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What is a Schedule of Condition report?
A condition report is an annotated record of the condition of a property when it is leased.
This document serves as a basis for comparison when assessing the state of the property at the end of the lease. It usually contains both text and photographs, which together document the condition of the premises.
If you owe repairs or money for damages at the end of your lease, your landlord will issue a Schedule of Dilapidations.
What is inside a Schedule of Condition Report?
When the property changes hands, the best way to prove its condition at the beginning of the lease is with a report including photos. A photographic schedule is a reliable documentation of what the building looked like at the start of the rental period. It shows:
- the overall condition of the property
- any relevant defects (like cracking, timber rot and damp)
- construction materials
Is a Schedule of Condition necessary for Landlords?
Although this document is overall essential for safeguarding the tenant, it can also serve to benefit the landlord.
Both the landlord and tenant should have a reliable record of just how good or bad the property looked at the start of the lease to work from for comparison at the end of the lease, particularly in consideration of the maintenance obligations of the tenant.
Whether before or after the lease period, the surveyor will investigate the entirety of the structure to guarantee the tenant is upholding their contractual terms.
Tenants who opt out of obtaining a Schedule of Condition are risking disaster because they may find themselves having to pay for repairs that are really the landlord’s responsibility.
Conversely, landlords who fail to provide their tenants with a thorough Schedule of Condition invite non-compliance with the terms of their lease.
Either way, it is a wise and cost-saving option to seek the expert assistance of RICS Chartered Surveyors when preparing this significant document.
Is a Schedule of Condition necessary for Tenants?
If you are a tenant, our panel of RICS Chartered Surveyors can review the essential terms of your landlord’s Schedule of Condition.
Once you receive and agree with the document your landlord has prepared, you can sign the lease with confidence, knowing that you won’t be liable for defective elements that existed before your tenancy began.
Surveyors prepare Schedules of Condition to protect landlords and tenants from financial loss and to help the parties agree on terms that will keep them out of court.
For renters, having a schedule as part of a lease is of utmost importance. A schedule of condition can limit a tenant’s need to repair in line with the lease terms. Without such a schedule, the tenant may be unfairly burdened with the obligation to repair a property that was already in disrepair when the tenant moved in. Where the residence was in bad shape at the start of the lease, having a good schedule of condition can therefore protect the tenant.
Party Wall Schedule of Condition
The phrase ‘party wall condition schedule’ means a record of the state of the adjoining owner’s property at the time when party wall surveyors were appointed.
Surveyors will examine the adjoining owner’s property, which often includes the party wall, as well as the floors and ceilings of the adjoining owner’s half of the building where they are in proximity to the works. Party wall surveyors generally only evaluate the visible parts of the building and outside areas.
The area to be affected by the proposed work is covered in the “Award,” the document produced by the Party Wall Surveyors that describes what is covered under the Party Wall Act. The Award only covers the parts of the Adjoining Owner’s property that are in close proximity to the work being done by the Building Owner. By way of example, it would be nonsensical to include the condition of the Adjoining Owner’s roof in the Award if the work is being done in the basement of the Building Owner’s property.
What if a Schedule of Condition Survey can not be conducted in Party Wall?
A Schedule of Condition Survey can be conducted at the early stages of a lease or before any construction commences in close proximity to the property.
It serves as a protection mechanism for whoever is a stakeholder in the property where the Condition Survey is being conducted. Should later construction disturb or cause damage to the property, the stakeholder is at least starting from a known point of damage. Conversely, the Schedule of Condition reduces the risk of harmful, false claims.
When a condition survey is to be undertaken, the owner of the neighbouring property is notified and asked whether access may be granted for the survey to be performed. If the neighbour refuses to allow access for this pre-emptive measure against potential future damage, there are procedures that can be followed as a compromise.
If an owner denies access, your surveyor writes to the owner again to clarify and reconfirm that the owner will not be able to prove any damage claims if the damage is in an area not covered by a condition inspection. This letter usually makes the owner consider allowing the surveyor access to their property.
One can also conduct the survey from the public road or outside area of the building owner’s property. However, this inspection will obviously not cover any internal features if access is refused.
Does the Council need to conduct a Schedule of Condition?
People often ask if the council or organisations that provide essential services—like gas, water, and electricity—are required to assess the condition of a property before they dig up the ground next to it. That way, they can check whether the building is likely to be affected by the excavation.
When service companies do excavate next to a building, they usually don’t provide notice to the building’s owner under the Party Wall Act, 1996. Yet the work they do can have serious effects on the building’s integrity.
Nonetheless, in certain situations, it is entirely permissible for a Statutory Undertaker (for instance, a utility company) or an owner of property near the work site to approach one another and reach an agreement. That would help the property owner establish whether or not the utility project actually harmed his property.
Most service undertaking companies do not own the land they dig up during the work, having only an access rights to it. This in essence relieves them of the obligation to serve notice to the adjoining owner under the Party Wall Act, as the utility company is not an owner under the Act.
How long does it take to carry out a Building Survey?
Ordinarily 2-4 hours. This depends on several factors, prominent among them the type of property, its dimensions, and the intricate nature of any problems under consideration. For routine surveys, the “rule of thumb” is that it takes about an hour for each storey of the building. For more surveys, when there are many more things to look at, the surveyor can easily take a long day to get it done.
Summary of Schedule of Condition Canterbury
The key points about why a condition schedule is necessary are these:
- it is important for both commercial and residential property leases;
- it helps tenants avoid unwarranted charges and landlords evade unpaid damage claims;
- it clearly sets out and shows the actual state of the property before and after the lease to limit arguments;
- good reports are made by experienced surveyors.
