FAQS

 

 

1) WILL MY NEW PROPERTY REALLY HAVE DEFECTS? IT IS A BRAND NEW PROPERTY AFTER ALL.

In our many years of inspection, we have never come across a new property with 0 workmanship defect. This is because, despite advancement in construction technologies, there are still many works in a new house which need to be done manually. The quality thus depends on the skill and experience of the tradesmen executing the works. Under such circumstances, workmanship defects are inevitable.

Common defects which we find in new houses include:

  • Water seepages,
  • Water ponding in wet areas
  • Plumbing leaks,
  • Pipes and drainage chokes,
  • Loose electrical connections,
  • Faulty circuit breakers in distribution boards,
  • Faulty appliances (most frequent being trips),
  • Doors and windows functionality issues,
  • Tile hollowness,
  • Timber floor delamination,
  • Slanted walls, beams and ceilings,
  • Mould,
  • Pest infestation, e.g. termites and wood borers, etc.

2) WILL THERE BE COST SAVINGS BY GETTING MY HOUSE INSPECTED?

On average, the cost of rectification works that we secure for our clients easily come up to thousands of dollars, far exceeding the cost of our inspection service.

If your house had not been inspected and you subsequently discover these problems on your own, you could be the one bearing the cost of these repairs instead.

3) WHEN DO I ENGAGE A HOME INSPECTION SERVICE FOR MY NEW PROPERTY?

Once you have fixed your key collection appointment, please contact us to schedule your 1st inspection.

Concurrently, please apply to turn on your utilities, particularly water and electricity, for the inspection. We will do our best to schedule the inspection on the same day as your utilities turn-on to save you one trip to your house.

4) SINCE MY DEFECTS LIABILITY PERIOD IS 12 MONTHS, CAN I MOVE IN FIRST AND DO THE INSPECTION LATER?

If defects are reported after you have started renovation or moved in, the developer and their contractor may have reason to believe that some of these defects, especially the cosmetic ones, were inflicted by your people and refuse to rectify them.

To avoid such dispute, it is best to have your house combed through for patent defects (which exist in your house since day 1) prior to any work commencement.

As for latent defects (which take time to surface), developers and contractors will generally entertain these defects even after you have moved into the house.

5) IF I AM LOOKING TO BUY A RESALE PROPERTY, IS THERE A NEED TO GET IT INSPECTED TOO?

Resale house buyers are coming to us because they do not know how to identify critical or hidden problems in the house during their house viewing. With viewings being increasingly conducted on virtual platforms nowadays, it is becoming even harder for buyers to gauge the actual house conditions before making their purchase decision.

As a property is a big-ticket item, it is prudent to inspect the property for potential deal-breakers before you commit to the purchase. If not, you run the risk of inheriting all the issues that come with the house after your purchase. Any repairs will then have to be done at your own cost, over and on top of your purchase price.

6) WHAT ABOUT RENOVATION PROJECTS? IS THERE A NEED TO INSPECT BRAND NEW RENOVATION WORKS?

If your renovation contract comes with a warranty period or you find the quality of the work not to your satisfaction, it will be worthwhile to have your renovation works inspected.

If you are in a contractual or legal dispute with your renovation firm, we are also qualified to provide 3rd party assessment for your project. As Singapore’s only RICS certified Defects Company, our reports are recognised in Mediation, Arbitration, Small Claims Tribunal, Strata Titles Board and State Court sessions.

7) DO I NEED TO BE AROUND WHEN THE INSPECTION TAKES PLACE?

Yes. As your house is an expensive asset, we will strongly recommend that you hang around to see what we are checking and understand what is wrong with your house. At the end of the inspection, we will also run through our findings with you on-site.

For joint inspections with the developer and / or contractor, it is important for you to be around as there may be some decision making required. We will guide and advise you during the joint inspections.

8) BUT WHAT IF I DON’T HAVE TIME TO WITNESS THE INSPECTION WORKS?

As much as possible, we recommend that you join us for the inspection to learn more about your house issues. If you do not have time, just be around at the start and end of the inspection. If that is also not possible, we can make an arrangement with you to enter and inspect your house, and to brief you via phone or other communication channels at the end of the inspection.

For clients who are based overseas, it is also possible to authorise us or another party (friend, family member, property agent, etc.) to take care of the defects matters on your behalf.

9) THERE ARE RENOVATION COMPANIES AND PROPERTY AGENTS OFFERING TO CHECK DEFECTS FOR FREE. WHY SHOULD I ENGAGE YOU THEN?

These parties may not be acting in your best interests because (1) they are not trained to inspect houses and may overlook critical defects which will come back to haunt you after you move into the house, and (2) there is a conflict of interest between checking defects and their works. A more thorough inspection will yield more defects and take a longer time to rectify, thereby delaying the renovation or rental. Under such circumstances, there is a human tendency and temptation for them NOT to do a detailed inspection.

There is no free lunch in this world. Check out this article by Hometrust SG for a better understanding – https://www.hometrust.sg/articles/why-free-defects-inspections-are-too-good-to-be-true/

10) THERE ARE MANY COMPANIES OFFERING DEFECTS INSPECTION SERVICES IN SINGAPORE. CAN’T I JUST GO WITH ANY COMPANY?

In Singapore, defects inspection are not regulated by the authorities. There is also no accreditation scheme nor licensing to govern the quality of defects inspection works. Any Tom, Dick and Harry can set up shop to offer defects inspection services.

Correspondingly, there has been news coverage on bogus inspectors in the market. We have come across many students and laymen who pose as “inspectors” and get paid by unsuspecting homeowners to check their houses.

There are also many defects companies who use fake or irrelevant certification to mislead homeowners into believing that they are qualified inspectors. Some of these include:
• Certificate of attendance to a 1-day CONQUAS introductory course conducted by SCAL Academy
• Certificate of attendance to HDB course on Renovation for Public Housing
• Certificate of attendance to BCA course on Basic Concept in Construction Productivity Enhancement
• Associate Membership to RICS.

All of the above are NOT building inspection certification.

By the time homeowners discover problems in their house, it would be too late and too costly (relative to the inspection fee) to take legal action on these bogus inspectors. As a result, many of them go scot-free.

This is why it is important to scrutinize the credentials of the defects company and to google the certification produced by the inspector them up before you decide who to engage.

11) SINCE DEFECTS INSPECTION IS NOT REGULATED IN SINGAPORE, WHY SHOULD I ENGAGE YOU?

In the absence of government regulation and licensing on defects inspectors, the Only certification currently applicable to defects inspection in Singapore is the certification from the Royal Institution of Chartered Building Surveyors (RICS)

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is a professional body promoting and enforcing the highest international standards in the valuation, management and development of land, real estate, construction and infrastructure.

As of Jan 25, there are 16 RICS certified companies in Singapore. 4 are certified in building inspections. Absolute Inspection is the Only Defects Company inside the RICS register of Singapore surveyors.

12) HOW WILL YOUR RICS CERTIFICATION BE BENEFICIAL TO MY HOUSE INSPECTION?

Being certified by RICS means that our expertise in house inspection is internationally recognised. As a competent house inspection company, we are qualified to act as Building Expert Witness in mediation, arbitration, small claims and state court. To maintain this certification, our inspectors have to be highly trained and calibrated regularly to ensure that they consistently deliver high-quality inspection.

Our certification is, therefore, your best assurance that your house will be professionally inspected.

13) SOME DEFECTS COMPANIES TOLD ME THAT 1-TIME INSPECTION ON MY NEW HOUSE DEFECTS IS SUFFICIENT. IS THIS TRUE?

This is totally untrue!

If you are unable to identify and document the defects in your house (and have to pay someone to do the checks for you), how are you going to communicate the defects to your developer / main contractor during the joint inspection?

When the defects are rectified, how are you going to verify whether the rectification works are ok? Do you have the knowledge or experience to do so?

If the follow-up inspections are critical for homeowners, why are some defects companies swaying homeowners into agreeing to 1-time inspection only? The reason is simple. Their inspectors are incapable of dealing with the developer or main contractor who are true blue construction people. Hence, they try to avoid attending the joint inspection so that their lack of knowledge will not be exposed.

14) SOME DEFECTS COMPANIES BOAST OF SENDING 3 TO 4 INSPECTORS TO CHECK ONE HOUSE. ARE MORE INSPECTORS BETTER?

As with international building inspection practice, home inspectors typically operate independently. Sending multiple inspectors is always discouraged because there is always a risk of areas being left unchecked when one assumes the other has checked that area.

If your property is just a typical BTO flat or condo unit, and 2 to 4 inspectors are assigned to your house, please be very careful! There is a possibility that each of them do not have sufficient knowledge and skill to finish the checks on their own. Hence, the company has no choice but to deploy more manpower over at their cost.

15) I HAVE FRIENDS WHOSE DEFECTS INSPECTORS ARE MORE INTERESTED IN QUARRELING WITH THE DEVELOPER INSTEAD OF WORKING WITH THEM TO RECTIFY THE DEFECTS IN MY HOUSE. HOW CAN I BE ASSURED THAT YOU WILL PROTECT MY INTERESTS IF I ENGAGE YOU?

Due to our construction background, we have worked with all the major builders in Singapore before. We are well known in the industry for being professional in reporting only genuine defects (that is why industry players also engage us too). Our good rapport with builders means that your reported defects will be acknowledged without dispute and rectified to the best of the builder’s ability.

Where the defects are too complicated to rectify or have a high chance of causing collateral damage during rectification, we will facilitate discussion with you and the builder on site to work out a solution to achieve the best outcome with minimum risk.

16) IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE IF WE ENGAGE OTHER DEFECTS COMPANIES SET UP BY YOUR FORMER INSPECTORS?

All our inspectors (with the exception of 1 who joined CDL) are still with us. If any defects company or individual inspector out there claim to be from Absolute Inspection, it is untrue, and you need to be careful when dealing with them.

17) WHAT ARE THE PRICES & PACKAGES AVAILABLE?

We have different inspection packages to cater to the different needs of our customers. For new properties, click here to view our packages and prices.

For landed houses, resale/rental / renovated properties, please call 91512312 or email to enquiry@absoluteinspection.sg to get an inspection package customised to your needs.

18) I AM NEW TO ALL THESE DEFECTS STUFF AND HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS. WHOM CAN I DIRECT MY QUESTIONS TO?

You can call 91512312 or email your questions to enquiry@absoluteinspection.sg. We will respond to you within 1 working day.

If you have engaged us, you will also be assigned a contact person who will hand-hold you throughout your entire defects journey, all the way to the completion of the rectification of the defect in your house.

19) HOW DO I ENGAGE YOU RIGHT AWAY?

Click here to fill in the job request form & you are all set! We will be in touch with you within 1 working day to fix the inspection appointment.

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