Owner-builder defects report software
An owner-builder who sells within a few years of finishing the work faces extra disclosure obligations, and in Victoria the Building Act requires a defects report from a prescribed building practitioner before sale. The buyer and their conveyancer read it, so it has to be specific: what was built, by whom, and what is wrong with it. SurveyThanks captures the scope of owner-built work and every defect against it.
Built for owner builders running teams of roughly 3–50 inspectors.
Sample Defect schedule
An illustrative excerpt. The site, readings and findings are fictional; the layout is yours to set.
Defect schedule
Defects report — 4 Hypothetical Close
- Owner-built work
- Rear extension and deck, completed 2023
- Inspected
- 12 March 2026
- Building permit
- Sighted (fictional reference)
| Element | Observation | Finding |
|---|---|---|
| Deck — balustrade | Gaps between balusters measured at 135 mm | Finding: Defect |
| Extension — wet area | No waterproofing certificate sighted | Finding: Documentation |
| Extension — roof flashing | Properly lapped and fixed | Finding: No defect |
| Deck — footings | Not visible; deck too low to access | Finding: Not inspected |
Fields captured on site
Your firm builds the form in-app, so these are a starting point rather than a fixed schema. Every field is captured on the device, with or without signal, and lands in the defect schedule where your template puts it.
Owner-built scope
- Description of work
- Year completed
- Permit details sighted
- Trades engaged by the owner
Per element
- Element
- Owner-built (Y / N)
- Inspected / not inspected, with reason
- Measurements
Per defect
- Linked element
- Description
- NCC or standard reference
- Recommended rectification
- Photo
Standards the report works to
- Building Act 1993 (Vic)Owner-builder sale requirements
- Requires an owner-builder selling within the prescribed period to obtain a defects report from a prescribed building practitioner.
- National Construction CodeVolume Two / Housing Provisions
- The performance and deemed-to-satisfy requirements defects are measured against, such as balustrade openings.
Load the standards you hold into your reference library and the drafted prose is written against them rather than against a general model.
How the defect schedule gets built
Capture it once, offline
Your firm builds the owner-builder defect inspection form in-app — 25 field types, nesting repeatable groups, compound AND/OR visibility rules, reusable modules and calculated fields. Field capture works with no signal: jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio all queue in an idempotent outbox that only clears once the server confirms receipt.
Link it to your rooms and external areas
Enter rooms and external areas once, as a register. Every one of your defects, photos and timber pest findings then points at a stored row rather than a name somebody typed — and the links survive a disconnected device.
Render your own template
The defect schedule renders into the Word template you already use — your letterhead, your section order, your clause library — with conditionals, loops over repeats, composable sub-templates and photo grids.
Reviewed before it leaves
You write the review framework: a checklist of what a defect schedule must contain, plus the prose standards you would mark a junior against. Link it to a report template and it runs every time that template renders. Each finding comes back graded info, minor or major, quoting the sentence at fault, and a person accepts or dismisses every one.
Because the structured submission behind the report is held too, the review is a comparison rather than a proofread: The summary says no major defects were found; the form carries a major structural defect on the rear wall.
Checks a residential property framework usually carries
- The standard’s required wording, limitations and exclusions are all present
- Every area is either reported on or listed as not accessed, with a reason
- Each defect in the summary appears in the body at the same severity
- Timber pest findings carry the risk statement the standard requires
Questions
- Can the report separate owner-built work from the original house?
- Each element records whether it was owner-built, so the report can scope itself to the owner-built work and say so plainly.
- Can we note documents we did and did not sight?
- Yes. Permits, certificates and warranties are captured as their own fields, and a missing document renders as a stated finding rather than a silence.
- Is this only useful in Victoria?
- The form and template are yours, so the same defects report structure works in any state; you would change the statutory references in your template to suit.
What this is not
Worth knowing before you book a demo, so neither of us wastes the half hour.
- Not field-service dispatch. No timesheets, no parts, no inventory. Scheduling exists to get an inspector to a site.
- No signature capture. If your deliverable has to carry a signed sign-off on the artefact itself, this is not the tool yet.
- Field capture is what works offline — jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio. Reports, chat, scheduling and the inbox need a connection.
- No client portal. Reports go out as a file or a password-protected link.
Other residential property work we cover
- Pre-purchase building inspectionsBuilding inspection report
- Pre-settlement inspectionsSettlement checklist report
- Property photography ordersPhoto floorplan package
- Rental entry condition reportsEntry condition report
- Rental exit and bond inspectionsExit condition report
- Residential dilapidation surveysDilapidation report
- Retaining wall assessmentsWall condition report
- Routine rental inspectionsRoutine inspection report
Other disciplines
Rebuild your defect schedule in SurveyThanks
Bring the Word template you already send clients. If you are coming off another field-forms tool, a filled report can be uploaded, read field by field, and re-rendered into your template.