Reference · Condition reports
The document that decides a bond dispute.
If there is ever a disagreement at the end of a tenancy, this is what it gets decided on. It is also the cheapest thing to do properly and the easiest to do badly.
General information, not legal advice
This is a practical guide, not legal advice. What a condition report must contain, and the five-day window, come from the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 (Vic) and can change — verify the current requirements, or seek legal advice, before you rely on a date.
The five-day window
Five days, and both signatures
A condition report must be completed within five days of the tenant taking possession, and given to the tenant to sign. If it is not provided within that window it may be treated as though the tenant accepted the existing condition — which in practice means damage that was there at the start becomes damage you cannot claim for.
What a defensible report contains
- Every room, including the outside. A report that covers only the kitchen is not a report.
- Existing damage described in words and shown in photographs. "Some marks to skirting board" is not a description you can rely on in a dispute; "three 5–10cm scuff marks on skirting, hallway" is.
- A dated photograph for every entry. A description without a photograph is an assertion.
- Meter readings for electricity, gas and water, where they are separately metered.
- Keys and remote controls handed over, itemised.
- Both parties signing and dating, with a copy to each. A signature is what makes it a shared record rather than your document.
- An inventory of any furnished items, if the property is furnished.
Photographing a rental properly
Photographs are the evidence, so they need to survive being shown to a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal member eighteen months later.
- Use good light. A dark photo is a photo you will struggle to rely on.
- Shoot wide to establish the room, then narrow to each item. A single wide shot cannot show a scratch.
- Include something for scale — a ruler, a tape measure or a coin next to the damage.
- Take one photo per defect rather than relying on one frame to cover several.
- Do not edit, filter or crop. An edited photo is the thing that destroys credibility in a hearing.
During the tenancy
The report is a snapshot at a moment, not the whole story. Every later change in condition is your evidence of when it happened, so log changes as they occur: a dated photo plus a short written note of what changed and when. If a repair was your responsibility and you did it, that record protects you from a claim for the damage.
At the end
The final inspection should happen when the tenant vacates, or as close to it as you can manage, and it should be photographed at that moment. Then run the two reports side by side. Each deduction has to trace to a line in the start-of-tenancy report — if it does not, it is not claimable. Separate wear and tear from damage: a faded patch of carpet from three years of foot traffic is not damage, and claiming it will cost you credibility on the items you can claim.
Where the toolkit helps
It includes the room-by-room condition report template structured for the five-day window, the photographic evidence protocol with shot types and naming conventions, a mid-tenancy change log, and a final inspection checklist that generates the evidence a bond claim needs within the RBS 30-day window.