Inspection-Ready Is a Lifestyle

How long does it take to get a house ready for inspection? For an owner who filed things as they happened, about an afternoon. The approved plans, including the later carport, sit in one folder with the last electrical certificate of compliance, the plumber's invoices for the bathroom renovation and the recent municipal statements. When the buyer's inspector and the bank's valuer come through, questions are answered in minutes and the house is simply a house.

For an owner who did not, it can take the whole transfer period and still not be finished. Was the outside room on the approved plans, or built by a previous owner on a promise? If it was never approved, who pays the draughtsperson to regularise it before transfer? The electrician finds old wiring in the extension, and the certificate now needs work nobody budgeted for. The gap between the two owners was never one big task. It was years of small ones done at the time, like getting approval before building and fixing the wiring the first time it was flagged, and years of small tasks do not compress into the weeks before a sale.