Entry and Exit Condition Reports in Queensland

Two forms carry a Queensland tenancy from the first day to the last. The entry condition report writes down what the place looked like when the tenant took the keys.

Furniture, blinds, the state of the carpet, the marks already on the wall. The exit condition report does the same job on the tenant's last day. Then the two get read side by side, to work out whether the property came back the way it went out, allowing for fair wear and tear.

That comparison is the whole point of both forms. An exit report with nothing to measure it against is a list of opinions about a house.

For a general tenancy the entry form is the RTA's Entry condition report (Form 1a), current version v19 dated 30 September 2024. The exit form is the Exit condition report (Form 14a), v13 dated 1 May 2025. Two other entry forms cover other kinds of agreement, and this page leaves those alone.

The RTA is blunt about what Form 1a is for. It's an important part of the bond refund process. It helps support a manager or owner's claim for compensation where the property has been damaged beyond normal fair wear and tear, and it protects a tenant from unsubstantiated claims. Both directions.

Start with the rule, because plenty of landlords have never read it.

Section 65(2) puts the entry report on the owner's side of the ledger. The lessor or the agent prepares it in the approved form, signs it, and gives the tenant a copy. All of that has to happen on or before the day the tenant moves in.

Skip it and the maximum penalty is 20 penalty units. The RTA says the same thing in plainer words: it's an offence not to do so.

Section 506 is the part that decides bond arguments. It makes a copy of a condition report evidence, before a tribunal, of the condition of the premises and inclusions. If the tenant signed it, that evidence dates from the day they signed. If they never signed it, from the day the report was made.

So an unsigned report still carries weight at a hearing. What section 506 needs is a report to work on.

One limit is worth knowing here. Say the tenant signs the report and crosses out what they disagree with. Section 506(2) then makes the report evidence only as far as its contents are unmarked. The crossed-out items drop out of that protection. So read what comes back, the day it lands.

Put those two together and the consequence follows. With no entry condition report, there's no document for section 506 to turn into evidence of the property's condition on day one. A bond claim for damage then rests on whatever else you can produce inside the 14 days section 136AA allows. That's this page's reading of the RTA guidance and the Act, put in our own words.

One more thing landlords get backwards. If the tenant doesn't complete and return the report, the RTA says it means they agree with the manager or owner's description of the property. Failing to complete it is an offence for the tenant too. The sources stop there, so treat a missing tenant signature as agreement on the record and leave it at that.

Eight steps run across a tenancy, and five of them belong to the owner or the agent. The table below has the lot.

The 7 day one trips people up. The tenant has 7 days to sign and return the entry report, but the clock starts at the later of two dates: the day they occupied the premises, or the day they were given a copy of the report. Hand the report over a week after move-in and you've handed the tenant an extra week too.

At the other end the tenant does the writing. They prepare and sign the exit report on or before the day the agreement ends, then give it to the lessor or agent as soon as practicable after it ends.

Then the clock is yours. Three business days to sign it, mark any parts you disagree with, and get a copy back to the tenant at the forwarding address they gave you.

Renewing with the same tenant in the same place doesn't need a fresh entry report, as long as the first one was actually done.

Section 65(7) opens with that condition. It applies where the lessor or agent complied with subsection (2) for the original agreement. Only then do subsections (2) to (5) stop applying to a renewal agreement that continues the tenant's right to occupy the same premises.

A landlord who never prepared the first report gets no break at renewal. The day one duty is still open, penalty and all. Section 65(8) then says that unless a new condition report is prepared, the original one is taken to be the condition report for the renewal at the start of the tenancy.

Section 65(6) isn't switched off by a renewal either. The year the report has to stay on file keeps running. You can still prepare a fresh report if you want one. You're just not required to.

The RTA publishes a checklist of what to test, and it's longer than most people's walkthrough. Work it room by room and write down what you find, including the things that already look tired.

Photographs and video can support what's written on the form, and extra pages go in if there isn't enough room. The RTA spells out why that matters: the report, and any photos or video, can be used as evidence by QCAT if there's a dispute. That's a low bar to clear and a very expensive one to miss.

A worked example on the RTA's site shows it cutting both ways. At the end of a tenancy, a property manager wants to claim part of the bond for marks on a bedroom wall. The tenant shows the marks were listed on the entry condition report and provides date stamped photos to dispute the claim. No money is deducted from the bond.

The tenant wins on paperwork.

The RTA also recommends both parties complete the exit report together where possible, so issues get sorted quickly and the bond refund can be released sooner.

Where they complete it separately, the RTA sets out an order. The tenant cleans and removes their things. The tenant completes the exit report and submits it with the keys. The manager or owner reviews the tenant's notes at the vacate inspection, adds comments and signs. The completed copy goes to the tenant's new address within three business days. Then either party submits a bond refund request.

Fair wear and tear is what a property loses just by being lived in and by getting older. Sun on the paint. Foot traffic on the carpet. Frames warping over the years. Mulch breaking down in the garden bed.

Dirt, grime, grease and damage sit outside it. So does damage caused by an approved pet, which surprises people who read a pet approval as blanket permission.

The tenant's obligation is set at section 188(4). At the end of the tenancy the tenant has to leave the premises and inclusions, as far as possible, in the same condition they were in at the start, fair wear and tear excepted. In the same condition as the start. Which is the entry condition report, again.

The RTA lines its examples up in pairs, and that's the clearest guide there is. One row we left out of the table below sets two unrelated things against each other: worn carpets from day-to-day use on the owner's side, scratches on kitchen benchtops from cutting food on the surface on the tenant's. Read that row as two separate examples.

On 10 August 2026 the RTA published its Compliance and enforcement action plan 2026-27 and named the first quarter's focus. From July to September 2026 it will proactively investigate cases where evidence has not been provided for a bond claim. Of everything it could have started with, it started with this.

The duty sits at section 136AA. Claim on a bond, or dispute a tenant's refund request, and you have 14 days from the day that application or request is made to give the tenant the evidence behind it. The Act's own examples are receipts, quotes to repair damage and records of unpaid rent.

Subsection (4) lifts the duty where you've been unable to contact the tenant after reasonable efforts. Our rental bond page carries the rest of the deadlines and the dispute route.

That's where the two condition reports earn their keep. They already exist, dated and signed, before anyone starts arguing about a mark on a wall. Section 506 is what turns them into evidence at QCAT.

FAA Property manages residential investment property across the Sunshine Coast from our single Maroochydore office, at Suite 3-7, Level 5, Tower 2, 55 Plaza Parade. We also manage a number of properties further afield in Queensland, and the feed figures below count both. That's our only office, with no branch anywhere else. This page is Queensland-wide information about the law, and it makes no claim about your suburb.

Under section 65 the entry report sits with the lessor or their agent. Where we manage the property, that's us, along with the signatures, the 7 day return and the 14 day copy back to the tenant.

Our landlord services cover leasing, tenant placement, routine inspections, rent arrears management, maintenance coordination and rent reviews. Repairs come in through the Tapi tenant portal, so a request is tracked from the moment a tenant raises it.

Everything in this paragraph is checkable. FAA Property Pty Ltd is a licensed Queensland real estate agency, Office of Fair Trading licence 4220395. The property management team is four named people: Kayla Dale, Kylah Jaggs, Jo-Anne Jerome and Kimberley Stevens. The business carries 61 Google reviews (read 2026-08-15).

Read on 2026-08-25, our live rentals feed showed 13 current managed rentals across 13 Queensland suburbs, counted by street address so one property counts once. Treat that as a floor. A tenanted property never gets advertised, so it never reaches the feed at all.

For what we send you in between the two condition reports, our routine inspections and property reports page covers the schedule and the reporting.