Ingoing Condition Report NSW: A Landlord's Guide to Getting It Right

Why the Condition Report Matters More Than You Think

The condition report is your primary contemporaneous evidence in a bond dispute. Without it, it is harder to establish the property's condition at the start of the tenancy, although NCAT may consider other evidence such as dated photographs and maintenance records.

In one widely discussed case on property forums, a landlord who took over self-management from a real estate agency discovered the agency had lost the original condition report after a software migration. Seven years of property condition history, gone. The landlord had no basis to claim for damage at the end of the tenancy.

Where to Get the Form

The condition report form is prescribed under Schedule 2 of the Residential Tenancies Regulation 2019. Download it from the NSW Fair Trading website — it is free and must be used in its official format. You cannot substitute your own template.

The form includes tick-boxes for each of the seven Section 52 minimum standards (structural soundness, lighting, ventilation, electricity, plumbing, water supply, and bathroom facilities), plus sections for smoke alarms, water efficiency, and room-by-room notations.

How to Complete It Properly

Walk through the property room by room before the tenant moves in. For each item on the form:

• Mark the condition using the tick-boxes (clean, undamaged, working)
• Add written notes for anything that is not in perfect condition — a scuff on the hallway wall, a slow-draining kitchen sink, a chip in the bathroom tile
• Take dated photos of every room, every fixture, and any existing damage

The photos are not part of the official form, but they strengthen the condition record if a dispute reaches NCAT. Photograph the property with a timestamp — most phone cameras embed the date in the image metadata automatically.

The Handover and 7-Day Return Deadline

Before or when you give the tenancy agreement to the tenant for signing, give them two copies of the completed and signed condition report (or one electronic copy). The tenant then has 7 days from taking possession to:

1. Inspect the property
2. Complete the tenant section of the report — agreeing or disagreeing with your entries
3. Sign the report
4. Return one copy to you

If the tenant does not return their copy within 7 days, follow up and keep your completed report and other records. Do not treat the tenant's silence as their agreement with your entries.

What If the Condition Report Is Lost?

If you lose the condition report during the tenancy, you lose your primary evidence for bond claims. NCAT may still consider other evidence — dated photographs, maintenance records, inspection reports — but the condition report carries specific statutory weight that other documents do not.

If you are taking over from a property manager, ask for the condition report before you sign any management termination. Get it in writing. If the agent cannot produce it, you have a problem that no amount of photographs can fully replace.

What If You Never Provided One?

Not providing a condition report at the start of the tenancy is a breach of the Regulation. More practically, it leaves you without the prescribed baseline for comparing the property's condition at the end of the tenancy. You may still rely on other evidence, but proving a bond claim is harder without the original report.

The condition report costs nothing and takes an hour to complete properly. The Rental Minimum Standards in New South Wales guide includes a printable pre-tenancy document handover checklist that tracks every form, certificate, and disclosure you need to deliver before keys change hands.

Entry Condition Report Lost After Agency Transition

This scenario comes up repeatedly in property forums: a landlord switches from an agent to self-management, only to discover the agent never filed the condition report properly, or the report was lost during a system migration.

If you are in this situation, create a new condition report as soon as possible documenting the current state of the property. It will not have the legal weight of the original ingoing report, but it establishes a new baseline. Photograph everything, note existing damage clearly, and have the tenant acknowledge the report.

Going forward, store condition reports as PDFs in at least two locations — a cloud drive and a local backup. Paper originals get lost. Digital copies survive.

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