We’ve all seen supposed new house horror shows. After key collection but before the house is handed over proper, home owners may engage the services of a defects checker to highlight as many imperfections as they can pick out for the building management to rectify.
The idea is simple. These professionals draw upon their experience to accurately suss out any major defects within your space, then marking it with masking tape so your MCST/BSC can ensure these are resolved to a satisfactory degree.
Defect Checkers charge you quite a handsome sum of cash for their work. And that’s a huge part of the problem.
But, Why?
It’s purely psychological. When you’ve coughed up a couple of hundred bucks for a guy to spend two hours going through your space seemingly with a fine toothed comb, you are almost expecting to see a space riddled with issues.
Imagine then, forking out said sum of cash, only for your defect checker to point out that there really isn’t much wrong with your space. Admit it – that wouldn’t be the best feeling, right?
When you pay for their service, it already is a vote of confidence for the defects guy. In fact, you are probably subconsciously hoping for an even greater number of issues so you can mentally justify the expense.
I’m sure defect checkers know this. Which is why they are almost encouraged to point out ‘defects’ that really aren’t any areas for concern. Don’t get me wrong – they are paid to highlight issues as they occur. But mislabelling imperfections that can easily be resolved can lead to delays to your renovation, and eventually affect your move-in schedule.
What Are Some of the Legitimate Issues?
Technically, you can classify problems into three distinct categories. There’s the non-negotiable, where you’d definitely need the expertise of your building developer to rectify said issues. These include any structural issues, problems with your tile finishes or even to the windows in your home. There’s more, but these are just some of the common issues we see in new homes.
There’s then a sort of ‘grey area’. Typically, you’d renovate your new home to better suit your lifestyle before moving in. Between adding carpentry and fresh paint to your bare walls, a lot of the lighter, cosmetic issues can be rectified at no additional cost by your contractor. Why no cost? Well, the problem areas will either be patched properly prior to paint, or be covered by cabinetry anyways.
Finally there are issues that are basically non-issues. I’ve personally seen defects checkers singling out dust, construction residue and even cobwebs as defects. There’s no need to involve the MCST, BSC or your contractor for this – a wet rag is all you need.
Why Shouldn’t You Chase Every Last Defect?
Just remember that spaces are ultimately still put together by hand. A lot of the structure may be precast, but the final assembly on site is still done by skilled labourers. As with anything hand-finished, expecting robotic precision isn’t realistic.
Chasing this goal of ultimate perfection usually means highlighting problems even if they aren’t genuine concerns. This can lead to frustrating additional back-and-forthing with your developers. Imagine all your neighbours doing the same thing, then think about the long queue you’d have to join in order to get all your defects rectified.
Don’t get us wrong – there’s definitely still a place in this industry for the defect checkers. But we’d strongly urge you to evaluate their work after they are done to try and figure out what are genuine defects and what problems are really just dirt and debris.
All so that your renovation will be on schedule and you can move into your dream home just that little bit more quickly!
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