Cladding is the question buyers ask about most and the one where the limits of a records inspection matter most.
Here is the honest position: a strata report can tell you what the records say a qualified person has assessed. It cannot tell you what is on the building. Anyone reporting on cladding from the records alone, without a source document, is giving you an opinion dressed as a finding.
What can appear in the records
- An assessment by a qualified person, a fire engineer’s report, a façade assessment, a building consultant’s advice. This is the document that matters, and where it exists a report should quote what it found and who prepared it.
- Correspondence with Cladding Safety NSW, or with the relevant authority, including whether the building has been identified and what was required.
- Resolutions in the minutes, to obtain an assessment, to engage a consultant, to accept a scope of works, to raise funds.
- Quotes, tenders and costings for remediation, and whether a contract has been entered into.
- Building bond arrangements, where the scheme is within the statutory period for a new building.
- Insurance correspondence, cladding affects premiums and can affect terms, and that shows up in the renewal papers.
What cannot be established from the records
Whether the cladding is combustible. Whether remediation has been physically completed. Whether the work done was adequate. None of these are visible in a set of minutes, and a report that claims them is overreaching.
“In remediation” is not the same as “resolved”. A scheme can have identified the issue, engaged a consultant, resolved a scope, raised a levy and signed a contract, and still be years from completion. The records will show you how far along the process is. They will not show you the building.
Where the records are genuinely useful
On money and on timing.
If an assessment has been obtained, a scope agreed and a contract tendered at a stated figure, then the cost is on the record. If a special levy has been raised toward it, that is on the record too, along with the subject lot’s share. Where a quote exists and the fund balance is known, the difference between them is arithmetic, and it can be stated.
That is a factual funding position, and it is a great deal more useful than a characterisation.
What to do with what a report finds
If the records show a cladding matter that has not been resolved, the questions that follow, what it means for value, for finance, for insurance, whether to proceed, are for your solicitor or conveyancer, and for a suitably qualified building professional. They are not questions a records inspection answers, and a report that tries to answer them is not staying in its lane.
Common questions
Will a strata report tell me if the building has combustible cladding?
It will tell you what the records contain, including any assessment by a qualified person, correspondence with the authorities, and any resolutions or costings. It cannot itself assess the building.
The records show remediation works. Are they finished?
The records show what has been resolved, contracted and paid for. Whether physical works are complete is not something a records inspection can confirm.
Who pays for cladding remediation?
That depends on what the owners corporation has resolved, what funding is in place and whether any building bond, warranty claim or government funding applies. A report sets out what the records show on each.
Find out what’s actually on file
Every assessment, resolution, quote and piece of correspondence in the records, reported with its source. $330 inc. GST.