Tenancy Condition Report: Protect Your Bond at Handover

Two documents, two different jobs, two different moments. The application comes first. It is the instrument a prospective tenant uses to identify themselves, evidence income, and nominate referees, and it is the basis on which a landlord or agent decides who gets the keys. The condition report comes second, at handover, and it is a factual record: for each room and each item, whether it is clean, working and undamaged, with comments where it is not.

The distinction that matters most in practice is between a prescribed form and a private template. In Queensland, the Entry condition report (Form 1a) is an approved form under section 65 of the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008, with a matching Exit condition report (Form 14a) at the end. Victoria prescribes Form 4 under section 35 of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 and regulation 18 of the Residential Tenancies Regulations 2021. New South Wales prescribes the report form under section 29 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2010. Where a form is prescribed, the prescribed form is the one that must be used. A private template does not displace it, and using a substitute exposes the landlord to a penalty and, worse, to an evidentiary hole at the tribunal.

So what is this template for? Preparation, documentation and the parts of the process the prescribed forms do not reach: the applicant's own working copy before submission, the photographic schedule that accompanies the statutory report, the room-by-room walkthrough a tenant conducts before signing, and the exit comparison record. Landlords in jurisdictions with no mandatory application form use it as their application document outright. Everyone else uses it as the layer around the statutory paperwork. Our Australian real estate document templates sit alongside the official forms rather than in place of them.

There is no national residential tenancies statute. Each state and territory legislates separately, and the differences are not cosmetic. Queensland operates under the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008, administered by the Residential Tenancies Authority, with condition report obligations at sections 65 and 66. The landlord must prepare and sign the entry report in the approved form and give a copy to the tenant on or before the day the tenant occupies the premises, with a maximum penalty of 20 penalty units for failure. The tenant then has 7 days from the later of occupation or receipt to mark disagreements, sign and return it; the landlord returns a finalised copy within 14 days.

Victoria is stricter still. Under section 35 of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997, the rental provider must give the renter two paper copies or one electronic copy of the completed condition report before the renter moves in, in the form prescribed by Form 4. The renter returns their marked copy within 5 business days. The teeth are in section 36: a condition report signed by both parties is conclusive evidence of the state of repair and general condition of the premises on the day of the report. Conclusive means the tribunal does not weigh it against other evidence; it treats the facts recorded as proven. That single provision explains why Victorian bond disputes are usually won or lost on paperwork completed months earlier. A party who believes the report is wrong has 30 days from commencement of the agreement to apply to VCAT for amendment under section 35A, and the rental provider must complete the exit section within 10 days after the agreement ends.

New South Wales runs a parallel scheme. Section 29 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 requires the landlord to complete the report before the agreement is given to the tenant for signing, give the tenant two copies or one electronic copy at or before signing, and receive the tenant's completed copy within 7 days of the tenant taking possession. If the landlord never gave the report, the tenant's 7-day obligation does not bite. At termination, both parties complete the retained copy in each other's presence, or in the absence of a party who was given a reasonable opportunity to attend. NSW Fair Trading publishes the official NSW residential tenancy condition report form and completion guidance that governs the exercise in that state.

The application side has moved fast. South Australia made Form A1 the mandatory application form from 1 January 2026 under regulations made in September 2025, with a separate form required from each prospective tenant. Victoria went further from 31 March 2026: all private rental applications must use the Consumer Affairs Victoria standard form, and a rental provider or agent must not ask for, require, or consider any information outside that form. Queensland has run a standardised application form for rooming accommodation since 1 May 2025. Personal information rules bite alongside: in South Australia, information from unsuccessful applicants must be destroyed 30 days after the tenancy is let, or 6 months with the applicant's agreement, and 3 years after the end of the tenancy for successful ones.

The obvious moment is handover. Keys change hands, and somebody has to walk the property with a form and a camera. But the higher-value moment is earlier, at inspection, when a prospective tenant should be building their own record of what they are about to accept. Most disputes trace back to a tenant who signed the landlord's entry report without checking it, discovered the burn mark in the carpet in month two, and had no way to contest the exit claim eleven months later. Victoria's section 36 makes that outcome mathematically certain rather than merely likely.

The application stage generates its own need. A tenant applying for three properties in a week needs a consistent, complete set of details and documents ready to submit, because in a tight market the application that arrives first and complete wins. A landlord in a jurisdiction without a prescribed form needs a document that collects what is lawful to collect and nothing more, given how sharply the ground has shifted on what may be asked.

Exit is the third trigger, and the most neglected. In Queensland the tenant prepares the Exit condition report (Form 14a) on or before the day the agreement ends and the landlord has 3 business days to sign, mark disagreements and return it. In Victoria the rental provider inspects and completes within 10 days, with the renter present or given a reasonable opportunity to attend. Miss the window and you are arguing without the document the tribunal expects to see.

Two edge cases worth flagging. Water charging in Queensland turns on the entry report: if you intend to pass on consumption costs, the meter reading belongs in both the entry and exit reports, or the charge is contestable. And where the tenancy is a share house with tenants coming and going, each change of named tenant should trigger a fresh record, because a report signed by a departed housemate proves nothing about the person now in the room. Landlords running multiple properties will also want the Australian business legal templates that sit behind a property portfolio.

• The party and premises identification block names every adult who will occupy the premises, not merely the person who signed. Where a jurisdiction requires a separate application per prospective tenant, as South Australia now does under Form A1, the template reflects that structure rather than collapsing everyone onto one page. The property address, agent details and applicable registration number sit in the same block.
• The applicant capacity section collects identity and income evidence within the limits each jurisdiction imposes. South Australia caps the landlord at two documents in each category: identity, financial capacity, suitability. The template flags that ceiling rather than inviting a document dump, and it omits the fields now prohibited in prescribed-form states, including date of birth and the ages of other occupants.
• The room-by-room condition schedule mirrors the structure of the approved forms, working through entry, lounge, kitchen, dining, bedrooms, bathrooms, laundry and external areas, with clean, working and undamaged marked separately for each item. Separate columns record the landlord's assessment and the tenant's comment on that assessment, which is the architecture the tribunals expect.
• The photographic and meter annexure attaches date-stamped images keyed to the item they evidence, plus water, gas and electricity meter readings at entry and exit. This is the part landlords skip and later wish they had not.
• The signature and acknowledgement block captures dates of preparation, handover, return and finalisation, because the statutory deadlines run from those dates and a report with no date record cannot demonstrate compliance with section 65(2) or section 35.
• The exit comparison record repeats the entry schedule against the exit findings, isolating changes and separating fair wear and tear from damage. Wear and tear is not defined by statute in most jurisdictions; the comparison is what allows the argument to be made at all.

New South Wales requires the landlord to complete the report before the agreement is handed over for signing, not afterwards, under section 29(1) of the Residential Tenancies Act 2010. Two copies or one electronic copy go to the tenant at or before signing, and the tenant returns theirs within 7 days of taking possession. The reciprocal obligation in section 29(3A) is the one landlords forget: a landlord who never provided the report cannot then complain that the tenant did not return it. Termination triggers a joint completion of the retained copy, in the presence of the other party or after a reasonable opportunity to attend. NSW Fair Trading publishes the sample form, and the state's broader reform package removed no-grounds terminations, which raises the evidentiary stakes on every document a landlord holds.

Victoria is the most demanding jurisdiction in the country on both documents. Section 35 mandates the report in Form 4 before the renter moves in, with failure carrying a penalty of up to 25 penalty units. Section 36 makes a jointly signed report conclusive evidence, and the renter has 5 business days to return their marked copy. Since 29 March 2021, the returned report doubles as written notice that repairs are needed. From 31 March 2026 the application side is locked down: the Consumer Affairs Victoria standard form is mandatory, information outside it cannot be requested or considered, pets cannot be raised at application stage, and direct employer contact for income verification is off the table. Third-party application platforms commit an offence by charging renters fees.

Queensland runs on sections 65 and 66 of the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008. Form 1a at entry, Form 14a at exit, both approved forms administered by the RTA. The landlord's copy must reach the tenant on or before the occupation day; the tenant has 7 days to return; the landlord finalises within 14 days. If the tenant does not return the report, they are taken to agree with the landlord's description, and the failure is itself an offence. Reports should be kept for at least 1 year after the agreement ends. The water-charging rule makes the meter reading non-optional for any landlord passing on consumption.

South Australia made Form A1 mandatory for applications from 1 January 2026, one form per prospective tenant, with applicants able to nominate a preferred tenancy duration. Landlords cannot require more than 2 documents in each of the identity, financial capacity and suitability categories. Rent bidding is prohibited and premises must be advertised at a fixed amount. Bond is capped at 4 weeks for rent at or below the prescribed weekly threshold and 6 weeks above it. Condition reports are called inspection sheets and are required at both ends of the tenancy.

Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory each maintain their own regime. The ACT requires a condition report at the start of the tenancy and publishes its own form through the ACT Revenue Office. Tasmania requires reports at both ends where a bond or security deposit is paid, using the Consumer, Building and Occupational Services form. Confirm the current approved form and version for your jurisdiction before you complete anything, because forms are reissued and an outdated version invites a challenge.

You start by selecting the state or territory where the property sits, because that single choice determines whether a prescribed form applies, what the return deadlines are, and what may lawfully be asked at application stage. From there the template adjusts the schedule structure and the deadline references to match the applicable Act. If you are in a prescribed-form jurisdiction, the template points you to the official form and produces the supporting record around it rather than pretending to replace it.

Next comes the property profile: type of dwelling, number of rooms, whether it is furnished, which utilities are separately metered. That profile builds the room-by-room schedule, so a two-bedroom unit does not carry six pages of blank bedroom entries. You then walk the property with the schedule open, marking clean, working and undamaged for each item and writing a comment wherever the answer is no. Photographs attach as you go, keyed to the item.

The application module runs the same way. You enter the applicant details, the template applies the document limits and prohibited fields for the jurisdiction, and you produce a submission-ready pack. Download in Word if you want to keep editing, or PDF for signature and lodgement. Tenants comparing their obligations across documents will find the wider Australian personal legal document library useful for statutory declarations and related paperwork.

The costliest mistake is a bare tick sheet. A report that says "clean, working, undamaged" for every item in a twelve-year-old rental is not evidence, it is an assertion, and any competent representative will say so. Detail wins: not "carpet damaged" but "burn mark, 3 cm, bedroom 2, left of window, photographed", with a date stamp. The second mistake belongs to tenants, who accept the landlord's report without inspecting. In Victoria that is close to fatal, because section 36 converts the signed report into conclusive evidence, and the 30-day VCAT amendment window under section 35A closes quickly. Sign nothing you have not walked.

Missing the deadline is the third. Queensland's entry report must be with the tenant on or before occupation day, not the following week; Victoria's must be given before move-in, not after. Landlords also breach by using a superseded version of an approved form, which is easily avoided by downloading fresh from the regulator each time. On the application side, the newest and fastest-growing error is asking for information no longer permitted: date of birth in South Australia, anything outside the standard form in Victoria, pets at application stage. Agents who carried old application templates into 2026 are now collecting data unlawfully.

Finally, landlords forget the exit report or complete it alone without giving the tenant a reasonable opportunity to attend. That failure does not merely annoy; it undermines the comparison the whole bond claim rests on. Owners who let through a company structure should also check that the entity named on the report matches the entity on the lease, and the Australian employment contract templates are worth reviewing where property managers are engaged directly rather than through an agency.