The owner’s statement is not an observation

A typical defect case has many voices. You see something during the inspection. The owner tells you what happened. An invoice says something about when work was done. A contractor responds. And eventually a tool may propose some wording. In the report, all of this easily becomes one flowing text.

The problem is not that the sources differ. The problem is when the difference disappears. “The bathroom was renovated in 2019” reads very differently as your observation than as something the owner believes they remember.

Six categories cover most of it

In Synfar, every claim gets one of six categories. They are not meant as bureaucracy, but as a language you already use when you write well:

• Observed: what you saw yourself on site.
• Measured: a value with a unit, or “not obtained”.
• Stated by owner or party: something someone told you.
• From document: what a document says, not necessarily what is true.
• AI suggestion: text you have not yet reviewed.
• Professionally assessed: your conclusion, which you stand behind.

Try it yourself. Which category do these statements belong to?

When sources disagree

The owner says 2019. The invoice is dated 2021 and mentions supplementary work. It is tempting to pick one version and move on. But the invoice does not disprove the owner. It simply says something else. The right next step is a question, not a conclusion.

Why this saves time

It sounds like more work. In practice it is less. The category is set when the information comes in, not when you write the report. And when a colleague reviews the report, they do not have to reconstruct where each sentence came from. The basis sits beside the text.

A survey is never better than its basis. That is not a new idea, but tools that take it seriously have been missing.