The reports a real owner commissions.
A passive owner reads the agent's brochure and trusts the photos. An operator commissions the reports that answer their own questions — paid to the inspector, owned by you, ordered while walking away is still free.
Every report below exists to close a question you can't answer by looking. Is the structure sound? Is the timber being eaten? Will the ground move? Is the body corporate solvent? Did the work get a permit? A business owner doesn't guess at these — they pay an independent professional to write the answer down, in their own name, before money changes hands. This is the full set: what each one is, when to commission it, and the forward move it unlocks. It isn't a substitute for ordering them — it's the map of what to order, paid directly to the inspector, with nothing built or sold by us. The questions are the point; the reports close them.
“The brochure is written to sell the property. The report is written to answer your question. Only one of those is working for you.”
A note on who commissions and who pays. You — the buyer or owner — engage the professional and pay them directly. The report is then yours, written for your reliance, with the inspector's name and liability attached to it. That is the whole point: a report the vendor commissioned answers the vendor's question, and you generally can't rely on it. Two of the reports here pair directly with the threats they investigate — see The physical threats to the asset for the building and ground risks, and Weathertightness & cladding for the moisture and facade questions that several of these reports exist to settle.
The reports that read the building itself
Building inspection
What it is: a qualified inspector walks the structure and reports its condition — roof, frame, walls, wet areas, drainage, visible defects. In Australia it's done to the standard AS 4349.1 (the agreed scope for a pre-purchase property inspection), so you know exactly what was and wasn't examined. When to commission: before you bid or before the cooling-off period ends, never after. What it unlocks: the move from "it looks fine" to a defect list with rough remediation cost — which becomes either a renegotiation lever, a walk-away, or a budget line you go in with eyes open.
Timber pest inspection
What it is: a specialist check for the things that eat or rot structural timber. In Australia it's done to AS 4349.3 and the headline risk is termites (white ants) — active infestation or past damage. In New Zealand there are no termites, so the same inspection reframes around borer (wood-boring beetle) and moisture-driven decay, which is the dominant timber threat there. When to commission: alongside the building inspection, same window. What it unlocks: whether the timber holding the place up is sound — and if not, the difference between a treatable problem and a structural one you price or walk from.
Structural engineer's report
What it is: when the building inspection flags cracking, movement, sagging or a sloping floor, a chartered/structural engineer investigates the cause and whether it's stable, active, or fixable. Crucially they assess feasibility — including whether underpinning (stabilising or rebuilding the foundations) is possible and roughly what it costs. When to commission: when the generalist inspection raises a structural flag, before you commit. What it unlocks: the line between a cosmetic crack you can ignore and active movement that turns the property into a money pit — and a costed path to fixing it if you still want it.
The reports that read the ground and the site
Geotechnical / soil report & site classification
What it is: an investigation of what the building sits on — soil type, reactivity, fill, drainage. In Australia the soil is graded under AS 2870 from Class A (stable rock or sand, barely moves) through to Class P (problem sites — soft, reactive, filled or sloping ground that needs special engineering). The classification drives footing design and cost. When to commission: before building or extending, and as serious due diligence on a property already showing movement. What it unlocks: whether you can build or extend at a normal cost — or whether the ground itself is the reason the existing structure is cracking, which is a far harder thing to fix.
Dilapidation report
What it is: a dated, photographic record of a property's exact condition at a point in time — every existing crack, chip and stain documented before nearby works begin. When to commission: before a neighbour's excavation, demolition or major build starts next door, or before your own works that might affect an adjoining property. What it unlocks: protection from a neighbour-damage claim. If new cracks appear, the dated record proves what was already there — without it, you're arguing photos against memory. It's cheap insurance against an expensive dispute.
“A report ordered before the works costs a few hundred dollars. The same question, argued after the damage, costs a lawyer.”
The reports that read the paper trail and the boundaries
Survey / identification
What it is: a licensed surveyor confirms where the legal boundaries actually run, whether the building sits inside them, and whether anything encroaches (a fence, a wall, the neighbour's eaves over your line — or yours over theirs). It also checks that the structure matches the title plan. When to commission: before purchase where boundaries are unclear, fences look off, or the title is unusual — and it's especially worth it for cross-lease and (in NZ) flats-plan titles, where the registered plan and the actual buildings drift apart surprisingly often. What it unlocks: certainty about what you're actually buying, and early warning of an encroachment dispute or a title that needs fixing before it can be sold or financed cleanly.
Australia — the pieces that matter most here
For a unit or townhouse in a strata scheme, the most important report isn't about the building you can see — it's about the scheme that owns it.
Strata records inspection
What it is: a specialist reads the body corporate's books — minutes, financials, correspondence, building reports — and tells you what's really going on inside the scheme. When to commission: before buying any strata-titled property, before the contract is unconditional. What it unlocks: the things that don't show in the apartment. Is there a healthy sinking fund (the long-term reserve for major repairs), or is it empty? Are levies about to rise? Is there a known defect, litigation, or a combustible-cladding rectification looming — any of which can land on you as a special levy after you own it? This is the report that separates a sound scheme from a slow-moving liability.
New Zealand — the pieces that matter most here
NZ gives you something Australia doesn't — a single council document that consolidates most of the paper trail in one place.
LIM — Land Information Memorandum
What it is: a report you buy from the local council that pulls together what the council knows about the property — building consents and their Code Compliance Certificates (the CCC, the council's sign-off that work was done to consent), known hazards (flood, erosion, slip), contamination listings under the HAIL register (Hazardous Activities and Industries List, e.g. an old service station or orchard site), rates owed, and zoning. When to commission: before going unconditional, on every NZ purchase. What it unlocks: the best single paper trail you'll get. Unconsented work shows here (a deck or extension with no CCC becomes your problem to legalise or remove), as does a hazard that's also an insurability line. It's the document that tells you whether the property's history is clean.
The two reports owners most often skip — and shouldn't
Asbestos inspection
What it is: a check for asbestos-containing materials — common in anything built or renovated before 1990. Eaves, fences, vinyl, textured ceilings, roof sheeting and pipe lagging are the usual suspects. When to commission: before buying a pre-1990 property you intend to renovate, and before any work that might disturb those materials. What it unlocks: the true cost and legal obligation of a renovation. Asbestos doesn't just add a removal bill — it changes how the work is done, who can do it, and what you must disclose to tenants and tradespeople. Finding it before you commit turns a nasty surprise into a budgeted line.
Arborist report
What it is: a qualified arborist assesses significant trees on or near the property — their health, stability, failure risk, and the TPZ (Tree Protection Zone, the area around a tree's roots that can't be disturbed without harming it). When to commission: when a large tree sits near the building or where you'd want to build, when a tree looks unhealthy, or where council protections may apply. What it unlocks: clarity on two fronts — the safety risk of a tree that could fail onto the building, and the development constraint of a protected tree or its TPZ limiting what you can build, extend or remove. A tree you assumed you'd cut down may be the reason your extension can't go where you planned.
On trees specifically, what you're allowed to remove is a separate question from whether you should — see Trees, and what you can actually cut.
The questions worth taking to a building inspector
- What standard are you inspecting to, what's in scope, and what's explicitly excluded?
- Are you reporting to me, in my name, with your liability attached — or am I relying on a report someone else commissioned?
- If you flag a structural or timber-pest issue, can you tell me whether it needs a specialist engineer or pest report to settle it?
- For this build era and location, do I need an asbestos check or a geotechnical / soil report on top of the standard inspection?
- If this is a unit, who reads the strata records — and what would make you say the scheme itself is the risk?
- On an NZ purchase, what should the LIM show me, and what would a gap in the consent or CCC history mean for me?
- Is there a boundary, encroachment or cross-lease / flats-plan issue here that warrants a licensed survey before I commit?
- Can you give me each finding with a rough remediation cost, so I can renegotiate, budget, or walk?
None of these reports is exotic, and none is expensive next to the asset they're reading. What separates an operator from a passive owner isn't access to them — it's the discipline of asking the question first, then paying someone independent to write the answer down before the money moves. The reports don't make the decision for you. They make sure the decision is yours, taken with the facts in hand.
Before the inspector
See your whole property position first.
Before You Hold is the diagnostic course for 1–3-property owners in AU and NZ. Eight modules, your real numbers, the physical threats and the reports that close them laid out — and the questions worth asking the people you pay, including the building inspector. The reports land harder when you know which questions the property actually raises.