What is a dilapidation survey and when is one needed?

A dilapidation survey is one of the cheapest documents on a construction project and one of the few that settles an argument outright.

What it is

A dated record of the existing condition of everything the works could plausibly be blamed for damaging.

Photographs, referenced to location, with written notes on existing cracking, movement, damage and defects. Produced before any work starts, and issued to the parties.

What it covers

Adjoining buildings, particularly where they share a boundary or sit close to excavation.

Public infrastructure the works will affect or use: footpaths, kerbs, road surfaces, street furniture, and the crossing the trucks will drive over.

The client's own assets that are not part of the works. On a school, that means the buildings, playgrounds, courts and surfaces that stay in service while a different part of the site is rebuilt.

Retained trees and landscape, recorded alongside the tree protection measures.

Why it matters more than it sounds

Existing cracking is very common. Almost every older building has some.

Once construction starts nearby, that cracking becomes the contractor's cracking in the mind of whoever notices it, and there is no way to prove otherwise without a record.

The survey converts an argument into a comparison. Either the crack was there in the photograph or it was not.

That protects the neighbour with a genuine claim as much as it protects the contractor against one that is not.

When it is required

Frequently as a condition of consent, particularly for excavation near boundaries, work on or over public land, and work near heritage items.

Where an authority is involved, a road opening permit, a Sydney Trains possession, work on parkland, they usually require a survey of their asset before and after.

And on any project where vibration is likely, it pairs with vibration monitoring: the survey establishes the starting condition, the monitoring establishes whether the limits were exceeded.

The closing survey

The same locations are re-recorded at completion and compared.

Where nothing changed, the record closes the matter. Where something did, it is identified and rectified rather than disputed, which is a considerably better outcome for the relationship than the alternative.

Access to neighbouring property

A survey of an adjoining building needs the owner's consent, and that consent is not automatic.

Requesting it early matters, because a neighbour who declines access should be advised in writing before work begins that no record exists. That notice is itself part of the protection.

Where it sits in the programme

Before site establishment, alongside the approvals and the service location.

It is inexpensive at that point and impossible afterwards, which is the entire argument for doing it.

Every survey is held in the Integrated Management System with the rest of the project record, from tender through to the end of the defects period.

Discuss the pre-start requirements on a project.