ACT Condition Report for Rental Bonds: Landlord Requirements

One Day to Deliver — No Flexibility

Under Section 29 of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 and Clause 21 of the Standard Residential Tenancy Terms, the condition report timeline is tight. Within one day of the tenant taking possession, you must deliver two paper copies (or one electronic copy if the tenant has agreed to electronic service) of a completed condition report, signed by you as the lessor.

The tenant then has 14 days to inspect the property, note any disagreements on the form, sign it, and return one copy. If they don't return it within two weeks, the report as you wrote it is presumed accurate — which sounds convenient, but only helps if the report was thorough in the first place.

What the Report Must Cover

The condition report goes room by room, recording the state of every surface, fixture, fitting, and appliance. Generic descriptions are worthless in a bond dispute. "Good condition" means nothing at ACAT. Write specifics:

• Floors: "Light scuff marks on timber floorboards near the kitchen entry. No scratches or gouges."
• Walls: "Two small nail holes above the living room mantle, left side. Hairline plaster crack running horizontally below the bedroom window."
• Fixtures: "Bathroom tap washer worn, slight drip at cold water. Tarnished door handle on laundry door."
• Appliances: "Oven interior has baked-on residue around the heating element. Rangehood filter has light grease buildup."

Record what's already there — the worn spots, the faded paint, the stain that predates this tenancy. The exit inspection measures change from this baseline, so every existing imperfection you document is one less thing a tenant can be held responsible for (and one less thing you can wrongly claim for).

Photographs Are Not Optional

The statute requires the report; practical dispute survival requires photographs. Every room, every wall, every fixture, every appliance — photographed with timestamps on the same day the report is completed.

Standards that hold up at ACAT:

• Date-stamped and high resolution. Your phone's metadata does this automatically, but check that the date and time are accurate.
• Context shots first. Photograph each room from the doorway to establish the overall state, then move to close-ups of specific features.
• Pre-existing damage gets its own frame. A wide shot of the bathroom floor plus a close-up of the cracked tile, with a ruler or coin for scale.
• Consistent lighting. Flash or natural light, same approach room to room. Dim photos that obscure details won't help you.
• Store securely. Retain these records for at least seven years. The Information Privacy Act 2014 applies, so store photos in a way that doesn't breach tenant privacy.

What Happens Without a Condition Report

If you skip the condition report or deliver it late, you've given up your most powerful piece of evidence for any future bond deduction claim. At ACAT, the tribunal compares the entry state to the exit state. Without a documented entry state, you have no baseline — and the tenant's version of events carries the weight.

Some landlords treat condition reports as a formality and fill them out weeks after the tenant has moved in. By then the property has already been lived in, and the report doesn't capture the true starting condition. A report completed and delivered late misses the one-day statutory deadline and is evidentially weak.

Build Your Evidence File From Day One

The condition report is the foundation of your bond protection. Our ACT Rental Bond Guide includes a Condition Report Photo Index template that organises your photos room by room with matching timestamps and descriptions — ready to present if you ever need it at ACAT.

See more Australian Capital Territory guides →