New regulations aim to make NSW property reports easier to access
New regulations coming into effect from today are set to help New South Wales home buyers more easily access property reports.
New regulations coming into effect from today are set to help New South Wales home buyers more easily access property reports.The change to the laws regulating property agents are intended to help home buyers gain cheaper and easier access to pre-purchase property inspection reports, Fair Trading NSW has said. The reports include pre-purchase building and pest inspection reports, as well as strata and community scheme reports.
Under the new regulation, if a buyer requests a contract of sale for a residential property, an agent will be required to inform the buyer about any reports that have already been recorded.
“Buyers may then opt to access an already available report, and negotiate a reduced cost, instead of commissioning their own report,” Fair Trading NSW said.
Inspections you should do before buying a property
The regulations mean agents will be required to make a record of building inspections, pest inspections, inspections of documents for the property and financial matters certificates. Fair Trading NSW clarified that agents were only required to make a record of these reports “if they are aware of them or can reasonably find out about them”.
Agents who fail to comply with the new regulations could face fines up to $4,400 for a corporation or $2,200 “in any other case”.
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