Final Inspection Before Settlement

Take all the time you want on this. It took us four hours. Yes I’m serious. Ridiculous I know, but we both have OCD tendencies and you’re just about to sign your life away on a very expensive mortgage. Trust me, don’t feel rushed what-ever you do.. in which case, we took our time.

So what took you that long you ask? We checked over absolutely everything. You’re given a bunch of sticky tabs to tag all the visible imperfections, marks or items for review that you feel are required.  When you arrive, your site supervisor should have already reviewed the house accordingly and you’ll more than likely already seeing tabs all over the house.  That said, you’ll be adding more to it.

What to bring? My suggestions only:

• Request for a copy of the Tyrrells inspection report prior to your final inspection
• Request for a copy of the site plans that depict the location of where the storm water and sewer is on site.  This is for reference only if you’re keen to know where this is.
• Your floorplans (make sure you re-cap the night before, in particular PCVs that you may have raised as modifications to the existing inclusions)
• Torch
• Measuring tape
• Pen / paper
• A phone charger (to plug into the power points to test each works)
• A charged phone camera / camera to take photos of items in particular that you are challenging prior to settlement
• And ideally, there’s at least two of you to attend. The reason for this is there’s two pairs of eyes reviewing each room.  Don’t feel it’s a race to complete, because it’s not.  Don’t be discouraged either if there’s already a number of sticky tabs everywhere.

What are you looking for?

• Look up and down, around each and every room.  This is not just to scan quickly, it’s to check the cornices are painted, electrical is in the correct spots and each room is complete.
• Any cracks in the walls or uneven surfaces
• Uneven paint surfaces and / or painting not complete (eg. under the edges of the window sills)
• Items which have not been addressed that has been raised in the past

Some of our issues included:

• Our man hole in the garage was still not cut, despite having raised this last month
• Portico not painted the correct colour Monument – it was still the white undercoat (the same as the beam and post)
• Eaves (particularly in the area directly above the electrical meter box) needs to be cleaned off
• Paint on the fascia near where the air-conditioning electrical / piping is coming down from the roof space needs to be cleaned off
• Incorrect door applied to the garage / house entry.  An internal door was installed here even though the door jam was a provision for a external door.  There was a 2cm spacer between the opening and closing of the door and the carpenter tried to hang the door on a slant in an attempt for it to be missed. Well, you could have tried to fool us, but we’re OCD so unfortunately we weren’t signing off until this was corrected.
• Chipped plaster near the staircase
• Staircase handrail missing screws in and around a number of the handles secured to the wall
• Holes in the concrete slab on the alfresco area not filled and a timber frame support still nailed to the slab
• The incorrect air vents in the bathroom were installed (PVC raised prior to amend)
• Electrical wiring incorrectly installed (we had one of our two-way switches not working)
• Garage roller door not level and out of alignment, needs to be corrected
• And several others.. hence four hours of review

Our entry way.

Our games room.