You don't know ,What you don't know

You are buying your dream home you have saved for years. You have found it!

You employee a conveyancer /solicitor to handle your affairs.

During this process you should be asked to check the boundaries on site with a tape and the survey plan

They should get you check to see if the house matches and plans that the council have.

You should have a building Inspection done- this person is looking at the house for cracking, movement, leaking, burnt hidden bits etc

The building inspection is NOT checking for illegal works. This is a due diligence clause in your contract for you – solicitor – building surveyor to do.

No good buying something built in 1911 and discovering that some many years ago it had a laundry and bathroom built on the back of the dwelling, which YOU now need to make legal  some 50 years later or

The downstairs of the dwelling only every meant for a garage now has been converted into living spaces and are not legal height  of 2.4m and YOU now need to find a way of making this legal, you can’t.

If you don’t know these things you can’t ask the right questions. When buying the biggest asset of your life ask questions ask lots of questions.

Is everything here legal? Plans at council match what’s on site.

Is this property a Strata – what does that mean? Do I need to consult my 5 neighbours to do anything on my block?

Does the strata plan reflect what I am buying ?

Is my house on the land (title) I am buying?

Everyone in the process has blinkers on doing their job, YOU need to be looking at everything!

Addition completed in the 1970’s