A Bendigo buyer's order of play
Ask the council what applies to the land
The City of Greater Bendigo's Building Information Request form offers termite information under regulation 51(2) of the Building Regulations 2018. It needs a current Certificate of Title, so have that to hand or ask your conveyancer to lodge it.
Commission your own timber pest inspection
Consumer Affairs Victoria suggests a professional pest inspection for termites or other infestations, and warns that reports offered by the agent or seller may not be independent.
Book the building inspection separately
That's a different profession: a qualified building inspector, surveyor or architect, with full professional indemnity insurance, as Consumer Affairs Victoria puts it.
Read both before you sign
Note the areas each inspector couldn't get into, and ask about anything marked active, old or uncertain.
What comes with a Bendigo property
Rats, mice, bees and wasps are the owner's
The City of Greater Bendigo says pests on private land must be controlled by the owner or occupier, and residents can't treat pests on council land.
Nests come with deadlines
Under Bendigo's Community Local Law, an owner or occupier directed by an authorised officer has five days to destroy a European wasp colony, or to remove or destroy an unmanaged or abandoned bee colony. Look up into the eaves and around the yard while you're at the open.
Termite status isn't a verdict
Whatever the council's information says about the land, it describes a building rule, not whether this house has termites. Only an inspection answers that.
Your part at the open, and the inspector's
You can
- Look for bubbled or blistered paint, which Consumer Affairs Victoria links to termites.
- Check the meter box for a termite notice and photograph it.
- Watch for wasps or bees going in and out of one gap.
- Ask the agent to have the roof space, subfloor and sheds open on the day.
Leave to a pest business
- Getting into the roof space and under the floor.
- Telling old termite damage from active termites.
- Saying whether any treatment is needed, and what kind.
Where we'd start with pre-purchase pest inspections in Bendigo
We'd lodge the council request as soon as we were serious about a house, and book our own timber pest inspector the same week. Tap Buying a home and the postcode you're buying in.
Want someone to look at it?
Tell us what you've seen and your postcode, and a local pest business that handles exactly that calls you to talk it through.
