Pre-construction condition survey Vienna record the condition before work starts next door.

When a condition survey is necessary

Pre-construction condition survey Vienna: costs 2026

Individual items

The base price covers the standard case: inspection, photos, crack log, report. It becomes more expensive through quantity and access – many units, locked cellar compartments, inaccessible areas of the facade. It becomes cheaper when appointments are bundled and the property manager has arranged access in advance.

The legal side in plain words

Two points determine how a condition survey works in a dispute: who has to prove what, and how credible the document is.

We prepare the private condition survey. If court proceedings are necessary or an expert opinion on the question of liability is required, that is a task for a court-appointed expert or your lawyer – our documents then serve as their starting material and save time and costs there.

Who needs the condition survey – and who pays for it

If access to the neighbouring flat is refused, documentation can be carried out from outside – facade, plinth, boundary walls, visible areas. That is less, but better than nothing, and the attempt, with a written request for an appointment, is itself recorded in the report.

The process

The actual construction period lies between phases 6 and 7. If measuring points are monitored or vibrations recorded during this time, these measurements run in parallel and are incorporated into the final report. Without ongoing measurement, comparing the initial survey with the follow-up survey is sufficient – and in most Viennese cases, that is exactly what is needed.

What is documented

Recording and monitoring cracks correctly

The choice depends on the risk, not on the budget. For an excavation pit with underpinning next door, monitors on the main cracks make sense; for a loft conversion two streets away, photos and measurements are enough. What applies in every case: a crack is not measured once but at least twice – at the beginning and at the end, ideally in between as well.

Vibration monitoring

Vibrations occur during demolition, piling, drilling, vibrating and heavy vehicle traffic on site. Whether they are harmful does not depend on how it feels in the building, but on the vibration velocity at the building element – and that can be measured.

Measurements are taken where the value is meaningful: at the foundation or at the masonry in contact with the ground facing the site. If an upper floor is measured as well, the amplification across the storeys becomes apparent – in Viennese period buildings with timber joist ceilings, this difference is considerable. For the construction site itself, the most important figure is not the peak value but how often a limit value was exceeded and during which activity. With this information the method can be changed before damage occurs – shears instead of a hammer, static pressing instead of vibrating.

Settlement monitoring: when the building moves

Cracks are the consequence, settlement is the cause. Where deep excavation takes place next to an existing building, the soil beneath the neighbouring foundation loses part of its lateral support and the building gives way – often by only a few millimetres, but unevenly, and it is precisely this unevenness that produces cracks.

How often measurements are taken depends on the construction sequence: before excavation, after excavation, after the excavation support has been installed, after the shell construction, at the end. If conspicuous values appear, the interval is shortened. The measurement is not an end in itself – it is meant to show in good time that intervention is needed, while it is still a matter of millimetres.

Vienna-specific features

Vienna's building stock reacts differently from a new build of the last twenty years. Four characteristics determine what to look out for in a condition survey.

Timeline: how much lead time is needed

Four to six weeks sounds like a lot, but it is realistic as soon as several parties live in the building. The inspection itself takes hours; finding appointments takes weeks. If time is short, the critical areas are recorded first – cellar, ground floor, street-facing facade and the flats on the property boundary – and the rest is caught up on as long as the construction work allows.

Which additional methods are used

Anything beyond this is expert-witness work and no longer a condition survey. The boundary is simple: we record what is there. The assessment of who is liable for a change and how much the damage is worth is made in a dispute by an expert witness or the court – on the basis of what we documented beforehand.

The most common mistakes

• Commissioned too late. The report is prepared when the excavator is already on site. The initial condition is then no longer undisputed, and half the purpose is lost.
• Only the side facing the site documented. Settlement affects the whole building, and cracks often appear on the side facing away.
• Photos without scale and without location. A hundred images without allocation are worthless in a dispute, because nobody can say which wall on which floor is meant.
• No crack widths measured. Without a figure, no change can be proven – and that is exactly what it is all about.
• Cellar left out. Settlement shows first in the cellar, and that is where documentation is most meaningful.
• Only common areas recorded. Damage is later reported inside the flats – without a before report in the units, there is nothing to compare against.
• No follow-up survey. The initial report alone proves nothing; only the comparison shows the change.
• Measuring points removed or painted over during construction. Then the series of measurements has to start again from scratch.
• Report only filed digitally and never read. Anyone reporting damage two years later should have the report to hand – including the date and proof of handover.

The first and the seventh points together account for most of the lost cases. Both cost almost nothing to avoid: one appointment before construction begins and one afterwards.

If damage occurs during construction

What the report contains

• Commission and occasion: who commissioned it, which property, which neighbouring site, what point in time.
• Description of the property: type of construction, year of construction where known, storeys, use, general condition.
• Inspection record: which areas were entered, which were not and why.
• Photo documentation: numbered, with room and wall details, for cracks with a scale in the picture.
• Crack list: serial number, location, length, width, course, photo number.
• Site plan or floor plan sketch: position of the cracks and measuring points.
• Measuring points: type, position, zero values.
• Summary: conspicuous areas, recommendation for monitoring.
• Handover: date, recipient, copies.

The report is handed over digitally and, on request, in print. Where several parties live in the building, each party receives its own section and the property manager the complete report – this avoids discussions about data protection while still keeping the document usable.

Insurance: which cover applies to what

Damage to neighbouring buildings is generally not borne privately by the client, but settled through insurance. Which policy applies depends on who caused the damage and how it arose.

In practice this means: report the damage immediately, enclose the before report, offer the follow-up survey and only start repairs once approved. We compile the documents so that they can be used without further questions – crack list with before and after values, allocated photos, timing of the construction activity. What we do not do is assess the amount of damage for the insurer; that is for the expert witness or the quote of the contractor carrying out the repair.

What you can prepare yourself

• Arrange access: cellar, loft, courtyard, garage – have keys and a contact person ready on the day of the inspection.
• Gather existing documents: older photos, plans, previous expert reports, invoices for crack repairs. This separates old from new.
• Point out known damage: wherever there has been cracking or damp before is recorded specifically.
• Move furniture away from critical walls: walls behind wardrobes cannot otherwise be documented.
• Obtain the site documents: who is carrying out the construction, who is the site manager, when which works will begin.
• Take your own photos: with the date, even if a report will follow – duplicates never hurt.
• Inform tenants: in a let property, announce it in good time, otherwise the appointment fails because of access.

The second point is the most valuable. Old images from a flat handover or an earlier renovation are often the best proof that a crack has existed for years – and spare you the argument over whether the report was complete.

How to recognise a proper condition survey

Condition survey in your own building

Even without a neighbouring construction site, there are occasions for recording the condition – above all where several parties are involved and there may later be disputes over who caused what.

In these cases the scope is usually smaller and the benefit still high, because those involved remain in the same building and the dispute would otherwise smoulder for years. Anyone planning a riser pipe replacement or a loft conversion should include the condition survey directly in the preparation – it costs a fraction of the construction work and saves the longest discussions.

Price examples from practice

For developers, property managers and construction firms

If you build regularly, you need the condition survey not as a one-off service but as a fixed process. For this we work to a standard specification that only needs to be adapted for each project.

For construction firms, we also carry out condition surveys as a subcontracted service when your own team is needed on site – to the same reporting standard and, on request, naming the client.

How this differs from our other services

When you do not need us

Not every construction site nearby justifies a condition survey. If a loft is being converted two buildings away, without excavation and without demolition, the risk to your building is low – your own dated photos are sufficient here. The same applies if there is a street with undisturbed ground between your building and the site and work is only being carried out above ground. But as soon as there is digging, piling, underpinning or demolition, the situation changes – and then the report is the cheapest insurance you can take out in this context.

Frequently asked questions about condition surveys in Vienna

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