What to send for a depreciation schedule: documents and photos

Send everything that says what the property is, what is in it and what things cost: the contract of sale, any depreciation schedule a previous owner had, invoices for work you have paid for, the floor plan, a building or pest inspection report, and photographs of each room and of the outside. The more of these there are, the less has to be estimated.

Photos and PDFs are both fine, and so are Excel workbooks (.xlsx, .xls), CSV files and Word documents (.docx), which the form turns into PDF pages in your browser; save an older Word document (.doc), or a Pages or Numbers file, as a PDF first. A PDF that is protected against copying or editing is fine too, as long as it opens without a password, and a ZIP is unpacked into its files. One report reads about 320 pages of text, and fewer photos or scanned pages, which weigh more; the form says as you add them if they come to more than one report can send. Leave out near-duplicate photos and pages that do not describe the property, such as standard contract conditions.

A depreciation schedule or quantity surveyor's report prepared for a previous owner is the most useful document of all: its construction cost carries over to you, and its list of plant tells us what the property has. Its plant values do not carry over (they were the previous owner's), so the items are revalued as at your purchase.

The contract of sale gives the dates and the price the schedule turns on. A building contract or a developer's inclusions schedule, for a new property, gives the construction cost and the plant the builder supplied. Invoices for anything you have bought or had done since settlement (a split system, carpet, a bathroom) give those items' exact cost and date.

The floor plan lets the enclosed floor area, the garage and any alfresco be measured rather than guessed; the building's value moves in proportion to its area, at a rate per square metre that differs with the kind of dwelling and the state (compare a townhouse in New South Wales with a unit in Western Australia). An inspection report describes construction, condition and the plant in each room. For a unit or apartment, the strata plan's schedule of unit entitlement sets your share of the common property's plant (lifts, intercom, fire services).

One wide photo of each room from its doorway, so everything in the room is in one picture: the kitchen with its oven, cooktop, rangehood and dishwasher; each bedroom with its blinds or curtains, carpet, ceiling fan and any air conditioner; each bathroom and the laundry with their exhaust fans and heated towel rails; the living areas. The same item in two photos is counted once, but a photo per room makes the count certain.

Close-ups of data plates. The hot water unit, the air conditioner's indoor and outdoor units, the oven, dishwasher and solar inverter each carry a plate or sticker with a model and a date of manufacture. A legible plate dates the item exactly, which sets its value more surely than a guess from its appearance.

The outside: the front of the house, the driveway, the fencing, the garage door and its motor, any pool with its pump and chlorinator, sheds, decks, pergolas, water tanks and solar panels. These are the structural improvements and outdoor plant a schedule lists, and photos of them are the only evidence a report usually has.

Photos do not need to be tidy or professional; a phone is fine, in daylight if you can. Metadata such as the location a phone records is removed from photos before they are sent anywhere.

If something is missing, say so on the form. A house is taken to have the fencing and driveway every house has, and a dwelling of its type and age to have the usual plant, and the report says what was assumed so the reviewer can check it.