Building report's gaps scare home-buyer away

Angela Hart and the under-reported house she decided against buying. Picture / Kenny Rodger

Auckland house-hunter Angela Hart is wary of building inspection reports after receiving an appraisal which missed problems with a Swanson house she was considering buying.

She decided not to buy the $369,000 house after she found the report lacked important information about it.

"The report glossed over problems I know existed with the house I wanted," she said.

"For example, the house had been re-clad and re-roofed without a resource consent being issued.

"It really is buyer beware and people should get reports carried out by professional firms. They need to be registered building consultants."

Another building report on the house included resource consent issues so she compared this more comprehensive report with the first report and discovered there was a vast gap.

The Consumers' Institute this month said it had found no improvement in the standard of home inspections despite the multimillion-dollar leaky homes problem.

The institute hired six firms to inspect an Auckland home and four to look at one in Wellington.

"Far from providing peace of mind, the reports we received were so inconsistent we wondered if the firms visited the same house," the institute's magazine said.