more costly on a house like that.
