Often a vendor, or the agent, will provide you with a report they have obtained. Usually a council Land Information Memorandum (LIM) and/or a building report.
“Great” you may say, “now I don’t have to pay for my own reports.”
But beware. If the vendor has provided a report then there is no legal relationship between you and the report writer (for example, the building inspector.)
So if there is something wrong in the report, you will have no legal claim against whoever wrote the report because they didn’t write it for you.
What about the vendor who gave you the report?
Most of the time, somewhere in the documents you have been given, there will be a clause saying something like “the vendor and their agents give no warranties or representations about the content of the reports provided and the purchaser will have no claim against the vendor or their agents in regards to the contents of any report provided.”
This means you will not have a legal claim against the vendor or agent either.
If you have been provided copies of reports by a vendor then we recommend that you see whether you can have the builder’s report or LIM re-issued to you, in your name. This usually involves you paying the report writer a lesser amount than you would for the full report. It does however create a legal relationship between you and the report writer, so if the report writer has missed a major flaw, you have the ability to do something about it. Alternatively, you should consider getting your own reports.
