Property Condition Report Template
Every deposit dispute comes down to one question, asked months apart: was that like that before? The scuff on the skirting board, the crack above the door, the oven rack that doesn’t slide — at move-out, someone remembers it differently, and whoever kept the better record wins. A property condition report is that record: taken at move-in, complete, photographed, and acknowledged by both parties — so that when the tenancy ends, the argument has nothing to stand on. The baseline, not anybody’s memory, decides.
The Baseline Principle
The report’s power comes entirely from when it’s taken. Documented at move-in, every mark, scratch, and quirk becomes known condition — pre-existing, attributable to nobody, undisputable. Undocumented, the same marks become allegations at move-out, because an unlabeled scuff belongs to whoever’s holding the deposit.
So the report must be done before furniture arrives, done thoroughly, and done identically every time. A rushed walk-through with a paper checklist protects no one; a structured, photographic record protects both sides completely — the tenant from being billed for the last person’s damage, the landlord from absorbing it.
Room by Room, Not Overall
Property in good condition is a sentence that settles nothing. The report works through the property the way disputes actually do — one room, one fixture at a time:
- Per room, per surface — walls, floors, doors, windows, fittings, each noted individually. A short text field per area captures the specifics: scuff below light switch, approximate 10cm
- Appliances and systems — oven, boiler, radiators, locks. The items that generate half of all end-of-tenancy disagreement get their own lines, not a general mention
- Condition ratings where useful — a consistent scale per room makes the move-in and move-out records numerically comparable at a glance
- Furnishings inventory — where the let is furnished: what’s present, and its state. The missing-chair debate is the oldest dispute in renting, and an inventory line ends it before it opens
Photograph Everything — Then Photograph It Again
Written notes describe; photographs prove. The rule of thumb professionals use: if you bothered to write it down, photograph it:
- Wide shots of every room from the doorway, then close-ups of every mark you’ve noted — an upload field at each section keeps the images attached to the room they document
- The unglamorous evidence too: meter readings, the garden’s state, the garage interior, inside of cupboards and the oven — the places damage hides and disputes breed
- Date-stamped by the submission itself, which is precisely what makes the record evidential rather than anecdotal
Two hundred photos sounds excessive until the first dispute; then it sounds like insurance. It is.
Safety Checks Ride Along
The move-in walk-through is also the natural moment for the safety checks many jurisdictions require — smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors, and their equivalents — and the report should carry them explicitly:
- A yes/no confirmation per alarm, tested, with a note field for anything failing
- Hazards spotted mid-walk-through — loose stair rail, exposed wiring — flagged on the spot with a description and photo, so maintenance sees them before the tenant does
One form, one walk-through, two obligations met.
The Signature That Makes It Bilateral
A report only the landlord holds is half a record. The other half is the tenant’s acknowledgment:
- Share the completed report with the incoming tenant the day they receive keys — they see exactly what was recorded, on the day it was recorded
- Give them a window to add anything they’ve spotted that the walk-through missed — the honest landlord wants this, because a tenant-amended baseline is bulletproof at move-out
- Their acknowledgment, timestamped, closes the loop: both parties now hold identical evidence
The Move-Out Loop
The payoff arrives at the end, and the workflow makes it mechanical:
- Duplicate the form as the check-out version — identical rooms, identical fields, taken the day the tenant leaves
- Compare the two submissions side by side — every rating, every note, every photo, matched room to room
- What changed beyond fair wear and tear is now visible, documented, and photographable — and the deposit conversation becomes a review of evidence rather than a contest of memories
Long-term tenants, mid-term inspections, and multi-property portfolios all run on the same loop. For the paperwork at the start of the tenancy itself — applications and screening — the rental application collection covers the earlier stage.
Frequently Asked Questions
What separates fair wear and tear from damage on the report?
Wear and tear is what normal living does over time — faded carpets, worn paths on flooring, scuffed paint near handles. Damage is what carelessness or misuse does — burns, holes, broken fixtures. The report itself can’t classify; what it does is date everything, so a carpet that was already worn at move-in can never be billed at move-out, and a burn that appears in the check-out photos but not the check-in ones has no defense. Your local tenancy rules typically define the boundary — the report supplies the evidence for applying it.
How many photos are enough?
Enough that no noted condition goes unphotographed — typically fifteen to forty per property depending on size. The discipline that matters: photo only what you’ve noted, and note only what you’ve photographed. Gaps between the notes and the images are where disputes find their footing.
Should the tenant attend the move-in inspection?
Ideally yes — it converts the report from something done to the tenant into something done with them, and disputes are rare where tenants watched the baseline being set. Where scheduling makes that impossible, the share-and-amend step recovers most of the same trust: the tenant sees the record and adds to it within days of moving in.
Can one report cover a whole portfolio?
One form, yes — that’s the point of standardizing. Each property gets its own submission via duplicated copies or a property field, and a manager with twenty units builds a comparable library of baselines. Sharing them across a management team works through a workspace with defined roles — inspectors capture, managers review.
What if the property is furnished — does the report get bigger?
Longer, not different: each furnished item joins the walk-through with its own condition line and photo, exactly like the fixtures. Furnished lets generate more disputes per tenancy than empty ones, so the furnished sections of the report are where the thoroughness pays for itself most directly.