The Condition Report: How to Not Lose Your Deposit Fight
What is a condition report in a Singapore tenancy?
It's a written, dated record of exactly what state the property was in when the tenant moved in — every floor, wall, ceiling, door, appliance and piece of furniture — signed by both landlord and tenant so neither side can argue about it later. Singapore's own government-endorsed tenancy agreement template, developed by the Digitalised Property Transactions Workgroup (DPTWG) under CEA, HDB, IRAS, URA and the Ministry of Law, calls it the Property Condition Report and states plainly that it "shall be conclusive evidence of the condition of the Premises at the commencement of the Term" (CEA/DPTWG, Tenancy Agreement Template for Private Residential Property, Version 1.3, checked 17 September 2026). The identical clause and wording appear in the HDB flat version of the same template (CEA/DPTWG, Tenancy Agreement Template for Lease of HDB Flats, Version 1.3, checked 17 September 2026) — so this applies whether you're renting out a condo or an HDB flat.
"Conclusive evidence" is doing real work in that sentence. It means that if a dispute reaches the Small Claims Tribunals, a signed condition report is treated as the baseline nobody gets to relitigate — the argument moves straight to what changed since then, not to what the flat looked like on day one.
What's the difference between an inventory list and a condition report?
They cover different things and different people prepare them. The Inventory List (Annexure B in the template) is the landlord's job — a list of the quantity and condition of every piece of furniture, fixture and fitting, prepared when the landlord hands over the keys and endorsed by the tenant. The Property Condition Report (Annexure C) is the tenant's job — a room-by-room description of the condition of the premises itself (floors, walls, ceilings, doors, windows, curtains) with space for move-in and move-out notes side by side, prepared for the landlord's endorsement (CEA/DPTWG template, both versions, checked 17 September 2026).
In practice most landlords and tenants do both at the same walkthrough, on the same day, with photos attached to each item. The template doesn't require photos, but a written description alone ("floor: good condition") is far weaker evidence than a written description with a timestamped photo next to it — and photos cost nothing to take.
When should the condition report be prepared, and by whom?
The tenant prepares it, and the template gives two different answers depending on which part of the document you read. The operative clause ties the deadline to the "Problem-Free Period" — a number of days landlord and tenant agree on and write into the Schedule, during which the landlord isn't held responsible for defects the tenant flags. But the Property Condition Report annexure itself carries its own default instruction: "The Tenant shall prepare this Property Condition Report in duplicate within thirty (30) days of the commencement of the Term" (CEA/DPTWG template, Annexure C, checked 17 September 2026). Unless a tenancy agreement overrides that annexure text with a different Problem-Free Period, 30 days from move-in is the number that applies.
Two copies get made, one for each party, and both landlord and tenant sign both copies. A report prepared and kept by only one side, or never returned to the other for endorsement, isn't worth much — the whole point is that both parties agreed to it at the time.
What should a condition report actually include?
Room by room, and specific rather than general. The template's own Annexure C structure covers floors (stains, burns, holes, snags, worn), walls (holes, marks, stains, hooks, nails), ceilings (stains, holes, cracked plaster), doors and locks (scratches, whether they're secured), lighting fixtures, windows, curtains and drapes, plus separate lines for each appliance and major piece of furniture — with a "move in" and "move out" column against each so the same sheet gets reused at the end of the lease (CEA/DPTWG template, Annexure C, checked 17 September 2026).
"Floor: fine" is not useful six months later. "Living room floor: two hairline scratches near the window, approx. 15cm, photographed" is. The report is only as strong as its weakest description — a landlord or tenant trying to prove something at move-out can only point to what was actually written down at move-in.
How much weight does a condition report carry in a deposit dispute?
It's usually the deciding document. Most deposit disputes in Singapore come down to one question: was this damage already there, or did the tenant cause it? Without a signed condition report, that question has no independent answer — it's one person's memory against another's, and a Small Claims Tribunals officer has nothing to check either account against. With one, the report itself settles it, because both sides already agreed in writing, at the time, on what the baseline was.
The Small Claims Tribunals can hear a tenancy dispute for residential premises where the lease doesn't exceed two years, the claim doesn't exceed S$20,000 (or S$30,000 with a signed Memorandum of Consent from both parties), and the claim is filed within two years of the dispute arising (Judiciary of Singapore, Cases eligible for a small claim, checked 17 September 2026). A longer lease or a larger claim falls outside the SCT's jurisdiction and would need the ordinary courts instead. Full detail on that process is in security deposit rules in Singapore.
One condition sits above all of this: the tenancy agreement itself has to be stamped, because an unstamped agreement generally can't be relied on as evidence in the SCT or the courts — which means even a perfect condition report is only as useful as the agreement it's attached to. That's covered in full in what happens if you don't stamp your tenancy agreement.
What happens if there's no condition report at all?
The dispute defaults to the "fair wear and tear" standard with no documented starting point to measure from. The template's standard clause requires the tenant to return the premises "in similar condition as were delivered to the Tenant at the commencement of the Term (authorised alterations, fair wear and tear... excepted)" (CEA/DPTWG template, Operative Part, checked 17 September 2026) — but if nobody recorded what "delivered" looked like, that clause has nothing to anchor to. A landlord ends up trying to prove a scratch wasn't there before; a tenant ends up trying to prove it was. Both are weak positions, and a mediator or tribunal has no paper trail to shortcut the argument.
This is also why the template requires a joint inspection at move-out: the tenant hands back the premises after inspecting it together with the landlord, and once that inspection is done, neither side can raise a new issue that wasn't flagged at the time (CEA/DPTWG template, Operative Part, checked 17 September 2026). Skip the move-in report and you've also weakened your position at that final inspection, because there's nothing to compare it against.
Does an HDB flat need a different condition report?
No — the same DPTWG template structure applies, with the same Inventory List and Property Condition Report annexures, word for word (CEA/DPTWG, Tenancy Agreement Template for Lease of HDB Flats, Version 1.3, checked 17 September 2026). What differs for an HDB flat is everything upstream of the deposit conversation — the Minimum Occupation Period, the Non-Citizen Quota, and HDB's approval for renting out the flat in the first place. Check those first with the HDB eligibility checker before the condition report becomes relevant at all.
Q&A
Can I just use photos and skip the written report? Photos alone are useful evidence but weaker than a signed report — a photo proves a moment existed, not that both parties agreed on what it showed. The template's approach is written descriptions plus photos where possible, both signed by landlord and tenant.
What if the landlord (or tenant) refuses to sign the condition report? An unsigned report is still evidence of what one party observed and dated, but it loses the "conclusive evidence" status the template gives to a properly endorsed one. Send it by written notice (email is fine) so there's at least a timestamped record that it was raised.
Does the condition report need a professional inspector? No — the template assumes landlord and tenant do this themselves, jointly, at handover. A professional inspection service is an option for a high-value property, but it's not what the standard process requires.
Is the "Problem-Free Period" the same thing as the condition report deadline? They're related but not identical. The Problem-Free Period is the window during which the landlord fixes defects the tenant flags at no cost to the tenant; the condition report is the document that records what those defects (and everything else) looked like at move-in. The template ties the report's preparation deadline to that same period.
Rentora's tenancy agreement generator builds an Inventory & Fittings List directly into the agreement it produces, with a condition column against each item — so the record exists from the day the lease is signed rather than as a separate document someone has to remember to draft.
Verified 17 September 2026 against: Council for Estate Agencies / Digitalised Property Transactions Workgroup (Tenancy Agreement Template for Private Residential Property, Version 1.3; Tenancy Agreement Template for Lease of HDB Flats, Version 1.3); CEA (Renting or renting out a private residential property); Singapore Courts (Cases eligible for a small claim). This is general information, not legal advice — for a dispute specific to your tenancy, seek independent legal advice or approach a Community Mediation Centre.