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Dilapidation report builder

Record the pre-existing condition of a neighbouring property room by room, with photos taken on your phone, and produce a dated report you can rely on later.

1. Report type

Record the condition of the adjoining property before work starts. This is the baseline you will be measured against.

Property type

Changes the suggested area list below.

2. Property and inspection

Property address

Owner or occupier

Inspection date

Weather

Standard practice: affects what is visible.

Inspected by

Company

Adjacent project

areas recorded

with an observation

photographs

3. Condition record

Area 1

Area

Element

Condition

Observation

Notes

Photographs

+Add photo

Photos are downscaled in your browser and never uploaded anywhere. They are embedded in the PDF when you download it.

When to engage a building surveyor instead

This tool produces a competent record of visible condition, which is what most pre-construction dilapidation surveys need. Engage an independent building surveyor or structural engineer when the adjoining property is heritage-listed, when it already shows signs of structural movement, when the works involve excavation, piling, underpinning or dewatering close to the boundary, or when a consent authority or the neighbour requires an independent report.

An independent report costs more and is harder to challenge. On a contentious boundary that is usually money well spent.

This report records visible condition observed on the date of inspection. It is not a structural assessment, an engineering opinion or a compliance certificate, and it does not classify damage under AS 2870 beyond the widths you record. Obtain the owner's or occupier's consent before entering or photographing private property. Where the property is heritage-listed, already shows structural movement, or the works involve excavation or underpinning near the boundary, engage an independent building surveyor or structural engineer.

Why the dilapidation report exists

A dilapidation report records the condition of adjoining properties before construction starts. Its entire purpose is to answer, months later, one question: was that crack there before we began.

Without a dated record, that question has no good answer. The neighbour is certain it appeared during the excavation, you are certain it did not, and the dispute is resolved by whoever has evidence, which, in the absence of a survey, is nobody.

It is frequently a condition of consent for work involving excavation, piling, demolition or dewatering near other buildings. It is worth doing even when it is not.

Photographs are the report

Written descriptions of cracking are almost useless in a dispute. Hairline, moderate and significant mean different things to different people, and a description written by someone with an interest in the outcome carries very little weight.

A dated photograph of the crack with something for scale in the frame is worth more than a page of description. Take more than feels necessary. The one you did not take is always the one that matters.

This tool captures directly from the phone camera, downsizes the images so a report with fifty photos is still emailable, and embeds them in the PDF with their room and location. The photo and the record of where it was taken stay together, which is where most improvised approaches fall apart.

Be systematic, and record the absence of damage

Go room by room in a fixed order and record every room, including the ones with nothing wrong. A report that only documents defects cannot distinguish between a room that was undamaged and a room that was not inspected.

External elements matter as much as internal: paths, driveways, fences, retaining walls, boundary structures and any pavement you will be running plant across. Those are the ones that get damaged and the ones least likely to have been surveyed.

Note what you could not access. An inaccessible room is a real and useful entry. Leaving it out silently converts a gap in the survey into an implied clean bill of health.

Get it signed, and get it out before you start

The report is strongest when the property owner or occupier has seen it and acknowledged it before work begins. That converts it from your record of their property into a shared record, which is a very different thing in a dispute.

Issue it before the first machine arrives. A dilapidation survey conducted after excavation has started has lost most of its value and all of its credibility.

Consider a closing survey at completion using the same rooms in the same order. Comparing two structured reports is straightforward. Comparing a structured report with an argument is not.

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