The owner-builder 137B report in your Section 32

Tucked inside some Section 32s is a document with a name only a legislator could love: the Section 137B report. If it is in your statement, the property has had owner-builder work done, and Victorian law has arranged for you to know quite a lot about it.

What is a Section 137B report?

Section 137B of the Building Act 1993 (Vic) applies when an owner-builder, someone who took out a building permit to do work on their own home rather than engaging a registered builder, sells the property within six and a half years of the work being completed. Before the contract is signed, the vendor has to provide a report from a prescribed building practitioner (typically a building inspector, surveyor, engineer, or architect) describing the work and listing any defects or incomplete items found.

In many cases the vendor also has to hold domestic building insurance for the work, the same warranty insurance a registered builder provides, where the value of the work is above the statutory threshold. The report and any insurance details belong in the Section 32 alongside the building permits from recent years.

Why the rule exists

Registered builders carry registration, insurance, and statutory warranties. An owner-builder carries enthusiasm and a permit. The 137B regime bridges the gap for the next owner: instead of buying renovation work sight unseen, the buyer receives a professional's written description of what was done and the condition it is in, prepared close to the sale rather than years earlier.

The six-and-a-half-year window is not arbitrary either. It tracks the general period for bringing building actions in Victoria, so the disclosure lives for roughly as long as the legal exposure does.

How to read a 137B report as a buyer

The report is short and structured, and three reading passes cover it:

1. What work was done. The description tells you the scope: a deck, a bathroom, a garage conversion, a full extension. Match it against what you can see at the property and against the permits listed in the Section 32.
2. The defects list. The inspector lists defects and incomplete items observed. Read every line. "Minor cracking to plaster" is a different conversation from "balustrade does not comply with the applicable standard".
3. The insurance position. Where warranty insurance was required, the certificate details belong with the statement. Its presence or absence is a factual check your conveyancer performs as part of the contract review.

A defects list is not automatically a reason to retreat. It is information, and it feeds naturally into your building inspection decisions: an independent inspector can look specifically at the owner-builder work and the listed items, then price and describe them properly.

What if the work happened without a 137B report?

If a property shows signs of significant recent work but the Section 32 contains neither a builder's details nor a 137B report, that gap is worth raising immediately, through your conveyancer, with the vendor's side. Sometimes the work predates the window, sometimes it was done by a registered builder, and sometimes a required report simply was not obtained. Each of those has a different answer, and the difference matters. Missing statutory disclosures fall into the same family of problems covered in our guide to incomplete Section 32s.

Does a 137B report replace a building inspection?

No, and it is not meant to. The 137B report covers the owner-builder work, prepared for the vendor. Your own building and pest inspections cover the whole property, prepared for you. The two documents answer different questions, and on a property with owner-builder history, they work best together.

Summary

A Section 137B report appears in the Section 32 when a home is sold within six and a half years of owner-builder work: a practitioner's description of the work with a list of any defects, accompanied by warranty insurance where the value required it. Read the scope, read the defects list line by line, have your conveyancer verify the insurance position, and let your own building inspection test the work independently. It is one of the quieter documents in the statement, and one of the most informative when it is there.

Sources

• Building Act 1993 (Vic), section 137B: the requirement for an owner-builder defects report (and warranty insurance above the prescribed value) when selling within six and a half years of the work.
• Sale of Land Act 1962 (Vic), section 32: the Vendor's Statement requirement to disclose owner-builder work and the associated report and insurance.

Sources verified 25 July 2026.