How to Read a Building Inspection Report: A Buyer's Guide to AS 4349.1 Terminology

When you receive an AS 4349.1-2007 pre-purchase building inspection report, it will almost certainly be structured around a handful of technical terms that most buyers have never seen before. Understanding them is the difference between a panicked phone call and a confident negotiation.

AS 4349.1 distinguishes three categories of finding. A Major Defect is a defect of sufficient magnitude that rectification has to be carried out to avoid unsafe conditions, loss of utility, or further deterioration. A Minor Defect is everything else, wear, tear, or cosmetic issues. A Safety Hazard is a distinct category: something that could hurt somebody, regardless of whether the building is otherwise serviceable.

Two things buyers routinely misread. First, the Standard requires inspectors to list areas not inspected and why. This is not an inspector being lazy, it is the Standard being honest about what a visual, non-invasive inspection can cover. Second, reports are for the named client only. If you are buying a property and the report was commissioned by the seller, you generally cannot rely on it.

Read the Summary first, then the Significant Items list, then the detailed sections for context on anything that concerned you.