What a pre-purchase building inspection does and doesn't cover

A standard pre-purchase building inspection does not look for termites. It is carried out under AS 4349.1 and covers structure, fabric and site; timber pests are a separate inspection under a separate standard, AS 4349.3. It is also non-invasive by definition, so nothing behind a wall, under a floor or inside a sealed cavity is assessed unless it happens to be safely accessible.

Most buyers discover this after settlement rather than before it, and the reason is almost linguistic. Conveyancers say "get a building and pest inspection" as a single phrase, and it sounds like one product. It is two assessments, run to two standards, with two scopes and often two reports.

None of this is inspectors cutting corners. The scope is set by the standard, and a good inspector works precisely to it. The problem is that almost nobody explains the boundary to the person paying for it.

Two standards, not one service

AS 4349.1 governs the pre-purchase building inspection. It is a visual, non-invasive assessment of a property's condition, covering accessible structure and fabric — footings and subfloor, walls, roof and roof space, ceilings, floors, wet areas, cladding, drainage and site conditions — and reports major defects, minor defects and safety hazards visible on the day.

AS 4349.3 governs the timber pest inspection. It covers subterranean termites, borers of seasoned timber, wood decay fungi, and the conditions conducive to them — timber-to-ground contact, moisture ingress, inadequate ventilation, garden beds built up against external walls, poor site drainage.

The two are separate engagements. They can be done at the same visit by the same firm, and frequently are, but they remain distinct assessments with distinct reporting requirements.

The pre-engagement agreements make this explicit, and it is worth reading yours before you sign it. They typically state in terms that the building inspection will not look for or report on timber pest activity, and direct you to obtain a separate inspection under AS 4349.3 from a licensed timber pest inspector.

What the building inspection does not cover

• Timber pest activity. A building inspector may note visible damage if they happen across it, but there is no systematic search for termites, borers or decay under AS 4349.1.
• Anything not safely accessible. Behind walls, under floors, inside sealed cavities and ceiling voids. The inspector cannot drill, cut, or move furniture and stored belongings.
• Whether the work was approved. An inspection tells you the condition of what is there, not whether it has a permit or a certificate. That is a separate search — and unapproved work is a problem you inherit.
• Strata and body corporate records. For an apartment or unit, the financial health of the building, planned works, insurance and disputes all sit in a separate records search.
• Specialist items. Pools, gas appliances, and asbestos assessment generally sit outside both standards and need their own inspections.
• Mould and rodents. Outside the scope of AS 4349.3, despite being timber-adjacent in most people's minds.
• Drywood termites. Also specifically outside the AS 4349.3 scope.
• Valuation, and usually repair costing. An inspection tells you what is wrong, not what it is worth or what the fix costs.

The limitations section is the most important part of the report

Most people open an inspection report and go straight to the findings. Read the limitations first, because they tell you what was never looked at.

The standards require inspectors to record any area they could not access and any condition that affected the inspection — a locked subfloor, a roof space with no safe access, a room full of the vendor's furniture, heavy rain on the day. Every one of those is a part of the property nobody has assessed.

A clean report with extensive access limitations is not a clean property. It is an unexamined one, and those two things look identical if you only read the findings.

The second thing to look for is any item marked for further investigation. Those are the inspector telling you, within the limits of a visual assessment, that something needs a specialist opinion. They are the most actionable content in the document and the easiest to skim past.

A pest comment is not a pest inspection

Where an inspector is engaged for the building assessment only, any remark they make about termites is informal observation. It is not an AS 4349.3 inspection, it does not carry the same reporting obligations, and it holds correspondingly less weight if you later need to rely on it in a negotiation or a dispute.

If you want a timber pest position you can act on, engage it as a timber pest inspection and confirm the standard it is being carried out under.

What to do about it

1. Engage both, and confirm the standards by number. Ask which standard each assessment is being carried out under and who is licensed to do it. A firm working properly will answer without hesitation.
2. Book as early as the contract allows. Time pressure is the enemy of a thorough inspection, and cooling-off periods are short. In some states they are only a handful of business days.
3. Attend if you can. An hour on site with the inspector will tell you more than the report does, because you can ask what they could not reach and why.
4. Read the limitations before the findings. Then go back and read the findings knowing what was excluded.
5. Act on every "further investigation" item before your cooling-off or condition period expires, not after.
6. Consider a dedicated timber pest specialist on older timber-framed stock or in a high termite risk area, even if you have also engaged a combined inspector.
7. Check approvals separately through the local council or the relevant state authority. An extension that was never approved is a live liability regardless of how well it was built.
8. Keep the reports. They are the baseline against which you will assess everything that appears in the first few years of ownership.

Common questions

Is a building and pest inspection one thing?

No. It is two assessments under two standards, frequently sold as one package. The package is fine; assuming the building inspection covers termites is not.

Will the report tell me whether the extension was approved?

No. Condition and compliance are different questions. Approvals are a separate search with the council or state authority — and see what a building surveyor actually does for who holds that information.

Does the inspector check for asbestos?

Generally not as part of a standard building inspection. On any house built before the early 1990s, treat asbestos as a separate question requiring a specialist.

What if the inspection misses something?

Start with the limitations section, because a defect in an area recorded as inaccessible was never within scope. Where something visible and accessible was genuinely missed, inspectors carry professional indemnity insurance and there is a complaints pathway, but the position varies by state and is worth taking advice on.

Do I need a strata report as well?

For anything in a strata scheme, yes. Neither building nor pest inspection examines the body corporate's finances, planned works or disputes, and those can matter more than the condition of the unit itself.

How soon should I book?

As soon as your offer is accepted, or earlier if the agent permits it. The inspection is only useful if there is time to act on what it finds.

Where to go next

The gap between what an inspection covers and what buyers assume it covers is where most post-settlement surprises live.

Read next: what to check as termite season arrives for the pest side of the picture, or how to check waterproofing before the tiler starts for one of the defects that is hardest to see once it is covered. Or start at Defects & Dodgy Work for the wider picture.

[DRAFT NOTE — SLOT 1: a real report] A redacted pre-purchase inspection report with the limitations and access section shown. Nobody publishes one. It would be the most useful image on this topic anywhere in Australia, and it proves the central argument rather than asserting it. Delete this note before publishing.

[DRAFT NOTE — SLOT 2: named inspector] Ask a licensed inspector: "What do buyers most often assume you checked?" Name them, their licence state and years in the work. Delete this note before publishing.

[DRAFT NOTE — verify AS 4349.1 and AS 4349.3 current editions and cite them precisely. Sources disagree — 4349.3 appears as both 1998 and 2010. Delete this note before publishing.]