Condition Reports: The Paid Job That Lands the Repaint
The painter who writes the condition report has already walked every building, photographed every defect and earned the committee's trust. When the Red areas need doing, there is only one name on the shortlist.
A body corporate, a strata committee, an HOA board or a facilities manager rarely approves a repaint on the strength of a quote alone. First they want to know the condition of what they own: which buildings are sound, which are wearing, which are failing, and what it will take to keep the property looked after. They need that for the sinking fund or capital works plan, to brief a meeting, and to show owners the money is being spent on evidence. So they order a condition report, and they pay for it.
Most painters treat that as paperwork that gets in the way of the quote. It is the opposite. It is paid work, it is the best lead a painting business can get, and the painter who writes it is the painter the committee already trusts when the work is approved.
What a condition report is
A dated, photographed account of how the painted and coated surfaces are holding up, building by building and area by area. A good one has five parts:
- A rating for every area on one scale the committee can read at a glance: Red (failing, act now), Amber (wear showing, plan work within 1–2 years), Green (sound). An area that could not be inspected is marked as exactly that, never as Green.
- Every defect, with a photo, named by the surface it is on: peeling on the fascia, rust on the balustrade, water damage to the soffit. A defect with no photo is an opinion.
- Recommendations by timing: what to do now, what to plan within 1–2 years, what to monitor. This is the part the treasurer copies into the budget.
- Method and limits: a plain statement that this is a visual assessment of painted surfaces from accessible points, and not a structural, compliance, asbestos or lead report.
- A summary the chair can read aloud at the meeting in under a minute.
What it does not contain is a price. The report's value is that it is impartial. The quote comes next, from the same evidence.
Why committees pay for it
- The sinking fund needs a basis. A ten-year plan built on "the buildings look okay" is a plan nobody will defend at the AGM. A report with ratings and photos is one they can.
- The committee changes; the report stays. This year's chair inherits last year's evidence. A report that repeats the same photo points each year shows the property changing, which is the whole argument for maintaining it on schedule.
- It reduces the argument. Owners who do not want to spend money have a harder time against a photo of their own failing fascia than against a painter's quote.
Why painters should sell it
Three reasons, and the third is the one that matters.
- It pays. A day on site plus a report is billable, with a typed fee and no quote to defend.
- It is low-risk. No crew, no materials, no weather, no scaffold. A report is the easiest job in the business to deliver on time.
- It is the repaint, a year early. You have walked every building, photographed every defect and talked to the committee. When the Red areas are approved, the quote or the multi-year program comes from the same buildings you already know, with nothing measured twice, and the alternative painters are quoting from the car park.
What to watch on a lived-in site
A body corporate site is someone's home. Photographs of a failing balcony are also photographs of their washing, their car and the inside of their lounge. Blur people, faces, number plates and visible interiors on anything you send the committee, and never send the originals. Record where each photo was taken and which way it faced, so next year's painter can stand in the same spot and the committee can see the comparison.
From report to work
When the committee says yes to the Red and Amber items, the repaint quote should come straight from the report's buildings and areas. If the site is too big or too occupied to paint at once, a multi-year program spreads it over the years the committee can budget for, with the worst buildings first. Either way, the assessment you did for the report is the assessment the proposal draws on. That is the point: do the walk once, get paid for it, and let it carry the job.
How Surfacely does it
A Condition report job type with no quote step; an on-site assessment that rates each area Red, Amber or Green, records defects with photos and the surface they are on, and keeps named photo points for next year; an automatic privacy check that blurs faces, people, number plates and home interiors on the client copy; and a branded web report with a secure link and PDF, frozen the moment you send it. The fee is invoiced from the same job. A later proposal reads the assessment into its Our Assessment section, so nothing is entered twice.