Money
Which repair costs can a buyer actually look up?
A home survey does not publish a contractor’s price. This page repeats only figures a named public body has already published. Everything else needs a written quote once the cause is known. Round-number averages are not used. Reviewed 24 October 2026. Not a quote for your house.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless a source says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
Why is there no national repair price list here?
A slipped slate, a rotten window and a bowed wall are not one product with one price. The survey describes condition. A contractor prices the work after seeing access, quantity and what is uncovered. Publishing a tidy range we did not source would look useful and would be made up. This site’s own cost catalogue, where it exists for the decoder, is labelled placeholder until a published source replaces it. Those placeholders are not repeated here.
Where a public body has put a figure in its own words, it is quoted below with the publisher and the review date. It is still not a quote for your house. Policies, fees and search charges change. Read the source.
Which figures are actually sourced?
| Item | What the source says | Source | What it is not |
|---|---|---|---|
| RICS Level 1 fee | Starts at a few hundred pounds | RICS consumer guide | Not a quote from a firm |
| Some Level 3 fees | Bespoke services can cost over £1,000 | RICS consumer guide | Not a ceiling, and not every Level 3 |
| Subsidence policy excess | Often around £1,000, higher after a previous episode | ABI | Not the cost of repairs, and not your policy wording |
| Radon address search | £3.90 for an individual address | UKradon | Not a radon measurement and not a fan or sump |
| Roof, gutter, wiring, boiler, damp, lintel | No official national price cited | — | Get a written quote |
How should you turn a survey into a budget?
- Separate rating 3 and further-investigation items from ordinary maintenance.
- For each one, write the cause the surveyor names, not the scariest word in the heading.
- Ask for a written price only for that cause. A damp quote that ignores a failed gutter is the wrong document.
- Keep investigation separate from repair. A CCTV survey or an engineer’s visit is a cost of its own.
- Do not add a percentage to the purchase price because a forum said so.
Negotiation, if you negotiate, uses those written prices and the survey paragraphs, not a national average. The seller can disagree. A survey is not a valuation and not an instruction to the agent.
Which repair prices do people invent?
Round figures for a full rewire, a new roof, a chemical damp-proof course and a boiler swap circulate without a source, a date, or a description of what is included. Scaffold, access, VAT, waste and making good are the usual omissions. If a page cannot name the publisher, treat the number as conversation, not evidence.
Insurance is the other trap. ABI’s description of a subsidence excess is not a promise that your insurer will accept the claim, and it is not the cost of underpinning. Flood, storm and escape of water sit in your policy schedule. Read that, or ask the insurer. Do not borrow a neighbour’s excess.
Common questions
What does a rewire cost?
This page does not say, because no official national price is cited here. An electrical installation condition report, where a landlord or a survey asks for one, prices the inspection. Remedial work is a separate quote from an electrician after the report. GOV.UK’s rented-sector guidance explains the standard. It does not publish a rewire tariff.
What does a new damp-proof course cost?
No sourced national figure is given here, and a new damp-proof course is often the wrong product. Price the cause named in the survey: gutter, ground levels, leak, or condensation. A chemical injection quote is not a price for penetrating damp.
What does a new roof cost?
It depends on area, covering, access and whether the structure is sound. No official price per square metre is repeated here. A survey that says “the covering is nearing the end of its life” is not a measured bill of quantities. Ask a roofer to price what the report describes, and ask whether scaffold is included.
What does underpinning cost?
This page does not publish one. ABI describes the insurance excess, often around £1,000, not the building work. Many cracks are not subsidence and do not need underpinning. If an engineer specifies it, that specification is what gets priced.
What does a new boiler cost?
No official domestic price is cited here. Age alone is not a survey instruction to replace it. If the report says it did not work, or that the flue looks unsafe, the next step is a Gas Safe engineer, who can price the job they actually find.
Can you use the prices inside a survey decoder?
Only if that product shows a source and a date, and says the range is indicative. Placeholder numbers are not quotes and should not be pasted into an email to an agent as if they were. SurveySorted labels placeholder costs as placeholder.
Do repair quotes include VAT?
Ask the contractor. There is no single rule quoted on this page that makes every domestic repair either inside or outside VAT. A range that hides VAT is not comparable with one that shows it.
Do you need three quotes?
You need a quote that prices the defect in the report, from someone competent to do that work. A second quote is how you check scope, not a legal rule stated here. Three identical misunderstandings of the survey are not better than one quote that matches it.
Sources
- House surveys: the costs, types and benefits of an RICS home survey — RICS
- How subsidence can affect your home — Association of British Insurers
- Radon searches, including the published individual-address search fee — UK Health Security Agency (UKradon)
- Description of the RICS Home Survey Level 3 (condition rating definitions) — RICS
Key facts
- Survey fees
- RICS: Level 1 from a few hundred pounds; some bespoke Level 3 services over £1,000. Reviewed 24 October 2026. Not a quote.
- Subsidence excess
- ABI says a standard home policy often has an excess around £1,000 for subsidence, heave and landslip, higher if there was a previous episode. That is ABI’s description of cover, not your policy, and not the cost of underpinning.
- Radon address search
- UKradon publishes a fee of £3.90 for an individual address search. That buys a probability report, not a three-month measurement and not remediation.
- Everything else
- Gutters, roofs, rewires, boilers, damp treatments and lintels have no official national price on this page. Get a written quote for the cause the survey names.