Pest Inspections for Tenanted Buildings

If you are purchasing a tenanted building or property, you have to balance your right to inspect the building for damages and pest infestations against the tenants’ right to privacy.

If you don’t secure their consent, you run the risk of expulsion; forcing you to decide whether to buy the building blindly or to cancel the deal. This blog will walk you through the rights and wrongs of tenanted building pest inspections before purchase.

Tenant and Building Owner Rights

Tenants’ Rights in Melbourne are protected under multiple laws. Tenants are entitled to 24 hours or more of notice prior to the proposed date of entry into the building or property, and entry can be granted only under consent. Entry is permissible between 8 am and 6 pm only.

Building owners have limited rights of entry:

• to enable inspection of the property
• for giving a notice to vacate a property
• to show the premises to a prospective tenant, buyer or lender (if the building or property is pledged as collateral for a loan)
• to carry out duties enjoined upon the building owner under this Act
• for valuation of the building or property
• if the building owner or their agent has reasonable grounds to believe that the tenant has failed to comply with their duties under Victoria RTA

Letting a Tenant Know

It’s not enough to call up the building’s tenant, or tell them verbally that you will be carrying out a pest inspection.

Legally, the property owner has to deliver the notice in writing, either by post or by personal delivery. The notice must state the purpose of seeing entry. The lessee is obliged to agree if your request is within your rights and legal limits. Once agreed, the visitor must enter in a reasonable manner, and not stay on the premises for longer than necessary.

Pre-purchase Inspection

If you enter into a deal to buy a tenanted building or property anywhere in Melbourne, the current owner is obligated to inform the tenant/s within 14 days of the sale, in case the lessee is required to vacate, and the lessee is entitled to have 60 days to vacate.

If you are planning to carry out a pest inspection (including termite inspection, which may involve moving furniture or removing wall fittings), make sure that the seller has adequately informed their tenants. Under law, you remain an unconcerned party until the sale is effected.

Tenant Consent

A pest inspection is not permissible if the tenant declines. Most tenants will say yes, unless there is damage they have caused which they wish to hide, or if they are displeased with the owner’s decision to sell.

The latter is often true of people who have rented the place for a long time, often generations. In case you are facing a hostile tenant, make sure that your paperwork is in order, complying with the correct sections of Victoria state law. Tread carefully to avoid the law boomeranging on you.

Correct Building Inspections

If you are the owner, your rights and duties of routine inspections are enshrined in Victoria state law.

As building or property owner, regular repair of the building and pest control are considered your obligations, and any inspections you need to carry out in pursuit of that obligation will rarely invite tenant objections.

On the other hand, inspections to make sure that the lessee has not misused or damaged your building, or carried out illegal activities, is an enforceable right.

An inspection for termite treatment (or any other pest control) of the building you intend to buy is another matter altogether. Your inspection rights are limited. The best way forward is to get your paperwork right (especially entry notices), and to secure the cooperation of the tenant. It may be a lot easier if you intend to let them stay on after purchase.

Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to make a pest control inspection under the guise of a routine inspection. You may find yourself at the wrong side of the law and be subject to fines or litigation.

Carrying Out an Inspection

In the case that you have secured the permissions to carry out a pest inspection, you have to carry out the inspections professionally.

Hire a professional pest inspector who can make the best use of the restricted time window. Not only must they have the skills to detect pests in the expected and unexpected places, but they must also have good communication skills to set the occupants of the inspected building at ease.

Conclusion

Following pest control building inspection protocols laid out under Australian federal, Victoria state and Melbourne city guidelines will make sure that you face no legal hassles in your pre-purchase inspection and pest treatment.

A professional pest control and management agency can help you carry out building pest inspections in a time-bound and effective manner.

Author Bio

Ever since Muzi Tsolakis founded Protech Pest Control, he has built up experience in building pest inspection in all parts of Melbourne, including pre-purchase and routine post-purchase inspections and ant control. He leads a team of expert exterminators trained to spot and eliminate insects, mites and nests from commercial and residential buildings and properties.