Home survey glossary
These are the words a UK home survey, a lease and a set of searches use, defined for a buyer in England and Wales. Each entry says what the word means and where it stops. It is not a report on your house, and it does not carry a repair price. Last reviewed 24 October 2026.
345 terms. The definitions on this page are the answers. A DefinedTermSet in the page data repeats them for answer engines. It does not add facts that are not written here.
345 terms
The survey
Home survey
A RICS Home Survey is a condition report on a home, at Level 1, 2 or 3, under the Home Survey Standard. It is not a mortgage valuation and not a warranty.
The survey
Level 1
RICS describes Level 1 as a visual overview of a conventional home. It records condition and urgent risks, and generally does not advise how to manage defects.
The survey
Level 2
RICS Level 2 adds advice on repairs and maintenance for a conventional home that appears reasonable. It can be survey-only, or survey plus a valuation and reinstatement figure.
The survey
Level 3
RICS describes Level 3 as the most detailed visual inspection, for older, altered or unusual buildings, or if you plan major work. It is not automatically a valuation.
The survey
HomeBuyer Report
An older name buyers still use for what is now, in RICS terms, usually a Level 2 home survey. The current report title on the document is the one that matters.
The survey
Building Survey
The older name for the detailed survey that RICS now calls a Level 3 Home Survey. If a firm still uses the old name, ask which current level they will deliver.
The survey
Condition rating
The RICS traffic-light number on an element: 1, 2 or 3, or NI if it was not inspected. It is not a price and not a life expectancy.
The survey
NI
Not inspected. The surveyor did not give that element a condition rating. It is a gap, not a statement that the element is sound.
The survey
R (documents)
A mark RICS uses for papers they suggest you request before exchange, such as guarantees or approvals. It is not a condition rating.
The survey
Element
A part of the building the report rates separately, such as the roof covering, the main walls or the ceilings. The house is not given one overall score.
The survey
Further investigation
A recommendation that someone with the right brief looks at a point the visual survey could not settle. It is a new instruction unless your terms included it.
The survey
Visual inspection
The surveyor reports what they could see without taking the building apart. Fitted carpets, furniture and sealed hatches stay in place unless you agreed otherwise.
The survey
Terms of engagement
The contract that says which level you bought, what will not be inspected, and who may rely on the report. Read it before you assume a buyer or a lender is covered.
The survey
Reliance
The right to depend on a report because you are the client, or because the firm has agreed in writing to extend that duty. Showing someone a PDF is not reliance.
The survey
Reinstatement cost
A figure, only on products that include one, for the cost of rebuilding for insurance. It is not the market price and not a mortgage valuation.
The survey
Market value
An opinion of price, where the product includes a valuation. A condition-only Level 2 or Level 3 does not contain one just because people expect it.
The survey
Mortgage valuation
MoneyHelper describes this as the lender’s check that the property is worth the price or the loan. It is not a structural survey and does not list repairs the way a home survey does.
The survey
Down-valuation
When the lender’s valuer reports a figure below the price you agreed. It is a lending figure. It is not a condition rating.
The survey
Retention
A lender holding back part of the mortgage until stated work is done. The amount, if any, is in the mortgage offer. It is not a RICS rating.
The survey
Snagging
A buyer’s list of unfinished or defective items in a new or newly converted home. It is not a RICS level and not a warranty.
The survey
Single Survey
The condition and valuation report inside a Scottish Home Report. RICS notes that a purchaser can rely on the Home Report. It is not an English Level 2.
The survey
Home Report
The pack a seller in Scotland must obtain before marketing, including a Single Survey, an EPC and a property questionnaire. England and Wales do not require the same pack.
The survey
Limitation
A stated limit on what was inspected: no loft hatch, a locked room, furniture, or the boundary of the level you bought. Limitations are part of the findings.
The survey
Traffic light
The informal name for condition ratings 1, 2 and 3. The colours are a summary. The paragraph under the number is the finding.
The survey
Roof space
The loft, inspected only where there is safe access. No hatch, or a hatch the surveyor will not climb through, means that part was not seen.
Walls and structure
Solid wall
A wall built as one leaf, common in older houses, with no cavity for water to fall into. The survey should say if it could tell, because render hides the bond.
Walls and structure
Cavity wall
Two leaves of masonry with a gap between. The gap is not a guarantee of dryness, and the metal or wire ties across it can corrode.
Walls and structure
Wall tie
The fixing that holds the two leaves of a cavity wall together. Corrosion can crack the mortar in horizontal lines. A visual survey sees symptoms, not every tie.
Walls and structure
Damp-proof course
A layer built into a wall to resist moisture from the ground. Paths, render and flower beds can bridge it. A bridged course is not, by itself, rising damp.
Walls and structure
Damp-proof membrane
A sheet under a solid floor intended to stop ground moisture. A home survey rarely sees it unless the floor is opened, which a standard inspection does not do.
Walls and structure
Lintel
The beam over a window or door that carries the wall above. Cracks from the corners of an opening are the usual clue. If it is covered, the survey cannot see the material.
Walls and structure
Padstone
The block a beam end sits on so the load spreads into the wall. Where a wall has been removed, the survey looks for a beam and its bearings, and says if they are hidden.
Walls and structure
RSJ
A rolled steel joist, the beam people mean when a wall has been taken out. The survey can see it only if it is exposed. Papers for the opening are a separate question.
Walls and structure
Footing
The base of the wall in the ground. A home survey does not dig it up. Comments about foundations are inferences from what the building is doing above ground.
Walls and structure
Subsidence
The Association of British Insurers describes subsidence as the ground sinking and taking the foundations down. It is not the same as heave, landslip, or a crack from a lintel.
Walls and structure
Heave
The ground swelling and pushing the building up, often discussed when clay rehydrates after a tree is removed. A single crack does not prove it. Monitoring is a specialist job.
Walls and structure
Landslip
The ground itself moving down a slope. Insurers distinguish it from subsidence. A home survey can describe cracks and a sloping site. It does not model the slope.
Walls and structure
Crack
A split in masonry, plaster or render. It is a symptom. Width, direction and whether it is still moving decide what it means, and a one-day visit cannot see movement over time.
Walls and structure
Bowing
A wall that has left the line it was built on, over its height or length. Failed ties, roof spread or movement can do it. The survey describes the line. It does not design the restraint.
Walls and structure
Roof spread
When roof timbers push the tops of the walls outward because the tying has failed. The clues are at the eaves and the head of the wall. It is not the same as subsidence.
Walls and structure
Spalling
The face of brick or concrete flaking off, often after frost or rust. It is a condition of the surface. On a concrete system-built house it can be a clue, not a complete diagnosis.
Walls and structure
Pointing
The mortar in the joints between bricks or stones. Open joints let rain into a solid wall. Repointing is maintenance. It is not automatically a rating 3.
Walls and structure
Render
A coat of cement or lime on the outside of a wall. Cracks and hollow areas can let water in, or trap it. The survey can tap and look. It does not remove the coat.
Walls and structure
Pebbledash
Render with stones cast into the face. It hides the brick. A survey cannot grade masonry it cannot see, and should not pretend a covering is a cavity inspection.
Walls and structure
Ashlar
Smooth dressed stone blocks, or a render ruled to look like them. The survey describes the face it can see. Imitation ashlar is not the same build as solid stone.
Walls and structure
Party wall
A wall shared by two owners. The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 is a notice regime for certain works. A condition rating is not an award under that Act.
Walls and structure
Flank wall
The side wall of an end terrace or a detached house, often exposed to weather. A survey looks at it from the ground. Tall blank walls are a place rain and ties both matter.
Walls and structure
Gable
The triangular end of a wall at the roof. Cracks here can be roof spread, a chimney, or old movement. The paragraph should say which the surveyor thinks is likely.
Walls and structure
Sleeper wall
A low wall under a suspended timber floor that helps carry the joists. It needs air around it. A survey sees it only if there is access under the floor.
Walls and structure
Air brick
A ventilated brick that lets air under a timber floor. Painted, blocked or buried air bricks are a common note because timber rots when the void stays wet and still.
Walls and structure
Joist
A horizontal timber carrying a floor or a ceiling. Notching for pipes and rot at the wall ends are what surveys comment on when the timber is visible.
Walls and structure
Wall plate
The timber along the top of a wall that the rafters or joists sit on. Rot in a wall plate is a roof problem even when the slates look tidy.
Roofs
Rafter
A sloping roof timber from the wall plate toward the ridge. The surveyor sees rafters in the loft if they enter it. From the ground they see the covering, not the timber.
Roofs
Purlin
A beam that supports the rafters mid-span. A purlin that has sagged is a structural note about the roof, distinct from a few slipped tiles.
Roofs
Ridge
The top line of a pitched roof, covered by tiles, lead or, on a thatch, a separate ridge coat. A failed ridge is not the same repair as a whole new covering.
Roofs
Hip
The external angle where two roof slopes meet, from the ridge down to the eaves. Hips have their own tiles or caps and their own places to leak.
Roofs
Valley
The internal gutter where two slopes meet. Valleys collect water. A valley that exists is not a defect. A valley that overflows into the loft is.
Roofs
Flashing
The metal or mortar weatherproofing where a roof meets a wall or a chimney. Cracked cement fillets and lifted lead are common, local defects, not a whole-roof replacement.
Roofs
Soaker
A small piece of metal interleaved with slates or tiles at an abutment. Surveyors rarely see soakers except where one has slipped out. Missing ones show up as a leak below.
Roofs
Verge
The edge of a roof at a gable. Mortar verge pointing that has fallen lets wind and rain under the tiles. It is an edge repair, which the paragraph should keep separate from the main covering.
Roofs
Eaves
The lower edge of a roof, where rainwater should fall into the gutter. Closed or rotten eaves also block the ventilation path into the loft.
Roofs
Soffit
The board under the eaves. Holes in a soffit can be ventilation, or damage, or both. The survey should say which it thinks it is looking at.
Roofs
Fascia
The board the gutter is fixed to. Rotten fascias drop gutters. They are maintenance, and they become urgent when water then runs down the wall.
Roofs
Bargeboard
The board along a gable verge. It is joinery, not structure, unless the surveyor has seen the timber behind it decayed.
Roofs
Underfelt
The layer under tiles or slates. Older roofs were often built without it and felted later. Torn felt, and felt that sags into a pool, are what a loft inspection looks for.
Roofs
Sarking
Boarding under a roof covering, more often discussed on Scottish roofs. In England a surveyor may still find boards. They hide the underside of the slates.
Roofs
Nail sickness
The failure of the nails holding slates, so the slates slip even though the slate itself is sound. A ground-level look can suspect it. Confirming it means seeing the fixings.
Roofs
Flat roof
A roof with a very shallow fall, covered in felt, asphalt, rubber or fibreglass. Outlets and upstands fail more often than the middle of the sheet. It is an element in its own right.
Roofs
Ponding
Water sitting on a flat roof because the fall or the outlet is wrong. A dry day will not show it. Staining and debris around an outlet are the clues a visit can actually see.
Roofs
Parapet
A wall standing above the roof edge. The junction, not the brickwork in the abstract, is where roofs leak. Copings and damp-proof trays in parapets are often hidden.
Roofs
Thatch
A roof covering of reed or straw. A survey can describe the coat, the ridge and any damp underneath if access allowed. It does not certify the roof as insurable.
Roofs
Chimney stack
The masonry of a chimney above the roof, or the breast inside. Stacks on party lines raise a sharing question the survey does not settle. Pots, flaunching and flashings are the visible parts.
Roofs
Flaunching
The mortar that holds chimney pots on. Cracked flaunching lets water into the stack. It is a local repair, distinct from rebuilding the chimney.
Roofs
Flue
The duct inside a chimney that carries smoke or fumes. A home survey does not sweep it or camera it. Using a flue that has not been checked is a separate safety question.
Damp and timber
Rising damp
Moisture from the ground moving up a wall. It is one explanation of low-level staining, not the default. A moisture meter on a survey does not prove it.
Damp and timber
Penetrating damp
Rain or a leak getting through the fabric: a roof, a gutter, a crack, a window. The useful question is where the water entered, not which product to inject.
Damp and timber
Condensation
Water from indoor air settling on a cold surface. It often arrives with mould and without a leak stain from above. Ventilation and heating sit next to it. They are not a new damp-proof course.
Damp and timber
Bridging
Something that lets moisture past a damp-proof course: render, a path, soil, or plaster taken too low. The survey describes the levels. Bridging is a cause to check before anyone diagnoses rising damp.
Damp and timber
Hygroscopic salts
Salts that attract moisture from the air, so a patch looks damp without a current leak. They also confuse meters. Salts are a reason a reading is not a diagnosis.
Damp and timber
Tide mark
A horizontal stain said to mark how high moisture rose. Other mechanisms leave lines too. A tide mark is a pattern in a photograph, not a laboratory result.
Damp and timber
Moisture meter
A handheld tool surveyors use as a screen. High readings mean the surface was electrically ‘wet’ that day. Foil, salts and cold walls can all register. The pattern still has to be explained.
Damp and timber
Dry rot
A fungal decay of timber that can travel through masonry in the right damp, still conditions. Fruiting bodies and a distinctive cracking of the wood are clues. The timber guide separates it from wet rot.
Damp and timber
Wet rot
Fungal decay that stays where the timber is actually wet. Stop the water and you stop the spread, which is why the leak matters more than the product name.
Damp and timber
Woodworm
Damage by wood-boring beetle larvae. Flight holes show attack at some time. Fresh bore dust is the clue that it may be current. Treatment is not automatic from old holes.
Damp and timber
Common furniture beetle
The usual beetle behind small round flight holes in softwood. The name is not a finding that furniture is the problem. The survey should say which timber is affected.
Damp and timber
Deathwatch beetle
A beetle associated with damp hardwood, often oak in older buildings. Holes are larger than furniture beetle. It is not present in every historic frame.
Damp and timber
Frass
The dust beetles leave. Fresh, bright frass under a hole is better evidence of current attack than the hole alone. A survey notes it when it is there to see.
Damp and timber
Fruiting body
The mushroom-like growth of a fungus. Its presence is evidence of decay. Identifying which fungus is a specialist job if the surveyor is not sure.
Damp and timber
Sole plate
The horizontal timber at the foot of a historic frame, close to splash and ground level. Rot here matters because the posts stand on it. Raised paths hide it.
Damp and timber
Wattle and daub
Historic infill: a small timber lattice plastered with earth, lime and fibre. It is not a defect by being old. Cement over it is a common way the frame stays wet.
Damp and timber
Timber frame
A structure carried by timber, either a historic frame or a modern panel kit. They are repaired differently. The survey should say which it thinks this house is.
Damp and timber
Mould
A growth on a cold or wet surface, often from condensation. GOV.UK links damp and mould in rented homes to health. A mould note is not a specification for a damp-proof course.
Damp and timber
Tanking
A waterproof lining, usually to a basement. It is a design, with consequences if water is trapped. A survey that did not recommend it has not specified it, and a quiet cellar is not an invitation to tank.
Services
Consumer unit
The modern fuse board that holds the breakers for the circuits. A home survey looks at the outside of it. It does not test the circuits. An old wooden box is a clue, not an EICR.
Services
EICR
An Electrical Installation Condition Report: a periodic inspection of the wiring by a person qualified to do it. A home survey is not one. Landlords in England have separate duties GOV.UK describes.
Services
RCD
A residual current device that cuts power when current leaks, a shock protection. Seeing an RCD in the board is not a test that it works, and not a clean bill for the circuits.
Services
Main bonding
The earth connection that joins metal services, such as pipes, to the electrical earth. A surveyor may notice a missing clamp. They do not certify the installation.
Services
Rewire
Replacing the circuits. Age of the house is not a rewire specification. Rubber or fabric cables, or a board that is obsolete and dangerous, are reasons a surveyor tells you to get an EICR.
Services
Lead pipe
A water pipe made of lead, usually on the supply from the ground to the stopcock in older houses. The Drinking Water Inspectorate publishes advice. A survey identifies suspect pipe. It does not sample the water.
Services
Stopcock
The valve that shuts off the incoming water. A survey notes if it could not find one. Not finding it is a practical limit, not a defect in the pipe.
Services
Combination boiler
A boiler that heats taps directly, without a stored cylinder. A home survey does not service it or say it is safe. Gas work is for a Gas Safe registered engineer.
Services
Unvented cylinder
A stored hot-water vessel under mains pressure. It has safety controls that need the right competence to install and maintain. A visual note is not that service.
Services
Gas Safe Register
The official register of engineers who can legally work on gas. HSE explains the duties. A surveyor’s glance at a boiler is not a gas safety record.
Services
Soil stack
The vertical pipe that takes foul water from toilets. Leaks show as staining in a bathroom or a cupboard. A survey does not pressure-test it.
Services
Gully
A ground-level trap that takes waste or rainwater into the drain. A gully that is blocked, or set above the damp-proof course, is a maintenance note with damp consequences.
Services
Inspection chamber
A manhole where drains can be seen. The surveyor lifts a cover if it is safe and within the level you bought. They do not camera the run unless that was agreed.
Services
Soakaway
A pit that lets rainwater drain into the ground rather than a sewer. A survey cannot see a buried soakaway that is working. Soggy ground at a downpipe is the clue that it is not.
Services
CCTV drain survey
A camera run through the drains. It is the further investigation a home survey is pointing at when it cannot say why a drain misbehaves. It is not included by default.
Services
Gutter
The channel at the eaves that should catch rain. Leaks and wrong falls wet the wall and are a classic cause of penetrating damp. They are not rising damp.
Services
Downpipe
The vertical pipe from a gutter to a drain or gully. A disconnected shoe at the bottom wets the foot of the wall. Look there before you price a new damp-proof course.
Hazards
Asbestos
HSE says asbestos can be in buildings built or refurbished before 2000. That is not a claim it is in every one. A home survey does not sample materials. Do not drill to find out.
Hazards
Textured coating
A patterned ceiling or wall coat, often called by a brand name. Some older coats contain asbestos. The name does not prove it, and it does not prove it is absent. Do not sand it.
Hazards
Asbestos cement
A hard cement product used for some garage roofs, flues and soffits. HSE treats it differently from loose insulation board. The survey may suspect it from age and look. Suspicion is not a lab result.
Hazards
Spray foam
Insulation sprayed inside a roof. RICS has a consumer guide because it can hide timbers and complicate a sale. An EPC suggestion to insulate is not an instruction to spray.
Environment
Radon
A radioactive gas from the ground. UKradon publishes an Action Level of 200 Bq/m3 as an annual average, and a Target Level of 100. A map is not a reading of the house.
Environment
Radon Action Level
UKHSA’s published level, 200 Bq/m3 as an annual average, above which radon in a home should be reduced. It is not a price and not a result from the colour of a map.
Environment
Flood zone
A planning-policy category about flood risk to an area. GOV.UK’s long-term flood-risk check is the public map. A home survey does not redraw it, and a dry day is not a zone.
Environment
Japanese knotweed
An invasive plant. GOV.UK explains the duty not to let it spread, and that soil containing it is controlled waste. RICS publishes a professional standard for residential property. A survey is not a management plan.
Environment
Rhizome
The underground stem by which knotweed spreads. Digging it out without knowing the rules can spread it. Identification above ground is the first step, not excavation.
Environment
Knotweed management plan
A programme of treatment with a guarantee, written for the site. Lenders and buyers ask for them. A sentence in a home survey is not the plan.
Environment
Coal mining search
A search, via the Coal Authority, into recorded coal mining under a property. It is a paperwork search. A home survey does not replace it, and a quiet house is not a clear search.
Environment
Tree preservation order
A council order that protects a tree. Works to it need consent. A survey can say a tree is close to a wall. It does not grant permission to fell it.
Legal and tenure
Leasehold
You buy a lease, a right to occupy for the years left, not the freehold of the building. The lease says who repairs. A condition rating does not rewrite it.
Legal and tenure
Freehold
Ownership of the property without a time-limited lease above it. Freehold is not a condition rating, and it does not mean the building is sound.
Legal and tenure
Ground rent
Rent paid to a freeholder under a lease. For most new long residential leases in England and Wales from 30 June 2022, the permitted rent is a peppercorn. Older leases can still reserve a money rent.
Legal and tenure
Peppercorn rent
The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 defines a peppercorn rent as an annual rent of one peppercorn. No money can be charged as ground rent on a lease the Act regulates.
Legal and tenure
Service charge
A payment towards the landlord’s costs of running or maintaining a building, if the lease allows it. GOV.UK explains a right to a summary. The survey does not audit the accounts.
Legal and tenure
Section 20 consultation
The consultation steps before some service-charge works. GOV.UK’s thresholds, reviewed 24 October 2026, are more than £250 for planned work and £100 a year for agreements over 12 months. They are not repair quotes.
Legal and tenure
Reserve fund
Money collected in advance for future works, sometimes called a sinking fund. Whether it exists, and whether it is enough, is in the accounts. A survey of the roof does not count the fund.
Legal and tenure
Building regulations
Standards for how building work is done. Approval is a paper trail or a competent-person certificate. A home survey can describe condition. It cannot say the council signed it off.
Legal and tenure
Planning permission
Permission for development, which is a different system from building regulations. An attractive extension can lack one, the other, or both. The survey does not search the planning record.
Legal and tenure
Lawful development certificate
A council certificate that work was lawful, often because it was permitted development. It is evidence. A surveyor’s silence is not this certificate.
Legal and tenure
Indemnity insurance
A policy that can cover the financial risk of missing consents. It does not make a wall safe, and it often forbids you from contacting the council. The survey’s job remains the wall.
Legal and tenure
Listed building
A building on the statutory list for special architectural or historic interest. In England, Historic England describes Grades I, II* and II. Listing is not a condition rating.
Legal and tenure
Listed building consent
Permission for works that affect the special interest of a listed building. It is separate from planning permission and from building regulations. A survey does not grant it.
Legal and tenure
Grade II
Historic England: a Grade II building is of special interest. The grade is not a statement of good or bad repair. The whole building is listed, inside and out.
Legal and tenure
Conservation area
An area designated for its character. Extra planning controls can apply, including to demolition. It is not the same as listing a particular house. The survey does not map the area.
Legal and tenure
Energy Performance Certificate
GOV.UK: a certificate rating energy efficiency from A to G, valid for 10 years, required in stated cases before you market a home. It is not a condition survey.
Legal and tenure
Competent person scheme
GOV.UK describes schemes that let installers certify certain work, such as some windows or boilers, instead of a building-notice application. A scheme certificate is not a home survey.
Legal and tenure
Party wall award
The document surveyors appointed under the Party Wall etc. Act produce when neighbours do not simply consent. A condition rating in a buyer’s survey is not an award.
Legal and tenure
Flying freehold
Part of a freehold that sits over or under a neighbour’s land, such as a room over a shared passage. It is a title oddity. Lenders ask about it. The survey describes the room.
Legal and tenure
Restrictive covenant
A promise in the deeds that limits use or alterations. The survey will not read the deed. Your solicitor will. A covenant is not a crack.
Environment
Controlled waste
GOV.UK explains that soil or material containing Japanese knotweed is classed so that you cannot take it to an ordinary tip. That is a disposal rule, not a repair price.
Construction types
PRC
Precast reinforced concrete, a non-traditional house type with concrete panels. A survey can see cracks, spalling and repairs. It cannot see every reinforcing bar. Lender criteria are separate.
Construction types
BISF
A steel-framed house type, often with replacement cladding. The frame is still the structure after the outside is renewed. The survey sees the skin and the clues at openings.
Construction types
No-fines concrete
Concrete cast without the usual coarse aggregate, used as a solid wall on some estates. It is not a cavity and should not be insulated as if it were one.
Construction types
Airey house
A postwar system of concrete columns and panels. The public concern is the columns. A visual survey can suspect the type and describe cracks. Confirmation is a specialist plus the papers.
Construction types
Laing Easiform
A cast-in-situ concrete house system. As with other named systems, the survey should only use the name when it has a reason, and should say when the type is uncertain.
Construction types
System-built
A house put up from a named non-traditional method rather than conventional brick. RICS aims Level 1 and Level 2 at conventional homes. Unusual construction is a Level 3 conversation.
Construction types
Right to buy
The statutory route by which a tenant bought a council home. It explains the sales history. It does not describe the cavity, the frame or the roof.
Period homes
Bay window
A window that projects, with its own roof and often its own lintel. Leaks and movement sit at the joints. A covered bressumer cannot be confirmed from the pavement.
Period homes
Bressumer
A large timber beam, often over a shopfront or a bay. If it is plastered, the survey should say it could not see it, not invent a steel that might have replaced it.
Period homes
Dormer
A window projecting from a roof slope. The junctions and the cheeks leak, and the opening may have cut roof timbers. Papers for a dormer are a solicitor’s question.
Period homes
Hip-to-gable
A loft alteration that turns a hipped end into a full-height gable. It changes the roof structure. The survey describes what it can see. Building-regulations approval is a paper.
Period homes
Cellar
A room below ground. Damp there can be condensation, rain, or moisture from the soil. A meter reading is not a tanking design, and a coal store is not a bedroom specification.
Period homes
Suspended timber floor
Boards on joists over a void. The void needs air. A survey sees the boards and, rarely, the void. Springy boards are a prompt, not a joist size.
Period homes
Solid floor
A floor bearing on the ground, often concrete. The damp membrane, if there is one, is hidden. Salts and cold are not proof the membrane has failed.
Period homes
Victorian terrace
A house type, often solid-walled, of the nineteenth century. Age is context. The ratings apply to the elements inspected that day, not to the decade.
Period homes
1930s semi
Often a cavity-brick house with a tiled roof. Often is not this house. Wall-tie corrosion is a known risk of the era, not a finding until the survey sees symptoms.
Period homes
Bungalow
A single-storey house. The roof and the ground-floor damp-proofing are a larger share of the home you live in. The word is not a defect and not a construction type.
Period homes
Chalet bungalow
A bungalow with rooms already in the roof. The survey inspects those rooms, the dormers and the altered structure. It is not an empty loft.
New homes
Buildmark
NHBC’s warranty and insurance product for homes built by registered builders. NHBC describes ten-year cover, with a builder period of about two years and insurance after that. Not every new home has it.
New homes
Builder warranty period
NHBC says that for about two years from the certificate date the builder, not NHBC, puts right a failure to meet NHBC requirements. Other warranties use other clocks.
New homes
Completion certificate
Evidence that building-control work was signed off. It is not a snagging list and not a condition rating. A new home can have both a certificate and a leak.
New homes
Reservation agreement
The contract that takes a new home off the market before exchange. Whether the fee is refundable if a survey disappoints you is in that agreement, not in a general rule.
Regulations
Approved Document A
The England guidance on structure for building work. It does not declare a historic frame non-compliant because the frame is older than the document.
Regulations
Approved Document C
The England guidance on site preparation and resistance to moisture, used when building work is done. It is not a retrospective pass-fail for a house you are buying.
Regulations
Approved Document F
The England guidance on ventilation for building work. An older house does not have to ‘pass’ it before you buy. A survey can still say the home is under-ventilated from what was visible.
Regulations
Approved Document H
The England guidance on drainage and waste disposal for building work. A home survey does not test a drain against it. A blocked gully is still a blocked gully.
Regulations
Approved Document J
The England guidance on combustion appliances and fuel storage. It is relevant when appliances are installed. A surveyor’s look at a boiler is not a commission under that document.
Regulations
Trickle vent
A small background ventilator, often in a window head. Painted shut or missing, it is a ventilation note. It is not the only way a room can be ventilated, and it is not a product requirement this site imposes.
Walls and structure
Cavity tray
A damp-proof tray in a cavity wall that throws water out above an opening or a roof abutment. The survey usually cannot see it. Stains under a sill are the clue, not a drawing of a tray.
Walls and structure
Weep hole
A small opening that lets water out of a cavity, often above a window. Blocked weeps, or rust stains from them, are notes. Weeps are not a defect for existing.
Walls and structure
Monitoring
Measuring a crack over time to see if it moves. A single survey visit is not monitoring. If the surveyor says the crack needs to be watched, that is a future action, not a result you already have.
The survey
Structural engineer
The person a surveyor means when they ask for structural advice about support or movement. A builder’s quote is not that advice. The original survey fee does not include the engineer.
The survey
Damp quotation
A price to do work. It may be the written quotation RICS wants before commitment on a rating 3. It is not, by itself, a cause. If the survey left the cause open, get the cause named.
The survey
Written quotation
RICS’s phrase on rating 3: obtain written quotations before legal commitment. The quotation is from a contractor or specialist. The survey does not contain it.
Legal and tenure
Exchange of contracts
The usual point, in a private treaty purchase in England and Wales, when buyer and seller become bound. It is not the rule for every auction or reservation agreement. Ask your solicitor.
Legal and tenure
Private treaty
An ordinary sale by agreement, as opposed to an auction. The survey still does not set the price. It informs whether you want to agree, renegotiate, or leave before you are bound.
Legal and tenure
Auction conditions
The legal terms of a particular auction. In many traditional auctions a bid binds you. A survey after that point explains the building. It may not be an exit. Read the conditions.
Legal and tenure
Gazundering
A buyer pressing a lower price late in a sale. It is not the same as walking away, and it is not what a condition rating instructs. A quote can still be a reason to reopen a price.
Legal and tenure
Licence to alter
A landlord’s written consent to change a leasehold flat. The survey cannot grant it. A sentence that a wall might be loadbearing is not a licence.
Legal and tenure
External wall assessment
An industry form some lenders have asked for on the outside wall of certain blocks. It is not a RICS Home Survey. Whether a lender still wants one is a question for that lender, not a condition rating.
Services
Service riser
A shared shaft in a block carrying pipes or cables. A flat survey does not open a locked riser. Staining where a riser meets the flat is as far as a visual note can go.
Legal and tenure
Demise
The part of a building the lease actually lets to you, shown on a plan. The survey rates fabric. The demise decides whose fabric it is. The two documents answer different questions.
Legal and tenure
Staircasing
Buying further shares in a shared-ownership home later. Today’s survey does not cover that future purchase. You still live in the whole home now, so the fabric still matters.
Legal and tenure
Missives
The contract letters in a Scottish purchase. They are not English exchange. A Home Report has its own reliance rules. Do not time an English ‘before exchange’ habit against missives without a Scottish solicitor.
Legal and tenure
Wayleave
A permission for kit such as cables to cross land. It is a title or neighbour matter. A surveyor may see a pole or a stay wire. They do not negotiate the wayleave.
Legal and tenure
Easement
A legal right, such as a drain or a path, over someone else’s land. The survey can see a manhole. The right to use it is in the deeds.
Legal and tenure
Ransom strip
A sliver of land someone else owns that the property needs, often for access. It is a title problem. No condition rating describes it.
Legal and tenure
Party fence wall
A wall standing on the boundary, not part of a building, that the Party Wall etc. Act can still cover. A garden wall note in a survey is condition. The Act is procedure if you build.
The survey
Schedule of condition
A record of condition, often attached to a party wall award or a lease, so later damage can be compared. A buyer’s home survey can be evidence. It is not automatically that schedule.
Legal and tenure
Dilapidations
A claim, usually at the end of a commercial lease, about disrepair. It is the wrong word for a buyer’s home survey. Residential condition ratings are not a dilapidations claim.
New homes
Snagging retention
Money sometimes held back from a builder until snags are finished. It is a contract term between whoever agreed it. It is not an NHBC rule this page can state for every site, and it is not a condition rating.
New homes
Latent defect
A defect that was not apparent at inspection. Warranties and the common law treat hidden defects differently from things a surveyor could see. This glossary does not give you a limitation period.
The survey
Patent defect
A defect that was there to be seen. Home surveys are built around patent condition. They say so when something was concealed. Concealed is NI or a limitation, not a promise.
The survey
Making good
Putting a surface back after a repair. A quote that excludes making good is a smaller job than the one you are picturing. The survey does not price either version.
The survey
Provisional sum
An allowance in a builder’s price for work they have not designed. It is not a fixed quote. A home survey should not be read as if it contained provisional sums. It does not.
The survey
Scaffold
Access for high work. A ground-level survey does not include it. Any cost you add ‘for scaffold’ without a contractor’s quote is your guess. This site will not supply the guess.
Legal and tenure
Abatement
A legal reduction, for example of a service charge a tribunal finds unreasonable. It is not the same as renegotiating a purchase price after a survey. Different forums, different rules.
Legal and tenure
Forfeiture
A landlord’s remedy of ending a lease for breach, heavily constrained by statute. It has nothing to do with a rating 2 gutter. If a seller’s lease is in dispute, that is a solicitor’s question.
Legal and tenure
Deed of variation
A document that changes a lease. People seek one for ground rent or alteration clauses. The survey cannot promise a landlord will sign it.
Services
Escape of water
A leak from plumbing, as opposed to rain coming in. Insurers use the phrase. A stain under a bath is a clue. The survey does not pressure-test the pipe.
Services
Double insulation
A plastic consumer unit, or a circuit arrangement, is sometimes described loosely by sellers as ‘modern’. Modern is not a test result. The electrics guide keeps the visual limit.
Services
Earthing
The path that lets fault current trip a breaker safely. A surveyor is not testing the electrode. A missing label or a cut strap is a note for an electrician, not a DIY job.
Services
Smoke alarm
A life-safety fitting. A home survey may note if none was seen. It does not design a system to Approved Document B, and absence is not given a fake price here.
Regulations
Means of escape
How people get out in a fire, a building-regulations question when work is done, especially to loft rooms. A survey can describe a ladder-only loft. It does not certify escape.
Legal and tenure
Permitted development
Development that can be lawful without a planning application if the national and local rules are met. The Planning Portal explains classes of work. Meeting them is not something a survey measures by eye.
Legal and tenure
Article 4 direction
A local direction that removes permitted-development rights, often in a conservation area, so you need planning permission for work that would otherwise be allowed. The survey does not check the direction.
Legal and tenure
Curtilage
The land and buildings ancillary to a listed building, which can be protected with it. Whether a particular shed is inside the curtilage is a legal question. Do not demolish on a hunch.
Legal and tenure
Heritage statement
A document sometimes required with a listed-building application, explaining the effect of the works. A home survey is not that statement, though you may attach it as condition evidence.
Period homes
Lime mortar
A softer, more breathable mortar used on older solid walls. Hard cement pointing can trap moisture and damage brick. The survey can often tell a hard grey repair from older mortar. It does not specify a mix.
Roofs
Cement fillet
A mortar slope used instead of lead where a roof meets a wall. These crack and leak. Replacing a fillet is a local job. Calling it ‘the roof’ overstates it.
Roofs
Leadwork
Lead used on flashings, valleys and flat roofs. It moves with heat and cracks when it cannot. A survey describes the lead it can see. It does not price a full relaying.
Roofs
GRP roof
Glass-reinforced plastic, a liquid-applied or moulded flat-roof covering. Condition is about cracks, outlets and upstands, the same places other flat roofs fail. The brand name is not a life expectancy.
Roofs
EPDM
A rubber sheet used on flat roofs. Laps and the edge details fail, or they do not. A survey on a dry day sees the sheet and the stains, not next winter’s ponding.
Damp and timber
Interstitial condensation
Condensation inside a construction, for example in a roof build-up, rather than on the room surface. A visual survey suspects it from staining. It does not calculate a dew point.
Roofs
Breathable membrane
A modern underlay that lets vapour out while resisting rain. Whether the one in this loft is breathable is a label the surveyor may or may not be able to read. Do not assume.
Damp and timber
Cold bridge
A part of the fabric that gets colder than the rest, so condensation prefers it: a concrete lintel, an uninsulated reveal. It is a pattern for mould. It is not rising damp.
Damp and timber
Relative humidity
How much moisture the air holds compared with the maximum at that temperature. A home survey does not log it over a week. A single visit cannot prove a condensation season.
Regulations
Background ventilation
The steady fresh air a room needs, as opposed to a fan used while cooking. Approved Document F deals with it when work is done. A painted-over vent is a condition note today.
Services
Extract fan
A fan in a kitchen or bathroom that removes moist air. The survey can see if one is missing or painted useless. It does not measure the flow rate. This page will not invent a litre-per-second figure.
Regulations
Purge ventilation
Opening a window wide to clear pollutants or moisture quickly. It sits beside background vents in the ventilation guidance. A survey that says windows are painted shut is describing both.
Services
Radiator
A heat emitter. A cold radiator on the day is not a design calculation. Leaks at valves are escape of water. The heating guide keeps the survey’s limit: no service of the system.
Services
Thermostatic radiator valve
A valve that throttles a radiator. Stuck valves are maintenance. They are not a condition rating on the boiler, and they are not a reason this glossary states a replacement cost.
Services
Insulation resistance test
An electrician’s test of whether cable insulation is sound. It is part of proper electrical inspection. A home survey does not carry it out. Do not confuse a visual note with a megger result.
Services
EICR code C1
On an electrical condition report, a code for danger present, requiring immediate action. It is not a RICS condition rating. Only an EICR can apply it. A surveyor may still say an installation looks dangerous.
Services
EICR code C2
On an EICR, a code for a potentially dangerous defect, to be remedied urgently. It is the electrician’s scale. Do not translate it into a RICS 2 or 3 by arithmetic.
Services
EICR code C3
On an EICR, improvement recommended, not in itself a fail of the report. Landlords’ duties depend on the regulations GOV.UK publishes, not on this glossary rewriting them.
Services
Further investigation code
An EICR code meaning the inspector needs more investigation. The same words in a home survey mean the surveyor has reached the edge of a visual inspection. The documents are still different.
Regulations
Part P
The building-regulation requirement for electrical safety in dwellings in England. Notifiable work has a paper trail. A home survey does not produce a Part P certificate.
Walls and structure
Sill
The ledge under a window that should throw water clear. A flat or cracked sill wets the wall below. That stain is penetrating damp until someone shows it is something else.
Walls and structure
Boot lintel
A concrete lintel with a toe that carries the outer leaf. When the toe fails, cracks step from the window corner. The lintel guide covers what a covered opening still hides.
Walls and structure
Settlement
The initial pressing-down of a new or altered building as the ground takes the load. People use the word loosely for any crack. Surveyors try to separate old settlement from movement that is still live.
Walls and structure
Differential movement
Parts of a building moving by different amounts, often where an extension meets the original house. A crack at that junction is a classic place to look. It is not automatically subsidence.
Walls and structure
Underpinning
Strengthening or deepening foundations under an existing wall. It is a structural project with papers. A survey can see the clues or the hatch marks of past work. It does not design the next underpin.
Services
Drain connection
Where a new extension’s drain joins the old run. These joints fail. A home survey sees the manholes and the gullies. A camera sees the joint. Do not skip from one to a collapse.
Services
Pitch fibre drain
A black fibre drain pipe used in the mid-twentieth century, which can deform. Identifying it needs a sight of the pipe, often by camera. A 1930s date on the house is not identification.
Services
Interceptor trap
An older trap in a manhole, meant to keep sewer gas out, which itself blocks. A surveyor who lifts the cover may see it. They will not rebuild the drain as part of the visit.
Services
Septic tank
A private foul-drainage tank. Emptying records and the discharge rules are an environmental and legal question. The survey can say a tank was seen, or that drainage was not found. It does not permit the discharge.
Services
Treatment plant
A mechanical private sewage plant. It needs power and maintenance. A home survey does not service it. If the sale depends on it, ask for the permits and the service record as papers, mark R, not as a rating.
Services
Oil tank
A domestic heating-oil store. Condition, bunding and where it would leak are visual notes. Approved Document J is the installation guidance when work is done. The survey is not an OFTEC service.
Services
Bund
A secondary container that should catch a leak from an oil tank. A survey can see whether a wall or tray exists. It does not pressure-test the tank.
Services
Pressure relief pipe
The safety discharge from an unvented cylinder or a boiler. It should end somewhere safe and visible. A pipe dripping is a maintenance note. A pipe into the electrics is a different conversation.
Services
Expansion vessel
A vessel that takes up the expansion of heated water in a sealed system. Failure shows as pressure loss. The survey will not bench-test it. Age is not a price.
Services
Immersion heater
An electric element in a cylinder. It is a cheap-to-replace part and a possible leak. This glossary is not pricing it. The survey mentions it if it is relevant and visible.
Services
Header tank
A cistern in the loft on older heating or water systems. A lid, insulation, and an overflow that actually goes outside are the visual checks. Drinkability of the water is not judged by eye.
Hazards
Asbestos flue joint
Older flues and warm-air heaters sometimes used asbestos at joints. HSE’s advice is not to disturb suspect material. A survey flags age and type. It does not take a sample.
Hazards
Artex
A brand name used loosely for textured coatings. Some pre-2000 coatings contain asbestos and some do not. The survey should not tell you to scrape a ceiling to settle the question.
Hazards
Lead paint
Paint containing lead, common on older joinery. Burning or sanding it is the hazard. A survey may mention old paint. It does not lab-test every skirting, and this entry states no removal cost.
Hazards
RAAC
Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, a lightweight concrete used in some public buildings, which can fail suddenly. A house survey should name it only with a reason to. Do not infer it from a flat roof.
Walls and structure
Cladding
A skin on the outside of a building, from timber boards to rainscreen panels. The word alone is not a fire-safety verdict. A visual survey sees the face. Opening it up is a different instruction.
Walls and structure
Cavity wall insulation
Material pumped or built into a cavity. It can be fine, and it can bridge damp or fill a cavity that needed to drain. The survey sees drill holes and internal stains. It does not endoscope the fill.
Walls and structure
External wall insulation
A coat of insulation and render fixed outside. It changes the look of a solid wall and the way rain is shed. Detachment and poor details at sills are what a survey can see.
Walls and structure
Internal wall insulation
Insulation on the room side of a wall. Done badly it hides damp and moves the cold point. A survey can see the lining and any mould at the edges. It will not calculate the build-up.
Regulations
Airtightness
How little air leaks through the fabric, sometimes measured with a fan test. A home survey does not do that test and will not quote an air-change rate. Draughts it can feel are a different, cruder note.
Walls and structure
Party floor
The floor and ceiling between flats. Sound is not a condition rating unless the surveyor describes a defect such as a hole or a sag. Fire separation is not fully tested by looking up.
Regulations
Compartmentation
The way a block is divided to resist fire. A flat survey does not open risers to prove it. Building-safety law is a separate regime. GOV.UK’s leaseholder guidance is the legal starting point, not this definition.
Walls and structure
Balcony
A platform with a waterproof deck and an edge. The survey sees the surface, the soffit below and the fixings if they are visible. Structure that is boxed in is a limitation.
Walls and structure
Podium deck
A roof you walk on, over a garage or a bin store, with flats above or beside it. Waterproofing failures show in the room below. The flat you are buying may not include access to the deck.
Legal and tenure
Right of support
The legal idea that a building may rely on its neighbour for support. It becomes practical when you remove a chimney breast that continues next door. The survey flags the breast. The law is the solicitor.
Period homes
Chimney breast removal
Taking out the masonry of a chimney in a room while the stack above may remain. Support should be visible or the report should say it is not. The seller’s memory is not a beam.
Period homes
Gallows bracket
A triangular bracket sometimes used to hold a remaining chimney breast. Whether it is adequate is a structural question. Seeing a bracket is not the same as approving it.
Roofs
Mathematic thatch ridge
A decorative cut ridge on a thatched roof, renewed more often than the main coat. A smart ridge does not date the coat underneath. Ask the survey to separate them.
Roofs
Water reed
One of the materials used for thatch, with different thickness and life from straw. The survey should name the material only if the surveyor can tell. This entry does not give a lifespan in years.
Roofs
Long straw
A traditional thatch coat with a shaggy face. It is not neglect merely because it looks untidy next to a combed reed roof. Condition is thin spots, ridges and damp, not neatness.
Roofs
Fire barrier at thatch
Measures, when work is done, to reduce fire spread at chimneys and wires in thatch. A home survey records what it can see. It does not certify compliance with Approved Document B.
Period homes
Jetty
An upper floor of a timber frame that overhangs the floor below. It is a historic form, not a defect. Movement and rot at the jetty bressumer are the condition questions.
Walls and structure
Nogging
Infill, often brick, between timbers in a frame. Loose or cement-hard nogging is a note. Replacing it casually can both damage the frame and, if the house is listed, need consent.
Period homes
Green oak
Oak framed while the timber was still fresh, which then shrinks and moves as it seasons. Movement in a new green-oak extension is expected. Ongoing movement in a saturated sole plate is not the same thing.
Roofs
Felt sag
Underfelt that has dropped between the rafters and holds a puddle. It is a loft finding. It can wet the ceiling without a single slipped tile. The roof guide treats it as its own defect.
Roofs
Over-battening
A slang surveyors avoid: extra battens or a second covering laid over a tired roof. The honest finding is what layer the surveyor could see, and whether the structure was checked for the extra weight.
Roofs
Roof light
A window set in the slope of a roof. The flashings around it leak, or the unit itself does. Papers, if it was a later opening, are separate from the stain on the ceiling.
Walls and structure
Conservatory
A glazed extension, often exempt from some building rules only if it meets strict conditions. The survey rates the frame, the roof and the junction. It does not award the exemption.
Walls and structure
Porch
A small covered entrance. Leaks at the junction with the main wall are ordinary. Whether it needed planning permission depends on size and position, which the survey does not measure for that purpose.
Walls and structure
Outbuilding
A garage, shed or workshop in the grounds. It is inspected more simply than the house. Its rating does not transfer to the house, and its planning status is a paper.
Walls and structure
Retaining wall
A wall holding back higher ground. Bulges and absent weep holes matter because the load is soil, not just fence posts. A home survey describes the wall. It does not calculate the soil.
Services
French drain
A gravel-filled trench meant to carry water away from a wall. A survey sees the surface gravel if it is there. It cannot see a collapsed pipe in the trench. Standing water is the symptom.
Services
Land drain
A buried pipe in the ground, often agricultural. Relevant when a garden is wet or a wall is being pushed. Not something a standard home survey traces across a field.
Environment
Surface water
Rainwater, as distinct from foul water from toilets. Where it goes, and whether it floods the floor, is the practical question. GOV.UK’s flood check is about the area, not the gully in the patio.
Environment
Reservoir flood risk
A category on the public flood maps, separate from river and surface water. The map is the evidence. A surveyor walking a dry garden is not.
Environment
Invasive plant
GOV.UK lists plants you must not allow to spread, of which knotweed is the one surveys name most often. Others, such as giant hogweed, are a different risk. Identification beats a guess from a leaf in winter.
Environment
Running bamboo
A plant that can spread beyond the fence and is increasingly raised in surveys. It is not Japanese knotweed and is not automatically on the same legal list. The finding should name the plant the surveyor actually saw.
Environment
Mining subsidence
Movement related to mine workings rather than clay shrinkage. The Coal Authority is the public body for coal. A crack pattern does not, by itself, prove a mine. Searches are documents.
Environment
Brine extraction
Salt working that has caused ground movement in particular areas. It is a local geological fact, established by search and history, not by a glossary. The survey describes the building’s response.
Environment
Clay shrinkage
Clay soils shrinking in dry weather, sometimes taking shallow foundations with them, often near trees. The ABI discusses subsidence in these terms. A wet February visit will not demonstrate a dry August.
Environment
Root barrier
A physical barrier intended to stop roots reaching a foundation. Whether one exists here is not visible from the lawn. A survey that recommends an arboriculturist is asking for a person, not specifying a product.
Environment
Desiccation
Drying of clay, sometimes seen in soil tests as part of a subsidence investigation. A home survey does not take soil samples as standard. If it recommends that investigation, the samples are the next instruction.
The survey
Level 2 (survey and valuation)
The RICS product that includes a market valuation and a reinstatement figure as well as the condition survey. The lender may still instruct their own valuation. Ask them before you rely on yours as theirs.
The survey
Level 2 (survey only)
Condition and advice without a market valuation. If you needed a number for the price, this product will not grow one later. Read the front page of the report.
The survey
Sum insured
The insurance rebuild figure, which can be higher or lower than the price you pay because you are not insuring the land. Use the figure only if your report actually contains one.
Money
Insurance excess
The amount of a claim you pay yourselves. The ABI explains subsidence claims in general terms. This glossary will not state your excess. The policy will.
Construction types
Non-standard construction
RICS uses unusual or non-conventional construction as a reason to consider Level 3. Lenders keep their own lists, which change. The survey identifies the building. The lender decides.
Construction types
Cross-wall construction
A method where the party walls carry the floors and the front and back are lighter infill. Altering a front wall can still matter, and the party walls matter more. The survey should name the method only if it can tell.
Construction types
Mundic concrete
A concrete made with mining waste, found in parts of Cornwall and Devon, which can deteriorate. Lenders in those areas ask for screening. A national glossary cannot say your house has it. A local specialist report can.
Construction types
Wimpey no-fines
A widely used no-fines concrete system. See no-fines. The brand tells you who built that system. Condition and any later repairs are still specific to the address.
Construction types
Orlit
A precast concrete system. As with PRC and Airey houses, visual cracking is a clue and not a scan of the reinforcement. Papers for any repair scheme belong in the legal pack.
Construction types
Unity house
A system-built house type surveyors in some regions still name. The rule on this site is the same: name it only with a reason, and do not invent a lender’s yes or no.
Construction types
Modern steel frame
A contemporary frame, not a BISF house. Cladding and fire stopping are the visual limits of a home survey. The warranty, if any, is a document.
Construction types
Structural insulated panel
A panel of insulation between boards, used as structure. Alterations can cut the structure without looking like a traditional wall removal. Tell the surveyor if you plan to move panels.
Period homes
Cob
Earth mixed with fibre, used as a solid wall in parts of the south-west and elsewhere. It needs to shed water at the top and the base. Cement render is a common cause of trapped damp. The survey describes the coat and the plinth.
Period homes
Clunch
A soft chalk stone. It weathers back. Hard cement repairs make that worse. The survey can describe the face. A specification for stone repair is a mason’s job, and consent may be needed if the building is listed.
Period homes
Mathematical tile
A tile hung to look like brick, found on some older fronts. It is not a cavity wall. Knocking on it is more useful than assuming solid brick. The survey should say if the facing is tile.
Period homes
Flint wall
A wall of flints in mortar, sometimes with brick dressings. The mortar and the copings keep the weather out. Repointing in hard cement is a known way to damage the face. Condition is the pointing and any bulge.
Period homes
Rubble stone
Stone of irregular size, usually lime-mortared. Thickness and stability are harder to judge than brick. A bulge is more informative than a date. Level 3 is often the right conversation. It is not compulsory by this sentence.
Walls and structure
Tie bar
A metal rod put through a building to restrain a wall, with a plate on the outside. It is evidence someone has already addressed movement. It is not evidence the movement has stopped.
Walls and structure
Patress plate
The plate you see on the wall where a tie bar ends. Decorative plates are sometimes fake. The surveyor says whether the bar appears to continue. A plate alone is not a repair certificate.
Walls and structure
Helical bar
A stainless spiral bar used to stitch cracks. Drill holes in a bed joint can be the clue it has been done. Whether it was the right repair is not settled by the presence of the holes.
Walls and structure
Crack stitching
Reinforcement set across a crack. It addresses the crack as a masonry problem. It does not stop the ground moving if the ground is the cause. Read it with the subsidence guide, not instead of it.
Walls and structure
Movement joint
A deliberate gap that lets materials move. A crack inside a joint may be the joint working. A crack beside a joint that has been rigidly filled is a different note.
Walls and structure
Sulphate attack
A chemical attack on cement, sometimes discussed in older concrete floors or chimneys. White crystals are a clue and not a lab test. The survey should not name it without saying why.
Walls and structure
Concrete deterioration
A loose phrase for rusting reinforcement bursting concrete. The careful words are spalling and exposed steel. On a system-built house they justify a specialist, not a nickname.
Walls and structure
Carbonation
A slow chemical change in concrete that can let embedded steel rust. It is diagnosed by testing, not by the year the house was built. A visual survey records the symptoms only.
Walls and structure
Cover meter
A device that senses steel inside concrete. It is a specialist tool. It is not part of a standard home survey. If you need it, that is the further investigation.
The survey
Borescope
A small camera for looking into a cavity or a void. Not part of the standard visual inspection. Agreeing it as an extra is possible. Assuming it happened because the report is thick is not.
The survey
Thermal imaging
A camera that shows surface temperature. It can suggest damp or missing insulation and it can mislead. It is not a standard part of a Home Survey and not a moisture measurement.
The survey
Drone inspection
A way to see a roof without scaffolding. It is only part of your survey if the terms say so. A photograph from a drone is still a photograph. It does not rate the timbers in the loft.
Environment
Environmental search
A solicitor’s search of flood, contaminated land, radon likelihood and similar datasets. It is not the survey, and the survey is not the search. Read both if you have both.
Environment
Contaminated land
Land affected by old industrial use. It is established by search and, if needed, investigation. A home surveyor is not a contamination scientist. They may note a former use if they know it.
Environment
Radon sump
A common way of reducing radon, a small void and a fan under the floor. Seeing a fan is not a measurement of the radon level. UKradon’s Action Level is about a three-month test, not the presence of a fan.
Legal and tenure
EPC recommendation
A line on the energy certificate suggesting an improvement. It is not a works order, not listed-building consent, and not a reason to ignore damp. Read it beside the survey, not over it.
Legal and tenure
SAP rating
The methodology behind the energy figure on an EPC for a new or assessed home. It is a model. It does not visit the loft and decide the rafters are sound.
Services
Legionella
Bacteria that can grow in stored or little-used water. Landlords have duties HSE describes. A purchase survey does not sample the tank. A missing lid on a cold-water cistern is as far as a visual note goes.
Services
Thermostatic mixing valve
A valve that limits hot-water temperature at a tap. Relevant to scalding risk. A survey may see one. It does not test the setting. No cost is stated here.
Services
External stop valve
The water company’s valve in the pavement. Access to it is not the same as the internal stopcock. A survey confined to the plot may not lift the pavement cover.
Services
Meter box
The cabinet for a gas or electricity meter. Location matters if it is inside a cupboard that does not breathe, or if you smell gas. Smelling gas is an emergency, not a rating to discuss after exchange.
Services
Service head
The incoming electrical cable and the distributor’s fuse. It belongs to the network operator. A damaged head is a reason to call them, not a DIY rewire, and not a figure this page will invent.
Services
Voltage
Sellers sometimes advertise gadgets. A home survey does not measure whether you need one, and this glossary will not claim a saving. Ignore the gadget. Read the board.
Services
Smart meter
A meter that records use. It says nothing about the condition of the wiring or the boiler. Do not read a smart-meter fitting as an electrical certificate.
Legal and tenure
Building notice
One route to building-regulations approval, used for some simpler work. The notice is not a design. Absence of any approval route is what the extensions guide discusses. The survey still looks at the wall.
Legal and tenure
Regularisation certificate
A way of asking building control to look at work already done without approval. Whether to apply is a legal and practical choice. Indemnity insurance is the alternative people discuss. Neither is a repair.
Legal and tenure
Consent under a covenant
Permission the deeds require from a named person before you alter or use a property in a certain way. Distinct from planning. The survey will not know the covenant exists.
Legal and tenure
Chancel repair
A historic liability that a search may still flag. It is a title insurance or solicitor question. No crack in a survey is a chancel repair.
Environment
Riparian responsibility
Duties that can fall on an owner of land beside a watercourse, including maintenance. GOV.UK publishes guidance. A surveyor may see a stream at the boundary. The duty is not a condition rating.
Environment
Culvert
A pipe carrying a stream under land. Blockage is a flood mechanism. The survey sees the inlet if it is visible. Ownership of the culvert is a legal question.
Services
Percolation test
A test of how fast the ground absorbs water, used when designing a soakaway or a treatment field. A home survey does not perform one. A boggy lawn is only a prompt.
Regulations
Sustainable drainage
Modern ways of dealing with rainwater on a site, required in many new developments. A new-build survey looks at gullies and levels. It does not redesign the estate’s drainage strategy.
Legal and tenure
Oversailing
Part of a building projecting over neighbouring land. It can be a title issue, like a flying freehold, or simply a gutter. The survey describes the projection. The deed says whether it may be there.
Environment
Encroachment
A neighbour’s extension, fence or tree crossing the boundary. The survey can photograph it. The remedy is legal. Do not read a rating on your own gutter as a judgement on their fence.
Legal and tenure
Party wall notice
The formal notice the Act requires before certain works, served by the person who intends to build. A buyer’s survey is not that notice. If you plan work after purchase, the clock starts when you serve it, not when you read the report.
Legal and tenure
Line of junction
The boundary line the Party Wall etc. Act uses when you build up to it. The survey does not decide the boundary. The title plan is not always decisive either. That is a solicitor’s caution, not a rating.
The survey
Schedule of photographs
Dated photos are part of how a condition is proved later. Your home survey should contain the ones the surveyor relied on. A listing photo from the estate agent is not a schedule of condition.
Already have the report?
A definition is not the sentence in your survey. Decode the report and keep the surveyor’s words next to the plain English.
Decode a report