When Is a Dilapidation Report Required?

Quick answer: A dilapidation report is required whenever work on one property has a realistic chance of damaging a neighbouring one — excavation, piling, demolition, basement digs, road and rail works, or heavy vehicle movements over council assets. It is usually triggered by a permit condition, a contract clause, or a protection works notice served on an adjoining owner. The report is prepared before works start, and matched by a second inspection after they finish.

The rest of this page covers the specific triggers, the timing that makes the report useful, who pays, and what goes wrong when the step gets skipped.

This is general information, not legal advice. Requirements differ between states, and between councils within a state — check the conditions on your own permit, or ask your solicitor or building surveyor.

When is a dilapidation report required? The common triggers

Most dilapidation reports are prompted by one of the following.

Excavation or piling near a boundary. Anything that removes lateral support or transmits vibration through the ground puts the neighbour’s footings in play. Bored piers, sheet piling, rock breaking and screw piles all sit here.

Demolition. Vibration, dust, and the removal of a structure that may have been sharing a wall or a footing. Party walls in older inner-suburban terraces make this one particularly worth documenting.

Basement digs. The highest-risk category in residential work — deep retention next to an existing dwelling combines vibration, dewatering and loss of lateral support in one job.

Protection works notices. In Victoria, where a proposed development requires protection work to an adjoining property, the owner serves a protection works notice on the adjoining owner and the relevant building surveyor becomes involved. A pre-works condition survey is standard practice within that process. Other states run comparable, differently named procedures.

Road, rail and civil works. Level crossing removals, tunnelling, drainage upgrades and major road reconstruction routinely require condition surveys of the properties and assets along the corridor before a machine turns up.

Heavy vehicle access over council assets. Crossovers, kerbs, footpaths, nature strips and street trees get damaged by concrete trucks and cranes. Councils frequently make a before-and-after record a permit condition, and it is what an asset protection bond is assessed against.

Permit and contract conditions. Plenty of reports exist simply because a planning permit, building permit, asset protection permit or head contract says one must. Read the conditions early — this is not a document you can produce retrospectively.

Timing: before works, and again after

The sequence matters more than the document.

Before construction. The pre-works capture should happen once the site is clear enough to see the relevant surfaces, and before any machinery arrives. Not the week after piling starts. The whole value of the record is that it predates the activity in question.

After works complete. A dilapidation report before construction is worth little on its own. Its only real function is to be compared against a matching capture taken after the works — same properties, same elevations, same viewpoints, same detail. If the “after” is a handful of phone photos from the footpath, there is nothing to compare, and the argument collapses back into two opinions.

That is the most common failure we see: a thorough pre-works record, and a post-works afterthought. Budget both at the start, and use the same method for each.

In between, on longer or higher-risk jobs, interim captures at defined stages — after bulk excavation, after piling, after the slab — narrow down when a crack appeared rather than leaving a window of eighteen months open to argument.

Who pays for a dilapidation report?

In practice, the party doing the works pays. The builder or developer causing the risk commissions and funds the report, including the survey of the neighbouring properties. That cost usually sits in the project budget or passes through the head contract, and it is small next to a contested damage claim.

An adjoining owner can commission their own report if they want an independent one — particularly if they are unhappy with the scope of the developer’s version, or want a record of areas its inspector did not cover. Where a protection works notice process applies, reasonable costs incurred by the adjoining owner may be recoverable from the owner carrying out the works, but that depends on the state and the circumstances. Get advice on your situation rather than assuming.

What happens if you skip it

The problem is evidentiary, and it is blunt: after the fact, you cannot prove a crack pre-existed.

Six months into a build, a neighbour reports cracking to a rendered wall and a lifted driveway. Without a dated pre-works record, everyone is reasoning backwards. The builder says the render was already cracked; the neighbour says it was not; neither can demonstrate it. What follows is an engineer engaged to opine on crack age, insurers circling, and a delay to the program.

With a dated pre-works record showing that exact wall, the conversation takes ten minutes. Either the crack is in the earlier imagery or it is not. The report is cheap and quick; the dispute it prevents is neither.

Who prepares one, and where we fit

A dilapidation report is prepared by a registered building inspector or a building consultant. They inspect the properties, describe existing defects in located terms, form the professional view and sign the document. We are not registered building inspectors and we do not write the assessment.

What we supply is the dated capture underneath it. CASA-licensed aerial and site imaging gives the report complete coverage — roofs, upper facades, parapets, gutters and rear elevations that are difficult or unsafe to photograph from ground level, and exactly where damage tends to be claimed later. Delivered as an orthomosaic, high-resolution stills and elevation data where useful, metadata intact.

Because the capture is flown to a defined method, it is repeatable. The post-works flight covers the same properties from the same positions, so the comparison is like-for-like rather than two sets of photos that happen to show the same building.

Frequently asked questions

Is a dilapidation report a legal requirement in Australia?

There is no single national law requiring one. It becomes mandatory through specific mechanisms: a planning or building permit condition, a council asset protection permit, a contract clause, or a state process such as a protection works notice served on an adjoining owner. Check the conditions attached to your own approval, because they vary by state and council.

How close to a boundary do works need to be to require one?

There is no universal distance. The practical test is whether the work could plausibly affect the neighbouring structure — through vibration, loss of lateral support, dewatering, or vehicle movements. Councils and engineers often nominate a zone of influence based on excavation depth. Where a permit condition applies, it will usually specify the properties to be surveyed.

Who pays for a dilapidation report?

Normally the party carrying out the works — the builder or developer — pays for both their own property’s report and those of the neighbouring properties at risk. An adjoining owner may commission an independent report at their own cost, and in some protection works processes reasonable costs may be recoverable. That depends on the state and the circumstances.

When should a dilapidation report before construction be done?

After the site is accessible and before any plant, demolition or excavation begins. If work has already started, get the record done immediately — a partial record is better than none — but be aware its evidentiary weight is reduced, because it can no longer establish the condition of the neighbouring property before the activity in question.

What is a protection works notice?

In Victoria, it is the formal notice an owner serves on an adjoining owner when proposed building work requires protection work to that adjoining property. The relevant building surveyor is involved in determining what is required, and a pre-works condition survey is standard practice within the process. Other states have equivalent procedures under different names.

Do I need a second report after the works finish?

Yes, if you want the first one to be useful. A pre-works report only has value as one half of a comparison. The post-works capture should cover the same properties, elevations and viewpoints to the same standard, so any change can be identified rather than argued about.