Bawden Home Care
Home insurance covers damage that is sudden and accidental — not wear, not gradual deterioration, not damage that follows a home not being looked after. A full home inspection by Bawden Building Group gives you a dated, photographed condition report from a registered builder, written before anything goes wrong.
Report in five business days · Mornington Peninsula & Bayside
Why this matters most
Almost every Australian home policy covers damage that is sudden and accidental, and excludes gradual deterioration, wear and tear, and damage that follows from a home not being maintained. That exclusion is where contested claims are won and lost.
Damage that happened, on a date. A storm, a burst pipe, an impact, a fire. Something sudden, and not the result of anything you did or failed to do.
Wear and tear, gradual deterioration, rust and rot, and damage arising from a home not being kept in good condition. Suncorp names blocked gutters specifically.
Whether the home was being looked after — which is a question about evidence. Most owners have none. No dates, no photographs, no record of what was checked or when.
What the report gives you
Your report is dated, photographed and written before anything has gone wrong. Keep each year's, with the invoices for the work done, and you are no longer saying the home was maintained. You are showing it.
Insurers put the exclusion in plain terms. Suncorp tells customers its home insurance “does not cover damage caused by blocked gutters”, and its policy excludes loss or damage “arising from any part of the home, unit, or contents not being in good condition”. Other insurers word it differently and mean the same thing.
The report also records what we examined and deliberately left alone, with a measurement against which next year's inspection can be compared. That matters more than it sounds. It evidences a house that was gone through properly, rather than one where somebody noticed the obvious.
The same file is worth having when you sell. A buyer's inspector will find what we found — and you will already have it in writing, dated, with the work that was done against it.
We are builders, not insurance advisers, and no report can guarantee how an insurer assesses a particular claim. What a report can do is make sure the evidence exists, and that it is dated. For what your own policy requires of you, read the PDS or speak to your broker.
The service
A 1920s weatherboard in Sorrento and a 2015 brick veneer in Mount Eliza need different things, on different timelines, at different costs. So we don't sell a fixed package.
The fee is built around your home — its size, wet areas, storeys, age, and what else is on the property. Tell us about the house and we come back with a fixed price in writing, before anything is booked.
What we do
Roof to subfloor, inside and out, by a qualified tradesperson and signed off by the builder. Photographed, written up, and priced.
Every finding sorted into three bands: what needs attention now, what will need it in the next six to twelve months, and what is only worth keeping an eye on. Each carries an indicative cost, so you can budget rather than react.
Rot, leaks, failed waterproofing, movement, tired joinery, drainage. Carpentry in-house; plumbing, electrical and roofing by the trades we have used for a decade.
Come back each year and the reports stack into a documented history of the property — the evidence an insurer asks for, and the file a buyer wants to see.
The inspection
A typical pre-purchase inspection runs 1.5 to 3 hours, because it is written to a contract deadline. Ours takes as long as it takes to inspect the house properly. We are not producing a report to satisfy a settlement date — we are writing a plan of works we would be willing to quote, and that is finished when the house has been gone through, not when the clock says so.
Not included: timber pest, asbestos, electrical or gas certification, and anything requiring destructive investigation. Services are visual only. We say plainly when a specialist is warranted — a pest inspector, or Raf on the plumbing and Matt on the electrical, both with us for ten years and more — and take no margin on their fee.
Why it pays for itself
Almost nothing in a house fails suddenly. Waterproofing lets go over years. Timber rots one wet winter at a time. The bill arrives all at once, but the problem never did — and what it costs depends almost entirely on how far along it was when someone looked.
| A common building fault | Dealt with early | Left to run |
|---|---|---|
| Perished silicone and grout in a shower | Reseal and regrout the junction | Strip the shower, rebuild and re-waterproof it — and replace the wall framing behind it if the water has got that far. |
| Blocked gutters and downpipes | Clean and flush them | Replace a water-damaged ceiling, its cornice and its paint — then fix whatever let the water in, which is still there. |
| Failed subfloor ventilation and damp | Add vents, clear the ground line | Replace rotted bearers and joists, or restump the house. |
| Cracked pointing and loose ridge capping | Repoint the ridge and hips | A full roof restoration. If water has been reaching the battens for years, a new roof. |
| Paint failure on weatherboards and reveals | Prepare and repaint | Cut out and replace the rotted boards, sills and reveals first — then repaint anyway. |
Every one of these starts as an afternoon's work and ends as a trade job. We haven't put prices here, because the cost depends entirely on the house — and because the point is not the number. It is that the right-hand column is always the same work as the left, plus everything the water did in between. This is not a prediction about your house. It is how these faults behave in any house, and yours may have none of them.
What the report tells you
Water is getting in, or something has already failed. These are the items where waiting costs money — every season they run, the repair gets bigger. On a well-kept house this list is short, and sometimes there is nothing on it at all.
Still doing its job, but not for much longer. Silicone with one more summer in it. A gutter run that won't see out next winter. You pick the month; it stays cheap because you got to it first. Left unwritten, these quietly become the first list.
Sound today. Photographed, measured, and left alone — with a note of exactly what would have to change before it becomes a job. This is the list that tells you what not to spend money on this year.
Plenty of homes need very little. If yours is one, the report says so plainly and you have it in writing. See a full specimen report.
The deliverable
Twenty-six pages. Every finding illustrated, referenced and priced. Then a section mapping the grounds Australian insurers most often decline claims on to exactly where each is recorded — and a complete element schedule photographing and rating all 205 elements of the house, not only the ones with something wrong.
01 · SummaryThe house in two paragraphs, and what the whole year will cost.
03 · Works scheduleNine findings by priority — five costed, four deliberately not. The page most people turn to first.
09 · Insurance groundsThe twelve grounds claims are declined on, mapped to where each is recorded.
11–26 · Element scheduleAll 205 elements, each photographed, rated and dated. The part that makes it evidence.
A specimen, not a real client's home. The findings and costs are typical of a 1980s weatherboard on the Peninsula. Illustrations here are schematic drawings; a live report carries a site photograph in every frame.
Read the full twenty-six-page reportHow it works
Six stages. You'll know which one you're in at all times.
Ten minutes on the phone about the home, and where useful a look at the plans. We confirm the fee in writing before anything is booked, and it does not change afterwards.
We stay until the house has been gone through properly. You don't need to be there, though most people join us for the last half hour.
Within five business days. Photographed findings across the three bands, each with a cost.
A call, or a walk-through if you'd rather, on what matters and what doesn't. This is where most of the value lands.
You choose what to proceed with, and we quote it line by line within five business days. Nothing bundled, nothing assumed.
If you want us to. Same carpenters, same plumber, same sparky. Annually for most homes; more often for coastal and heritage.
Before we arrive
Most of what limits an inspection is access, not weather. A little preparation is the difference between a complete report and one full of caveats.
The Peninsula is full of houses their owners see a few weekends a year. They are the homes this was built for.
Every inspection is carried out under Bawden Building Group's registration and insurance. If we damage anything, we make it good — we carry $10 million in public liability, and we won't argue about it. Works arising from your report are covered separately: since 1 July 2026, eligible domestic building work valued over $20,000 carries Home Warranty cover provided by the Building and Plumbing Commission, the scheme that replaced Domestic Building Insurance. The inspection itself sits well below that threshold. Your works may not, and we tell you which side of it a quote falls on.
Why a builder
A standard inspection tells you there is moisture in the ensuite wall. It does not tell you whether that means new silicone or a rebuilt shower, or what either costs.
Collis has held his building licence since 2016 and spent years before that on heritage-listed homes across Melbourne. When he looks at a crack, he is reading it against houses he has pulled apart and put back together. That is a different answer to the one a generalist inspector can give, and it is the whole reason Bawden Home Care exists.
The report tells you what we would leave alone as plainly as what we would fix. Every item carries a cost you can take elsewhere, and there is no pressure to use us for a line of it.
Pre-purchase inspections are generally written to AS 4349.1 — a sound standard for what it is for. It is worth knowing what it does not oblige an inspector to cover.
And the one that matters most: AS 4349.1 does not require an inspector to estimate what anything costs to fix. That is not a criticism — most inspectors are not builders. It is simply the gap this fills. Every finding in our report carries a cost, because we are the people who would quote it.
| Typical building inspection | General home maintenance | Bawden Home Care | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who attends | Licensed inspector | Handyman or subcontractor | Our own qualified trades, signed off by a registered builder |
| Time on site | 1.5 – 3 hours | Job-by-job | As long as the house takes |
| What you receive | Condition report | An invoice | Condition report, a costed works schedule, and a photographed schedule of every element |
| Costs against findings | Rarely | After the fact | Indicative cost on every item, before you commit |
| Who does the repairs | Not their business | Whoever is available | The same team, or nobody — your call |
| How it is priced | Flat fee by property size | By the hour | Quoted on the house itself, fixed in writing before we book |
The business behind it has been building and renovating across the Peninsula and Bayside for ten years. The people who will inspect your home are the ones who have been doing that work.
We would rather you checked than took our word for it. Our registration is public and searchable, and we will put you in touch with past clients before you book — not a curated list, whoever you'd like to speak to.
An obligation-free conversation, a fixed price before we book, and a report written by people who could do every line of the work themselves — and which stands as your record that the home was cared for.
The people on your job
Five of us, alongside trades who have worked with us for years. The same faces throughout, and the same numbers in your phone.
Builder · DB-U 45837
Has held his building licence since 2016 and led Bawden Building Group ever since, after several years on heritage-listed homes across Melbourne. He inspects and signs off every Home Care report personally.
Senior Carpenter
One of the two senior carpenters who take a Bawden project from the first day on site to handover. On a Home Care inspection he is usually the one in the roof cavity and under the floor — the parts of a house nobody else volunteers for.
Senior Carpenter
The carpenter who starts your job is the one who finishes it. Steve works across our renovation projects and joins the inspection where a house needs a second set of eyes on framing, decking or structural timber.
Apprentice Carpenter
Fourth-year apprentice, learning the trade the way Collis did — on real houses, alongside people who have been doing it for more than a decade. He works under supervision on every job.
Project Manager
Claire manages the company’s projects, bringing thirteen years as a purchasing manager — procurement, supplier management and scheduling. She is who you hear from between the inspection and the works, and she books the date.
The specialists who come with us — not a roster of whoever is free that week. The same three on the tools for ten years and more, who know how we work and are happy to be named.
More than a decade alongside Bawden. Licensed, and he certifies his own work.
Ten years and counting. Switchboards, RCDs, smoke alarms and cabling.
Ten years with us. Wet areas done once, and done to the standard.
Anything that needs a certificate goes to the trade who holds that licence, and they issue it themselves: electrical work under a Certificate of Electrical Safety from a licensed electrician, registered with Energy Safe Victoria; plumbing under a compliance certificate lodged with the Building and Plumbing Commission; pool and spa barriers inspected by a registered barrier inspector, with the certificate of compliance lodged with your council. Where works need a building permit, it is issued by a registered building surveyor under the Building Act 1993. We take no margin on any of their fees.
The same yards, studios and consultants we use on our renovation projects. If your report calls for materials, this is where they come from.
Naming them is deliberate. You can ring any of them and ask what we are like to work with.
Questions
You can give it to them, and it is the right kind of document to hold. When a claim is contested the argument is usually about whether the home was being looked after — and a dated, photographed report from a registered building practitioner, with invoices for the work done, is direct evidence on that question, created before the loss.
What we cannot tell you is how a particular insurer will assess a particular claim. We are builders, not insurance advisers, and nobody can promise you an outcome.
We quote on the house rather than publish a price list, because the work is not the same from one property to the next. A single-storey home with one bathroom and a slab is a different day from a two-storey period house with four wet areas, a subfloor and a pool.
Tell us the size, the storeys, the number of wet areas, roughly when it was built and what else is on the property, and we will come back with a fixed figure in writing. It does not change afterwards, whatever we find.
It costs more than a pre-purchase inspection and we would rather say so plainly than surprise you. The next question explains why.
Because it is a different product. A pre-purchase inspection is built to be fast and satisfy a contract deadline — 1.5 to 3 hours on site, and a list of defects. Ours takes however long the house takes, because we are producing a plan of works, and every finding carries a cost.
If you need a pre-purchase report before an auction, a standard inspector is the right call and we will say so. If you own the home and want to know what to do about it, that is what we are for.
Annually for most homes. More often for exposed coastal properties, where fixings, flashings and paint age much faster. The first report will tell you which yours is.
It compounds: the second inspection is faster and cheaper to act on, because we know the home and the backlog is cleared.
Yes, and it is worth knowing how. Bawden Building Group is registered with the Building and Plumbing Commission — Victoria's building regulator, formerly the Victorian Building Authority — as a Domestic Builder, Unlimited, registration DB-U 45837. You can look that up yourself on the public register rather than taking our word for it.
For the works themselves: since 1 July 2026, eligible domestic building work valued over $20,000 carries Home Warranty cover. The scheme replaced Domestic Building Insurance and is provided by the Building and Plumbing Commission, which is now the only provider. It covers you if the builder cannot or will not complete or rectify the work — structural, waterproofing and weatherproofing defects for up to six years from completion, and other defects for up to two years. The inspection fee sits well below the $20,000 threshold. Works quoted from your report may sit either side of it, and we tell you which before you sign anything.
We are members of Master Builders Victoria, and works are quoted and contracted on their documents.
Entirely fine, and it happens. The report is yours, and every item carries a cost, so you can take it to another builder without needing us at all.
Then that is the finding, and it is worth knowing. We would rather write a short report than invent a reason to come back. We don't pad a schedule to make it look busy — you are paying for an honest read on the house, including the possibility that it is in better shape than you feared.
Get in touch
Tell us about the home and we will come back with a fixed price. We usually reply within a business day.
PO Box 162, Mount Eliza VIC 3930
DB-U 45837 — Registered Building Practitioner (VIC)
Building and Plumbing Commission, formerly the Victorian Building Authority
Peninsula — Frankston, Frankston South, Langwarrin, Baxter, Mount Eliza, Mornington, Mount Martha, Safety Beach, Dromana, Red Hill, Rosebud, Rye, Blairgowrie, Sorrento, Portsea, Balnarring, Somers, Flinders.
Bayside — Brighton, Hampton, Sandringham, Black Rock, Beaumaris, Mentone, Parkdale, Mordialloc.
No travel charge within about 40 km of Mount Eliza. Beyond that, by arrangement, quoted up front.
