What is an End of Warranty Report?
An End of Warranty Report is a consolidated list of any reasonable building defects found after building work has been completed, but before the expiry of the builder's warranty period. The usual period of cover for Home Owners Warranty is 6 years for major issues and 2 years for minor problems. This means you can ask the contractor to fix up any reasonable issue within these times so long as you comply with the terms of the insurance policy.In some cases, further information may be necessary to work out who is a fault. For instance, most experienced building consultants will want to look at the approved drawings and specification before they make any final decision on faulty detailing or waterproofing. In other instances, it may be necessary to remove tiling, brickwork or linings to verify why the work is actually defective or incomplete. These further investigations reduce the risk of wasting considerable money on poorly founded legal action.
Reasonable contractors will return and fix most things. In some cases you may need to get help from the insurer to pressure the contractor to return. Or, at worst, you will need to lodge an insurance claim if the contractor is uncooperative, no longer trading or can't be found.
Who does it?
A specially trained building consultant. This consultant should preferably be the same person who carried out the Final Report prior to your final payment to contractor.Prior to the inspection being carried out you can advise the building consultant of anything you already know about such as noisy pipework, leaking box gutter or faulty garage roller door. Your building consultant will then carefully review this list, inspect the works and add other issues such as corroded external steelwork, unsatisfactory basement drainage etc.
How long does it take?
Written reports are available within 5 days of inspection and an urgent 48-hour service can be arranged on request.Why should I have an End of Warranty Report prepared?
Every year tens
of thousands of homes are built or renovated. In most cases, all work
worth over $12,000 should be insured by the contractor you choose so
long as he is licensed with the Office of Fair Trading.
