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Pre-purchase Inspections 

Buyer beware! The merit of pre-purchase real estate inspections..

Ecological Surveys & Planning provides the very important service of real estate pre-purchase inspections in relation to ecological constraints. This now includes a review of statutory maps that can constrain use of a site.

Real estate agents should disclose any constraints on a property that they are aware of. However, not all vendors or agents will disclose, and sometimes, they genuinely don’t know the nature and magnitude of ecological constraints. Of course, a real estate agent or vendor is not the best place to obtain objective ecological advice.

Ideally, your conveyancing firm should advise you that it is in your interests to have the ecological constraints of a property assessed where there is potential for this to affect the economic value and your intended use of the site. Sadly, most conveyancers are not even aware of such issues. Some have been sued on the basis of their being negligent where this has caused significant economic harm to a purchaser.

You pay a conveyancer to undertake searches to advise you of constraints affecting a property. I recommend you do the same when buying property that has bushland or even remnant trees if there is potential conflict between those features and your intended land use. Even remnant grassland on a site where all trees have been removed and grazing has occurred for years may generate significant constraints or high assessment costs. It might just look like a paddock, but an informed ecologist can advise you whether it could include threatened species or be a threatened ecological community.

Situations arise where a purchaser obtains an ecological assessment, often at the DA or permit stage, and discovers that they cannot pursue their intended land use or that the costs and delays of doing so may be prohibitive. Just because the Local Environment Plan says that a use is permissible with consent, does not mean that consent will be given. Consent can be refused on ecological grounds.

Pre-purchase inspections can be relatively cheap, especially when compared with the costs of property transfers.

Under the 2017 Biodiversity Conservation Act and Local Land Services Regulation, mapping of some ecological features is a statutory process, with the maps publicly available on-line, though they may not be readily interpreted by novice users. The maps are of variable quality, accuracy and resolution. A BAM-accredited consultant can engage with OEH to query maps such as the Biodiversity Values Map, and to have them amended where the evidence supports this. You can do some of this yourself, as the information is public, but knowing what to do with it may be another issue. I have had areas of incorrectly mapped biodiversity values removed from clients’ property or altered to correctly reflect the extent and nature of those values.