What a visual inspection cannot see — and why we put that in writing.
Every inspection has a boundary. The useful question is not whether that boundary exists, but whether you were shown it before you paid.
The definition we work to
A visual inspection means a non-invasive inspection of readily accessible areas. That is the whole definition, and it does more work than it looks like it does.
Non-invasive means nothing gets opened up. No plaster lifted, no ceiling board removed, no tile taken up, no wall chased. Readily accessible means what can be reached and seen safely on the day: a locked outbuilding, a roof cavity with no access hatch, a wall behind a full-height built-in cupboard, or a roof that is not safe to walk in wind — none of those are inspected, and the report says so by name.
A detailed inspection goes further into one discipline — damp, roofing, waterproofing — but it remains non-destructive unless we agree otherwise with you in writing first.
The five standing exclusions
- Concealed defects. A defect behind a finish cannot be identified without invasive investigation. A moisture meter reads through a surface; it does not tell you which pipe.
- Compliance certificates. Electrical, gas, plumbing and electric-fence certificates are issued by registered persons in those trades. An inspection report is not one of them and is not a substitute for one. We can flag that a certificate looks overdue or that an installation looks wrong. We cannot certify it.
- Specialist testing and laboratory analysis. Asbestos identification, water potability, timber pest identification — excluded unless separately instructed.
- Structural design calculations. We can measure a crack, record its width and pattern, and tell you it warrants an engineer. We do not do the engineer’s work.
- The future. A report describes condition on the date of inspection. It is not a warranty against a defect appearing next winter.
Why this is on the website and not in the small print
Because the alternative is a bad transaction. If you buy a pre-purchase inspection believing it includes a compliance certificate, you have paid for something you did not get and you are unprotected on something you thought was covered. Neither of us wants that conversation after transfer.
There is also a professional reason. When the boundary is written down in advance, everything inside it gets taken seriously. Vagueness protects the inspector. Specificity protects the client.
What we do instead of guessing
Where a finding needs an investigation we are not commissioned or qualified to do, the report recommends it explicitly and says what kind of specialist it needs. That recommendation is a finding in its own right — it is often the most valuable line in the report, because it is the one that stops a wrong repair being done to the wrong diagnosis.
You can read what each of our sixteen services covers on the inspections page. It is all published before you book, on purpose.
Sources
- Scope, inclusions, exclusions and definitions as published by TLC Home & Property Inspections on the Inspections page of this site.
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