Disclosure of any defects that become apparent in the sale process is required by law. It is not enough for an agent to simply say that there are conflicting reports on the property. That is not the same thing as what the law requires, which is that agents must disclose defects that they know about. Quite often conflicting reports are the one being supplied by the agent and one that was made for a prospective buyer that identified a big issue or two.
Applying a little common sense however, it is problematic for an agent to have to communicate every defect they learn about. Defects or deficiencies can be on a large range and scale and everyone will surely evaluate them differently. Some people believe that they can purchase a property in any defective state and then use the law to compensate them. Even better, avoid problems while you can!
As a buyer, you are not the agents’ client: you are a customer. The clients are the vendors and the agents also have duties to them. If a sale falls through because of a survey / report it is always difficult to know the best course to take. The agent may only have to tell prospective buyers that a sale fell through because of a survey or the agent may decide to no longer list that property and may have a duty of confidentiality to the vendors such that defects discovered cannot be disclosed as the property is no longer being marketed by them. It is not always clear IMO and you would be taking on costs and uncertainty in most cases to seek answers from Court.
We recently looked at a home with leaking internal gutters and damage going all the way down the walls below. This home is going to need framing replacement and some recladding, as well as having the roof gutters re-formed to create appropriate slope. Because the new owners would be making leak repairs, a building consent is required. This is all quite substantial work for a new homeowner to take on unless they allowed for those repairs in their purchasing decision. Considering past performance failures with this home, a building consent may require upgrading to current standards. The vendor report being supplied to prospective purchasers missed the roof leaks.