Disclaimer

Not engineering, legal or professional advice

Everything here is general information about how property condition documents are commonly structured. It is not engineering advice, not legal advice, and not an opinion on any building. Nothing on this site tells you whether a component is adequate, what a repair should cost, or what remaining life to assign. Those are determinations for the assessing professional, on the conditions observed at the property in front of them and within the scope they were engaged to perform.

Licensure governs what you may write

Opinions on structural adequacy, and in many states the use of the title “engineer” at all, are restricted to licensed professionals. California’s exterior elevated element inspections restrict the work further: Health & Safety Code 17973 names the qualifying professionals for apartment buildings, and Civil Code 5551 requires a licensed structural engineer or architect for condominium projects. A template does not confer any of that. Confirm what you are licensed to do in the state where the property sits before you sign anything.

Client scope governs, and standards are not codes

Where a page refers to ASTM E2018 or to an agency scope such as Fannie Mae Form 4099, it is describing a baseline that a client may expand or reduce. E2018 is a guide, not a code: it requires nothing of anybody. Form 4099 binds a consultant working on a Fannie Mae loan and nobody else. The engagement letter in front of you is what governs the assessment in front of you, and where it departs from a published baseline the report should say so.

Standards are paywalled, and are not reproduced here

ASTM E2018 is a purchased document. Nothing on this site reproduces its text, and no template here is a substitute for reading the edition your client has specified. The active edition is E2018-24; content elsewhere still citing E2018-15 is describing a superseded standard.

State and local requirements vary, and they change

Inspection obligations are set state by state and sometimes city by city: California’s exterior elevated element statutes, New York City’s facade program, and local ordinances elsewhere each carry their own scope, qualifications, cycles and filing requirements, and each is amended from time to time. Where a page cites a statute, check the primary source and confirm what applies where the property sits. Deadlines quoted here were accurate on the date shown on the page and nowhere else.

Worked examples are fictional

Every filled-in example describes an invented property, written to show how a section reads when populated. No real property, owner, lender, association or assessor is described, and any resemblance is coincidental. The costs, quantities, moisture readings, service lives and dates are illustrative and must never be used as inputs to a real assessment — a cost in an example is there to show how a basis is stated, not to price anything. The examples show drafting, not model determinations, and should not be copied into a live report.

Templates require judgment

A template cannot tell you whether a component was adequately observed, whether a quantity is right, or whether the evidence supports the remaining life you are about to assign. A well-structured report filled in badly is a well-structured bad report, and it is more persuasive than a messy one — which makes it worse, not better. Where a property is large, a condition is structural, or a finding is contested, get a qualified professional in the relevant discipline in front of it.

No warranty

These materials are provided as-is, without warranty as to accuracy, completeness or fitness for any purpose. They are updated periodically, and the date shown on each page is the date it was last reviewed.