In this article
Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →A buyer usually sees a home two or three times before signing a contract, then not again for a month or more. In that time the seller packs, removalists come and go, a storm may pass through and a tenant may move out. The final inspection, a walk through the property shortly before settlement, is the buyer's chance to see what they are about to pay for while it still matters.
It is also one of the most misunderstood steps in a sale. Buyers sometimes treat it as a second building inspection, or as a moment to reopen the price. Sellers sometimes treat it as an intrusion. The standard contract published by the Real Estate Institute of Queensland and the Queensland Law Society gives it a narrower and clearer role than either. This guide sets out what that contract, in its first edition of August 2025, allows a buyer to do, what the seller has and has not promised about the state of the property, and what can be done if the walk-through turns up a problem. The contract signed in a particular sale, with its special conditions, is what governs that sale.
REIQ and Queensland Law Society Contract for the Sale and Purchase of Residential Real Estate, first edition (08/25), clauses 8.2, 8.1 and 7.9.
Where the right comes from
Until settlement the property is still the seller's home or investment, and a buyer has no general right to walk in. The right to do so comes from the contract. Clause 8.2 says that, after giving reasonable notice to the seller, the buyer and the buyer's consultants may enter the property for a short list of purposes.
Related readSettlement day in Queensland: what happens, in what order, who does it| Purpose | How often |
|---|---|
| Reading meters | Once |
| Building and pest inspections under clause 4.2 | As needed for the inspections |
| Valuing the property | Once |
| Inspecting smoke alarms in a dwelling | Once |
| Final inspection before settlement | Once |
Three things follow from that list. The final inspection is a right, not a favour, so a seller cannot simply refuse it. It is a right to one visit, so a buyer who uses it a fortnight early cannot insist on another. And it is separate from the building and pest inspection, which belongs to an earlier stage of the contract and carries its own right to terminate. By the time of the final inspection that condition has normally been satisfied or waived, and the question is no longer whether to buy.
The Queensland Government's guidance for home sellers reflects the same understanding. It tells sellers that the buyer can carry out a pre-settlement inspection in the days before settlement.
When to do it, and how it is arranged
The contract asks only for reasonable notice. It does not say how many days before settlement the inspection should happen, or at what hour.
In practice the visit is arranged through the seller's agent, who holds the keys and accompanies the buyer. The useful window is narrow. Too early, and the seller is still living there, so the inspection shows a furnished house and cannot answer whether it will be empty and undamaged once the furniture is gone. Too late, and there is no time to sort out anything that is found. A day or two before settlement, or the morning of settlement where the seller has already moved out, is the common compromise.
Where a buyer has a choice, an inspection after the seller has moved out is the more informative one, because moving is when walls get marked and items get taken by mistake. The trade-off is time: a problem found on settlement morning has to be resolved within hours.
Related read30, 60 or 90 days: how a settlement period is chosen in QueenslandThe right belongs to the buyer and the buyer's consultants. A buyer who wants a tradesperson to look at something particular can bring one, within the same single visit.
What the seller has promised: an empty property
The first thing an inspection checks is whether the buyer will receive what clause 5.7 promises. On the settlement date, in exchange for the balance of the price, the seller must give the buyer vacant possession of the land and the improvements, except for any tenancies that are being sold with the property.
Vacant possession means the seller and the seller's belongings are gone. A shed still full of the seller's tools, a garage stacked with boxes or a car body left in the yard are all questions of vacant possession, and they are the kind of thing a final inspection is designed to catch. The Queensland Government's guidance for sellers puts the expectation in everyday terms, saying the home must be vacant and clean.
Cleanliness is where expectations and the contract can part ways. The guidance describes what sellers should do. The standard terms themselves speak of vacant possession and do not set a cleaning standard. A buyer who wants a professional clean, steam-cleaned carpets or a mown lawn at handover should have that written into the contract as a special condition; without one, a dusty house is usually a disappointment and not a breach.
What must still be there
The second check is that nothing sold with the property has left with the seller.
A sale includes the land, the improvements on it and the items the contract lists as included chattels, with clause 5.8 passing title to those chattels at settlement. Things fixed to the property, such as a dishwasher plumbed into the kitchen, a ceiling fan or a clothesline set in concrete, are ordinarily part of what is sold unless the contract lists them as excluded. Movable items such as a freestanding fridge or outdoor furniture are included only if the contract says so.
Related readTitles Queensland opens an online drop box for self-lodged title changesThe inspection is the time to compare the property with those lists. The contract should be in the buyer's hand, open at the reference schedule where included chattels and excluded fixtures are written, because memory of an open home is not evidence of what was agreed. Remote controls for the garage door and air conditioners, pool equipment and keys to window locks are small items that often turn out to be missing and are simple to ask about while the seller is still involved.
The condition of the property, and whose risk it is
The third check is condition, and here the contract surprises many buyers.
Clause 8.1 says the property is at the buyer's risk from 5pm on the first business day after the contract date. In other words, if a storm, fire or flood damages the house between contract and settlement, the standard terms place that loss on the buyer, not the seller. The Queensland Law Handbook, published by Caxton Legal Centre, draws the practical conclusion that buyers should arrange insurance immediately on signing.
Risk is not the whole story, because the seller has duties too. Under clause 8.3 the seller must use the property reasonably until settlement, and must not do anything that significantly alters it or that will result in later expense for the buyer. The seller must also promptly pass on any notice, proceeding or order affecting the property. Damage caused by the seller's own conduct, such as a wall gouged by removalists or a fitting pulled out, is a question of whether the seller has kept those promises and delivered what was sold, not a question of who carried the risk of a storm.
Related readWhen settlement is delayed in Queensland: what waiting costs, who paysWhat the standard terms do not contain is a general promise about working order. The warranties in clause 7.4 concern official notices, legal proceedings and the seller's title; none of them is a promise that the oven heats or the air conditioner cools. A buyer who wants appliances and systems to be working at settlement needs a special condition saying so. A final inspection can still test them, and anything that worked at the open home and does not work now is worth raising, but the contractual footing depends on what was written.
The buyer carries the risk long before the keys
Under clause 8.1 the property is at the buyer's risk from 5pm on the first business day after the contract date. Storm or fire damage found at the final inspection is generally a matter for the buyer's insurer. Damage caused by the seller's use of the property is a different matter, covered by the seller's obligations in clause 8.3.
Smoke alarms and the pool
Two safety items have their own rules and are easy to check on a walk-through.
Clause 7.9 requires the seller to install smoke alarms in any dwelling on the land, in line with the legal requirements for smoke alarms, by the settlement date. The contract gives the buyer one separate entry to inspect them. If the seller has not complied, the buyer is entitled to an adjustment at settlement equal to 0.15% of the purchase price, but only if the buyer claims it in writing on or before settlement. On a purchase price of $700,000 that is $1,050. The clause says this adjustment is the buyer's only remedy for the failure, and that the seller is not required to produce evidence of compliance, so the buyer's own inspection is how a shortfall comes to light.
For a property with a regulated pool, clause 5.5 lists a current pool compliance certificate among the things the seller delivers at settlement, unless the seller has already handed one over or gave notice before the contract that there was none. The inspection itself does not prove compliance, but it is a natural moment to confirm with the buyer's representative which of those situations applies.
Related readWhen the settlement system stops: outages and what happens nextA walk-through that covers the ground
An inspection of an empty house can take twenty minutes or an hour. What matters is that it follows the contract and not the buyer's nerves. The order below takes the points the contract makes checkable.
- PossessionEvery room, cupboard, shed and the yard: are the seller's belongings and rubbish gone?
- InclusionsTick each included chattel and fixture against the contract's lists, with remotes and keys.
- ChangeLook for anything different from the day of signing: new damage, removed fittings, altered structures.
- Safety itemsNote where smoke alarms are and are not; ask about the pool certificate.
- RecordPhotograph anything of concern and send it to the conveyancer or solicitor straight away.
The last pass is the one that decides whether the others were worth doing. A concern raised with the agent on the doorstep is a conversation. A concern sent in writing to the buyer's representative before settlement is something that can be acted on, and for some claims the contract requires exactly that.
If something is wrong
Most problems found at a final inspection are small and are fixed by a phone call: the seller returns to collect the boxes, drops off the missing remote or arranges a repair. The agent, who wants the sale to settle, is usually the quickest channel.
Where a problem cannot be fixed before settlement, the parties' representatives have several tools, all of which depend on agreement.
One is an adjustment to the amount paid: the seller allows the buyer a sum for the repair or removal, and the settlement figures are changed. Another is a retention, in which an agreed sum is held back from the seller's proceeds in a trust account until the item is dealt with. A third is a written undertaking by the seller to do something after settlement. None of these is set out in the standard terms; they are arrangements the representatives negotiate.
Time can also be bought. Clause 6.2 lets either party extend the settlement date by written notice given before 4pm on the day, to a date no more than five business days after the scheduled date. A buyer who needs two more days for a seller to clear a property can use that clause without the seller's consent. The Queensland Government's guidance alludes to this when it tells sellers the buyer can seek a delay if the property is not as it should be.
Related readWhere the deposit sits until settlement: trust accounts in a saleWhat a buyer should be slow to do is refuse to settle. Time is of the essence under the contract, and a buyer who does not pay on the settlement date without a right to hold back is the party in default. The contract is explicit about some claims: for a mistake in the description of the property, and for an incorrect statement about a tenancy, it says the buyer may not delay settlement or withhold any of the balance of the price on account of a claim for compensation. Whether a defect found at inspection is serious enough to justify more than a claim for money is a legal question, to be answered by the buyer's solicitor on the facts, and quickly.
A final inspection checks that the buyer is getting what the contract describes. It does not reopen the bargain the contract records.
Tenanted homes and early possession
Two situations change the picture.
Where the property is sold with a tenant in place, there is no vacant possession to check, because clause 5.7 excepts the tenancies. The inspection is of a home someone else lives in, and the tenant is entitled to proper notice of entry under tenancy law, which the managing agent arranges. The buyer's interest shifts to the documents. Clause 8.4 requires the seller, on written request, to give the buyer the details needed to manage the tenancy after settlement, including the entry condition report and the most recent inspection report where the request is made at least seven days before settlement and the documents exist. Those reports, more than a short visit, show the state of a tenanted property.
Where the buyer has moved in before settlement, the roles reverse. Clause 8.5 treats early possession as a personal licence that the seller can revoke at any time. The buyer must keep the property in substantially the condition it was in when possession was given, fair wear and tear excepted, must insure it to the seller's satisfaction and must cover the seller for any loss arising from the buyer's occupation. A buyer in early possession has, in effect, already done the final inspection by living there, and will find it harder to raise condition afterwards.
After settlement
Settlement closes most of the questions an inspection could have raised. The contract makes several of its remedies depend on a written claim made on or before settlement: the smoke alarm adjustment is one, and compensation for an error in boundaries or description is another. A buyer who notices on moving day that the alarms are missing has left it too late for the 0.15%.
Some matters survive. Keys and documents that the seller's solicitor undertook to send must arrive within two business days of an electronic settlement under clause 5.5. An undertaking or retention agreed before settlement remains enforceable on its terms. And a seller who took an item the contract included has not delivered what was sold, whatever day the buyer discovers it.
The inspection, then, earns its place by its timing. It happens at the last point when the buyer still holds the purchase money, and the seller still has every reason to put things right.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
