Stage 3: Interim inspection and report

Who is involved

• Building inspector
• Developer  
• The Secretary

Who has tasks in the Strata Hub

• Building inspector
• Developer
• The Secretary 

What the building inspector must do

The building inspector carries out the interim inspection to identify any defective building work.

The building inspector must:

• carry out the inspection 15 to 18 months after the occupation certificate (OC) is issued. It cannot be performed earlier than 15 months
• attend the site to perform the interim inspection. This includes attending the site at the same time as the secondary inspector or specialist
• give at least 14 days written notice to the owners corporation and any lot owner/occupier if you need to enter the affected lot and/or common property (for example, a unit and balcony).

Building inspector access

All parties must provide reasonable access and assistance, and not obstruct or hinder a building inspector.

This includes:

• the owners corporation
• any person who has exclusive use of common property
• the strata managing agent
• the building manager or manager of the common property
• any owner or occupier of a lot. 

Identifying defective building work

Inspectors must identify defective building work by visual inspection. They must use equipment/techniques that do not involve destructive testing. The inspection can include removing any object designed to be moved/opened.

Building inspections do not provide a level of compliance, but do identify defective building work, to which Part 11 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 applies.

It’s important all defective building work is identified and recorded at this stage. The final report cannot contain any defective building work not reported in the interim report, unless the defective building work arose from the rectification of defective building work identified in the interim report.

Secondary inspector

If there are parts of the inspection outside of the appointed building inspector’s skillset, a secondary inspector and/or specialist should perform them. The secondary inspector/specialist must be selected, briefed and instructed by the appointed building inspector without input from any other party. The appointed building inspector must assess the secondary inspector/specialist report, include it as part of the interim report and add it as an attachment. 

Preparing the interim report

The building inspector must use the Strata Hub or the SBBIS Inspect NSW app to produce the interim inspection report. The SBBIS Inspect NSW app can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.

Building inspectors must comply with the technical notes when conducting their interim inspection.

Once the report is submitted and approved in the Strata Hub, a notification is sent to the following parties:

• the Secretary
• owners corporation (who must provide notice to the lot owners how to access an electronic copy of the report from them)
• developer.

The building inspector is required to provide a copy of the approved interim report to the builder and owners corporation.

If no defective work is found

If there is no defective building work identified in the interim report, the developer can apply to the Secretary in the Strata Hub to request for a final report to not be required. 

If the application is approved, the interim report becomes the final report. The building bond may then be returned to the issuer by the Secretary.

Arranging the building inspector for Stage 5: Final inspection and report

The developer must arrange for the same building inspector who prepared the interim report to carry out the final inspection and provide the final report. 

If the original building inspector is not available, the developer must give the Secretary written notice of this within 14 days after becoming aware.

If the Secretary arranges the building inspector, the developer must pay all inspector costs and owners corporation approval is not required. The developer is to pay a service fee to the Secretary to arrange the inspector.

For more information, visit Stage 5: Final inspection and report. 

Mandatory reporting

By law, building inspectors must complete and provide interim and final inspection reports in the approved form. This can be completed in the Strata Hub. See a blank example of the approved form template (PDF 984.58KB).

How to complete online tasks

To complete SBBIS tasks, building inspectors need to use the Strata Hub.

Strata Hub instructions

Our user instructions make it easy for you to understand what to do on the Strata Hub.

How to complete Stage 3 online tasks if you're a building inspector. 

Login to the Strata Hub 

Note: Each time you log in, you will need to enter the new verification code emailed to you.