Property condition inspection
- Tenant-chargeable after wear and tear
- $714
- Items on the report
- 82
- Defects logged
- 7
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs you enter, by the method stated below it. WalkthroughDesk publishes no average repair costs and quotes no survey: the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own.
A property condition inspection is the walk itself: the manager or agent going through a property room by room and recording the state of everything in it, at move-in, at move-out, part way through a tenancy or on a schedule. What makes it worth the time is the report it produces, and what makes the report hold up is the method. This guide covers how to run the inspection so the report survives a deposit dispute, and the free property condition report tool on this site works its figures with no account.
Try the free condition report Free to use. No account, no card, no sign-up.
Give notice, then walk the same route every time
The lease or the tenancy agreement says how much notice an inspection needs; send it, keep a copy, and then walk the property in the same order on every visit, entrance to back door, room by room, ceiling to floor. The same route is what makes move-in and move-out comparable, and comparability is the whole case when a deposit is disputed.
Record condition for every item, with a photo for every defect
Every item on the checklist gets a condition, including the ones that are fine, because the clean ceiling at move-in is the evidence for the stained ceiling at move-out. Every defect gets a photo, a grade and a description in plain words. A report that says 'damage to wall' with no photo is a disagreement waiting to happen.
Cost it, split it, and send it while it is fresh
Price each defect at your repair cost, take off the share that is fair wear and tear for the age and use of the property, and state the tenant-chargeable figure as one line at the end. Send the report within days, not weeks: a report that arrives after the tenant has left carries less weight, and a deposit scheme will ask why it took so long.
Property condition inspection: common questions
What is a property condition inspection? A recorded walk through a property by the manager or agent, room by room, noting the condition of every item, usually at the start and end of a tenancy and sometimes in between. Its product is the property condition report, and the report is what protects the deposit, the owner and the tenant when they disagree about what happened.
How often should a rental property be inspected? At move-in and move-out without exception, because those two reports are the comparison every deposit decision rests on, and periodically in between at whatever interval the lease allows and the property warrants. The tool on this site does not set the interval; it makes each inspection produce the same shaped report so they can be compared.
Can the tenant be charged for everything found? No. Fair wear and tear, the deterioration that comes from ordinary use and the passage of time, is the owner's cost, and a deposit scheme or a court will take it off before anything is charged. The tool asks for the share you judge to be wear and tear and shows it taken off the make-ready cost, so the tenant-chargeable figure on the report is already the honest one.
WalkthroughDesk Pro
Keeping what you make
The reports are free forever. Pro turns them into your record: your name and logo on it, no watermark, every report filed against the property and the inspection it came from, and a clean export when the owner or the deposit scheme asks.
- Download as PDF
- No WalkthroughDesk watermark
- Save every report and reopen it later
- Your logo and license on it
- Export every report in one go
- Inspection notices emailed to your tenants ahead of each visit
- Connect your own Stripe account and get paid online
- Connect your QuickBooks Online or Xero
$49per month, every property
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