Do I need a roof inspection before selling my house in Canberra?
If you’re getting ready to sell, the roof is probably the last thing on your mind. Fresh paint, tidy garden, declutter the spare room – that’s the usual list. The roof just sits up there, out of sight.
Here’s the thing though: your buyer is going to get a building inspection. And the roof is one of the first places those inspectors look, because roof problems are expensive and buyers know it. Whatever’s up there gets found eventually. The only question is whether you find it first.
What happens when the buyer's inspector finds a roof problem
One of three things, and none of them are good for you.
They knock the price down. And here’s what stings – the discount is almost always bigger than the actual repair. A $2000 repointing job in a building report turns into a $5000 or $10000 negotiation, because the buyer isn’t pricing the repair. They’re pricing the uncertainty. They don’t know if that crack is the whole story or the tip of something worse, so they pad the number.
They make repairs a condition of sale. Now you’re chasing roofers on a deadline, mid-sale. with zero leverage. Contractors know you’re desperate. You’ll pay more and you won’t get to be choosy about who does the work.
They walk. Happens more than you’d think. A buyer can look past dated carpet – they can see exactly what they’re dealing with. Roof issues spook people precisely because they can’t tell how deep the problem goes.
In every case you’d have been better off knowing about the issue before you listed.
What getting in first actually does for you
It’s pretty simple: you find out what the building inspector is going to find, before they find it.
That means repairs happen on your timeline, with the time to get a couple of quotes, instead of under deadline pressure mid-campaign. It means when a buyer’s inspector goes up there, there’s nothing to find – or what’s there is minor and you already know about it. And if you’ve had the roof inspected and sorted recently, you can say so to buyers and back it up with paperwork. That takes one of their biggest question marks off the table before it costs you anything.
The worst negotiations happen late – after the building inspection, when you’re already committed to the sale and mentally halfway moved out. That’s exactly when you don’t want a surprise. This is how you avoid one.
When it's actually worth doing
Look, not every seller needs this. If your roof was restored three years ago and you’ve got the invoice, you’re fine. But it’s worth it if:
- The roof is 15+ years old. Pointing, ridge capping and flashing all start going around this age and the problems usually aren’t visible from the ground. A building inspector will find them anyway.
- You honestly can’t remember when it was last looked at. Then you don’t know what’s up there. That’s a gamble with your sale price.
- There’s been a leak before, or old patch repairs. Buyers notice ceiling stains. Inspectors notice dodgy patches. Better to know what state those areas are actually in.
- You’ve had hail since the roof was last checked. Canberra hail does damage you can’t see from the driveway. If a storm’s been through, assume nothing.
- It’s an older home. Pre-2000s houses often have no sarking, original mortar that’s at the end of its life, and old flashing. All the stuff building reports love to flag.
What the inspection involves
Same as any proper roof inspection – someone actually gets up on the roof. Not binoculars from the driveway. Tiles, ridge capping and pointing, flashing around chimneys and skylights, valleys, gutters and a look in the roof cavity where there’s access.
You get a straight rundown of what’s fine, what needs fixing and what’s just normal wear for the age. Takes an hour or two. Costs a few hundred dollars. Compare that to what one roofing line item in a building report can do to your sale price and it’s not a hard sum.
Do you fix everything they find?
No – and this matters.
Fix the stuff a building inspector would call urgent: active leaks, failed pointing, cracked or slipped tiles. That’s the stuff that triggers negotiations and fixing it costs less than what buyers will take off the price for it.
Skip the rest. General wear that matches the roof’s age, faded colour, “monitor this over time” iteams – none of that is worth spending money on before a sale. A decent roofer will tell you the difference instead of quoting you for the lot. If someone hands you a quote to fix every single thing on the list, get a second opinion.
That’s also why it’s worth having a roofer do this rather than waiting to see what the buyer’s building inspector says. The building inspector’s job is to spot that a problem exsists. A roofer can tell you what it actually is, what it costs, and whether it’s worth touching before you list.
The Short version
Nobody’s making you get a pre-sale roof inspection. But if your roof is older than 15 years or you can’t remember that last time someone looked at it, it’s cheap insurance. You find out what’s up there before the buyer does, fix what matters on your own terms, and walk into negotaitions without a roof-shaped hole in your position.
The sellers who get burned on roofing aren’t the ones who paid for an inspection. They’re the ones who found out what was wrong with their roof at the same moment the buyer did.
National Capital Roofing does pre-sale roof inspections across Canberra and the ACT – honest reports, straight advice on what’s worth fixing and what isn’t. 25+ yerars in the game. Call 0407 212 491 or book and inspection online.
