Building Condition Report or Dilapidation Report?
Two reports that sound similar and do different jobs.
Two reports that sound similar and are not
Committees ask for one and mean the other often enough that it is worth setting out the difference plainly.
A building condition report
This assesses the state of a building for the owner’s own purposes. What condition is the fabric in, what is deteriorating, what needs attention and roughly when.
It is an internally focused document. A committee commissions one because it wants to understand its own asset, usually to inform maintenance planning, budgeting or a decision about major works.
A dilapidation report
This records the condition of a property at a point in time, because something external is about to happen to it. Almost always adjacent construction, excavation, demolition or piling.
The audience is not really the owner. It is whoever ends up arguing about causation later.
The practical difference
A building condition report answers “what state is my building in”. A dilapidation report answers “was that crack there before they started next door”.
The second question cannot be answered retrospectively. Without a pre works record, the party doing the work cannot prove it caused nothing, and the neighbour cannot prove it caused something. Everybody loses that argument.
Which one you need
- Planning maintenance or budgeting for works: building condition report
- Construction starting on an adjoining site: dilapidation report, before it starts
- Taking over a scheme from a developer and wanting to know what you have inherited: building condition report
- Damage has appeared and you suspect nearby works caused it: dilapidation report, though the position is much weaker without a pre works baseline
Bodies corporate are exposed to the second one more than most
A tower goes up next door. Eighteen months later there is cracking in a common property wall, and nobody has any record of what that wall looked like beforehand. The committee is left choosing between wearing the cost and starting an argument it cannot evidence.
We prepare both
Seymour Consultants has worked in construction and development for over 25 years, and our quantity surveyors are members of the Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors. Assessing building condition and understanding what construction activity does to neighbouring structures sits squarely in that discipline.
We work across Queensland and northern New South Wales.
Frequently asked questions
Can one report do both jobs?
Not well. They are structured for different purposes and different readers. A dilapidation report is deliberately narrow and evidentiary. A condition report is broader and advisory.
Who pays for a dilapidation report?
Commonly the party carrying out the works, since they carry the risk of a claim. A body corporate can also commission its own to protect the scheme’s position.
How soon before adjacent works should the inspection happen?
As close to the start as practical, so there is no window where unrelated damage could have occurred.
Call 07 5573 4011 if you are not sure which one your situation calls for.
