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G20 To Affect Building Inspections in Brisbane City Council Area

Brisbane City Council has declared Friday 14th November a public holiday for the G20.  If your work place is located in the Brisbane City Council region (similar to the Ekka), then you are requested not to go to work.  The reason for this is to keep the roads clearer and help with security during the G20.

As well as the area around Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC) being restricted (including the hotel and restaurants and a large part of the CBD) – the RNA showgrounds and Suncorp Stadium will be restricted in the week leading up to 14 November.

Do The Block Contestants Order a Building Inspection?

With only a few weeks left on Channel 9's The Block, we've been wondering whether the amateur renovators are worried about getting their building & pest inspections.  We don't think it will be a problem as they've had qualified tradies helping them out and Keith overseeing all the structural work, but still, you'd hate to have to justify anything that's not up to scratch just before you go to Auction.

Building Renovations - Legal Ceiling Heights Can Affect Designs

When you're looking to purchase a home in Brisbane or other Queensland areas, one of the considerations is - can I extend or build-in underneath the house?  Many of the older style homes have what was originally a breeze way to allow better air ventilation for cooling as well as to keep termites away.  The structures didn't take into cosideration that you'd want to enclose the area for living space and therefore more often than not it is not the legal height.

Will Baby Boomers Affect the Property Market

RealestateVIEW recently conducted a study of how baby boomers think about the property market.  Only 34.4% of baby boomers think they can afford to stay in their own home.  This will result in many larger houses coming onto the market and smaller houses / town houses and units being bought quicker, thereby increasing the prices in the lower range.

The reasons given by baby boomers to move from their family home include:

Building Inspection Duration

Depending on the length of contract until settlement, we recommend you leave a minimum of 14 days to have an answer - not because it takes this long to book an inspection, but you still need to consider the outcome of the inspection. If you find there are queries that you want answers to, or negotiations you need to have after you've seen the report, you still have to meet the timeframe you've nominated in the contract before your sale is unconditional.

Brisbane Properties on the Northside are Booming

The property market in Brisbane’s northern suburbs has recovered and it’s definitely a seller’s market.

Remarkably the average time for a property to be listed is currently only 8 days whereas two years ago it was 90 days (as stated on Channel 7 News - March 5, 2014).  With roughly between 15 and 90 people attending each open house, the competition to get a valuable and worthwhile home before the prices re-adjust to the market is tough.

QBCC BSA

As of December 2013 the Queensland Building Services Authority will be replaced by the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) as the regulator for the Queensland building industry.

As one of the largest overseers of employers in Queensland, the biggest reform in 20 years will see the creation of the QBCC. Reflecting the sector's large economic growth the QBCC will have a board with members from different business areas including construction, law, finance and insurance.

Top 10 building defects

Top 10 building defects

Each month, the Building Services Authority (BSA) releases a list of the ‘Top 10 defects’ reported in the Queensland building and construction industry.

Note: the ‘number of defects’ figure accumulates over the financial year and begins again at ‘0’ each year from 1 July. The June defect report was:

 

Rank

The Thermal Imaging Myth

Over the past 15 years and thousands of inspections, ABIS have researched numerous technologies. In recent years, we have adopted thermal imaging which has proven to be a very useful tool in improving the quality of our inspections.

However, due to recent outrageous claims from unscrupulous inspectors, we feel compelled to do some "myth busting".

British Sleep Standing Up?

According to Cabe, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment which surveyed residents of homes built between 2003 and 2006 within an hour’s travel of London, the UK builds the smallest homes in Europe so the British are now probably sleeping standing up. 
The average room in a newly built dwelling in France is 26.9 square meters compared with 15.8 square meters in the UK.
The average floor space of a newly built home in Australia is 206 more than double the size of a tiny 76 in the UK.

Some Like It Plot

Here's your chance to grab an eternity of fame next to Marilyn Monroe according to the Telegraph. A burial plot next to the late starlet is up for sale on eBay for with bids starting at $710,000.

The crypt is located in Westwood Village Memorial Park, where Natalie Wood, Dean Martin and the recently passed Farah Fawcett are also buried. Hugh Hefner, whose Playboy Mansion is located in the same neighborhood, reportedly paid upwards of $80,000 for a crypt there in the same cemetery.

 

 

Positivity in the Face of Adversity

Here’s an unusual feel-good foreclosure story from Diane Tuman, Zillow Content Manager that may have a positive ending and perhaps create an entirely new career for an American woman who is an actress and divorced mother of three. In a creative measure to save her house from foreclosure, she held a bake sale with her goal to bake and sell 100 homemade “mortgage apple pie cakes” at $40 each.

The House with a Secret

Undertaking a spot of renovation can uncover nasty surprises which may even escape detection by a diligent building inspection according to Richard Savill of the London Telegraph.

Ironically, a funeral director has found a perfectly preserved 400-year-old cat behind the wall of his cottage when builders were stripping his bathroom.

The cat, is in recognisable shape with claws and teeth, is quite scary-looking and larger than today's domestic cat.

Nice Work If You Can Get It

Can you really be so busy that you can't walk a 25 million dollar cheque into the bank? Believe it or not an American real estate agent deposited the cheque via a drive-through teller window. Apparently this was standard procedure for this real estate agent who often conducted large transactions in this way. Turns out the cheque bounced big-time, but not before the agent had wired 23 million dollars of funds into other accounts.

 

Building Inspections

Unlike airplanes and ships, houses are not constructed to facilitate inspection with inspection panels etc. The condition of safety critical components is often hidden inside walls or other areas of the house. If you have an older home it is strongly advised that Building Inspections be conducted regularly to check safety critical items. Although such items may be hidden an experienced inspector may be able to pick up potential problems before they fail completely. 

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