UK home survey questions
4,441 questions. 3200 of them have their own page, with a short answer, a fuller explanation, what to ask the surveyor and the next steps. The rest are answered on a guide, a tool or in the glossary. Last reviewed 24 October 2026. This is an index, not a survey of your house.
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4441 questions
Choosing a survey
What is the difference between a RICS Home Survey Level 1, 2 and 3?
A RICS Home Survey comes in three levels. Level 1 is a basic visual overview of a conventional home and does not advise how to manage defects. Level 2 adds repair and maintenance advice for straightforward homes. Level 3 is the detailed survey for older, altered or unusual buildings, or if you plan major work.
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What is each RICS level actually for?
RICS introduced the current three-level Home Survey on 1 March 2021 so buyers could compare like with like. The right level depends on the age, size, condition and complexity of the building, and on whether it has been altered. An RICS member should help you choose before they inspect. If you already have a report, the level is named on the cover. Read that line before you argue with the ratings.
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What does each level include, and what does it leave out?
Every level describes the construction and condition on the day of inspection, and flags serious or urgent problems and anything that needs investigating to avoid serious damage. That is the floor, not the ceiling. Level 1 stops at the description. Level 2 and Level 3 are the ones that help you decide on extra advice before you commit, and that talk about ongoing maintenance so you can budget.
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Which level should a buyer instruct?
For a conventional modern home in apparently decent condition, RICS points buyers towards Level 1 if all they want is a basic overview, and towards Level 2 if they want advice they can budget from. For a Victorian house, a property with extensions, a flat with an unusual construction, or anything you intend to remodel, Level 3 is the one RICS describes as fitting. If a surveyor suggests a higher level than you expected, ask them what about this building makes the lower one a poor fit. That conversation belongs before the inspection, not after a thin report.
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How much does a RICS home survey cost?
RICS does not publish a tariff. On its consumer guide it says the cost is variable: Level 1 sits at the lower end and starts at a few hundred pounds, and a Level 3 sits at the higher end, with some bespoke services costing over £1,000. A larger or more complex home takes longer and costs more. The firm prices the time to do that level of service, plus travel and overheads. Those words are RICS’s, reviewed here on 24 October 2026. They are not a fee for your purchase. Ask two or three regulated firms for a written quote that names the level.
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Is a Level 2 the same as a HomeBuyer Report?
RICS says the Level 2 was previously called a HomeBuyer Report or HomeBuyer’s survey. The name changed with the Home Survey Standard in 2021. If a firm still says HomeBuyer, ask whether the document is a RICS Home Survey Level 2, and whether a valuation is included. The old nickname is not a different product.
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Is a Level 3 the same as a building survey?
RICS says the Level 3 was previously known as a Building Survey. It is still the most detailed of the three RICS home surveys. It is a visual inspection with advice. It is not, by itself, an invasive structural investigation, and it is not automatically a valuation.
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Does a Level 1 tell you how to fix things?
No. RICS says a Level 1 notes defects but will generally not provide advice on how to manage them. The Level 1 scope page says it will not contain detailed advice on repairs. If you need repair advice, RICS says discuss upgrading to Level 2 or Level 3 before the service starts.
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Does a Level 2 include a valuation?
Only if you instruct the Level 2 survey and valuation, not the survey-only version. The valuation version adds a market value and an insurance reinstatement figure. The survey-only version is still a Level 2 condition survey. Check the instruction letter so you are not expecting a number that was never commissioned.
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Will the surveyor lift floors or take down panels?
Not as standard. RICS says the Level 1 and Level 2 visual inspection does not remove secured panels, electrical fittings or inspection chamber covers. A Level 3 is more thorough but it is still primarily visual. Opening-up, testing and specialist reports are extras you agree, or follow-up instructions after the report.
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Which level do you need for a flat?
RICS includes flats and bungalows in the Level 1 and Level 2 descriptions where the building is conventional and in reasonable condition. A flat in a converted house, a concrete-frame block, or a building with known cladding or roof problems is a reason to talk about Level 3. The surveyor can only report on what the lease and access allow them to see. Common parts may be outside the inspection.
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Is a snagging list the same as a Level 2?
No. A snagging inspection looks for unfinished or defective new-build items against the specification. A RICS Home Survey describes condition in the terms of the Home Survey Standard. You can ask a surveyor to look at a new home, but do not treat a developer’s snagging visit as a Level 2 or Level 3. RICS has also flagged new-build snagging as an area the standard’s next edition intends to cover more clearly.
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Do these levels apply in Scotland?
The three RICS levels are the framework for surveys members benchmark against the Home Survey Standard, including work in Scotland where a member is instructed to provide one. The usual purchase paperwork is different: sellers provide a Home Report containing a Single Survey. Read a Single Survey as a Single Survey, not as a Level 2 you forgot to order.
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Who is allowed to provide a RICS Home Survey?
The service is benchmarked by RICS members and RICS-regulated firms against the Home Survey Standard. Level 1 does not include a valuation, so the surveyor does not need to be on the RICS Valuer Registration Scheme for that product. A valuation does need a valuer who is allowed to value. Ask the firm which regulated member will sign, and at which level.
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What if you already have the report and just need it explained?
The level on the cover tells you what kind of advice you were sold. A Level 1 that lists defects without repair advice is doing what RICS describes. A Level 3 that only gives traffic lights, with no discussion of consequences, is thinner than the product RICS describes. Either way, the ratings and the sentences underneath them are what you take to your solicitor and, if you want, decode here.
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How long does a home survey take?
RICS says a Home Survey inspection generally takes between two hours and a full day, and several days on a particularly large property. That is the visit, not the written report. Report timing is set by the firm, not by a national rule. Ask for the inspection date and the date you will receive the report before you instruct.
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How long is the surveyor actually at the property?
RICS answers this directly on its consumer guide: it depends on the size and complexity of the property, but generally an RICS Home Survey inspection takes between two hours and a full day. For particularly large properties, it may take several days. That sentence is about the inspection, the time spent looking. It is not a promise that the PDF arrives the same evening.
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How long after the visit does the report arrive?
RICS does not set a national number of working days for the written report. Firms do, in their terms of engagement. Some send a Level 2 within a few days of the inspection. A long Level 3, or a week when the surveyor is on other inspections, takes longer. Treat any “usual” turnaround you are told as the firm’s own service level. Get it in the instruction, especially if your exchange date is close.
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What makes a home survey take longer?
Bad weather can limit roof and chimney comments. It does not cancel the inspection by itself. The report should say what could not be seen. Those limits are part of the product, and they are one reason a fast verbal “it’s fine” at the door is not a substitute for the document.
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How should you plan the week of the survey?
Book the inspection as soon as the sale is agreed, not the week you hoped to exchange. Ask the firm for two dates: the day they will be on site, and the day they expect to issue the report. Tell the seller or agent what access is needed, including the loft, the electricity and gas cupboards, and outside drains if the level includes them. Clear a path to the loft hatch if the house is yours to prepare. If you are the buyer, you cannot usually clear the seller’s loft. Say so, and expect some “not inspected” lines.
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Is two hours enough for a Level 2?
RICS gives a range, not a minimum: generally two hours to a full day, depending on size and complexity. A small, simple flat can sit at the short end. A large house should not. If the visit was very short for the building in front of you, ask the surveyor what they did not have time or access to see, and read the NI entries before you treat the report as complete.
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Can you get the report the same day?
Some firms offer a fast written turnaround. RICS does not require same-day delivery, and a report written in a hurry is not automatically a worse or better Level 2. What matters is that the level, the limits and the ratings are in the document. Agree the date in writing if your solicitor is working to a deadline.
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Does a Level 3 take longer than a Level 2?
Yes, in the way RICS describes the service. Level 3 is a longer and more detailed visual inspection and a deeper written analysis. The site visit and the writing both grow. That is why the fee is higher. It still may not take “several days” unless the property is particularly large. Several days is the top of RICS’s inspection range, not the typical terraced house.
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Does adding a valuation make the visit much longer?
A Level 2 with valuation includes the survey plus a market value and a reinstatement figure. The valuer has to consider comparable evidence, which is partly desk work, not only extra minutes on site. Ask the firm whether the valuation changes the report date. Do not confuse this with the lender’s own valuation, which is a separate instruction and can be much shorter.
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Do you need to be there?
Usually the surveyor attends with access arranged through the agent. You do not have to be present. A short conversation at the end can help, but it is not the report. Do not rely on a doorstep summary. Wait for the ratings and the sentences that support them.
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What if the seller is at home and the house is full?
The surveyor works around occupation. Fitted furniture, stored lofts and floor coverings limit a visual inspection at every level. Those limits should be written down. They are not a reason to pretend the hidden part was fine. If something important could not be seen, the useful next step is access for a second look, or a specialist, before exchange.
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Will the survey delay exchange?
Only if you leave it late, or if the report recommends investigation you then have to book. The inspection itself is one visit. Further investigation — a structural engineer, a drain survey, an EICR — is extra time that sits outside the Home Survey. Plan the survey early so that extra, if it is needed, still fits before you are legally committed.
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How long does it take to read the report?
A Level 1 is short. A Level 2 is often a few dozen pages of repeated element headings. A Level 3 is longer prose. Give yourself an evening, not a commute. Read every rating 3, every rating 2 that mentions water or structure, and every NI. The summary page is an index, not the advice.
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What do you do if the report is late?
Use the date in the terms of engagement. A polite written chase to the firm is enough to start. Your solicitor needs the document, or a known delay, so they do not exchange around it. If the firm will not give a date at all, that is a reason to ask another regulated firm before you are stuck.
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Is a phone call from the surveyor enough to proceed?
No. RICS home surveys are written reports with condition ratings, limits and, at Level 2 and 3, advice. A reassuring call can be accurate and still omit the NI loft or the rating 3 chimney. Make decisions from the document. If the call adds something the document does not say, ask them to confirm it in writing.
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What should you ask your surveyor?
Before you instruct, ask which survey level the surveyor recommends and why, what they will not open or test, whether a valuation is included, and when the written report will arrive. After the report, ask them to explain any rating 3, any NI, and anything they said needs further investigation. Their answers should stay tied to what they actually saw.
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What should you ask before the surveyor is instructed?
RICS tells clients to understand the difference in levels and to discuss concerns before the service is undertaken. A Level 1 will not grow into repair advice on the day because you asked a good question at the door. The level is the instruction. Change it before they leave the office, not after they have inspected.
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What is worth asking on the day of the inspection?
If you are allowed to attend at the end, ask one practical question: what, if anything, should delay exchange until it is understood. Then stop. A doorstep tour is how ratings get softened in memory. Write down what they say and compare it with the report. If the two disagree, the report is the one that was prepared under the standard, and the disagreement is itself a question to put back in writing.
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What should you ask once the report has arrived?
Read the document first. Then ask about specific lines, not “is the house okay?”. For each rating 3, ask what they saw, why it is serious or urgent, and whether they want a specialist or a quote before you exchange. RICS’s Level 3 description says written quotations for rating 3 repairs should be obtained before legal commitment. That is a useful rule of thumb for a rating 3 in a Level 2 as well: price the item, or investigate it, before you are bound.
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What should you not expect the surveyor to decide?
Do not ask them to tell you the price reduction. They can describe defects, urgency and, at Level 2 and 3, repair approaches. Your solicitor sends any figure to the seller, usually with quotes attached. Do not ask them to guarantee the house for the next ten years. The inspection is the condition on that day, within the limits of the level. Do not ask them to confirm a legal title, a listed-building consent, or that the extension has building regulations approval. They may tell you to ask your solicitor. That sentence is a referral, and your solicitor should actually make the enquiry.
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What is the single most useful question before you book?
Which level do you recommend here, and why would the level below it be wrong? A surveyor who can answer that has looked at the age and the alterations, not just the postcode. If they will only sell you a Level 2 because it is what they always do, and the house is a heavily altered Victorian, get a second opinion on the instruction before you pay.
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Should you ask who will actually turn up?
Yes. The person who inspects should be competent for that level, and you should know whether a different person will sign. RICS members carry the duty. A firm name on the email is not, by itself, the surveyor. Ask for the member’s name and the level they are providing.
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Should you ask if they also act for the agent?
Yes. You want to know if the same firm is valuing for the lender, selling the house, or retained by the agent. Dual roles are sometimes legitimate and should still be disclosed. Your instruction should say who the client is. If you are not the client, you may not be able to rely on the report in the way you think.
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Will they lift the manhole covers?
Ask. RICS says Level 1 and Level 2 do not, as standard, remove inspection chamber covers, and Level 2 does include a more extensive drainage-chamber inspection than Level 1 where that is part of the service. The practical answer depends on access, weight and safety. If drains are a known worry, agree a drainage inspection as an extra rather than hoping the standard visit includes a CCTV survey. It does not.
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Can the surveyor say the wiring is safe?
They can describe the consumer unit, the visible cabling and any signs of amateur work, and they can recommend an Electrical Installation Condition Report. They do not complete an EICR as part of a Home Survey, and they are not certifying the installation. If the report gives the electrics a poor rating, the next question is “what did you see?”, then you commission an electrician qualified to inspect.
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How do you ask about a condition rating 3 without panicking?
Quote their sentence back to them. Ask what would need to be true for this to stay a rating 3 after a specialist looks, and what quote they expect you to obtain before exchange. A rating 3 is RICS’s mark for serious or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. It is not a code for “pull out”. It is a code for “do not exchange on a shrug”.
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What do you ask when a section is marked NI?
Ask why it was not inspected, whether they have any concern, and what further investigation they recommend. RICS says NI means that element was not inspected, and that concerns should be spelled out. Do not fill the blank in yourself with “probably fine”.
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Who follows up the legal points in the report?
Your solicitor or conveyancer. Surveyors often flag missing consents, rights of way, guarantees and tenancy issues under a documents section, sometimes marked R for papers to request before you sign. The surveyor is not the person who raises enquiries on the title. Pass them the page.
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Can you ask another surveyor to review the report?
You can ask another firm to inspect, which is a new survey, or to comment on the document, which is a desk review of someone else’s observations. A desk review cannot see the crack. It can tell you whether the written advice matches the level you bought. If the first report says further investigation, a second general survey is often the wrong spend. Instruct the specialist they named.
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Should you send a long list of questions?
Send a short list tied to their paragraphs: the rating 3s, the NIs that matter, and the further-investigation lines. A twenty-point wishlist about redecorating wastes the follow-up they owe you on the things that affect safety or the decision to buy. Keep their wording in the email so the answer stays anchored to the report.
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What is the difference between a RICS Level 2 and Level 3 survey?
RICS Level 2 advises on repairs and maintenance for a conventional home in reasonable condition. Level 3 is the more detailed visual survey for an older, altered or unusual building, or if you plan major work. Level 3 is not automatically a valuation. Neither level opens the structure as standard, and neither guarantees what is hidden.
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Which buildings is each level for?
RICS describes Level 2 as suitable for a conventional house, flat or bungalow built from common materials and in reasonable condition, without a stack of alterations. Level 3 is the one they point at a large, older or run-down property, a building of unusual or non-standard construction, or a home you intend to alter heavily. If the estate agent calls everything a “full survey”, ask which of those two sentences the instruction matches.
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What will the report actually tell you?
Both levels describe condition and flag serious problems and anything that needs investigating. Level 2 adds advice on repairs and maintenance, and a more extensive inspection of roof spaces and drainage chambers than Level 1. Level 3 goes further into how that particular building was put together, the options for repair, a sense of timing, and what happens if you leave it. It is still a visual survey on the day. It is not a guarantee.
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How do you choose without being sold the longer one?
Match the level to the building, not to your anxiety and not to a package name. A simple modern flat in ordinary condition is the sort of home RICS describes Level 2 for. A Victorian house with a basement, a loft conversion and a flat-roofed rear addition is the sort of home they describe Level 3 for. If you are unsure, ask the firm to say in writing why they recommend one. Level 3 is not a status symbol, and Level 2 is not a cut corner when it is the right scope.
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Is Level 3 always the better survey?
No. It is the more detailed visual survey, for buildings that need that detail. On a conventional home in reasonable condition, RICS describes Level 2 as the matching product. Paying for Level 3 does not create a guarantee, and it does not include a valuation unless that was agreed separately.
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Is an old house automatically a Level 3?
Age is one reason RICS gives for choosing Level 3, along with size, condition, unusual construction and alterations. An old house that is simple and in sound condition may still be discussed as a Level 2. Ask the surveyor to justify the level against this building, not against the year on the listing.
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Does Level 3 include a valuation?
Not automatically. A market valuation and a reinstatement figure are part of a Level 2 when you buy the survey-and-valuation version. If you need a number for the lender, that is a different instruction. Do not read a condition report as a price.
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If Level 2 misses something, should it have been a Level 3?
Only if the thing was within the deeper visual scope and should have been seen or commented on. Something concealed behind plaster can be outside both scopes. The complaint is about the agreed level and the standard, which is a matter for the firm’s process, not a reason to assume the longer report would have x-rayed the wall.
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Which level suits a flat?
A conventional flat in reasonable condition is within the homes RICS describes for Level 2. A flat in a converted house, with shared structure you cannot see and alterations, is a reason to discuss Level 3. The lease still decides what you are allowed to repair. The survey does not read the lease for you.
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Can you upgrade from Level 2 to Level 3 after the visit?
Only if the firm agrees to a further inspection. The Level 2 report is the product of the Level 2 scope. Asking them to “make it a Level 3” in the office does not add the time they did not spend. If the building turns out more complicated than the listing, say so before they leave site if you can.
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Does this choice exist in Scotland?
The seller’s Home Report, including a Single Survey, is the Scottish system. You can still commission extra advice, but you are not picking Level 2 versus Level 3 in the same way as a buyer in England or Wales.
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The report just says “homebuyer”. Which level is it?
HomeBuyer is the old name for what RICS now calls Level 2. Building Survey is the old name for Level 3. Read the cover and the description of inspection. If it does not say, ask the firm which standard and which level they used before you compare it with these pages.
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What is the difference between a HomeBuyer Report and a Building Survey?
HomeBuyer Report and Building Survey are the old names. RICS now calls them Home Survey Level 2 and Level 3. Level 2 suits a conventional home and includes repair advice. Level 3 is the deeper visual survey for older, altered or unusual buildings. The name on the cover tells you which one you have.
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Why do people still say HomeBuyer and Building Survey?
Those names were used for years, and estate agents still use them. RICS changed the labels so the product was the level, not a brand name that differed by firm. If a quote says “HomeBuyer”, ask whether they mean an RICS Home Survey Level 2, survey only, or Level 2 with a valuation. If it says “full building survey”, ask whether they mean Level 3. The words “full” and “structural” are not levels.
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Is a Building Survey the same job as Level 3?
Under the current standard, yes: Level 3 is the successor to the Building Survey, and Level 2 is the successor to the HomeBuyer Report. The standard sets a minimum scope so two regulated firms are offering comparable inspections. A firm can still explain more than the minimum. It should not quietly offer less and keep the old, grander name.
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What if the HomeBuyer is not an RICS report?
Some firms use “homebuyer” as an ordinary English word for any pre-purchase inspection. That report is not an RICS Home Survey unless it says it was done to the Home Survey Standard by a regulated firm. Ratings that look similar are not the same document. Ask which standard, which level, and who regulates the firm. The comparison on this page is about the RICS products.
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What should you book if the agent says you need a building survey?
Ask for an RICS Home Survey Level 3 if the building is older, altered, unusual, or you plan major work, and you want that advice from an RICS-regulated firm. Ask for Level 2 if the home is conventional and in reasonable condition. Ignore the agent’s nickname until the quote names the level. If you also want a market value, that is an extra instruction, usually the valuation version of Level 2, not a free extra inside an old-style building survey.
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Is a structural survey the same as a Building Survey?
People use “structural survey” to mean a Building Survey, which is now Level 3. A structural engineer’s report is a different instruction, usually about a specific crack or alteration. Do not assume the words on a quote mean Level 3 until the firm confirms the RICS level.
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What is a full survey?
It is not a defined RICS product. Ask which level. “Full” often means “not a mortgage valuation”, which still leaves Level 1, 2 and 3 on the table. Those three are not the same inspection.
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Where did the Condition Report go?
It is the old name for Level 1. That is a visual overview. It highlights urgent defects and generally does not tell you how to manage them. If someone offers you a Condition Report, confirm they mean Level 1 under the current standard.
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Can one report use both the old and the new name?
Yes. A careful firm may say “Level 2 (formerly HomeBuyer Report)” so you can match it to older advice. The level and the description of inspection are what you rely on, not the nostalgia.
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Is a HomeBuyer cheaper than a Building Survey?
Level 2 is usually a shorter inspection than Level 3, so firms often charge less, but RICS does not publish a pair of prices. Compare written quotes for named levels. Do not choose the old name because it sounds mid-range.
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Do both use condition ratings?
Current RICS Home Survey reports use condition ratings, including the idea that a serious or urgent defect is called out clearly. An older Building Survey may have been written in prose without the same numbered ratings. Read the definitions printed in the report you have, not a definition from a different era.
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The agent says a HomeBuyer is enough. Is it?
The agent is not instructing the survey and does not owe you the surveyor’s duty. Match the level to the building using RICS’s own descriptions. If the home is conventional and in reasonable condition, Level 2 is the product RICS describes. If it is not, say so.
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Do Scottish sellers provide a HomeBuyer Report?
They provide a Home Report, which includes a Single Survey. That is not a HomeBuyer Report and not a Level 2 you chose. Read the Scottish document for what it covers, and take separate advice if you need more.
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What is the difference between a mortgage valuation and a home survey?
A mortgage valuation is for the lender, to decide whether the property is security for the loan. It is not a condition survey bought for you. An RICS Home Survey describes condition for the buyer. You can have a valuation and still know little about the roof, the wiring or the drains. Read which document you were given.
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Why are there two different documents?
The lender wants to know that the property is adequate security for the money. Their valuation answers that question, often from a limited look and from comparables. You want to know what you are taking on: the roof, the damp, the services, the alterations. An RICS Home Survey answers that, at the level you choose. Paying a valuation fee in a mortgage illustration does not buy the second document.
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What might the lender’s valuation still mention?
A valuer who sees an obvious, serious defect may report it to the lender, because it affects the security. You might then hear about a retention, a down-valuation, or a request for a specialist report. That is a fragment, not a survey. It will not walk the house element by element, and it will not give you the maintenance advice a Level 2 or Level 3 exists to give.
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Do you need a survey if the valuation came back fine?
Yes, if you want to know the condition before you are committed. “Fine” means the lender is willing to lend on the terms they offered. It does not mean the gutters are sound or the electrics were tested. Many buyers only discover the difference when the Level 2 arrives after they have already stopped worrying. Instruct the survey while you can still use it.
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How do you tell which document you have?
Look at who it is addressed to and what it says it is. A mortgage valuation is addressed to the lender’s purpose. An RICS Home Survey names Level 1, 2 or 3 and explains the condition ratings. If the only thing in your inbox is a one-page figure from the broker, you have not had a survey. Ask, before exchange, while the answer can still change what you do.
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The lender’s fee was on my illustration. Have I paid for a survey?
You have paid for whatever that illustration describes, which is usually the lender’s valuation. Read the wording. If it does not say RICS Home Survey Level 2 or Level 3, you have not bought one. The two fees can both be due.
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The valuation was free. Does that change what it is?
No. A fee of zero does not turn a lender’s valuation into a condition survey. It still answers the lender’s question. You still need your own Level 1, 2 or 3 if you want condition advice.
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The lender wants a retention. Does that mean the house is falling down?
It means they are not prepared to advance the full loan until something is resolved. It might be a specific, limited repair, or it might be that they want a specialist report. Ask for the wording. Then read your own survey, if you have one, before you treat the retention figure as the cost of the job.
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Can a home survey change the lender’s value?
The survey is not addressed to the lender unless you and they have agreed that. A condition report you commission does not, by itself, reset their valuation. If you want them to see it, that is a conversation with the broker, and it is still not advice from this page about whether they should.
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If I buy a Level 2 with a valuation, can the lender use it?
Only if they agree to. Many lenders insist on their own valuation from their own panel. A Level 2 valuation is useful to you. Do not assume it replaces their instruction. Ask the lender before you pay for a valuation you do not need.
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If you are buying without a mortgage, do you still need a survey?
You do not have a lender forcing a valuation, which means nobody else is even glancing at the building. A cash purchase is a reason to choose a level carefully, not a reason to skip it. The building does not know how you are paying.
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Does a new-build warranty replace both?
A warranty is a contract with conditions and exclusions. It is not a Level 2 and it is not the lender’s valuation. Snagging and warranty inspections have their own scope. Read what was inspected. Do not treat a warranty as a survey you forgot to book.
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When should the survey happen relative to the valuation?
Early enough that you can renegotiate or withdraw before you are committed. Waiting until after the lender is “happy” feels efficient and leaves you reading a Level 3 in a hurry. The valuation and the survey answer different questions and can be in progress together.
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What is the difference between an RICS survey and a non-RICS survey?
An RICS Home Survey is produced to the RICS Home Survey Standard by a firm regulated by RICS. Other surveyors, including members of the Residential Property Surveyors Association, inspect homes under their own standards. That is a different report. Ask which standard it follows and who you complain to. Neither is a guarantee that a hidden defect will be found.
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What does “RICS survey” actually mean?
It means the firm is regulated by RICS and the report is an RICS Home Survey at Level 1, 2 or 3, done to the Home Survey Standard. The levels are defined, the condition ratings are defined, and there is a published scope so you can see what was not inspected. “Chartered surveyor” in ordinary speech is not a substitute for reading the cover. Ask the firm to confirm they are regulated by RICS and which level this instruction is.
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What is a survey that is not an RICS Home Survey?
The Residential Property Surveyors Association describes itself as a not-for-profit body for independent residential surveyors, with a code of conduct and reporting standards of its own. A member may be experienced and may produce a careful report. That report is not an RICS Level 2 or Level 3 unless it also meets the RICS standard and the firm is regulated by RICS. Some people may belong to more than one body. The document in your hand is what matters, not the stack of logos on the van.
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What should you ask before you instruct a non-RICS surveyor?
If the answers are specific, you can compare the scope with a Level 2 or Level 3. If the answers are “we’re more thorough than RICS”, that is a slogan. Thorough compared with which level, and on what written scope, is the question.
Choosing a survey
How do you read a non-RICS report against these guides?
Use the guides for the building defect, not for a rating number the report may not share. A paragraph about a flat roof is still a paragraph about a flat roof. A “traffic light” that is not the RICS definition is not a condition rating 3, even if it is red. Quote the words they used when you talk to a contractor. Do not translate them into RICS ratings they did not apply.
Choosing a survey
Do you have to use an RICS surveyor?
No law cited here says a buyer in England or Wales must. If you want an RICS Home Survey, instruct a firm regulated by RICS and name the level. If you instruct someone else, know which standard you are getting. Lenders may have their own rules for valuations. That is separate from the survey you buy for yourself.
Choosing a survey
Is an RPSA survey an RICS Level 2?
Not by virtue of the association. RPSA is a different body with its own standards. The report is an RICS Level 2 only if it is an RICS Home Survey Level 2. Read the cover. Do not treat a similar layout as the same duty.
Choosing a survey
Are non-RICS surveys cheaper?
This page does not say. Fees are set by firms. A lower fee for a shorter scope is a different product, not a discount on Level 3. Compare the written scope, not the adjective in the advert.
Choosing a survey
Who do you complain to?
For an RICS-regulated firm, RICS sets out a complaints process and the firm must have one. For another association, use that association’s scheme if the surveyor is a member and the scheme covers the job. If nobody regulates them, you have the contract and the courts, which is a worse place to start. Ask before you instruct.
Choosing a survey
Will a lender accept a non-RICS home survey?
Ask the lender. This page does not speak for them. Many lenders want their own valuation from their own panel regardless of who surveyed the house for you. Your survey and their valuation remain different documents.
Choosing a survey
What if the surveyor has more than one membership?
Then ask which hat they are wearing for this instruction. A person can be regulated by RICS and also belong to another body. The report should say it is an RICS Home Survey if that is the product. Logos in a footer are not a level.
Choosing a survey
Can a trainee sign the report?
Ask who inspected, who signed, and who is responsible. An RICS-regulated firm has rules about supervision. Another firm should tell you the same facts in writing. A report signed by someone you cannot identify is a reason to pause.
Choosing a survey
Does RICS mean the survey will be good?
It means there is a standard, a level and a regulator. Individual reports still vary. It does not mean a non-RICS surveyor is careless. Read the scope and the reasoning in the paragraphs. A regulated report that hedges everything without looking is still a poor report. The remedy is the complaints process, not a slogan.
Money
What does a home survey cost at each RICS level?
RICS describes a Level 1 survey as starting at a few hundred pounds, and some bespoke Level 3 surveys as costing over £1,000. Firms set their own fees. There is no official price by postcode. A lender’s valuation is a different job. Those words are RICS’s, reviewed 24 October 2026, not a quote for your house.
Money
What fee figures does RICS actually publish?
The RICS consumer guide describes Level 1 as the lowest-priced of the three and says it starts at a few hundred pounds. It describes some bespoke Level 3 instructions as costing over £1,000. It does not publish a menu of prices for a two-bed flat in Leeds or a Victorian terrace in Bristol. Anyone who does, without saying which firm quoted it and when, is not quoting RICS.
Money
Why does the level change the fee?
Level 1 is a shorter visual overview and generally does not tell you how to manage defects. Level 2 spends longer, including a more extensive look at the roof space and drainage chambers, and it advises on repairs and maintenance. Level 3 is the longest visual inspection, aimed at older, altered or unusual buildings, and it discusses repair options, timing and what happens if you do nothing. More time on site and a longer report are why firms charge more. They still set the number themselves.
Money
What should you ask before you accept a fee?
A cheap Level 1 on a heavily altered house is not a bargain if you then pay for a Level 3 anyway. A Level 3 on a straightforward modern flat may be more survey than the building needs. The RICS member should help you choose. The fee follows that choice.
Money
What does the survey fee not include?
It does not include the repairs. It does not include a drains CCTV survey, an electrical installation condition report, a gas safety inspection, or a structural engineer’s monitoring of cracks, unless the letter specifically says so. Those are further investigations the report may recommend. Price them separately, from the specialist, after you have read why they were asked for.
Money
Is there an average Level 2 fee I can budget?
Not from RICS, and not from this page. The consumer guide gives a starting description for Level 1 and an upper illustration for some Level 3 work. It does not publish an average Level 2 fee. Ask two regulated firms for a written figure for this address and this level.
Money
Do surveys cost more in London?
Firms may charge more where their time and travel cost more. RICS does not publish a London multiplier, and this page will not invent one. Compare written quotes for the same level on the same house.
Money
Does adding a valuation change the price?
It can, because a Level 2 with a market valuation and a reinstatement figure is a different product from a survey-only Level 2. The firm should say which one the fee covers. A valuation is still not a repair schedule.
Money
Can you rely on a survey the seller already paid for?
Only if you are comfortable that it was done at the right level, recently, and that you have a right to rely on it. Many reports are addressed to the person who instructed them. Your solicitor can look at the terms. A fresh instruction is the clean way to have the duty owed to you.
Money
Should you take the cheapest quote?
Not on price alone. Check the level, whether the firm is regulated by RICS, and what the fee leaves out. A lower number for a shorter inspection is not the same product. This page does not rank firms.
Money
Do you get the fee back if the survey is alarming?
No. You are paying for the inspection and the report, including the uncomfortable parts. An alarming Level 3 that stops you buying a bad roof has done the job you paid for. The contract with the firm sets out cancellation, not a refund for bad news.
Money
Are the RICS figures inclusive of VAT?
The consumer guide describes the figures as the cost of the service in ordinary language. It does not, on that page, set out a VAT rule for every firm. Ask whether the quote you receive is inclusive.
Money
Is a Scottish Home Report the same price?
No. In Scotland the seller provides a Home Report, including a Single Survey. That is a different system from you choosing and paying for a Level 1, 2 or 3 in England and Wales. Do not compare the fee as if the products were the same.
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.
Money
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.
Money
Which figures are actually sourced?
Figures taken from the named page, reviewed 24 October 2026. Blank means we will not invent one. 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
Money
How should you turn a survey into a budget?
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.
Money
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.
Money
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.
Money
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.
Money
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.
Money
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.
Money
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.
Money
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.
Money
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.
Money
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.
Reading the report
What do condition ratings 1, 2, 3 and NI mean?
Condition ratings on a RICS Home Survey are a traffic-light summary, not a price and not a guarantee. Rating 1 means no repair is currently needed. Rating 2 means repair or replacement that is not serious or urgent. Rating 3 means serious defects, or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. NI means that part was not inspected.
Reading the report
What are the official meanings of 1, 2, 3 and NI?
RICS home survey reports give condition ratings to the main elements of the building, the garage, and some outside parts. The definitions below are the ones printed in RICS’s description of the Level 3 report. The same traffic-light scale is used on the other levels. The words are the standard. The paragraphs under the number are the surveyor applying it to this house.
Reading the report
Does the same number mean the same cost?
No. Two rating 2s can be a sticking window and a chimney that needs repointing within a year or two. Both need work that RICS does not class as serious or urgent. The bills are not alike, and only the paragraph tells you which is which. Two rating 3s can be a dangerous consumer unit and a leaking flat roof. Both are “do something before this gets worse or before someone is hurt”. Neither number is a quote.
Reading the report
Why is NI not a clean bill of health?
NI means the surveyor did not inspect that element. Typical reasons are no safe access, a locked room, furniture, floor coverings, a loft with no hatch, or a limit written into the level you bought. The element was not given a rating 1. It was not seen. RICS is explicit that the report should flag further investigation where the surveyor is concerned about a part they could not check.
Reading the report
What should you do with each rating before exchange?
Rating 1: plan ordinary maintenance. Do not spend the weekend pricing a defect the surveyor says is not there. Rating 2: decide whether you want the work done soon, later, or reflected in the price. It is not, in RICS’s words, serious or urgent. A long list of them can still be a large maintenance bill. Add them up from quotes, not from the colours. Rating 3: get the written quote or the specialist investigation before you are legally committed. That is RICS’s own instruction on the rating, not a sales line. NI: read why, and investigate only where the hidden part could hurt you or the building if the surveyor’s worry is right. R: send the list to your solicitor. Do not chase the surveyor for planning papers they have already told you to request.
Reading the report
Does a condition rating 3 mean you should pull out?
No. RICS defines it as serious and/or in need of urgent repair, replacement or investigation, and tells you to get written quotations before legal commitment. Some rating 3 items are a day’s work for an electrician. Some are a reason to stop. The paragraph, and the quote or specialist report that follows, is how you tell them apart.
Reading the report
Can a stack of rating 2s be worse than one rating 3?
For your budget, yes. RICS does not add the numbers up into a score. Five separate rating 2 repairs can cost more than one contained rating 3. Urgency and seriousness are what the rating is for. The total bill is what quotes are for. Read both.
Reading the report
Why do services often get a poor rating or NI?
Because a Home Survey does not test the electrics, gas or heating the way a specialist does, and the standard visual inspection does not remove electrical fittings. Surveyors often rate services conservatively or mark limits when they can only see the outside of the system. The useful line is whether they saw something dangerous, or whether they are simply saying “I am not the person who certifies this”.
Reading the report
Are the ratings defined differently on a Level 2?
The traffic-light definitions are the RICS scale across the home survey reports. What changes with the level is how much advice sits under the number. A Level 1 can give you a rating 3 with little help on what to do. A Level 3 should explain consequences and repair options. The number is not “worse” because the report is longer.
Reading the report
Does rating 1 mean the element is new?
No. It means no repair is currently needed, and that normal maintenance applies. An original sash window in working order can be a 1. A new window fitted badly can be a 2 or a 3. Age is not the rating.
Reading the report
Who chooses the rating?
The surveyor, using the RICS definitions and what they could see that day. It is a professional judgement, not a measurement you can repeat with a ruler. If you disagree, ask what they saw. Another surveyor may judge a borderline item differently. They should not be redefining what the numbers mean.
Reading the report
What if the rating and the photos disagree?
Rely on the words and ask for clarification. Photographs in a report illustrate. They do not replace the rating. A dramatic photo of a hairline crack is still a hairline crack if that is what the text says. A bland photo of a stained ceiling does not downgrade a rating 3 the text has explained.
Reading the report
Does a rating 3 stop a mortgage?
Not as a rule of the rating system. Lenders set their own conditions, often from their valuer’s report rather than from your Home Survey. Some will ask for work, a retention, or a specialist report if a valuation mentions structural movement, damp or another matter they care about. Your survey’s rating 3 is your information. The lender’s condition is theirs. Do not assume they are the same document.
Reading the report
What if the seller repairs the item after the inspection?
The rating described the day of inspection. A later repair does not edit the PDF. Ask for invoices and, where it matters, for the surveyor or a specialist to see the finished work. A painted-over stain is not evidence the leak has gone.
Reading the report
What is the difference between NI and an element that does not exist?
NI is for something the inspection would normally cover but could not. A flat with no chimney is not an NI chimney. The report should simply not treat a missing element as a defect. If a whole section is NI because there was no access, that is the case to read carefully. If a field is blank because the house has no garage, that is not a hidden garage.
After the survey
Should you renegotiate, or walk away?
A serious rating is a reason to get written prices, not an automatic instruction to walk away or demand a fixed discount. RICS tells buyers to obtain quotations for rating 3 repairs before they are legally committed. Your solicitor, not the surveyor, changes the price. Walk away when the unknown risk is larger than you can carry.
After the survey
What can a survey change, and what can it not?
A RICS Home Survey describes condition. It does not rewrite the price, and it does not end the contract. In England and Wales you can usually walk away before exchange, but the words of your reservation, lock-out or conditional contract might say otherwise. Ask your solicitor before you assume withdrawal is free. After exchange, walking away is a legal problem, not a survey problem. That is why RICS talks about quotations before legal commitment.
After the survey
When is it reasonable to renegotiate?
It is reasonable when you can point to a defect the surveyor calls serious or urgent, or a repair they say is needed, and you have a written price for it. The usual request is a reduction, or for the seller to do the work to an agreed standard before completion. A reduction is often cleaner, because you control the repair. Work done by the seller in a hurry, the week of completion, is how leaks get painted over.
After the survey
When is walking away the clearer decision?
Walk away, or at least do not exchange, when the thing that matters is still unknown and the seller will not give time or access to find out. A rating 3 that says “possible structural movement, cause not established, instruct an engineer” is not ready for a price chip. It is ready for an engineer. If the seller refuses that investigation, you are being asked to buy the uncertainty. Some buyers can carry that. Most should not pretend a small discount has paid for it.
After the survey
How do you put the request so it can be answered?
Give your solicitor three things: the surveyor’s paragraph, not a retelling; the quote or specialist letter; and the outcome you want, which is a price, a retention, or agreed works. Leave the tone to the solicitor. A long letter about how disappointed you are is not evidence. If you use a decoder to turn the report into plain English, keep the original sentence attached. Negotiating from a summary you cannot trace is how numbers get detached from the defect.
After the survey
Is there a standard percentage to ask off after a survey?
No. RICS does not publish one, and neither does the law of England and Wales. A sound request is based on a written quotation for a defined defect, or on a specialist’s findings. A round percentage with no quote is a haggle, and the seller can ignore it. We will not invent a typical discount.
After the survey
What if the seller says it is just wear and tear?
Ask whether the surveyor’s rating agrees. A rating 2 that RICS defines as not serious or urgent often is the sort of wear a seller means. A rating 3, with a quote, is not “just old”. Point at the definition and the price. If they still refuse, you decide whether you can pay for the work yourself.
After the survey
Should the seller do the works, or reduce the price?
A price reduction leaves you in control of who repairs the house and to what standard. Seller’s works can be right for something that must be safe before completion, if the specification and the invoices are clear. Either way, your solicitor writes it down. A verbal promise to “sort the roof” is not a repair.
After the survey
What is a retention?
A retention is money held back at completion until agreed work is done. It is a legal mechanism your solicitor and the lender have to be willing to use. It is not something a surveyor arranges. It only helps if the work, the sum and the deadline are defined. A vague retention against “damp” tends to sit in an account and argue with you.
After the survey
Can you renegotiate after exchange?
Do not plan to. Exchange is the legal commitment. RICS’s rating 3 wording is aimed at the period before that commitment. After exchange, a new defect is a question for your solicitor and the contract, not a fresh survey negotiation. This is not legal advice. Ask the person who is acting on the contract.
After the survey
What if the lender asks for a retention but you were happy to proceed?
The lender’s valuation is separate from your Home Survey. They can require works, a retention, or a specialist report as a condition of the loan even when you would buy anyway. You can sometimes bridge their retention with cash. Your broker or solicitor explains the offer. The surveyor does not overrule the lender.
After the survey
Should you add up every rating 2 and send the total?
You can price them for your own budget. Sending the seller a shopping list of tired ironmongery rarely works, and it can bury the one rating 3 you actually need them to answer. Lead with the serious or unpriced items. Keep the maintenance list as your cost of owning the house.
After the survey
Is any price reduction after a survey gazundering?
Gazundering is a last-minute cut that is not justified by a change in the property. A reduction tied to a defect the survey found, with a quote, is a renegotiation. A cut you were always going to attempt, with the survey as decoration, is the thing sellers mean by the word. The difference is the evidence in the letter.
After the survey
What if you love the house and the report is grim?
Liking the house does not change a rating. It changes what risk you are willing to fund. Price the rating 3s, do the investigations, and then decide with the numbers in front of you. Walking away from a house you love is allowed. So is buying it with a larger repair fund than you planned. Buying it and hoping the surveyor was being dramatic is the option the ratings were invented to prevent.
Reading the report
What is still undone when a report asks for another inspection?
Further investigation means the surveyor has not finished that question. It is advice to instruct someone else, not a booking already made and not a condition rating. NI means not inspected. A limitation explains what was not opened. None of those words is a repair price.
Reading the report
Why does asking for a specialist not put that person in the diary?
The sentence is aimed at you. It says the visual inspection could not answer the point, and that someone with a different brief should look. RICS describes the home survey as the inspection you instructed. A drain camera, an electrical report or a structural engineer is a new instruction, with its own scope and its own fee. Nobody has been appointed because the paragraph exists.
Reading the report
How is a limitation different from NI and from a condition rating?
A limitation says what was in the way. Stored boxes, a locked room, snow on a roof, or a floor covering left down are reasons a surveyor writes a limit. The limit describes the visit. It does not describe the hidden part as sound. NI is the mark RICS uses when that element was not inspected. A condition rating applies to what was inspected.
Reading the report
Who should instruct the next inspection, and what does it not replace?
You instruct it, or you agree that the seller will, with the report addressed so you can rely on it. A seller's contractor, already on site for the seller, is not automatically your adviser. Ask who instructed them, what they opened, and whether the writing is yours to use. Your solicitor chases papers. The surveyor does not renegotiate the price.
Reading the report
The survey recommends a drain camera. Has that camera already been ordered?
No. The recommendation is the advice. A camera survey is a further instruction. Until someone has booked it, and you know whose report it will be, it has not happened. A look down an open manhole on the day of the home survey is not that camera.
Reading the report
A limitation says furniture was not moved. Does that clear the floor beneath the sofa?
No. The limitation is the reason that floor was not seen. Unseen is not sound. If you need that area included, ask for access and a further look. Do not tell a lender the floors were cleared.
Reading the report
The roof is marked NI because of the surveyor's ladder limit. Is the covering a pass?
No. NI means not inspected. A ladder limit explains why. It does not award rating 1, and it does not say the covering will do. What you have is a statement that the roof was outside the visit.
Reading the report
Is opening-up included in the fee already paid for this inspection?
Only if the firm agrees a new scope. The fee you paid was for the inspection they have written. Opening a floor, testing a drain or sampling a material is different work. Ask what they will and will not do, and whether it is a new appointment.
Reading the report
A builder the seller already uses offers to sort the point in the report. Whose instruction is that?
The seller's, unless you change it. A contractor instructed by the seller answers the seller. Ask for the written brief, what was opened, and whether you may rely on the paper. A verbal offer on a viewing is not your report.
Reading the report
Is an unfinished question on one element a verdict that the whole house is unsound?
No. It means one question is unfinished. Other elements may be rating 1 or 2. RICS ratings describe what was inspected. An unfinished question is not a verdict on the whole house, and it is not a reason to invent a price cut.
Reading the report
You are buying in Scotland and the Home Report says a repair is urgent. Why is that label not an instruction you copy from an English report?
Scotland's Home Report is a different product, with its own categories. Urgent on that pack is not rating 3, and it is not the English sentence that asks you to instruct a specialist. Read the category definitions in the Home Report. Do not translate them across the border.
Reading the report
Rating 2 and a further-investigation sentence sit on the same element. Which one do you follow?
Both, for different jobs. Rating 2 means RICS regards the defects as needing repair or replacement but not as serious or urgent. The sentence says something about that element was still unsettled. Get the investigation before you treat the rating as the last word on the hidden part.
Damp
What does damp mean in a home survey?
Damp in a home survey means moisture where it should not be. It is not, by itself, a diagnosis you can price. Condensation, rain getting through the fabric, and moisture from the ground behave differently and are repaired differently. A visual survey can record staining, mould and meter readings. It usually cannot prove the cause without further investigation.
Damp
What kind of damp is the surveyor actually describing?
Surveyors use “damp” for several mechanisms that only look similar on a photograph. Condensation is moisture from indoor air landing on cold surfaces. It is often a ventilation, heating and insulation problem, and it is the usual explanation for mould in bedrooms and behind wardrobes. Penetrating damp is rain getting in from above or the side: failed gutters, flashings, valleys, cracked render, eroded pointing, or a window detail. Rising damp is moisture from the ground moving up a wall where the damp-proof course is missing, bridged or defeated. The three are repaired differently. A quote that says “damp proofing” without saying which one is not a quote for the defect in the report.
Damp
Why do damp-proofing quotes so often miss the point?
A chemical injection and new plaster is a specific treatment for a specific diagnosis. It does not mend a gutter, clear a blocked cavity tray, or stop a family drying clothes on a radiator in an unventilated room. If the survey points at the roof or the rainwater goods, get those repaired and see whether the wall dries before you pay anyone to inject it. If the pattern is mould on cold surfaces with no stain from outside, start with how the house is heated and ventilated.
Damp
How should a damp rating affect the purchase?
Read the rating with the cause. A rating 2 on localised staining under a kitchen sink is maintenance. A rating 3 on an active leak into the structure is RICS’s prompt to get a written price before you are committed. Mould is not only cosmetic. GOV.UK’s damp and mould guidance, written for people who rent homes out, treats damp and mould as a risk to health. It is not the rulebook for a RICS Home Survey, and it does not set a buyer’s discount. It is a reason not to shrug at black mould in a room a child will sleep in.
Damp
What should you ask when the report says damp?
Where exactly, and what did you see: mould, salts, staining, soft timber, or only a meter reading? Which mechanism do you think is most likely, and what would prove you wrong? Is rainwater goods, a roof detail, or plumbing the first place to look? Did you see a damp-proof course, and was it bridged by a path, a flower bed or render? What further investigation do you want, and do you want it before exchange?
Damp
Does a high moisture-meter reading prove rising damp?
No. Meters used on a survey are a screening tool. Salts, foil-backed paper and cold condensation can all confuse a reading. Rising damp is a possible cause, not the default. The pattern of the staining, the height, the outside ground levels and the roof above matter more than a single number in the margin.
Damp
How do you tell condensation from a leak?
Condensation typically sits on the coldest surfaces, often with mould and without a brown leak stain from above. A leak tends to track from a defect you can find: a valley, a flashing, a shower, a pipe. Surveyors do not always get to watch the weather that caused it. If the report is unsure, that uncertainty is the finding. Do not let a contractor resolve it by selling one treatment.
Damp
Should you budget for a new damp-proof course whenever damp is mentioned?
No. Budget for the cause the report describes. A failed gutter is a gutter. Bridged ground levels can be a path that is too high. A chemical damp-proof course is only a candidate where rising moisture is actually the diagnosis, and even then the specification has to suit the wall. Get an independent view before you accept a standard injection quote.
Damp
What about a damp basement?
Below-ground rooms are often damp because they are below ground. Some are tanked, some are meant to breathe, and some are simply wet stores that someone has called a bedroom. The survey should say how the space is built and whether the damp affects habitable use. A product that promises to “tank” it is a design job, not a tin of paint. Ask before you exchange if you need that room to be dry.
Damp
What if the seller has just repainted the stain?
Fresh paint over a stain is a reason to look harder, not to relax. Tell the surveyor if you saw the stain on an earlier viewing. They can only report what is visible on the day. Your solicitor can also raise the seller’s property-information answers. Concealment is a legal point. The survey is the condition they could see.
Damp
Does damp mean the joists are rotten?
Not automatically. Prolonged wetting can decay timber, and surveyors look for that where floors and skirtings are accessible. Fitted coverings often stop them. If they suspect decay they should say further investigation, not announce a replacement cost they have not seen. A rating on “dampness” without a timber comment is not a timber repair.
Damp
Can cavity-wall insulation be the cause?
It can be, where insulation is saturated, missing its cavity trays, or bridging a cavity that needed to stay clear. It is one hypothesis among others. A Home Survey will not remove bricks to check. If the report links internal damp to the insulation or to blocked weep holes, the next person is someone who understands that wall, not a generic damp-proofing crew.
Damp
Is mould in a flat the same issue?
Often it is condensation in a small, tightly sealed home, sometimes made worse by a cold bridge the leaseholder cannot alter without the freeholder. Sometimes it is a leak from the flat above or a failed roof the service charge should mend. The survey should say which parts are demised to you. Spend your money on the cause you are actually allowed to repair.
Damp
Should you rely on an old damp guarantee?
Only after your solicitor has checked it is still valid, transferable, and covers the defect you have. Many guarantees are insurance-backed for a named treatment and exclude condensation. A guarantee is an R-type document, not a condition rating 1. Ask for the paperwork. Do not treat a missing guarantee as proof the wall is wet, either.
Damp
Can you buy a house the survey calls damp?
Yes, if you know which mechanism it is and what the repair costs, or you have deliberately accepted an investigation you will do after completion with money set aside. Buying on the word “damp” alone is how people pay twice: once in the price, and again for the wrong treatment. The rating tells you the urgency. The paragraph tells you the job.
Structure and movement
What does subsidence mean when you are buying a house?
Subsidence is the ground under a building sinking and taking the foundations with it. The Association of British Insurers distinguishes it from heave, an upward movement, and landslip, ground moving down a slope. Cracks in a survey are not, alone, a subsidence diagnosis. If movement is suspected, the report should say what to investigate before you exchange.
Structure and movement
What is subsidence, and what is it not?
The Association of British Insurers defines subsidence as the ground beneath a building sinking, pulling the foundations down with it. It usually happens when the ground loses moisture and shrinks. ABI names prolonged dry spells, and trees and shrubs that take water out of the soil, especially on clay that shrinks and cracks. Heave is the opposite direction: the ground moving up. Landslip is ground moving down a slope. People say “subsidence” for all three. Insurers do not.
Structure and movement
What can a RICS survey say about cracks?
The surveyor looks at crack pattern, width, whether doors and windows are distorted, and whether the outside ground, trees or drains might be relevant. They do this with their eyes, not with months of monitoring. A Level 3 has more room to discuss how the building stands up. A Level 1 may only flag that something looks serious. Neither level digs trial pits as standard. If the cause is not established, the correct recommendation is further investigation by someone whose job is structure, typically a chartered structural engineer, before you exchange.
Structure and movement
What does a subsidence history mean for insurance and the mortgage?
ABI says buildings insurance normally covers damage from subsidence, heave and landslip to the main home and outbuildings, and that most policies have an excess around £1,000 for that kind of claim, which can be higher if the property has had subsidence before. Damage only to drives, patios or garden walls is generally excluded unless the house is damaged too. Those are ABI’s words about typical policies, reviewed on 24 October 2026. Your schedule may differ. Read it.
Structure and movement
What should you do if the report mentions movement?
Quote the surveyor’s sentence. Do not translate “distortion” into “subsidence” unless they did. Instruct the investigation they named. A second Home Survey repeats the same limit. Tell your solicitor, and ask the seller about previous claims, monitoring and tree works. Tell your insurer and your lender what the documents say before you are committed. Surprises after exchange are theirs to resent. Do not agree a token price cut for an unpriced structural cause. Wait for the engineer, or walk away.
Structure and movement
Do all old houses have subsidence?
No. Old houses have often moved a little while they were new, and many cracks are thermal, lintel, or plaster. Subsidence is a particular ground-and-foundation problem as ABI defines it. Age is a reason to choose a more detailed survey, not a diagnosis.
Structure and movement
Is there a crack width that always means subsidence?
No reliable single width. Surveyors describe width and pattern because both matter, and because a crack can be old and stable or new and widening. A hairline crack in plaster is common. A wide, diagonal, tapering crack through the brickwork, with distorted openings, is a different observation. The report should say which they saw. Do not buy a rule of thumb from a forum and overlay it on their paragraph.
Structure and movement
If there is a tree, is it subsidence?
ABI says trees and shrubs can contribute where they dry clay soils near foundations. A tree is a clue, not a verdict. Removing it can also lead to heave if the soil then swells. Do not instruct a feller as your first repair. If the surveyor is worried, an engineer and, where relevant, someone who understands trees should say what the tree is doing.
Structure and movement
Can broken drains cause the same cracks?
Yes. Leaking drains can wash fine material out of the ground so the foundation drops. That can look like “subsidence” in ordinary speech and still be a drainage repair rather than underpinning. A Home Survey does not CCTV the drains unless you agreed that extra. If the report mentions both cracks and drains, the drain survey is often the cheaper investigation to do first.
Structure and movement
What does crack monitoring mean for the purchase?
It means the movement’s behaviour is not yet known. Monitoring takes months, not an afternoon. That rarely fits a normal exchange timetable unless the seller already has the record. You can wait, you can walk away, or you can buy the uncertainty on purpose. A small discount does not turn an unfinished monitoring exercise into a known repair.
Structure and movement
Is a house that has already been underpinned a bad buy?
Not automatically. Completed underpinning, with paperwork, a guarantee your solicitor can check, and no fresh movement, is a known history. ABI notes that a previous episode can mean a higher insurance excess. Fresh cracking in an underpinned house is a new question for an engineer. Ask for the design, the completion certificate and the insurance record before you decide.
Structure and movement
Who pays if subsidence is found before completion?
Before exchange, nobody is yet the insurer of your purchase. The seller’s existing policy might respond to damage that has already occurred, which is a question for the seller and their insurer, not a benefit you can claim. After you own it, your own policy responds on its terms to new damage. Do not assume you can buy a house mid-claim and take over the payout. Your solicitor asks what claims are open.
Structure and movement
Is a Level 2 enough if you already suspect movement?
If you can already see significant cracking, RICS’s own description of Level 3 — older, altered, or in poorer condition, with advice on consequences — is the more serious instruction. A Level 2 can still flag the issue and tell you to get an engineer. The engineer, not a thicker survey, is what establishes the cause. Do not skip the specialist in order to buy a second general report.
Structure and movement
Are cracked bay windows always subsidence?
No. Bay windows and porches often crack because they were built shallow, or because the junction with the main wall has moved locally. That can be a repair without the whole house subsiding. It can also be part of a wider pattern. The survey should say whether the cracking is local. If it does not, ask.
Structure and movement
Should you walk away at the word subsidence?
Walk away from an uninvestigated structural risk you cannot afford, especially if access for an engineer is refused. Do not walk away from a word you have not checked against the paragraph. Many reports say “no evidence of recent movement” next to old cracks. Read that sentence before you relive someone else’s headline.
Japanese knotweed
What should you do if a survey mentions Japanese knotweed?
Japanese knotweed matters because it spreads, not because a garden clump is automatically a crime. In England you need not remove it unless it is a nuisance, but you must stop it leaving your land. Causing it to spread into the wild can be prosecuted. A survey note asks for identification, not a species certificate.
Japanese knotweed
Is it illegal to have Japanese knotweed?
In England, no, not merely by having it. GOV.UK’s guidance, updated 12 February 2026, says you do not legally have to remove Japanese knotweed from your land unless it is causing a nuisance, but you can be prosecuted for causing it to spread into the wild. You must stop plants on your land spreading off your property. The same guidance says not to treat it yourself unless you have the appropriate skills and experience, and it sets strict rules for burial, burning and taking waste away. Soil that contains it is controlled waste. You must not sell that soil as topsoil or mix it into ordinary spoil.
Japanese knotweed
What does a surveyor’s knotweed sentence actually mean?
RICS members who survey homes use the professional standard Japanese knotweed and residential property, 1st edition, effective 23 March 2022. It is there to help them make a preliminary assessment, not to turn them into botanists. If the report says the plant has the appearance of Japanese knotweed, or that it could not be confirmed out of season, believe the limit. Dead winter canes and bindweed get misnamed both ways. The next step is a specialist who will identify it, not a price reduction invented from a hedge.
Japanese knotweed
Will a lender refuse the mortgage?
Some will want a management plan from a specialist, some will want a retention until treatment starts, and some will lend with the category on file. RICS’s journal said most lenders were expected to look for a specialist report where the assessment is Action, category A or B, and were not expected to retain money for the neighbouring-land report category. “Expected” is not “your lender will”. The only reliable version is the condition in your mortgage offer.
Japanese knotweed
What should you not do with the canes?
Do not strim it, compost fresh growth, or put it in the council green bin. GOV.UK allows composting of dead brown canes on site only if they are cut, not pulled, at least 10cm above the crown. Fresh material is a different problem. Do not bury it because a forum said two metres is fine. GOV.UK requires burial on the site it came from, at specified depths, with Environment Agency notification, and membranes that meet the rules if you use them. Do not hire a person who will not say where the waste is going. You must use a registered carrier and a site permitted to take it, and tell the Environment Agency where it went. Do not rely on the survey as an identification. Commission someone who will put the species in writing.
Japanese knotweed
What if the knotweed is in the neighbour’s garden?
You still care, because it can cross the boundary, but you do not control their land. RICS’s 2022 approach put nearby neighbouring growth in a report category rather than treating a wide radius as automatic damage. Your lender may still ask questions. Your solicitor can enquire. You cannot lawfully march next door and spray. GOV.UK’s duty not to cause spread runs both ways.
Japanese knotweed
Can a survey miss it in winter?
Yes. The plant dies back. A visual inspection out of season can miss crowns, and a careful surveyor will say so rather than certify the garden clear. “No knotweed seen” in January is not a guarantee. If the seller’s form says it was treated, ask for the plan regardless of the season.
Japanese knotweed
Where does the seller have to declare it?
On the property information form your solicitor receives, where the question is asked, and in answer to enquiries. The form’s wording changes over editions. Your solicitor knows which questions were put. A survey note and a seller answer that contradict each other are exactly what enquiries are for. Do not resolve the contradiction yourself in a text to the agent.
Japanese knotweed
Does the seven-metre rule still decide mortgages?
Not as a RICS method. The 2022 professional standard moved off that crude distance. The Property Journal summary describes three metres for the neighbouring-land report category. Individual lenders can still ask for whatever their credit policy says, including a distance. Ask the lender. Do not pay for a strip of land to be excavated because a 2012 blog said seven metres.
Japanese knotweed
Does knotweed always damage foundations?
No. RICS created a category for visible material damage to a significant structure precisely because that is a different case from a clump in the lawn. The dramatic claim that it always destroys houses is not the professional standard. Damage that is actually there is category A, and it needs a proper repair as well as a plant plan. Absence of damage does not mean you can ignore spread onto a neighbour.
Japanese knotweed
Who should identify it?
Someone who will put their name to the species and a management plan, and who is not the cheapest person with a van. GOV.UK says not to treat it yourself without the skills. A surveyor’s “consistent with” is the reason you book that person. It is not itself the identification.
Japanese knotweed
How much does treatment cost?
There is no official price we can cite. Herbicide programmes, excavation and supervised disposal are different jobs, and disposal of contaminated soil dominates the excavation figure. Treat any number on a forum as indicative gossip. Two written plans, reviewed against your site, are the price. Label anything else as not a quote.
Japanese knotweed
The lender has declined. Is that the end?
It is the end of that offer, not a statement about every lender. Some will proceed with a specialist plan in place. A broker can ask. You can also decide the plant plus the lending friction is a reason to withdraw. Get the decline in writing so you know whether it was knotweed, valuation, or something else.
Japanese knotweed
The seller says it was removed years ago. Is that enough?
Only with the paperwork: who did it, where the waste went, how many seasons of follow-up were completed, and whether any guarantee transfers. Rhizome can persist. GOV.UK’s disposal rules exist because fragments regrow. A sentence in an email from the agent is not a completion certificate.
Japanese knotweed
Can you just buy and deal with it later?
You can if you have identified it, told the lender, and budgeted for a plan you are allowed to carry out. You should not if you have not told the lender something their form asks about. Spreading it later, including by DIY clearance, is the prosecution risk GOV.UK describes. Later is fine. Casual is not.
Roofs
What do roof defects mean in a home survey?
A RICS roof comment covers what the surveyor could see of the covering, the junctions and, with safe access, the roof space. The rating records urgency, not a price. Leaking valleys, failed flashings and rotten timbers matter more than a tired dry covering. If the loft or flat roof was not seen, NI is a gap, not a pass.
Roofs
What part of the roof does a home survey actually see?
The surveyor looks from ground level, from windows, and from any safe ladder or hatch their level and their judgement allow. RICS says Level 2 and Level 3 include a more extensive roof-space inspection than Level 1, and that Level 3’s visual inspection is longer again. Nobody is required to walk a fragile covering. If they could not see a slope, the report should say so. Binoculars and a dry day are not an x-ray.
Roofs
Which roof defects are urgent, and which are maintenance?
Water that is already inside the structure is urgent. RICS’s rating 3 is for defects that are serious or need repair, replacement or investigation urgently, including where delay risks severe long-term damage. A valley that is dripping onto timbers is that kind of defect. So is a chimney flashing that has opened above a stained ceiling. A covering that is old, mossy and still doing its job is often a rating 2: it needs replacing in the ordinary run of maintenance, not tonight.
Roofs
Can you price a new roof from the rating?
No. A re-cover of a small terrace and a re-cover of a complex roof with dormers, valleys and a chimney are different contracts. The condition rating does not contain a square-metre rate, and we are not inventing one. RICS tells you to obtain written quotations for rating 3 work before legal commitment. That applies cleanly to a roof the surveyor says needs urgent repair or replacement. Get the quote from a roofer who has seen the slopes the surveyor saw, with the paragraph in their hand.
Roofs
What about asbestos sheets, and sagging roofs?
Corrugated sheets on garages and lean-tos are often asbestos cement. The Health and Safety Executive publishes asbestos-essentials sheets for working with asbestos cement, which is a way of saying the material is real and the work has a method. A surveyor who suspects it should say so and tell you not to disturb it. They do not take a sample as part of a Home Survey. Intact cement sheets are not the same hazard as broken debris. Do not smash them to “check”, and do not pay for a new garage roof without asking how the old sheets will be disposed of.
Roofs
The loft is marked NI. Has the roof passed?
No. NI means not inspected. If there is no staining elsewhere and the outside covering looked orderly, the practical risk may be limited, but it is still a gap. If ceilings are stained or the surveyor says they are concerned, RICS expects the report to say what further investigation is needed. Book a return visit with a hatch key before you treat the roof as done.
Roofs
Is moss a defect?
Moss holds water and can block gutters. It is not, by itself, a failed roof. Surveyors mention it because gutters and tile surfaces suffer. A rating should follow the damage, not the greenery. Clearing gutters is maintenance. A slipped row of tiles underneath the moss is a repair.
Roofs
Why do chimneys get their own rating?
They stand in the weather, the flaunching cracks, the pots lean, and the flashing at the base lets water into the loft. A redundant chimney can still soak a party wall. The rating is about the stack you can see and the junction, not about whether you light fires. Ask if they could see the stack in the loft as well as from the street.
Roofs
Should a flat roof be replaced just because it is twenty years old?
Age is a clue to the material, not a rating. Some coverings fail earlier, some last longer, and the surveyor may not know the date. What matters is cracking, ponding, failed upstands and stains below. If they could not see the surface, say so in the follow-up and get someone up there safely. Do not pay for a replacement on a birthday the report did not state.
Roofs
The seller says the leak is fixed. Does the rating still stand?
The rating stood on inspection day. A later repair needs invoices and, if the water reached timbers, a look at whether they dried. Paint on a ceiling is not a repair. Ask your solicitor to obtain the paperwork, and ask the surveyor whether they need to re-inspect before you rely on it.
Roofs
Are roof windows and dormers a separate risk?
Yes. They puncture the covering. Leaks start at kerbs, flashings and cheeks. A sound field of tiles does not vouch for a dormer. If the survey rates the dormer and not the main slope, believe the distinction and price the dormer.
Roofs
What does torn underfelt mean?
The layer under the tiles is a second line of defence and, when it tears, wind-driven rain and snow can reach the timbers and the ceilings. It does not always mean the tiles must be stripped this month. It does mean the loft is more vulnerable until the covering is properly renewed. Ask whether they saw daylight, staining, or only a brittle historic felt that is still continuous.
Roofs
Will a roof quote include scaffolding?
Ask for it to be stated. A terrace with a pavement, a rear slope over a conservatory, and a three-storey townhouse are different access problems. The survey will not price the scaffold. A quote that is silent on access is not finished. This is not a typical-price claim. It is a question for the estimate in front of you.
Roofs
Is a Level 1 roof comment enough?
Only as a basic overview. RICS says Level 1 is less extensive and will not generally advise how to manage defects. If the roof is complicated, old, or already leaking, that is part of why Level 2 or Level 3 exists. You can still use the Level 1 as a prompt to get a roofer, but do not expect repair options the product was not written to give.
Electrics
What does a survey say about wiring, and what is an EICR?
A surveyor looks at wiring visually and does not write an Electrical Installation Condition Report. A condition rating is not an EICR code. In England, private and social landlords must have installations inspected every five years. Buying your own home is outside that duty, but a poor or unknown installation is a reason to get an EICR before exchange.
Electrics
What is the difference between a survey note and an EICR?
A RICS Home Survey inspects the building visually. On electrics, the surveyor looks at the consumer unit, the visible cable, earthing they can see, and any obviously amateur work. Level 1 does not include tests of the services. The standard inspection does not remove electrical fittings. The surveyor then either gives a condition rating or records a limit. That rating uses the RICS scale of 1, 2, 3 and NI. It is not an EICR code.
Electrics
What do C1, C2, C3 and FI mean?
GOV.UK’s landlord guidance, which explains the codes inspectors use, defines them as follows. C1: danger present, risk of injury. The inspector may make the hazard safe before they leave. C2: potentially dangerous. C3: improvement recommended. Further remedial work is not required for the report to be deemed satisfactory just because of a C3. FI: further investigation required without delay. A satisfactory EICR is one that does not leave you with C1, C2 or FI outstanding. Landlords must do the remedial work the regulations require. A buyer who is not a landlord is not that legal person, but the codes mean the same things physically.
Electrics
Do you have to have an EICR to buy a house?
Not as an owner-occupier under the England landlord regulations. Those regulations, guidance published 1 November 2025, apply where the occupier has the home as their only or main residence and pays rent, across private and social rented housing. Landlords must have the installation inspected at least every five years, keep the report, and give it to tenants. If you are buying a house to live in yourself, that duty does not land on you on completion day. If you are buying to let, it does, and you should ask for the current report before you exchange.
Electrics
Does an old installation mean a full rewire?
No. Age is a reason to test, not a sentence. An installation from the 1990s can test as satisfactory with a list of C3 improvements. One from last year can carry a C2 if it was botched. A full rewire is what an EICR, or the remedial specification that follows it, justifies. Plastic consumer units, lack of RCD protection, and rubber or lead cable are the sorts of things inspectors comment on. Let them. Do not accept a rewire price from a survey sentence that only says the installation is dated.
Electrics
What does a satisfactory EICR mean?
GOV.UK explains that C3 items do not, by themselves, stop a report being satisfactory. C1, C2 and FI do need action. Satisfactory means the inspector did not leave those open. It does not mean the installation is new, and it expires as a picture of that test date. The report itself names the next inspection date.
Electrics
Can you buy a house with an unsatisfactory EICR?
Yes, if you know the codes, the remedial cost, and that nobody is in danger while you wait. C1 is danger present. That is not a item to leave until after the housewarming. Get it made safe. C3s are improvements you can plan. Do the deal with the report in the file, not with a promise that “the electrician will sort it”.
Electrics
Is five years the rule for every home?
Five years is the maximum interval GOV.UK states for landlords covered by the England regulations. An inspector can set an earlier date on a particular installation. Owner-occupiers are not placed on that five-year legal cycle by those regulations. If your insurer or lender asks for a newer report, that is their condition, not the landlord statute.
Electrics
Who is allowed to carry out the inspection?
GOV.UK says a qualified person: someone competent to inspect and test. Membership of a competent-person scheme is how landlords commonly demonstrate that. We are not listing firms. Ask the inspector to state their competence on the report. A surveyor’s RICS qualification is not, by itself, that competence.
Electrics
Does the electrics section cover the boiler?
No. Gas work is a different regime. A Home Survey does not replace a Gas Safe record. Surveyors often say the heating was not tested. Believe them. Commission the relevant inspection if the boiler’s safety is part of your decision. Do not fold it into the EICR price without asking.
Electrics
The survey mentions the fuse box. Is that a rewire?
A consumer unit replacement is a defined job. A rewire replaces the circuits. The survey can dislike an old fuse box without having traced every cable. An EICR says which of those you are facing. Pay for the distinction before you negotiate a five-figure sum off a two-line paragraph.
Electrics
You are buying a rented house. Whose EICR is it?
Ask for the report the current landlord should be holding. GOV.UK says landlords must obtain the report and provide it to tenants, and to the council if requested. As the incoming landlord you will need a report that satisfies the interval. A missing file is a practical and compliance gap. Price the inspection, and read the codes if the report exists.
Electrics
There is DIY wiring. How serious is that?
It depends what was done. A qualified inspector treats amateur work as something to test, not as a style choice. The surveyor flagging it is a reason for an EICR, which is exactly the limit of a visual inspection. Do not pull it apart yourself to look. If it is dangerous, that is a C1 conversation for the person with the tester.
Electrics
Does this page cover a Scottish Home Report?
The EICR landlord rules described here are England’s. Scotland has its own housing and letting standards, and a Home Report is a different survey product. The physical difference between a visual comment and a tested EICR still holds. Check the Scottish duty with your solicitor rather than importing the five-year England rule unread.
Electrics
Should the seller pay for a rewire?
Only if a qualified report shows remedial work you were not buying with your eyes open, and you decide to ask. Many dated installations are priced into older houses already. A C1 or C2 with a clear remedial quote is a normal thing to put through your solicitor. A vague “electrics are old” is a weak chip. Get the EICR first.
Walls
What are cavity wall ties, and what if a survey flags them?
Cavity wall ties are the metal links that hold the outer and inner leaves of a cavity wall together. A RICS survey can record symptoms, often horizontal cracks in the mortar and sometimes a bulge. It cannot see the ties without opening the wall. Failed ties need a specialist inspection, not a conclusion drawn from the crack pattern alone.
Walls
What are cavity wall ties?
A cavity wall is two leaves of masonry with a gap. The leaves are tied so the outer skin does not act as a tall, thin wall on its own. The ties are small metal pieces bedded in the mortar. In sound walls you never see them. They become a survey item when the outer leaf cracks or bows in a way that fits tie failure, or when the surveyor knows the age and exposure of the wall make corrosion plausible and can already see a pattern.
Walls
What can a RICS survey responsibly say?
It can describe cracks, measure them approximately, note whether they repeat up the wall, and say whether the leaf is bulging. It can recommend a specialist inspection before you exchange. That recommendation belongs with a rating that matches the urgency. Widespread cracking and a bowing leaf is a serious defect in the ordinary meaning of RICS rating 3: investigate urgently, because delay can mean further damage. A single hairline bed-joint crack on a wall that is otherwise flat may only be a note. The paragraph is the difference.
Walls
What does a specialist wall-tie inspection do?
A proper inspection locates ties, looks at their condition in sample openings or with a borescope, and reports whether replacement or isolation of the old ties is needed. It is a different visit from a general survey and a different visit from a contractor who only prices replacement. Ask for a written finding that says the ties are sound, corroded, or absent, and on which elevations. Then, if work is needed, get a separate price for that specification.
Walls
Should you renegotiate, repair, or walk away?
First confirm. A price cut for “possible ties” with no inspection is a guess, and the seller is entitled to say so. A confirmed failure, with a specification and two prices, is a normal rating 3 negotiation: reduce the price or agree the work before completion. Walking away fits when the outer leaf is already dangerous, the seller will not allow inspection, or the cost of repair plus whatever else the report found is more house than you want. Staying, with the work priced and a lender who is content, is also normal. Plenty of cavity walls are re-tied every year without the sale collapsing.
Walls
Do all cavity walls need new ties?
No. Ties are a normal part of the wall, and most are doing their job. Replacement follows evidence of corrosion, absence or the wrong ties, not the mere fact of a cavity. A survey that does not mention ties is not hiding a secret programme of work. If you have no symptoms, you do not invent a replacement to feel thorough.
Walls
Are horizontal cracks always wall ties?
No. They are the pattern people associate with expanding rusty ties, especially when the cracks repeat at regular heights and the wall bows. Lintels, movement joints and ordinary shrinkage also crack mortar. The survey should say how regular the pattern is. A specialist confirms it. A builder’s glance is not confirmation.
Walls
The wall bows. Is that dangerous?
A bowing outer leaf is the failure mode ties are there to prevent, so take it seriously. How dangerous it is depends on how far it has moved and whether it is still tied at all. That is an urgent inspection, not a note to revisit after completion. Keep people away from a leaf the surveyor has described as unstable, and ask them if they meant that. Do not drill investigation holes into a wall they have said may fall.
Walls
Does cavity insulation cause tie failure?
Insulation does not replace ties, and filling a cavity can make a bad detail wetter if trays and weeps are wrong. It is not, by itself, proof the ties have failed. If you are offered insulation and the survey has already flagged tie symptoms, inspect the ties first. Pinning foam into a wall that needs new ties is the wrong order.
Walls
Can a solid brick house have wall-tie failure?
Not in the cavity-tie sense. Solid walls do not have that cavity or those ties. They can still crack, bulge from other causes, and have header bricks that people misread. If the survey says the house is solid and also says cavity ties, ask them to reconcile the two. One of those descriptions needs correcting before you pay for the wrong repair.
Walls
How much does tie replacement cost?
We are not giving a figure. There is no official tariff, and the price depends on the number of elevations, access, whether old ties must be isolated, and the state of the mortar. A specialist count comes first. Any national average you see online is, at best, indicative advertising. It is not a quote for this wall. Reviewed 24 October 2026.
Walls
Will a lender care?
They may, if their valuer reports significant cracking or a bulge. They may ask for the specialist report or a retention. They may not read your Home Survey at all. Send confirmed findings to the broker before exchange so the mortgage offer is not the last place the bow is mentioned.
Walls
Can you fit ties yourself?
You should not. It is structural, it is easy to bridge the cavity or hit a service, and the layout has to match the wall. Building control may need to see it. Use a specialist who will specify and record what they installed. A box of ties and a hire drill is how a rating 3 becomes a larger one.
Walls
Will repointing the cracks be enough?
Repointing hides the symptom and can make the next inspection harder. If the ties are still expanding, the new mortar cracks again. Repoint after the ties are dealt with, or instead of that work only if a specialist has said the ties are sound and the cracks are something else. Ask which of those you are paying for.
Walls
The house is old and cavity-built, but there are no cracks. Now what?
Maintain it. Absence of the pattern is reassuring, not a certificate for the life of the ties. A Home Survey is not a promise about steel it could not see. If you want certainty beyond that, commission a specialist sample. Do not demand one of every seller of an uncracked cavity house. The rating system is there so that invisible worries do not outrank visible defects.
Damp
What can a home survey say about a cellar?
A cellar or basement in a home survey is only as known as the parts the surveyor could enter. The report can describe damp, timber and access. It does not prove a tanking system, test a pump, or decide that the space is a lawful bedroom. If the door stayed shut, the honest mark is not inspected.
Damp
What can the surveyor say about a cellar they actually entered?
They can describe what was in reach: the walls, the floor, the stair, any stain, mould, soft skirting, or standing water, and the parts still hidden by storage. A RICS home survey is visual. It does not core the walls, lift a cemented floor, or run a moisture survey that names one cause. The paragraph should separate what was seen from what is only a possibility.
Damp
Why is a waterproof coating not the same as a dry cellar?
A coating, a plastic membrane or a band of tanking slurry shows that someone tried to keep water out, or to hide a stain. It does not show that the attempt worked, that it covers the whole wall, or that it will still work after you store furniture against it. The survey records the finish it could see. It does not honour a guarantee that was not in the file.
Damp
What should you separate: the cellar fabric, any pump, and how you hope to use the room?
Condition is whether the fabric looks wet, decayed or incomplete. A pump in the corner is a machine the survey did not switch on and did not service. How you hope to use the room, as a store, a gym or a bedroom, is a plan. Building regulations, fire escape and a lease, where there is one, decide the lawful use. The survey does not issue those approvals.
Damp
If a cellar smells damp from the doorway but the surveyor did not go down, what should the report say?
It should say the cellar was not inspected, and it may mention the smell as a limit rather than as a diagnosis. A smell at the door is not a tour of the walls, not a timber check, and not a rating of the floor. Ask for access before you exchange if you need those surfaces seen. Do not upgrade a doorway impression into a damp-proofing price.
Damp
Does a stain on a cellar ceiling mean the ground-floor joists have rising damp?
No. A ceiling stain under the ground floor can be a spilled bathroom, a leaking pipe, or condensation on a cold soffit. Rising damp is moisture from the ground in the walls, usually low down. The survey should say which surface was stained. Do not buy a chemical damp-proof course for the room above because the cellar ceiling looks marked.
Damp
Does a fitted wine rack mean the cellar was waterproofed?
No. Joinery shows that someone used the room. It does not show a membrane, a drained cavity or a guarantee. Bottles and racks can sit against a wall that is still damp. Ask what covering, if any, the surveyor could see on the masonry behind the rack. If they could not see it, that wall is still unseen.
Damp
What should you ask if the cellar stair is new but the walls look much older?
Ask the surveyor to describe the stair and the walls as separate elements, and ask your solicitor for any building-regulations paperwork for the stair or a lowered floor. A new flight does not prove the retaining walls were rebuilt, and old walls do not prove the stair is inadequate. The survey does not sign the work off.
Damp
Does a dry cellar on an August inspection mean it stays dry in January?
No. The report is the day of the visit. A dry summer does not measure groundwater later in the year, and a wet January is not automatically rising damp either. If the use you want cannot tolerate seasonal damp, say so and get a design, not a second guess from the same dry-day paragraph.
Damp
Should you expect the surveyor to unpack a cellar full of the seller’s boxes?
No. Stored goods are the seller’s. The survey records the limit. If you need the perimeter walls seen, ask the agent for the boxes to be moved before the inspection, or accept a not-inspected note and decide whether that gap matters before you exchange. Do not move someone else’s stored goods on a viewing.
Damp
Can the survey clear a cellar for conversion to a bedroom after you buy?
No. A home survey is not a conversion design, not a fire-escape check, and not building-regulations approval. It can warn you about damp, low headroom, a single stair, or timber it could see. The design, the consents and the cost come later, from people instructed to do that work. There is no RICS price for a cellar conversion on this page.
Damp
Is it rising damp or condensation?
Condensation, penetrating damp and rising damp are different mechanisms, so they are not one repair. A moisture meter on a home survey is not proof of rising damp. GOV.UK guidance on damp and mould is written for rented-housing providers. It treats mould as a health risk, not as a buyer discount.
Damp
What is the difference between condensation, penetrating damp and rising damp?
These are three mechanisms that can look similar in a photograph. Condensation is moisture from indoor air landing on a cold surface. It is often a heating and ventilation problem, and it is a common explanation for mould on external corners and behind wardrobes. Penetrating damp is rain getting in from above or from the side: a gutter, a downpipe, a flashing, cracked render, or eroded pointing. Rising damp is moisture from the ground moving up a wall where the damp-proof course is missing, bridged or defeated. In a purchase in England or Wales, the survey should say which of these it thinks is likely, and where it is not sure.
Damp
Why is a moisture meter not proof of rising damp?
Surveyors use a moisture meter as a screening tool. A high reading tells them that the surface is wetter than they would expect. It does not, on its own, show that water is rising from the ground. Salts in an old wall, foil-backed paper and a cold surface can all confuse a reading. The Property Care Association groups damp with other structural moisture problems for homeowners, and it still has to be diagnosed, not assumed from one number.
Damp
How should a buyer read government damp and mould guidance?
GOV.UK publishes damp and mould guidance for rented-housing providers. It explains the health risks of damp and mould for people living in those homes. It is not the RICS home survey standard, and it does not set a price reduction for a buyer in England or Wales. Do not turn it into a percentage off the purchase price. There is no honest figure of that kind in the guidance.
Damp
What should you ask before you accept a damp-proofing quote?
Ask the surveyor to separate observation from cause. Then ask any specialist the same questions. A quote that says damp proofing, without naming condensation, penetrating damp or rising damp, is not a quote for the defect in the report.
Damp
If the staining stops around skirting height, is that automatically rising damp?
No. Low-level staining is a pattern, not a mechanism. Condensation, a bridged damp-proof course, rain splash and salts can all sit in that band. Rising damp remains one possibility. Ask which cause the surveyor thinks is likely, and what single observation would show they are wrong.
Damp
How can you tell condensation from rising damp?
Condensation usually sits on the coldest surfaces, often with mould and without a tide mark from the ground. Rising damp is moisture from the ground moving up a wall, and it is only one possible reading of low-level staining. If the report does not separate the two, ask which mechanism is likely and what would prove it wrong.
Damp
Is penetrating damp the same thing as rising damp?
Penetrating damp is rain getting through the fabric from above or from the side, often from a gutter, a flashing or cracked pointing. Rising damp comes from the ground. The repairs are different, so one damp-proofing quote does not answer both.
Damp
Should you budget for a chemical damp-proof course?
Only if someone has shown that ground moisture is actually the cause and that injection suits the wall. A failed gutter, a high path or a cold unventilated room will not be cured by injecting the plaster. Get the cause named before you accept a standard specification.
Damp
Does government damp and mould guidance set a price reduction?
The guidance is written for rented-housing providers, not as a discount table for buyers. It treats damp and mould as a risk to health. Use it as a reason to take mould seriously, then price the actual repair once the cause is known.
Damp
Can you still buy if the survey only says damp?
You can, if you know which mechanism it is and what has to happen next. Buying on the word alone is how people pay for the wrong treatment. If the cause is not known, the next spend is an investigation, not a guess.
Damp
Is mould in a bedroom always rising damp?
Mould on a cold external wall or behind a wardrobe is often condensation. Rising damp does not usually appear as mould high in a room with no stain from outside. The survey should say where the mould is, and whether heating and ventilation are part of the picture.
Damp
What does a bridged damp-proof course mean?
It means something outside, such as a raised path, a flower bed or render, is letting ground moisture pass the barrier in the wall. That is not the same as a missing barrier, and it is not condensation. The first question is whether the ground or the render can be altered.
Timber
What does woodworm or timber decay mean in a survey?
Wood-boring insect damage and fungal decay both need persistent moisture, or a history of it. Old flight holes are not, by themselves, an active infestation. A visual home survey in England and Wales does not lift floors as standard, so covered joists can stay unseen until a floor is opened.
Timber
What is the surveyor actually reporting in the timber?
Woodworm is the everyday name for damage by wood-boring insects. The surveyor is usually reporting holes, crumbling edges, or timber that has lost its strength, in a place they could see: a loft, a cellar, an understairs void, or the edge of a board. Fungal decay is a different process. The Property Care Association treats both as problems that follow damp, not as labels you can price from the word alone. A home survey in England or Wales should say where the timber was, what it looked like, and whether the surveyor thinks the damage is current.
Timber
When are flight holes not an active infestation?
Insects leave holes when they emerge. Those holes remain after the insects have gone. Old holes in timber that is now dry are not, by themselves, an active infestation. A surveyor who can see the timber may say the attack looks historic, or may say they cannot tell. Both sentences are useful. A sentence that only says woodworm, with no view on whether it is current, is not yet a specification for treatment.
Timber
Why does moisture matter to both insects and rot?
Wood-boring insect damage and fungal decay both need persistent moisture, or a history of it. The Property Care Association’s structural advice to homeowners puts damp, rot and woodworm in the same family of problems for that reason. Wet timber is the condition that lets decay start. Timber that was wet, and is now dry, can show old damage that does not need the same response as an ongoing leak.
Timber
What should you ask before you pay for timber treatment?
RICS Level 1 does not lift carpets, floor coverings or floorboards, and it does not move furniture. Higher levels still do not open up floors as standard. Ask what was actually seen. A treatment quote that assumes every concealed joist is infested is a guess.
Timber
Do flight holes mean the woodworm is active?
Old flight holes are not automatically an active infestation. They can remain for years after the insects have gone. Ask whether the surveyor saw anything that suggests the attack is current, and say so only for the timber they could see.
Timber
Will the surveyor lift the floorboards to check the joists?
Not as standard. A Level 1 inspection does not lift carpets, floor coverings or floorboards. Even a more detailed visual survey does not open floors unless that was agreed. Covered joists stay unseen until someone opens them.
Timber
Should you treat the timber before you stop the damp?
No, because wood-boring insect damage and fungal decay both need persistent moisture or a history of it. Spraying holes and leaving a leak in place does not finish the job. The report should point at the moisture, not only at the timber.
Timber
Is timber decay the same as woodworm?
No. Woodworm is insect damage, and fungal decay is rot. They can occur in the same damp building, and they are repaired differently. A quote that uses one product for both, without saying which was found, is not a reading of the report.
Timber
If the holes are only in the loft, are the floors affected?
Not on that evidence. Damage in one place is damage in that place. Floors under coverings were not part of what the surveyor saw unless the report says they were. Do not extend a loft note into a whole-house assumption.
Timber
Can you buy a house with old woodworm holes?
Yes, if the damage is historic, the timber is doing its job, and the moisture that allowed it has stopped. The survey should say that clearly, or say that it could not tell. If it could not tell, the next step is a look at the hidden timber, not a token price cut.
Timber
Does an old timber-treatment guarantee mean the wood is sound?
Only if your solicitor checks that it is still valid, transferable, and covers what the survey found. A guarantee is paperwork about a past treatment. It is not a condition rating, and it does not prove that concealed joists are dry.
Timber
What investigation is reasonable before exchange?
The investigation the surveyor named, aimed at the timber they could not see and at the source of any moisture. A second visual survey repeats the same limit if it still cannot lift the floors. Agree any opening-up with the seller before anyone cuts a board.
Timber
What is the difference between dry rot and wet rot?
Dry rot is Serpula lacrymans. Property Care Association guidance of August 2025 calls it the most serious form because it can spread through timber and into adjacent masonry. Wet rot is more common and is typically confined to timber that stays wet. Treatment differs. A dry-rot treatment on wet rot can be unnecessary.
Timber
How do dry rot and wet rot differ?
The Property Care Association’s fungal decay guidance, dated August 2025, separates the two. Dry rot is the fungus Serpula lacrymans. The guidance calls it the most serious form of fungal decay of timber because it can spread through timber and into adjacent masonry. Wet rot occurs more often and is less serious in that document’s terms. Decay is typically confined to timber that has become wet and stays wet. Wet rot does not, in the ordinary case, run through a dry building in the way dry rot can. Neither label is a price.
Timber
Why does the wrong rot treatment matter?
The August 2025 guidance says the two types have to be distinguished because they need different treatment. A dry-rot treatment carried out on wet rot can be unnecessary. The reverse mistake, treating dry rot as if it were only a patch of wet timber, is less certain of success because dry rot can already be in timber and masonry beyond the wet patch. This is a reason to identify the fungus, not a reason to buy the larger specification just in case.
Timber
What can a home survey see, and what can it not?
A RICS home survey looks at timber that is accessible. Skirtings, the edge of a floor, a cellar and a roof space may show decay. Fitted coverings, insulation and stored goods hide the rest. The Level 3 description is a thorough visual inspection, not an opening-up contract. The surveyor should say if they suspect dry rot or wet rot, and they should say if they could not see the timbers that would prove it.
Timber
What should you ask if the report mentions rot?
Use the surveyor’s words. If they said wet rot, do not let a quote silently upgrade it to dry rot. If they said they could not tell, the next instruction is identification, not a combined treatment for every fungus they can name.
Timber
What fungus is dry rot?
Dry rot is Serpula lacrymans. Property Care Association guidance of August 2025 calls it the most serious form of fungal decay in buildings because it can spread through timber and into adjacent masonry. Wet rot is a different group of fungi.
Timber
Is dry rot always worse than wet rot?
The August 2025 guidance calls dry rot the most serious form because of the way it can spread. Wet rot is more common and is typically confined to timber that stays wet. Serious still depends on where the timber is and whether the water is still arriving.
Timber
Can one treatment cover both dry rot and wet rot?
No. The two need different treatment. A dry-rot treatment used where the problem is wet rot can be unnecessary. Identify which fungus is present before you accept a specification.
Timber
Can the surveyor say how far dry rot has spread?
Only as far as they could see. Dry rot can extend into adjacent masonry, but a visual survey does not open floors or chase walls as standard. Any distance beyond the visible timber is an investigation, not a sentence in the report.
Timber
Does a damp smell mean dry rot?
A damp, musty smell can come with either dry rot or wet rot, and with damp that has not yet decayed the timber. The Property Care Association treats the smell as a reason to investigate, not as the name of the fungus. Ask for the timber to be seen.
Timber
What does wet rot look like?
The Property Care Association describes soft, weakened timber, often cracked, discoloured and losing strength, sometimes with fungal growth and a damp smell. It is typically localised to the wet area. Those signs still need someone competent to confirm the type.
Timber
If you dry the timber, does the rot stop?
Wet rot is typically confined to timber that stays wet, so stopping the water is essential. Dry rot can spread beyond the wet patch, which is why the type has to be identified. Drying the building is part of either repair, not a substitute for knowing which fungus you have.
Timber
Should you investigate rot before exchange?
Yes, if the survey says structural timber may be decayed and the extent was not visible. You would be buying an unknown repair. A specialist who can see the timber, and who will say whether a dry-rot treatment is unnecessary, is the useful next step.
Hazardous materials
What does asbestos mean in a home survey?
HSE says asbestos can be in any industrial or residential building built or refurbished before 2000. Textured coatings, cement, insulating board and lagging are different risks. Do not sample a suspect material yourself. A home survey in England and Wales records what it can see. It does not test materials.
Hazardous materials
Where does HSE say asbestos can occur in a house?
HSE says asbestos can be found in any industrial or residential building built or refurbished before 2000. The guidance is for Great Britain. If you are buying in England or Wales, that is the relevant safety body. The sentence is “can be found”, not “will be found”. A pre-2000 house is a reason for the surveyor to look and to comment. It is not proof that a particular ceiling, soffit or tank contains asbestos.
Hazardous materials
Why are coatings, cement, board and lagging different risks?
HSE does not treat every asbestos-containing material as the same job. Work on textured coatings is described as low-risk when the material is not broken up on a large scale, and it still is not a task to invent for yourself on the day you get the keys. Asbestos cement is generally a lower risk while it stays intact. Breaking sheets, dropping a roof, or working on badly damaged cement changes that. Insulating board is a step up: some very limited maintenance can be non-licensed work, but most removal, and work on board in poor condition, is for a licensed contractor.
Hazardous materials
Why does a home survey not test for asbestos?
A RICS home survey is a visual inspection of the building you are buying. It is not a laboratory asbestos survey. The surveyor may say that a material is of an age and type that can contain asbestos. They should not claim a test they did not do. If you need to know, the next person is someone competent to sample and to have the sample analysed. That person is not you, with a knife, on a second viewing.
Hazardous materials
What should you ask when the report mentions asbestos?
Ask where it is, what it looks like, and whether it is damaged. Intact cement on a garage roof is a different conversation from damaged lagging in a cupboard. The surveyor has not tested either of them.
Hazardous materials
Does every house built before 2000 contain asbestos?
HSE says asbestos can be in any industrial or residential building built or refurbished before 2000. That is not the same as saying it is in every one. The survey can flag likely materials from age and appearance, and it still cannot confirm them by eye.
Hazardous materials
Does a textured ceiling coating always contain asbestos?
No. HSE lists textured decorative coatings, and gives that type of finish as a place asbestos can occur. Not every coating contains it, and a home survey will not have sampled yours. Do not sand or scrape it to find out.
Hazardous materials
Is an asbestos cement garage roof an emergency?
Intact asbestos cement is a lower risk than damaged lagging or broken insulating board. It is still not something to break, jet-wash or drop. The survey should describe the condition, and any removal later belongs with people trained for that material.
Hazardous materials
Can you take a sample yourself and send it to a lab?
Do not sample it yourself. Breaking the material releases fibres, which is the harm you are trying to avoid. A competent person should take any sample and interpret it. A home survey is not that visit.
Hazardous materials
Will the surveyor confirm whether a board contains asbestos?
Not by testing. The report can say a material looks like insulating board, cement, a textured coating or lagging, and that asbestos is possible because of the age of the building. Confirmation is an analysis the home survey does not include.
Hazardous materials
What if the report mentions lagging on pipes or a boiler?
Treat that more seriously than intact cement or a textured coating. HSE says most work on asbestos lagging is high risk and must be done by a licensed contractor, because fibres are released easily if it is disturbed. Leave it alone and take advice before exchange if it is damaged.
Hazardous materials
Should you remove every suspect material before you move in?
Not as a rule. Intact material is often better left in place than broken out without a plan. Removal depends on the material, its condition, and whether you need to disturb it. The survey is not a removal specification and it is not a price for one.
Hazardous materials
What should you tell a builder who will drill or strip out?
Give them the survey note and tell them the house was built or refurbished before 2000 if that is the case. They must not treat a suspect board as ordinary plaster. If the work will disturb it, the right contractor and the right method depend on which material it is.
Roof and rainwater
What do chimney defects mean when you are buying?
Approved Document J covers combustion appliances and flues in England. A visual home survey looks at the stack, flashing and pots it can see. It does not sweep the flue or run a camera through it. An unused chimney can still let water in, even when no fire is lit.
Roof and rainwater
What can a visual survey see on a chimney?
From the ground, and from any safe vantage point, the surveyor looks at the stack: leaning, open joints, failed pointing, damaged pots, cracked flaunching, and the flashing where the stack meets the roof. Inside, they look at the breast, the fireplace, staining, and any sign that the breast has been removed. That is a condition comment on what was visible. A RICS home survey in England or Wales is not a sweep and not a camera survey of the flue.
Roof and rainwater
Why can an unused chimney still let water in?
A chimney is a hole through the roof, whether or not anyone lights a fire. Rain can enter through an open pot, failed flaunching, open joints in the stack, or a flashing that has left the roof. Closing the fireplace, or leaving the room unused, does not seal that path. Damp on a breast in a bedroom is often the indoor end of a defect you can see outside, once someone looks.
Roof and rainwater
What does Approved Document J cover that the survey does not?
Approved Document J is the building-regulations guidance for combustion appliances and fuel storage in England. It covers air supply, the safe discharge of combustion products, and protection of the building for solid fuel, gas and oil appliances, including hearths, fireplaces, flues and chimneys. It is the rulebook for how those installations are supposed to be built and altered. It is not a report on the house you are buying, and it does not apply as the Welsh approved document. Wales has its own building regulations.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask before you rely on the fireplace?
Separate three questions: is the stack letting water in, is the breast structurally altered, and is the flue safe to use? The survey can help with the first two only as far as it could see. The third is outside a visual inspection.
Roof and rainwater
Does a home survey include sweeping the chimney?
No. A visual survey looks at the stack, flashing and pots it can see. It does not sweep the flue or run a camera through it. If you need the flue cleared or proved, that is a separate instruction.
Roof and rainwater
Can a chimney you will never use still cause damp?
Yes. An unused chimney can still let rain in through the pot, the flaunching, the stack or the flashing. Closing the fireplace does not, by itself, weatherproof the roof. Read any stain on the breast against what the surveyor could see outside.
Roof and rainwater
What if a chimney breast has been removed?
The surveyor should look for how the masonry above is supported, as far as that support is visible. They cannot see inside a boxed-in beam or party wall. Missing support is a structural question for further investigation, not a decorating note.
Roof and rainwater
Does Approved Document J mean the fireplace passes building regulations?
No. Approved Document J is guidance for combustion appliances and flues when building work is done in England. A home survey does not certify that an existing flue meets it. Wales has its own building regulations, so do not treat the English document as a Welsh approval either.
Roof and rainwater
Has the survey checked that a gas fire is safe?
No. The Level 3 description says a visual inspection cannot assess the safety of gas, and it does not investigate the inside of the flue. Safety of the appliance is a separate check. The home survey has not done that job.
Roof and rainwater
How worried should you be about a leaning stack or a cracked pot?
Enough to read the surveyor’s words on urgency, because a loose pot or an unstable stack is a safety matter as well as a leak. The report should say what was visible and whether they want it repaired before you are committed. They still have not inspected the flue itself.
Roof and rainwater
What about a stack shared with the house next door?
The surveyor can comment on the parts they can see from your side and from the ground. They cannot take down a neighbour’s chimney or certify the shared flue. If the defect crosses the boundary, your solicitor needs to know as well as the surveyor.
Roof and rainwater
The only note is damp on the chimney breast. What next?
Ask whether the likely path is rain at the stack or flashing, condensation in a cold flue, or something else. Those are different repairs. A damp-proofing quote aimed at the plaster does not rebuild a flashing or sort a pot.
Roof and rainwater
What does a flat roof mean in a home survey?
A visual home survey can see ponding, splits and failed upstands on a flat roof. It cannot see the deck hidden under the covering. Flat roofs fail at details more often than in the middle of the sheet. In England and Wales, look at edges and outlets before you guess a lifespan.
Roof and rainwater
What can the surveyor actually see on a flat roof?
They can see the covering from wherever it is safe to look: the ground, a window, or a ladder where that is reasonable. Ponding, splits, bubbles, tired mineral surface, failed upstands and outlets blocked with grit are all things a careful look can record. The RICS Level 3 description is a thorough visual inspection of defects that are evident. It is not a licence to strip the roof. Level 1 is a less extensive look and includes no tests of the fabric.
Roof and rainwater
Why do flat roofs fail at the edges more than in the middle?
The middle of a sheet is one material. The edges are where that sheet has to turn up a wall, dress into a gutter, lap onto an outlet, or meet a door threshold. Those details move, get stood on, and sit in water if the fall is poor. Flat roofs fail at details more often than in the middle of the sheet. A surveyor who only says the covering looks tired, without looking at upstands and outlets, has not finished the observation.
Roof and rainwater
How does a flat roof show up as damp inside?
Water that passes a detail tracks along the deck and appears where it can: a ceiling stain, a damp patch at the top of a wall, or rot in a joist end the surveyor may not see. That is penetrating damp from the roof, not rising damp, and not automatically condensation. The damp-and-mould guidance on GOV.UK is written for rented-housing providers and treats mould as a health risk. It does not price a new covering, and it does not tell a buyer which detail has failed.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask before you rely on the covering?
Ask what was seen, from where, and what was hidden. A flat roof over a small bay is still a roof. Solar reflection, chippings and a recent coat of paint can hide splits for one dry visit.
Roof and rainwater
Can the surveyor see the timber deck under a flat roof?
Not through the covering. A visual survey can see ponding, splits and failed upstands. The deck stays hidden unless there is an opening from below or the covering is stripped, which is not part of a standard home survey.
Roof and rainwater
If the middle of the felt looks fine, is the roof fine?
Not necessarily. Flat roofs fail at details more often than in the middle of the sheet. Ask about the upstands, the outlets and the junctions with walls. A sound-looking centre does not speak for those edges.
Roof and rainwater
Does a flat roof have a standard number of years left?
No figure like that belongs in this advice, and a survey should not invent one. Life depends on the covering, the falls, the details and the repairs already done. Ask what was seen, not for a stock lifespan.
Roof and rainwater
Is ponding on its own a reason to replace the roof?
Ponding means water is not draining freely, which ages a covering and finds weak details. It does not, by itself, prove the deck has failed or that the whole roof must be replaced. The survey should say whether there is a leak below, or only water sitting on the sheet.
Roof and rainwater
Does a small flat roof over a bay matter?
Yes. A small roof is still a roof, and its details fail in the same way. Staining on a bay ceiling is a reason to look at that covering, not to dismiss it because the main roof is pitched. The survey should include it if it could be seen.
Roof and rainwater
The seller says the flat roof was recovered recently. Can you rely on that?
Only with the paperwork your solicitor can check, and with what the surveyor can still see at the details. A new sheet over a wet deck, or a sheet with poor upstands, can leak early. Recent work is a question, not a guarantee that the roof is sound.
Roof and rainwater
Could the ceiling stain be condensation rather than the roof?
It could, if the pattern is mould on a cold surface with no path from a detail above. A stain that tracks from an upstand or an outlet is much more like a leak. The survey should say which picture it saw, and admit it when one visit cannot tell.
Roof and rainwater
When should you investigate a flat roof before exchange?
When the survey reports an active leak, decayed timber, or a detail they could not see but do not trust. A closer inspection is the useful next spend. A price cut based on a guessed remaining life is not.
Drainage
What do drainage defects mean in a home survey?
Approved Document H is the building-regulations document for drainage in England. RICS Level 1 does not lift inspection covers as standard. Levels 2 and 3 include a more extensive drainage-chamber inspection than Level 1. None of those surveys is a CCTV survey unless the surveyor says they carried one out.
Drainage
What does a home survey actually do with the drains?
It depends on the level you bought. RICS Level 1 does not lift inspection chamber covers to drains or septic tanks. Levels 2 and 3 include a more extensive drainage-chamber inspection than Level 1: where covers can be lifted safely, the surveyor looks in the chamber. Level 3 can also include watching normal everyday use, where that is possible. None of those visits is a CCTV survey unless the surveyor says they did one. A chamber that is seized, paved over, or too heavy to lift should be reported as not inspected.
Drainage
What is Approved Document H, and what is it not?
Approved Document H is the building-regulations document for drainage and waste disposal in England. It covers foul water drainage above and below ground, and the standards used when drainage work is carried out under those regulations. It is not a survey of an existing house, and it is an English document. If you are buying in Wales, do not treat it as the Welsh building regulations. Your solicitor and, where work is proposed, a building-control body are the route for whether past drainage work was signed off.
Drainage
When might drains matter to damp or to movement?
A leaking drain can keep ground wet beside a wall, which is one way penetrating damp and timber decay get a supply of water. It is not the same mechanism as condensation, and it is not something a moisture meter on the plaster can prove. Gutters and downpipes discharge into the same system. A blocked gully at the foot of a downpipe is often the first place a surveyor can see trouble, without having seen the pipe underground.
Drainage
What should you ask if the report mentions drainage?
Ask which chambers were opened, what was in them, and what was not seen. Shared drains, a septic tank, and a cover in a neighbour’s garden are legal and practical limits as well as technical ones. Your solicitor should hear about those.
Drainage
Does a Level 1 survey lift drain covers?
No. RICS Level 1 does not lift inspection chamber covers to drains or septic tanks. The surveyor may still comment on gullies and covers they can see without lifting them. Underground pipes are outside that inspection.
Drainage
If you booked a Level 2 or Level 3, have the drains been camera-surveyed?
Not unless the surveyor says they did a CCTV survey. Levels 2 and 3 include a more extensive look at drainage chambers than Level 1. Looking in a chamber is not the same as sending a camera down the pipe.
Drainage
What if the inspection cover could not be lifted?
Then that chamber was not inspected, and the report should say so. A seized or buried cover is a limit, not a clean bill of health. If the rest of the evidence worries the surveyor, the next step is still a separate look, not a guess about the hidden pipe.
Drainage
Does the survey mean the drains pass Approved Document H?
No. Approved Document H is the English building-regulations document for drainage and waste disposal. The Level 3 description says the survey does not investigate whether drainage meets current regulations. Wales is a separate building-regulations system.
Drainage
The report mentions a slow gully or a smell. Is that a collapsed drain?
Not on its own. A blocked gully, a flat fall or debris in a chamber can cause a smell or slow emptying without a collapse further down the run. It is a reason to clear and look, and a reason for CCTV only if the surveyor has said the risk justifies it.
Drainage
Do nearby trees mean the drains are damaged?
No. Trees can be relevant, and a surveyor may mention them beside a drainage note or a movement note. That is a prompt to investigate if the report asks for it. It is not a finding that roots have entered the pipe.
Drainage
Should you renegotiate before you know what is wrong underground?
A price cut for an unseen pipe is a guess. If the survey recommends a CCTV survey or a lifted cover they could not move, get that done before exchange or decide you will accept the unknown. The home survey has already said it is not a camera inspection.
Roof and rainwater
Do leaking gutters and downpipes matter when you buy?
Leaking gutters and downpipes are a common cause of penetrating damp, because rain reaches the wall from outside. The repair is the rainwater goods, not a chemical damp-proof course. A home survey does not water-test every joint. In England and Wales, read the stain with the gutter above it before you accept a damp-proofing quote.
Roof and rainwater
How do leaking gutters become penetrating damp?
Gutters and downpipes exist to catch rain and carry it clear of the walls. When a joint is open, an outlet is blocked, a fall runs the wrong way, or a downpipe discharges at the foot of the wall, that water soaks the masonry instead. That is penetrating damp. It can show as staining under the eaves, green growth on the brick, blown render, or a damp patch inside below the leak. It is not moisture rising from the ground, even if the indoor stain is low down because the downpipe has been soaking the base of the wall.
Roof and rainwater
Why is a damp-proof course the wrong first repair?
A chemical damp-proof course is aimed at moisture from the ground. It does not reseat a gutter joint, clear an outlet, or extend a shoe so the downpipe discharges into a gully. If the survey points at rainwater goods, the repair is the rainwater goods. Injecting the wall and leaving the leak teaches the next rainstorm nothing.
Roof and rainwater
What will the survey not have tested?
A home survey does not water-test every joint. Level 1 includes no tests of the fabric at all, and it is a less extensive visual inspection than Level 2 or Level 3. Even a Level 3, which looks carefully at what is evident, is not a hose test of the whole installation. The surveyor uses their eyes, often from the ground, sometimes with binoculars. They may see stains, rust, open joints, vegetation and missing parts. They will not have stood water in every length.
Roof and rainwater
What should you check against the gutter on the next visit?
Walk the outside with the survey note in your hand. You are looking for the fitting that lines up with the stain, not for a product to inject into the plaster.
Roof and rainwater
Can a leaking gutter really be the whole damp problem?
Yes. Leaking rainwater goods are a common cause of penetrating damp, because rain reaches the wall from outside. Fix the gutter, the outlet or the downpipe before you buy a treatment for the plaster. The indoor stain is often only the other side of that leak.
Roof and rainwater
Why do damp quotes still recommend a chemical course?
Because the stain is on a wall, and a chemical course is what some contractors sell for any stain. The repair for a leaking gutter is the gutter. Ask them to explain how an injection stops rain coming over the eaves.
Roof and rainwater
Has the surveyor water-tested the gutters?
Do not assume so. A home survey does not water-test every joint. Level 1 includes no tests of the fabric. Higher levels are still visual inspections unless the surveyor says they ran water.
Roof and rainwater
The downpipe ends at the foot of the wall. Does that matter?
Yes. Water dumped at the base of the wall soaks the masonry and can look like rising damp from inside. The repair is to discharge into a gully or otherwise clear of the wall. It is not automatically a new damp-proof course.
Roof and rainwater
The gutters looked dry on the survey day. Are they fine?
A dry visit can miss a joint that only drips in rain. Staining, rust and plant growth are the clues the surveyor uses instead. If you saw an overflow on a viewing, say so, because the surveyor cannot invent weather they did not have.
Roof and rainwater
There is mould below the leak. Is that a health issue or just decoration?
Mould is not only decoration. Government guidance for rented-housing providers treats damp and mould as a health risk. The buyer’s task is still to stop the water, which here is the rainwater goods, and then let the wall dry.
Roof and rainwater
How should you price a gutter repair without a metre rate?
Price the fittings the survey actually flagged: joints, outlets, falls, brackets and the discharge at the ground. A rate per metre invented from the length of the elevation is not a finding. Get a written description of the work, then decide whether it changes the purchase.
Hazardous materials
What does spray foam insulation mean in a home survey?
Spray foam can hide the roof timbers a surveyor needs to see. Incorrect installation, missing paperwork, or use on a listed building without consent matters. RICS says it can affect value, and some lenders, including equity-release, have been concerned. Not every lender refuses it. Ask for the contract, calculations, guarantee and any certificate.
Hazardous materials
Why can spray foam stop a surveyor seeing the roof?
The RICS consumer guide on spray foam says some installations make it difficult to see problems in the roof, because the view from the roof space is restricted. If the timbers are covered, they cannot be fully seen or inspected. A leak behind the foam may not be noticed, and an unnoticed leak can rot the timber. The guide is written for the UK and is about foam applied to existing roofs in loft voids. It is not a product brochure, and it is not a ban.
Hazardous materials
Which paperwork should you ask the seller for?
RICS recommends that an installer provide the installation contract, the relevant calculations, a record of the works to the roof, any guarantee or warranty, and any independent test certificate, for example a BBA or Kiwa certificate. If you are buying, ask the seller for that set. It is what a valuer, a lender or a solicitor is likely to ask for next. A verbal assurance that it was done properly is not the pack.
Hazardous materials
How can spray foam affect value without every lender refusing it?
RICS says the presence of spray foam can affect a surveyor’s opinion of value. If the surveyor finds it, they may ask for an independent specialist report, and that report can change the opinion. Incorrect installation, or installation on a listed building without consent, will be reflected in the valuation. The surveyor also has to follow the instructions of any lender client. Some lenders, including equity-release lenders, have been concerned.
Hazardous materials
What should you ask about consent, installation and removal?
RICS says spray foam must not be installed in a listed building or other protected structure without listed building consent first. It also says removal can damage the structure, so the work is not considered reversible, and consent for a listed building is unlikely. Incorrect installation can trap moisture and interfere with ventilation. None of those sentences is a quotation for cutting the foam out.
Hazardous materials
Why does spray foam make a roof survey harder?
Because it can cover the timbers the surveyor needs to see. RICS says a leak behind some types of foam may not be noticed, and unseen leaks can rot timber. The survey should say the structure was concealed rather than calling it sound.
Hazardous materials
Which documents should the seller produce?
Ask for the installation contract, the calculations, any guarantee, and any BBA or Kiwa certificate. RICS recommends that set, plus a record of the roof works. If the file is missing, say so to the valuer and the solicitor rather than assuming the job was designed properly.
Hazardous materials
Do all lenders refuse a house with spray foam?
No. RICS says the presence can affect a surveyor’s opinion of value, and that some lenders, including equity-release, have been concerned. That is not a refusal by every lender. Ask the lender you are actually using, and give them the paperwork.
Hazardous materials
What if the foam is in a listed building?
RICS says spray foam must not be installed in a listed building without listed building consent in advance. Installation without consent will be reflected in a valuation. Removal can damage the structure, so do not treat stripping it as a simple tidy-up.
Hazardous materials
What counts as a problem with the installation itself?
Incorrect installation, missing calculations, and a guarantee that covers only the material and not the workmanship all matter. RICS also warns that poor installation can lead to condensation and trapped moisture. The foam being present is not, by itself, the whole finding.
Hazardous materials
Will the surveyor want a specialist report?
They may. RICS says that if spray foam is encountered, the surveyor may ask for an independent report, separate from the installer and the manufacturer. The result can affect their opinion. A second walk around the loft does not see timbers the foam still covers.
Hazardous materials
Should you deduct a removal cost from the price?
Not from a figure this guide invents, because there is no honest single cost to quote. The survey has not specified a strip-out. Decide with your lender and with any specialist report whether removal is even the right step.
Hazardous materials
Does spray foam just add insulation like a quilt in the loft?
No. RICS describes it as changing how the roof works, often from a cold roof to a warm roof, and says the timbers then need the ventilation and condensation checks the design called for. It is not the same as a quilt you can lift to see the ceiling.
Structure
What does non-standard construction mean in a home survey?
RICS aims Level 1 and Level 2 at conventional homes built from common materials. Level 3 is the survey they describe for older, altered or unusual construction. Non-standard is not one defect, and it is not automatically a reason a lender must refuse. Lenders set their own criteria. This page does not invent them.
Structure
What does RICS mean by a conventional home?
The consumer guide points Level 1 and Level 2 at houses, flats and bungalows built in a common way, from materials a surveyor sees every week, and not full of alterations. That is a scope decision. It is not a moral judgment on any other way of building. If the walls, the frame or the floors are not that ordinary construction, the inspection Level 2 assumes can be the wrong tool.
Structure
What can a visual survey actually identify?
The surveyor looks at what is exposed: wall thickness, lintels, roof structure if they can enter the void, and the way junctions are finished. Linings, render and later insulation hide the original system. A Level 1 does not open the fabric. Neither does Level 2 or 3 as standard. If the report says the construction could not be confirmed, that uncertainty is the finding.
Structure
Does unusual construction mean you cannot get a mortgage?
No. Some lenders are comfortable with some systems and not with others, and they change their minds. That is their credit policy, not a sentence in the Home Survey Standard. Do not let an agent tell you a label is fatal, and do not let a forum tell you it is always fine. Ask the lender you intend to use, and give them the surveyor’s description of the construction, not a nickname.
Structure
What should you do when the report uses this phrase?
Get the construction named. If the surveyor recommends Level 3 and you only have Level 1, that is a scope problem, not a reason to panic-buy a specialist you do not understand. If they recommend a specialist report on a named system, ask what question that report is meant to answer. Repairs, if any, follow the defect, not the category.
Structure
Is a concrete house always non-standard?
Concrete was used in many different systems, some ordinary and some not. The survey should say what it could see. A label from a listing is not an identification. Do not assume a repair scheme or a lender’s historic list still applies until someone competent has named the system.
Structure
Is modern timber frame a problem?
Modern timber frame, built as such, is a known method. The survey still has to see whether the frame, the cladding and the cavity are doing what they should, including keeping water out. “Timber frame” is not, by itself, a defect or a compliment.
Structure
Should unusual construction always be a Level 3?
RICS describes Level 3 for unusual construction. That is the starting point for the instruction. A surveyor who has already seen the building may still explain why a different level was enough. Ask them to write that reason down.
Structure
Does non-standard construction mean asbestos?
No. Asbestos can be in ordinary houses built or refurbished before 2000, and it can be in system-built ones. The questions are separate. Do not drill either to find out.
Structure
Will insurance be refused?
This page does not know. Insurers set their own acceptance. Tell them the construction the survey names, not a vague phrase. A refusal from one insurer is not a survey finding.
Structure
Does the survey value a non-standard house?
Only if you instructed a valuation. Level 3 is not automatically a valuation. A lender’s valuation is a third document. None of them is a quote for repairs.
Structure
Should you open the wall before exchange?
Only if the surveyor has said the unseen part matters to the decision, and the seller agrees. Opening up is damage. It is sometimes the only way to stop guessing. It is not a ritual for every unusual house.
Structure
The agent says it is standard brick. Who is right?
The person who inspected the fabric, if they say what they saw. An agent’s description in the particulars is not an inspection. If they disagree, ask the surveyor which detail convinced them.
Structure
What do cracks mean in a home survey?
A crack is a symptom, not a diagnosis. The Association of British Insurers defines subsidence as the ground sinking and taking the foundations down, which is not the same as heave or landslip. A home survey can describe a crack. It does not monitor it over time, and it does not prove the ground is moving.
Structure
Why is a crack not a cause?
Plaster cracks because plaster moves. Masonry cracks because something pushed, pulled, shrank or was built that way. Shrinkage in a new extension, a lintel that has slipped, rusting steel, roof spread and ground movement can all draw a line on a wall. The paragraph has to say which of those the surveyor thinks is likely, and what would show them they are wrong.
Structure
What should you read in the crack paragraph?
Width, if they mention it, is their observation on the day. This page does not convert a width into “category 3” or “needs underpinning”. Those tables are not sourced here. Ask the surveyor what the crack means in this wall, not what a chart on the internet says a millimetre is worth.
Structure
When does a crack need someone else?
When the surveyor says the cause is not clear and the consequence could be serious, or when movement is suspected. That next person may be a structural engineer, and sometimes a drains contractor, because leaking drains can wash support away. The home survey does not become that investigation by adding an adjective. Budget the investigation separately from any repair nobody has specified yet.
Structure
Should you walk away because of cracks?
Not from the word. Walk away, renegotiate, or carry on based on the cause and the timing the report describes. Old, filled, stable cracks in plaster are maintenance. Cracks the surveyor says are opening, or that they link to the foundations, are a reason to pause before exchange. The rating tells you urgency in RICS’s terms. The paragraph tells you the job.
Structure
Are hairline cracks harmless?
Often they are in the plaster only, and the survey will say so if that is what it saw. “Hairline” is not a guarantee. Read whether the crack is in the masonry as well, and whether the surveyor thinks it is still moving. If they do not know, that is the sentence to act on.
Structure
Cracks in new plaster mean the house is moving, don’t they?
New plaster and new masonry shrink as they dry. That can crack finishes without any ground movement. The survey should distinguish shrinkage from distortion. Do not pay for underpinning because a skim coat is young.
Structure
Should you tell the insurer about every crack?
Tell them what your policy requires. ABI explains subsidence, heave and landslip as insured events on a typical policy, often with an excess around £1,000, which is not the cost of repair and not your schedule. A decorative crack is not automatically a claim. Do not invent a claim to “get the survey paid for”.
Structure
Will the surveyor monitor the crack?
Not as part of a normal home survey. Monitoring means coming back, or telling you how a specialist would. If the report says “monitor”, ask who does it, for how long, and whether you should wait before exchange. A single visit cannot see the future.
Structure
Do cracks mean the house needs underpinning?
No. Underpinning is a specific repair for a specific foundation problem. Many cracks need repointing, a lintel, or nothing. If an engineer specifies underpinning, that specification is what a contractor prices. The survey is not that specification.
Structure
The crack is only inside. Does that matter?
It can. A crack that does not come through to the outside is more often in the finish. It can also be the early sign of something the lining is hiding. Ask the surveyor why they think it stops where it stops.
Structure
The seller filled the cracks before the viewing. Is that a problem?
Filling is ordinary decorating, and it is also how movement is hidden for a weekend. The surveyor looks for distortion, not only for open gaps. Tell them the walls were recently filled if you know that. Do not treat fresh paint as evidence either way.
Structure
Is a crack always a condition rating 3?
No. RICS ratings follow seriousness and urgency, which are defined in the report. A minor crack in plaster can be a lower rating. A crack the surveyor links to ongoing movement will not be. Read the definition printed in your report, not a guess from the word crack.
Structure
What does a bowing or bulging wall mean?
A bowing or bulging wall means the surveyor could see the wall leaving the line it was built on. Failed ties, roof spread, overloaded floors or ground movement can all do that. The report should say what was visible and what was not. It does not, by itself, specify a repair or a price.
Structure
How does a surveyor describe a wall that is not straight?
They look along the wall, inside and outside if they can, and they say whether the bulge is local or storey-high, and whether floors or the roof are pushing it. A photograph in the listing flattens that. The report should say which elevation and which floor. “The front is bowed” without a location is not enough to brief an engineer.
Structure
What usually causes a bulge, without pretending one answer?
Cavity walls can bulge when the ties that hold the two leaves together have corroded or were never enough. Solid walls can bulge when floor joists or a roof spread push them outward. Ground movement can crack and tilt a wall, which is a different mechanism and the one ABI is talking about when it defines subsidence. The repair for ties is not the repair for a roof that is spreading, and neither is automatically underpinning.
Structure
When is a bowed wall urgent?
When the surveyor says the restraint has gone, or that the wall is moving, the rating should reflect urgency. RICS uses ratings for seriousness, not for drama. A historic bulge that is restrained and not getting worse is a different paragraph from a wall with fresh cracking and a gap at the floor. If they cannot tell whether it is historic, say so, and do not exchange on a guess.
Structure
What should you commission next?
The investigation the survey names. That might be a closer look at ties, a structural engineer’s comment on restraint, or checks to the roof. It is not a standard “wall tie replacement” sold off a leaflet if the report never mentioned ties. Get the cause, then the price. This page has no price for restraint work because no official national figure is cited.
Structure
The bulge has been there for years. Can you ignore it?
Age is relevant if the surveyor can see it has been restrained and is not opening. It is not a free pass. Old movement can still be inadequate for a new load, such as a loft conversion. Ask whether it is stable, not whether it is familiar.
Structure
Is every bulge a wall-tie failure?
No. Ties are one cause in cavity walls. Solid walls do not have cavity ties. Roof spread is another cause. The report should say which construction it is. Replacing ties in a wall that is being pushed by the roof does not stop the push.
Structure
The inside looks flat. Is the outside bulge only rendering?
Thick or detached render can look like a bulge. The surveyor should tap and look. If they say the masonry itself is out of plane, believe the masonry. If they say it might be the render, the next step is the render, not steelwork.
Structure
The bowed wall is shared with the neighbour. Who repairs it?
Ownership and the Party Wall etc. Act are legal questions. The survey describes condition. Your solicitor works out who must act. Do not cut into a party wall because a contractor arrived first.
Structure
Is a bowed wall an insurance claim?
Only if the cause is an insured event under your policy, such as subsidence as ABI defines it, and you meet the policy terms. A tie failure or roof spread may be maintenance, which policies often do not pay. Ask the insurer with the survey paragraph in front of you. Do not assume.
Structure
Should you prop the wall before completion?
If the surveyor says the wall is unsafe now, that is urgent and the owner should be told. Propping a house you do not own needs the owner’s agreement. Do not instruct emergency work on someone else’s building because a forum told you to.
Structure
Would Level 3 have explained the bulge better?
Level 3 is where RICS expects a fuller account of how the building works and what the repair options are. A Level 2 should still have seen a visible bulge and said so. If the cause is hidden in the cavity, neither level opens it as standard.
Structure
What does straightening a wall cost?
No sourced national price is given here. The cost follows the cause: ties, roof restraint, or foundation work are different contracts. Price the specification an engineer or the survey actually asks for.
Structure
What do lintel problems look like in a survey?
A lintel carries the wall above an opening. Cracks that start at the corners of a window or door are the usual clue that it is struggling, rotten or missing. Concrete, timber, steel and stone fail in different ways. If the lintel is covered, a home survey cannot see it, and it will say so.
Structure
What is the surveyor worried about over an opening?
The load from the wall above has to go somewhere. A lintel, an arch, or a hidden beam does that job. When it does not, the cracks show at the weakest point, which is often the top corners of the window or door. The frame may then carry load it was never meant to carry, which is why doors stick and glass cracks. The survey is describing that load path, not selling you a window.
Structure
Why does the material of the lintel matter?
Timber lintels rot if they stay wet, often because the gutter or the sill above them has failed. Steel lintels and cavity trays can rust; the rust expands and lifts the brickwork, which looks like a crack even when the steel is still doing some work. Concrete and stone crack differently again. Replacing “the lintel” without knowing which one is how people pay for the wrong opening-up.
Structure
Do building regulations apply if the lintel is replaced?
Replacing a structural lintel is building work. Approved Document A is the England document on structure. Whether you need an application or can use a competent person depends on the job. The survey does not make that application. Your builder should not start by knocking out a bearing wall because the report used the word lintel.
Structure
What should you find out before exchange?
If the surveyor says the support over an opening is failing, get a written description of the repair before you are committed: which openings, whether the wall is loadbearing, and whether water must be stopped first. A quote that says “new lintels” with no count of openings is not a quote for the paragraph you read. There is no national price on this page.
Structure
One crack above one window means a new lintel, doesn’t it?
Not always. Settlement of the frame, a failed mastic joint, or a crack in the render can sit in the same place. The survey should say if the masonry is displaced. One cautious sentence is not an instruction to replace every opening in the house.
Structure
Are bay windows a lintel issue?
Bays often have their own beams and posts, and they rot or spread for reasons that include the roof of the bay, not only a single lintel. Read the paragraph about the bay. Do not fold it into a generic window quote.
Structure
If the crack is only upstairs, is the lintel downstairs fine?
Each opening has its own support. A problem on the first floor does not prove the ground floor, and it does not clear it. Ask about the openings the surveyor actually looked at.
Structure
Can a plastic window frame act as a lintel?
It should not have to. Frames hold glass and keep weather out. If the surveyor thinks the frame is carrying masonry because the lintel has failed, that is a structural comment, not a glazing comment. Replacing the window without replacing the support repeats the problem.
Structure
Does a listed building change the repair?
It can. Consent may be needed before you alter the appearance or the structure. The survey is not that consent. Ask the solicitor and the council’s conservation officer before a contractor specifies a steel beam you can see from the street.
Structure
Will insurance pay for a lintel?
Often this is wear, rot or a lack of support, which is maintenance rather than an insured event. Read the policy. Do not assume a crack over a window is subsidence because ABI defines that word more narrowly.
Structure
Can you replace a lintel yourself after completion?
Support has to be in place before the old one comes out. Getting that wrong drops the wall. Treat it as building work that needs someone who will design the temporary support, not as a weekend job described on this page.
Structure
Should every window in an old house be budgeted as a lintel?
No. Budget the openings the survey identifies. An old house can have sound brick arches over most windows and one rotten timber over the wettest one. Price that one, and the reason it got wet.
Structure
What does cracked or hollow render mean?
Cracked or hollow render can let rain into the wall behind it. That is penetrating damp, not automatically rising damp. On an old solid wall, a hard cement coat can also trap moisture that used to escape. A survey can look and tap. It does not remove the render, and it does not price the scaffolding.
Structure
How does cracked render become damp inside?
Render is a coat. When it cracks or loses its key, water runs through the crack and down the face of the wall it was meant to protect. Inside, that shows as staining under the same patch, often worse after rain. That pattern is penetrating damp. It is repaired by keeping the rain out, which may mean the render, the sill, or the gutter that is soaking the top of the wall. It is not repaired by injecting a damp-proof course at the bottom.
Structure
What does hollow render tell you?
A hollow sound means the coat has left the wall in that spot. It can fall, and it can hold a pocket of water. The surveyor taps where they can reach. They do not tap the whole house from a scaffold they do not have. “Hollow in places at low level” is not “the entire elevation has failed”. Ask how far they think it goes, and whether they could only reach the ground floor.
Structure
Why do surveyors worry about cement on old walls?
Solid walls built with lime mortars were meant to get wet and dry. A hard cement render does not move or breathe in the same way. Moisture that gets in at a crack, or from inside the house, can be slower to leave, and the coat can trap it against the masonry. The survey is not telling you to strip every rendered house. It is telling you not to specify a new hard coat on a wall that needed a softer one, without someone who understands that wall.
Structure
When is the crack the wall rather than the render?
When the same line runs through the masonry, or the wall is bowed, or openings are distorted. Then read the pages on cracks, lintels and bowing, and treat the render as the surface that showed the movement. Recoating a moving wall hides the evidence and fails again. GOV.UK’s damp guidance is about health in rented homes, not a specification for render. It is a reason to take internal mould seriously while you find the rain path.
Structure
Will masonry paint solve cracked render?
Paint covers a sound coat. It does not bridge a crack that moves, and it does not stick a hollow patch back. If the survey says the coat has failed, a decorator’s quote is the wrong document.
Structure
Does one hollow patch mean the whole house must be re-rendered?
Not on this page’s say-so. Ask how widespread the failure is, within what the surveyor could reach. Local repair is sometimes honest. A whole-elevation specification is for when the coat has generally left the wall. Get that distinction in the quote.
Structure
Is pebbledash the same issue?
It is still a coat that can crack, trap water, or hide the bricks. It is also harder to patch invisibly. The survey should say whether it is cracked or hollow, not merely that it is pebbledash. The finish is not a defect.
Structure
Can render bridge a cavity?
Render taken down over the damp-proof course, or across a gap it should have stopped at, can carry water to places the cavity was meant to drain. Ask the surveyor if they saw the coat buried in a path or covering a vent. That detail changes the repair.
Structure
There is no stain inside. Can you leave the cracks?
If the surveyor says the coat is still stuck and the cracks are hairline, they may call it maintenance. If they say it is hollow, the risk is that it falls or lets water in later. “No stain today” is not a survey of next winter. Read their recommendation.
Structure
What does re-rendering cost per square metre?
No official national rate is cited here. Access, the type of coat, whether the wall is lime or cement, and whether masonry needs repair underneath all change the price. A figure without those words is not a quote for the report you have.
Structure
Is scaffolding included in a render quote?
Ask. Upper walls are not repaired from a stepladder in any specification this page will invent. A quote that is silent on access is not finished.
Structure
The contractor says cracked render proves rising damp. Does it?
No. Cracks at low level are often splashback, a path that is too high, or a failed coat. Rising damp is a particular mechanism. Do not accept an injection specification because the bottom of the render looks tired.
Services
What do window and door defects mean in a survey?
A home survey can see rotten frames, failed glazing seals, distorted openings and windows that no longer keep weather out. Replacement windows in England are often building work. GOV.UK describes competent-person schemes as one way to show compliance, alongside an application. The survey does not certify the installation. It describes the condition.
Services
What window problems are actually condition?
Rot in timber, misted double glazing, sills that tip water into the wall, and gaps you can see daylight through are condition. They let heat out and rain in. A survey records them where they can be seen without taking the window out. Misted glass means the seal has failed. It does not mean the frame is rotten, and rotten frames do not always mist the glass.
Services
When are replacement windows a building-regulations question?
In England, replacing windows is commonly building work. GOV.UK explains that a competent-person scheme is one way the installer shows the work met the regulations, and that you can otherwise use a building-regulations application. FENSA is an example of a scheme, not the only route, and this page does not quote a fee for a certificate. Missing paperwork does not, by itself, mean the window will leak. Leaking is what the survey can see. The paperwork is what your solicitor asks the seller for.
Services
What about external doors?
The same split applies. A door that does not close to the frame is weather, security and sometimes a sign the opening has moved. That last point belongs with cracks and lintels. A new door in an old opening still needs a head that carries the wall. The survey is not a locksmith’s report and does not guarantee the ironmongery.
Services
What should you not assume you must replace?
Not every original window. Draughts can be eased and draught-proofed. Rot can be spliced. Failed double-glazed units can be reglazed if the frame is sound. The survey should say which of those it thinks applies. A quote to replace every window because the house is old is not a reading of the report. There is no national window price on this page.
Services
Do misted panes mean the whole window must go?
They mean the sealed unit has failed. If the frame is sound, a glazier may be able to replace the glass only. If the frame is rotten or distorted, the survey should say that separately. Do not accept one price that blurs the two.
Services
There is no FENSA certificate. Is the window illegal?
Not necessarily. Competent-person schemes are one route GOV.UK describes. A building-regulations application is another, and older work may predate the scheme you asked about. Your solicitor checks what should exist. The survey tells you if it leaks or has rotted.
Services
Can you replace windows in a listed building?
Often only with consent, and like-for-like is a phrase the council will define, not this page. The survey can say the frames are failing. It cannot grant consent. Ask before you price uPVC for a listed front.
Services
The trickle vents are shut. Does that matter?
They were put there to provide background ventilation. Painted shut or blocked, they stop doing that, and condensation gets more likely. Approved Document F is the England ventilation document for building work. A survey that notes vents are sealed is describing a moisture risk, not a decorating choice.
Services
Does the survey test the locks?
It looks at the leaves and the frames. It is not a security audit and does not guarantee a lock. If security is your question, ask a locksmith. If the door does not meet the frame, ask the surveyor whether the opening has moved.
Services
Are conservatory doors and windows in the same scope?
If the surveyor could see them, they can comment. Conservatories also raise planning and building-regulations questions that belong with the extension page. Condition of the glass is not approval for the structure.
Services
Must single glazing be replaced before you buy?
No. Single glazing is a thermal fact, not a hidden defect. The survey may mention heat loss and condensation risk. Whether you replace it is a comfort and a regulations question for when you do the work, not an automatic condition rating crisis.
Services
What does a new window cost?
No official price is cited here. Size, material, access and whether the lintel needs work change the number completely. Price the openings the survey says have failed, and ask whether making good the reveal is included.
Legal and neighbours
What is a party wall, and when does the Act apply?
In England and Wales the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 sits apart from planning permission and building regulations. It covers building on or at a boundary, work to a party wall or party structure, and excavation near a neighbour’s foundations. Notice is given between two months and a year before the work. A condition rating is not an award.
Legal and neighbours
What counts as a party wall?
GOV.UK describes a party wall as a wall that stands on the land of two owners and forms part of a building, or a wall that separates buildings of different owners. A party structure can be a floor between flats. A garden fence is not the subject of this page. The Act is about certain building works, not about every disagreement with a neighbour.
Legal and neighbours
When do you have to tell the neighbour?
When the work is the kind the Act covers: building on or at the boundary, cutting into or altering a party wall, or excavating near and below their foundations. GOV.UK says notice is served between two months and a year before you intend to start. The neighbour can agree or disagree. If they disagree, the Act sets out how the dispute is resolved. That process is not the same as your home survey, and this page does not describe fees for party-wall surveyors because GOV.UK’s guide is the place to read the procedure rather than a price list.
Legal and neighbours
What does a home survey have to do with the Act?
Almost nothing formal. The surveyor may see that a loft was cut into a party wall, or that a neighbour’s extension sits on the boundary, and they should tell you to ask your solicitor. They do not serve notice, and they do not write an award. A condition rating 3 on a shared wall is about condition. It does not appoint anyone under the Act.
Legal and neighbours
What should a buyer ask the solicitor?
Whether work the survey describes, or work you can see, needed notice, and whether any award or letter of consent exists. Also whether you will be the person who must cooperate if the neighbour builds later. Planning permission in a drawer does not answer the party-wall question. GOV.UK is explicit that the regimes are separate.
Legal and neighbours
Does the Party Wall etc. Act apply in Scotland?
GOV.UK’s party-wall guidance is for England and Wales and says the rules in Scotland are different. Do not serve an English notice on a Scottish neighbour because this page described the Act. Take local advice.
Legal and neighbours
The seller says the neighbour was fine with it. Is that notice?
A conversation is not the written notice the Act describes. Your solicitor should look for the paperwork. A friendly neighbour can move house. The Act exists so the next owner is not relying on a chat.
Legal and neighbours
What is a party-wall award?
It is the written resolution the Act provides when owners do not simply agree. It is not a RICS Home Survey and not a planning consent. If one exists, read who it binds and what work it described. This page is not a substitute for reading it.
Legal and neighbours
Does a loft conversion need the Act?
If the work cuts into or bears on a party wall, GOV.UK’s list of examples includes that kind of work. Not every loft does. Ask the solicitor to compare the drawings with the Act, not with the brochure.
Legal and neighbours
We are only digging for a drain. Does the Act apply?
It can, if the excavation is near and below the neighbour’s foundations. Depth and distance are set out in the official guidance. Do not guess from this summary. If the survey mentions deep excavations beside the boundary, flag them to the solicitor.
Legal and neighbours
Who pays the party-wall surveyors?
The Act and the award deal with costs. This page does not quote a fee. Do not budget from a forum. If an award exists, it may already say who paid.
Legal and neighbours
The neighbour is objecting. Does that stop the purchase?
It means there is a live dispute under a procedure. Whether you still want the house is your decision, with your solicitor. A survey cannot settle it. Do not exchange on an assurance that it will “blow over” unless you are happy to own the argument.
Legal and neighbours
The party wall is cracked. Is that an Act matter or a repair?
The crack is condition, which the survey describes. Who must repair a shared wall, and whether works to it need notice, is legal. You may need both a builder’s view of the crack and a solicitor’s view of the wall. They are not the same visit.
Legal and neighbours
How should you read a garage, shed or outbuilding in a survey?
A home survey describes the condition of an outbuilding the surveyor could enter. It does not grant planning permission or building-regulations approval. The Planning Portal sets out the householder rules for outbuildings in England. Whether this shed or garage met them is for the paperwork and your solicitor, not for a guess from the floor area.
Legal and neighbours
What does the survey actually say about the outbuilding?
Look for whether they entered it. A locked garage, a shed full to the door, or a roof they could not see safely may be excluded. That exclusion is the finding. Do not assume a silent garage is sound. Level 1’s scope is a more limited visual inspection than Level 2 or 3, and outbuildings are often where the sentence “not inspected” appears.
Legal and neighbours
Does a sound shed still need permission?
Yes, it might. Condition and permission are different. The Planning Portal explains when an outbuilding in England is permitted development and when it is not, including the exceptions that a summary always misses. This page will not repeat a height limit without those exceptions. Ask the solicitor for any permission, certificate of lawfulness, or evidence the seller relies on. A surveyor’s “appears recently built” is a prompt, not a decision.
Legal and neighbours
Which defects in an outbuilding actually matter?
A leaking garage roof over stored paint is maintenance. A garage whose rear wall is the retaining wall to the neighbour’s garden is structure. Services run into an outbuilding, including electrics, are the same caution as services in the house: the survey does not test them. If you plan to convert the building, the survey of a store is not a design for a room.
Legal and neighbours
What if the outbuilding sits on the boundary?
Then read the party-wall page as well, and ask the solicitor who owns the wall. A building that overhangs or drains onto next door is a legal problem the condition rating will not settle. Gutters that discharge onto the neighbour’s path are also a drainage argument waiting to happen. The survey can see the gutter. The deed can say whose it is.
Legal and neighbours
The surveyor did not go in the garage. Should you care?
Yes, if you are paying for the garage as usable space. Ask for a return visit or look yourself before exchange, with the seller’s agreement. An excluded building is an unknown, not a pass.
Legal and neighbours
Could the garage roof be asbestos cement?
HSE says asbestos can be in buildings built or refurbished before 2000, and cement roofs are one of the materials people meet. The survey may suspect it from the look. It should not tell you to drill it. Leave it undisturbed and take advice before you break it up. There is no removal price on this page.
Legal and neighbours
The garage has power. Was it tested?
Not by a home survey as standard. A spur that looks amateurish may be commented on. An electrical installation condition report is a different instruction. Do not run a workshop off a cable the survey did not test.
Legal and neighbours
Can you turn the outbuilding into an office later?
Maybe, with whatever permission and building regulations the Planning Portal and GOV.UK require at the time, and with a structure that can take the use. The current survey does not approve that future. Sleeping accommodation is a higher bar than a desk. Ask before you rely on it.
Legal and neighbours
The council has not enforced. Is it lawful?
Lack of enforcement is not a certificate. Your solicitor explains lawful development, time limits and insurance. This page does not state a number of years after which every outbuilding becomes lawful. Those rules have exceptions and they change.
Legal and neighbours
Does the survey include the outbuilding in the value?
Only if you bought a valuation and the valuer says what they included. A condition comment is not a value. Do not add a homemade figure for a garage the surveyor could not enter.
Legal and neighbours
The shed is leaning. Is that a rating 3 on the house?
It is a comment on the shed. Ratings apply to the elements the report defines. A leaning timber shed is not the same finding as movement in the main house. Read which element the sentence is attached to.
Legal and neighbours
What if an extension has no building-regulations approval?
Building-regulations approval and planning permission are different. A home survey can say whether an extension looks competently built. It cannot say the council approved it. Missing papers are for your solicitor, who may discuss regularisation or indemnity. Indemnity insurance does not make a wall safe. The survey’s job is the wall.
Legal and neighbours
What are the two different questions?
Planning permission, or permitted development as the Planning Portal describes it for extensions in England, is about the principle and the size and position of what was built. Building regulations, as GOV.UK describes them, are about structure, fire, moisture, drainage, ventilation and the rest of how it was built. You can have one and not the other. A survey that says the flat roof looks tired has not answered either legal question.
Legal and neighbours
What can the surveyor say about the extension?
Whether the junction with the house is cracked or leaking, whether the roof holds water, whether the opening where a wall was removed looks properly supported, and whether they could see the foundations (they usually cannot). Those are condition. “No papers seen” is a legal flag, not a condition rating. Ask them to keep the two sentences apart so your solicitor and your builder are not reading the same line.
Legal and neighbours
What paperwork should the solicitor ask for?
Planning permission or evidence of permitted development, building-regulations approval and a completion certificate, or a competent-person certificate where that route was used. If they are missing, the solicitor may discuss a regularisation application with the council, or an indemnity policy. Regularisation is the council looking at the work. Indemnity is an insurance policy with exclusions. Neither is a guarantee the roof is sound. Read the survey for that.
Legal and neighbours
Why will this page not tell you it is fine after a number of years?
Enforcement time limits are legal rules with exceptions, and they are not a substitute for a wall that is leaning. A deadline that stops the council acting does not stop rain coming in, and it does not bind a lender who has their own rules. Your solicitor should explain the current position for this extension. Anyone who quotes a single number of years as if it cured the building is guessing.
Legal and neighbours
If the seller offers indemnity insurance, can you ignore the survey?
No. Indemnity, if it is offered and if the insurer accepts the risk, is about specified legal costs. It does not rebuild a failed junction. Read the policy schedule and read the survey. They answer different questions.
Legal and neighbours
What is building-regulations regularisation?
It is the route GOV.UK describes for getting approval after work is done, which can involve the council inspecting and asking for openings-up. It is not automatic and it is not always granted. Your solicitor and the council explain it. The survey does not apply for it.
Legal and neighbours
The agent says it was permitted development. Is that approval?
Permitted development is a set of national rules the Planning Portal explains, with limits and exceptions. “The agent said” is not those rules. A lawful development certificate is how people prove it later. Ask the solicitor whether one exists.
Legal and neighbours
Will a lender care about missing papers?
Many do. Ask the lender or the broker with the facts, not with a hope. This page does not speak for them. A retention or a refusal is their decision. It is still not a description of the crack.
Legal and neighbours
Are conservatories exempt from building regulations?
Some largely glazed extensions have been treated differently, and the exemptions have conditions. GOV.UK and the Planning Portal are where those conditions live. Do not rely on a salesperson’s “conservatories don’t count”. If it is heated and open to the house, ask specifically.
Legal and neighbours
Is a loft conversion an extension for these purposes?
It is building work, and it often needs building regulations even when it does not need planning permission. The survey looks at the structure it can see, including whether the floor and the stairs were thought about. Papers are still the solicitor’s question. Party walls may be a third question.
Legal and neighbours
The extension looks fine. Why worry?
Looking fine on the day is what a visual survey records. Missing structure inside a boxed-in beam is what it cannot see. If the report is relaxed and the papers exist, you have two consistent answers. If the report is relaxed and the papers are missing, you still only know the outside of the question.
Legal and neighbours
What does it cost to regularise an extension?
The council publishes its own fees, and any opening-up is extra. This page does not copy a fee that varies. Ask the building-control team for this authority. Do not add a round number from a forum to your offer and call it advice.
Structure
How should you read a garden wall or a retaining wall in a home survey?
A retaining wall holds soil back. A garden wall usually does not. A home survey can describe cracks, lean and blocked weep holes it could see. It does not design the wall, calculate the soil pressure, or decide which neighbour must pay. Movement in that wall is not automatically subsidence of the house.
Structure
Which building is being described if only the garden wall is out of line?
The house and the garden wall are different structures. A wall at the end of the lawn can lean, crack or lose a pier while the dwelling stays plumb. The survey should say whether the main walls were out of line as well. If it only describes the garden wall, do not copy that sentence onto the foundations of the house.
Structure
What can the surveyor say about weep holes and water behind a retaining wall?
A retaining wall with soil against it needs somewhere for water to leave. Weep holes that are blocked, missing or painted over are a visible detail. The survey can record that. It cannot measure the pressure of the soil, and it cannot see a drain behind the wall if the face was not opened.
Structure
Can a home survey decide who owns or must repair a boundary wall?
No. Ownership sits in the deeds and the plans, which the solicitor reads. The Party Wall etc. Act is a process for certain work on boundaries. It is not applied by a condition rating. The survey can say the wall leans and which side the ground is higher on. It cannot send the bill to the neighbour.
Structure
The garden wall has no piers and it is cracked. Is the house unsafe?
The note is about that wall. Missing piers explain why a long brick wall can crack. They do not, by themselves, mean the house foundations have failed. Read the comments on the main walls separately.
Structure
Concrete sleepers hold the patio up and one has rotated. Has the patio been designed in the report?
No. The survey can see the rotation. It has not calculated the retained soil and it has not approved the sleeper system. A rotated sleeper is a reason to ask a designer, not a price printed by the survey.
Structure
The front wall holds the pavement up. Is that a highway matter?
It may become one, and the survey does not act for the highway authority. It can describe the lean and any crack. Who must repair a wall that supports a public pavement is a question for the solicitor and, if needed, the authority. It is not a condition rating.
Structure
A tell-tale is fixed to the house wall, not the garden wall. What can the survey read from it?
Only what is on it today, if anything is written there. A tell-tale without a log does not prove the crack has stopped or that it is still moving. The survey does not inherit the seller's memory of the readings.
Structure
Weep holes in the retaining wall were painted shut. What was lost?
A visible route for water out of the back of the wall. Paint does not prove the wall is dry inside. It shows those holes are no longer open. The survey has not pressure-washed them and has not dug out the fill.
Structure
A crack runs from the retaining wall into the house plinth. Is that one defect?
It is a crack that continues, which is worth saying. It is still not a finished diagnosis. The survey should describe the path. It has not monitored it and it has not decided the cause is the retained soil rather than the house foundation, or the other way round.
Structure
Should you budget to rebuild every leaning garden wall?
No. Some leans are old and idle. Some are progressing. The report's job is to say what it saw and whether it wants a specialist. A rebuild price comes from a contractor who has designed the replacement, not from the word leaning.
Structure
Does the Party Wall Act start because the survey mentioned the boundary?
No. Mentioning a boundary wall does not serve a notice and does not appoint a surveyor under that Act. If you later excavate or build on the boundary, that is a separate legal process. Your solicitor, not the condition rating, tells you whether it applies.
Structure
How should you read a steel frame that sits behind the brick?
A steel-framed house uses a steel skeleton with a brick or other skin. A home survey can name that construction when the frame is visible, and it can describe rust or cracked cladding it could see. It does not test the steel, certify a repair scheme, or tell a lender to lend. Lenders set their own criteria.
Structure
Why is a brick skin not proof that the steel frame is sound?
The brick, render or cladding is a covering. It can look ordinary from the street while the steel behind it is the thing that holds the house up. A survey that could not open the covering has not inspected the frame. A quiet elevation is a note about what was visible, not a test of the steel.
Structure
What rust can a visual survey record on a steel frame?
Only rust it could see: a stanchion base where cladding is missing, a stain at a fixing, or a flake of coating on an exposed member. It cannot see steel inside a sealed cavity. It cannot say how much section is left, and it cannot sign a repair method.
Structure
Does naming the frame mean a lender will refuse the house?
No. RICS is clear that Level 1 and Level 2 are aimed at conventional construction, and that unusual construction is a different instruction. That is about the survey product. It is not a list of houses a lender must decline. Each lender sets its own criteria, and this page does not invent them.
Structure
Cladding is missing on one corner only. Has the rest of the frame been seen?
No. The open corner is the part that was visible. Steel still covered on the other elevations was not inspected. Do not read one exposed stanchion as a survey of the whole frame.
Structure
The exposed steel has a black coating. Is that a repair the survey has approved?
A coating is something the surveyor could see. It is not a certificate, and the survey has not tested what is under it. Ask what system the house is, and whether any repair papers are in the legal pack.
Structure
There is no repair certificate in the pack. Has the survey failed?
The survey describes condition. Certificates are papers. A missing certificate is for the solicitor to chase. It does not, by itself, mean the steel has failed, and a certificate would not replace a look at rust the surveyor could see.
Structure
The house looks like an ordinary semi. Why mention the frame at all?
Because the structure may not be the brick you can see. If the report names a steel system, that name is the point. Looking ordinary is not evidence the frame was conventional.
Structure
A rust stain shows at the foot of one stanchion. Is the house unsafe?
The stain is a reason to ask what steel is left and whether a specialist should open that corner. It is not, on its own, a decision that the house is unsafe, and the survey has not calculated a loss of section.
Structure
The firm suggested Level 2 after the agent had already named a steel system. What do you ask about the scope?
Whether that product is the one they use for this construction. RICS describes Level 1 and Level 2 for conventional homes. Unusual construction is a reason to ask about Level 3 before you instruct, not after you have relied on the wrong scope.
Structure
The neighbour's identical house was mortgaged. Does that clear this one?
No. Another buyer's lender, on another day, is not your instruction. The survey of this house does not know that decision, and it does not copy it.
Structure
The surveyor did not open the cavity. What is still unknown?
The condition of the steel that the skin still covers, and whether a previous repair sits behind the cladding. The report should say the cavity was not opened.
Structure
How should you read a mundic comment on a concrete-block house?
Mundic is a concrete problem associated with parts of the south west of England. A home survey can say the walls look like concrete block and whether it saw deterioration. It does not drill cores or give a mundic class. Cornwall Council describes that test as a separate examination. RICS publishes guidance for surveyors who meet it.
Structure
Why is a visual home survey not a mundic class?
A home survey looks at what it can see. Crumbling block, cracks or a damp concrete face can be written down. None of that is the classification RICS describes for mundic samples. Cornwall Council says the test takes cores and examines the concrete. A surveyor who did not drill has not done that test.
Structure
Where does the RICS mundic guidance apply?
The RICS guidance note on the mundic problem is written for surveyors likely to meet it in the south west of England. It discusses routine testing in Cornwall and in a defined area of Devon, and it discusses older concrete rather than every house. A house outside that discussion can still be concrete. The guidance does not clear it, and it does not condemn it.
Structure
What should you ask if the walls are concrete in Cornwall or Devon?
Ask the survey firm whether this instruction includes core sampling. A Level 2 or Level 3, as RICS describes those products, is still a home survey. It is not automatically the mundic procedure. If they recommend a test, that test is a further instruction with its own scope.
Structure
The seller has a letter saying Class A. Has this survey repeated that result?
Only if this inspection took cores and a laboratory examined them. A normal home survey does not. The letter is a separate document. Ask how old it is and which walls it sampled. Do not treat it as the condition rating in today's report.
Structure
Cores were taken from the garage only. Is the house classified?
The result describes the cores that were taken. Cornwall Council's description of the test includes walls and, where accessible, other concrete. A garage core does not speak for a house wall that was not sampled. Read what the laboratory report actually lists.
Structure
The front is brick and the side wall is concrete block. Which face matters?
The concrete, if that is what may contain the aggregate the guidance is about. Brick on the front does not classify the block on the side. The survey should say what it could see of each. It still has not tested either.
Structure
A concrete house in Cornwall has no crack. Is a test unnecessary?
A quiet wall is what the survey saw. RICS discusses when routine testing is considered, and it also discusses signs of deterioration. Absence of a crack in one visit is not the laboratory class. Ask the firm whether they are recommending a test, and do not invent a rule they did not write.
Structure
The house is concrete but outside the area the guidance maps. Can you ignore the block?
No. The guidance discusses where routine testing is focused. It does not say concrete elsewhere is of no interest if the surveyor sees deterioration. The home survey still only records what it saw. It does not issue a class either way.
Structure
The report says further investigation of the concrete. What appointment is that?
Not one the survey has already made. It means someone who samples and classifies concrete, which is the examination Cornwall Council describes, not another look from the pavement. Agree the scope before you treat the house as tested.
Structure
The lender has asked for a mundic test and the survey did not do one. Did the survey fail?
No. The lender's criterion is the lender's. The home survey describes condition within its scope. If that scope did not include cores, the test is still to be commissioned. Do not read the survey as having refused the lender.
Structure
The chimney breast looks like concrete and the walls are brick. What was not tested?
Both, unless cores were taken from each. A concrete breast in a brick house can be a different material from the walls. The survey can note what it looks like. A class, if you need one, has to name the samples.
Services
What does a home survey say about plumbing, heating and the boiler?
A home survey does not service a boiler or pressure-test the plumbing. It records what the surveyor could see: age if it is shown, leaks, and whether something worked on the day if they say they tried it. Gas work is for a Gas Safe registered engineer, which is a different appointment from the survey.
Services
What does a home survey actually look at?
A RICS Home Survey is a condition inspection, not a maintenance visit. On plumbing and heating the surveyor looks at what is accessible: the boiler if they can see it, exposed pipework, tanks and cylinders, radiators, and any leak, stain or corrosion that is there on the day. They may say whether the heating or hot water was operating. They say that only if they actually checked. Read the sentence. Do not upgrade “not tested” into “tested and fine”.
Services
Why is a survey note not a boiler service?
Servicing a boiler means taking it apart far enough to clean and check it, and, for gas, doing that under the gas safety rules. A surveyor does not do that job on a Home Survey. They do not flue-gas analyse the appliance, prove its combustion, or certify it. If the boiler is gas, the person who may work on it is an engineer on the Gas Safe Register. The Health and Safety Executive regulates that safety regime. Follow the gas page for the landlord rules and for what a buyer does not automatically have to produce.
Services
What should you do with age, leaks or a cold radiator?
Write down what the report actually says. A visible leak under a cylinder, a weeping valve, or staining on a ceiling is a defect you can ask a plumber to price. A boiler that did not fire on the day is a reason to ask why, not a reason to invent a new boiler. The condition rating, where the surveyor uses one, follows the RICS definitions of how serious or urgent the issue is. The rating is not a parts list and not a quote.
Services
What can you ask before you treat the services as known?
Oil and solid fuel are not gas, so they are not the Gas Safe job described on the gas page. They are still outside a visual Home Survey. Ask who is competent for that fuel. Your solicitor can ask the seller for service history. A missing service history is a gap in the paperwork. It is not, by itself, a failed test the surveyor never carried out.
Services
Does a home survey pressure-test the plumbing?
No. A Home Survey does not pressure-test the pipes, and Level 1 does not test the services at all. The surveyor records leaks, stains and the condition of what they could see. A pressure test is a separate instruction to someone whose job is the plumbing.
Services
Does the survey include a boiler service?
No. Servicing is a maintenance task, and the surveyor does not strip the boiler down or certify it. They may look at the outside and say whether it was running. For a gas boiler, that work belongs to a Gas Safe registered engineer.
Services
If the boiler is old, does the survey mean it has to be replaced?
No. Age is a fact the surveyor can record when it is shown, and this guide does not set a replacement rule. Ask an engineer to inspect the appliance. Pay for a replacement only if that inspection, not the date on the plate, supports it.
Services
The report says the heating worked. Is that a clean bill of health?
It means the surveyor found it operating when they visited, if that is what they wrote. It is not a service, not a safety certificate, and not a promise about next winter. If they say they did not turn it on, do not fill the gap yourself.
Services
How is Level 1 different on services?
RICS says a Level 1 inspection includes no tests of the services. The surveyor looks at a sample of visible parts. A higher level can say more about condition. None of the levels is a plumber’s test or a gas certificate unless the report brings in that separate work.
Services
There is a small leak. Is that urgent?
Read the rating and the location. A drip at a trap may be maintenance, while staining into a ceiling or around electrics is a different matter. The survey records it, and a plumber prices the repair after looking. The report is not that price.
Services
The boiler is gas. Is the survey enough?
No. Gas work is regulated by the Health and Safety Executive, and the people who may do it are on the Gas Safe Register. Use the gas page for landlord records and for why a buyer is not automatically that landlord. Commission the gas check if safety is part of your decision.
Services
What does gas safety mean when you are buying a house?
HSE regulates gas safety. The Gas Safe Register is the official list of engineers allowed to work on gas. A home surveyor is not a gas engineer unless the report says a separate test was done. Landlord gas records are a landlord’s duty. An owner-occupier buyer does not automatically have to produce one.
Services
Who regulates gas, and who is allowed to work on it?
The Health and Safety Executive regulates gas safety in homes. The practical rule for buyers in England and Wales is simple: gas work is for an engineer on the Gas Safe Register, which is the official list. Registration is by person and by the kind of work. An engineer who is registered for cookers is not automatically registered for boilers. Check the register for the person who will touch the appliance, not for a company name on a van.
Services
Does a buyer have to produce a landlord gas safety record?
No, not merely because you are buying. Landlord duties sit with landlords. HSE’s gas pages explain those duties: keep gas fittings, appliances and flues safe, arrange checks, and keep the record that tenants are entitled to see. An owner-occupier buyer does not step into that landlord role on exchange. Do not let anyone tell you that completion depends on you producing a landlord’s gas safety record for a house you will live in yourself.
Services
What is the survey’s limit, and what is Approved Document J?
A home surveyor reports on the building. They are not a gas engineer unless the report says a separate gas test was done. Visual comments about a flue, ventilation to an appliance, or a boiler that looks poorly installed are reasons to instruct a Gas Safe registered engineer. They are not themselves the test. Condition ratings, where they are used, follow the RICS scale. They are not gas-safety codes.
Services
What should you arrange before you rely on the boiler?
Ask the surveyor whether any gas appliance was tested, or only looked at. If safety matters to the decision, instruct a Gas Safe registered engineer who is qualified for that appliance. Ask the seller for servicing papers. Treat them as history, not as a new test. If you will let the house, plan for landlord duties. If you will live in it, do not pretend the landlord record is your purchase document. Do not put a certificate price in the negotiation until an engineer has quoted this property. This page has no tariff.
Services
Who regulates gas safety?
The Health and Safety Executive does. Its domestic gas pages set out the legal duties, including those on landlords. The Gas Safe Register is the official list of engineers who are allowed to do the work. Those are two different roles.
Services
How do you know an engineer is allowed to touch the boiler?
Look them up on the Gas Safe Register and check the categories they hold. A business card is not the register. The engineer attending should be the registered person, qualified for the appliance in front of them.
Services
Must you show a landlord gas safety record to buy a house?
Not if you are buying to live in the house as an owner-occupier. The record is part of a landlord’s duties to tenants, though you may still ask the seller for any record they hold. Wanting a Gas Safe check before exchange is a practical choice. It is not the same as being the landlord.
Services
Is the surveyor a gas engineer?
Not because they inspected the house. A Home Survey does not become a gas safety check by length. Only believe a test happened if the report says a separate gas test was done. Otherwise instruct a Gas Safe registered engineer.
Services
Does Approved Document J replace a gas safety check?
No. Approved Document J is England’s guidance for combustion appliances and fuel storage when building work is carried out. It is not a Gas Safe certificate and not a landlord record, and Wales uses its own building-regulation documents. A survey does not certify compliance with either.
Services
What if you smell gas at the viewing?
Leave the safety steps to the emergency advice. Do not hunt for the leak. Call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. Tell the agent, and do not treat it as a negotiating point while the building is at risk.
Services
You plan to let the house. Does that change the paperwork?
Yes, once you are the landlord. HSE’s landlord duties then apply to you, including checks and the record for tenants. Buying with vacant possession to live there does not start that duty. Read the current record if one exists, and plan the next check before a tenant moves in.
Services
How much does a gas safety check cost?
This page does not state a fee. There is no single official price that fits every house. Ask a Gas Safe registered engineer to quote the appliance you have. A figure copied from another property is not a quote.
Environment
What does radon mean when you are buying a house?
UKHSA’s Action Level is 200 Bq/m3 as an annual average. The Target Level is 100 Bq/m3. Measurement uses two detectors, bedroom and living room, over three months. The map is not a reading of the house. UKradon’s individual address search fee is £3.90, reviewed 24 October 2026, not a remediation quote.
Environment
What are the Action Level and the Target Level?
Radon is a radioactive gas from the ground. You cannot see or smell it. UKHSA, through UKradon, recommends that radon is reduced in homes where the average is more than 200 becquerels per cubic metre (200 Bq/m3). That is the Action Level. It is an annual average, which is why a proper measurement is not a one-hour gadget reading. The Target Level is 100 Bq/m3. UKradon describes it as the ideal outcome for reduction work in existing buildings and for protection in new ones. If a result sits between the Target Level and the Action Level, UKradon says action to reduce the level should be considered, especially where someone in the home smokes or used to smoke.
Environment
Is the radon map a test of this house?
No. UKradon’s UK maps show where a higher level is more likely. The darker the colour, the greater the chance. That is as far as colour goes on this page: darker means a greater chance. The map does not tell you the level in a named house. Every building contains some radon, usually a low level. The only way to know whether a home is above or below the Action Level is to measure it.
Environment
What does the address search fee pay for?
UKradon’s radon searches page publishes an individual address search for homes and small workplaces, using the detailed dataset, for a fee of £3.90. That figure was reviewed on 24 October 2026. The search estimates the chance that the address is above the Action Level. It does not measure the radon in the building, and it is not a quote to reduce radon. This guide does not give a remediation cost. Anyone who offers you one without a measurement and a look at the floors is guessing.
Environment
What can a survey say, and where do building regulations fit?
A home surveyor does not carry radon detectors as part of a normal inspection, and they cannot see the gas. They can note a basement, a sump, or a ventilated subfloor if those are visible, and they can tell you the map is not a reading. Ask them what they actually saw. Ask the seller whether a three-month test exists and, if it does, for a copy. A test from years ago, or from before the house was altered, is history rather than today’s average.
Environment
What is the radon Action Level?
UKHSA’s Action Level is 200 Bq/m3, as an annual average in the home. Above that, UKradon recommends the level is reduced. The Target Level is 100 Bq/m3, described as the ideal outcome for reduction work and for protection in new buildings. Between the two, reduction should be considered, especially if anyone smokes or used to smoke.
Environment
How is radon in a home measured?
UKradon describes two detectors, one in a bedroom and one in a living room, over three months. The long period is what makes the result an annual-average style reading rather than a snapshot. A short test has more uncertainty. A survey visit is not this test.
Environment
What does a dark colour on the radon map mean?
Darker means a greater chance of a higher level. The map is indicative, and it is not a measurement of the house you are buying. Do not read extra colours into it. The address search, if you buy one, still estimates probability rather than the level.
Environment
The map looks light, but the house has a cellar. Does that matter?
Yes. UKradon’s maps page says the map should not be used for basements, cellars or underground sites. Treat them as a higher chance of high radon wherever they are. If people use the cellar, measure it rather than relying on the street colour.
Environment
What is the £3.90 radon fee?
It is the individual address search fee published on UKradon’s radon searches page, reviewed on 24 October 2026. The report is about the chance the address is above the Action Level. It is not the radon level, and it is not a remediation quote. This page does not state a cost to reduce radon.
Environment
Where do building regulations mention radon protection?
In England, Approved Document C is the guidance on site preparation and resistance to contaminants and moisture, and it is where radon protection for new building work is signposted. It does not tell you today’s level in a house that is already standing. Wales has separate building regulations. A Home Survey does not certify that Document C was followed.
Environment
The seller has an old radon report. Can you rely on it?
Read the date, the rooms tested, and whether the house has been extended or the floors changed since. A three-month test is evidence of that test. It is not automatic evidence of next year. If there is no test, the map still does not fill the gap.
Environment
Will the surveyor tell you the radon level?
Not from a normal inspection, because they cannot see the gas. They can record a basement or visible protection and point you to measurement. Ask what they saw, and use UKradon for the level, the map and the address search. Do not ask the survey to invent a works price.
Environment
What does flood risk mean when you are buying a house?
The GOV.UK long-term flood-risk check is the England service. It describes the kinds of flood risk it maps, including rivers and the sea, surface water and reservoirs. A dry day of inspection does not mean there is no flood risk. A home survey is not an insurance quote, and it does not set an excess.
Environment
Which flood check is the GOV.UK one?
The GOV.UK service is called “Check the long term flood risk for an area in England”. It is the England service. Scotland and Wales publish their own maps. If the house is in Scotland or Wales, use the service for that country. Pasting an English postcode result into a Welsh purchase, or the other way round, answers the wrong question.
Environment
Why does a dry survey visit not clear the flood risk?
The surveyor sees one day. No water in the garden that afternoon is not a flood history. They can record what is in front of them: a river at the boundary, a low floor, water marks, or air bricks that sit below a bank. Level 1 is a basic visual overview and does not test the drains. RICS says the Level 1 surveyor does not lift inspection-chamber covers. A higher level still is not the Environment Agency’s model, and it is not a hydrologist’s report.
Environment
Why is a survey not an insurance quote?
Insurers price flood on their own data, the address, and the policy wording. A Home Survey does not do that job. This page does not state an excess, a premium, or a refusal rate. Any number offered without the insurer’s terms for this property is not a quote. Ask the insurer, or your broker, what they will cover, what they exclude, and what excess applies to flood. Get that in writing before you exchange if flood is part of the decision.
Environment
What should you check before you are committed?
Run the correct map, ask the seller and your solicitor about flood history and insurance claims, and read the survey for physical clues rather than for a premium. If you would walk away without insurance you can live with, find that out before exchange. The renegotiation page is about how to use evidence. It is not a reason to invent a flood discount from a map colour. Radon is a separate environmental question, with its own measurements, and it is not flooding.
Environment
Does the GOV.UK flood check cover the whole UK?
No. The long-term flood-risk check on GOV.UK is for an area in England, and Scotland and Wales have different map services. Use the service for the country the house is in. Do not assume the wording matches across borders.
Environment
What kinds of flooding does the England service describe?
The service describes the kinds of flood risk it maps. Those include rivers and the sea, surface water and reservoirs, and groundwater where it says data is available. This page does not add chance bands or percentages. Read the result on the service for that area.
Environment
Does the map say this house will flood?
The GOV.UK page says the service does not tell you how likely it is that an individual property will flood. It is an area tool. It also says it does not cover flooding from blocked drains and burst pipes. Those can still be real defects. They are a different question from the long-term map.
Environment
The survey day was dry. Does that mean there is no flood risk?
No. The inspection records the day of the visit. A dry path does not erase a river, a history of surface water, or a map result. Ask about previous flooding. Look at the right map. Do not treat sunshine as evidence.
Environment
Can you use the survey as the insurance quote?
No. A Home Survey is not an insurer and not a quote. This guide states no excess and no premium. Ask the insurer what they will offer for this address, in writing, before you rely on it.
Environment
Is a condition rating the same as a flood zone?
No. RICS condition ratings describe defects in the building and how urgent they are. Flood maps describe flood risk for an area. A rating 3 on damp is not a flood band. A flood band is not a condition rating. Keep the documents separate.
Environment
The survey mentions drainage. Is that the flood map?
Not by itself. Gutters, inspection chambers and underground drainage are building items. The England flood service says it does not tell you about blocked drains and burst pipes. Follow the drainage comments as building defects, and use the map for the flood risk it actually describes.
Environment
Should you cut the price because a map shows a risk?
Only if you know what the risk is, what insurance will cost or refuse, and what the building itself needs. A map colour without those facts is a weak chip. This page does not supply a discount. Get the insurer’s answer and the survey’s actual findings before you negotiate or walk away.
Environment
What do trees near a house mean in a survey?
ABI says clay soils shrink in dry weather and trees and shrubs can draw water near foundations. That is a risk factor, not proof this tree caused this crack. Knotweed is a different problem. A survey does not prune the tree or produce an arboricultural method statement unless it says so.
Environment
How can a tree affect the ground under a house?
The Association of British Insurers explains subsidence as the ground beneath a building sinking and taking the foundations with it. One mechanism ABI describes is clay that shrinks when it dries. Trees and shrubs can draw water out of that soil near the foundations, which adds to the drying. That is a risk factor on clay, especially in a long dry spell. It is not a statement that every tree, on every soil, is damaging the house next to it.
Environment
Does a nearby tree prove the crack is subsidence?
No. The tree can be innocent. The crack can be an old lintel, thermal movement, a rusting wall tie, or settlement from when the house was new. The subsidence page is where those words are separated. A surveyor looks at crack pattern, distortion, the soil they can infer, drains, and vegetation. They do it in a visit, not over a season of monitoring. If they suspect movement related to the tree, the honest result is further investigation, often a structural engineer and sometimes a drain test or an arboriculturist. The tree’s presence is not that investigation.
Environment
Why is Japanese knotweed not the same issue?
Japanese knotweed is a plant you must not cause to spread. GOV.UK’s guidance is about stopping it spreading, including through soil and waste. That is a different problem from a tree drawing water from clay. A stem in the garden is not evidence of foundation shrinkage, and a clay-related crack is not evidence of knotweed. Use the knotweed page for identification and for the rules on disposal. Do not let one word, “vegetation”, collapse the two into a single scare.
Environment
What will the survey not do to the tree?
A Home Survey does not prune, pollard or remove the tree. It does not produce an arboricultural method statement, a felling licence application, or a tree-preservation order check unless the report says that separate work was included. Tree preservation and conservation-area controls are legal questions for the council and your solicitor. Cutting a protected tree because a survey mentioned it can be an offence. The condition rating tells you how seriously the surveyor takes the building defect. It is not a works order for the garden.
Environment
What does ABI say about trees and foundations?
ABI says clay soils shrink in dry weather, and that trees and shrubs can draw water from the soil near foundations. That can contribute to subsidence. It is a general mechanism. It is not a finding that the tree in this garden caused the crack in this wall.
Environment
The survey mentions a tree and a crack. Is that subsidence?
Not automatically. The tree is a risk factor on clay. The crack still needs a cause. Lintels, wall ties, old settlement and drains can all mark a wall. If the surveyor suspects ground movement, they should ask for investigation. Do not rename their sentence.
Environment
How many metres from the house is a tree safe?
This guide does not give a distance. No single metre figure is honest for every species, soil and foundation. Ask the person investigating this building. A distance copied from a forum is not ABI’s advice and not a survey.
Environment
Is a large tree the same problem as Japanese knotweed?
No. Knotweed is an invasive plant. GOV.UK tells you how not to spread it. A tree drawing water from clay is the subsidence mechanism ABI describes. Deal with each on its own page. Do not pay for a knotweed survey because a birch is tall.
Environment
Will the surveyor prune the tree or write a method statement?
No, not as part of a Home Survey. Pruning and an arboricultural method statement are separate instructions. The survey records the risk and the building. It does not carry out tree work unless the report says that work was included.
Environment
Should the tree come out before you buy?
Not on the strength of a mention alone. Removing a tree from clay can be followed by heave, which ABI describes as upward movement. Get advice on this soil and this building before anyone fells anything. Protected trees also need permission.
Environment
Could the drains be the cause instead?
Yes. Leaking drains can affect the ground under a foundation. A tree can be a red herring, or both can matter. The survey may not have lifted drain covers. If movement is suspected, a drain test is often part of the investigation, not a guess from the foliage.
Environment
Does a nearby tree mean the insurer will refuse you?
ABI explains how subsidence can happen. It does not, on that page, refuse cover because a tree exists. Ask the insurer about this address. A survey sentence is not their decision, and this page states no excess.
Hazardous materials
What do lead pipes mean when you are buying a house?
DWI says lead pipework was commonly used to connect homes before 1970, and was then banned. Homes built after 1970 are unlikely to have lead pipes. If you suspect lead, ask the water company to test the kitchen tap. A surveyor sees pipes they can see, not the buried communication pipe.
Hazardous materials
Where does lead in tap water usually come from?
The Drinking Water Inspectorate says that before 1970 lead pipework was commonly used to connect properties to the mains, and that this use has since been banned. A home built after 1970 is unlikely to have lead pipes. A home built before 1970 may, including pipework that is still underground or inside and has never been replaced. DWI also says lead is not present in the water in the wider public supply network. The usual route into the tap is the building’s own plumbing: lead dissolves into water while it stands in a lead pipe. Older brass fittings and, wrongly, lead solder on drinking-water joints can add lead too.
Hazardous materials
Which pipe can a surveyor see?
DWI suggests buyers ask the surveyor to note the nature of the pipes they can inspect, and to mention lead in particular. That request matches the limit of a Home Survey. Level 1 does not test the services. No level excavates the communication pipe as standard. A sentence that says “no lead seen” means none was seen in the accessible places. It does not clear the buried pipe in the pavement.
Hazardous materials
What should you ask the water company to do?
DWI says that if you suspect lead pipes you can ask the water company to test the water at the kitchen tap. If they find lead pipes or another lead source, they should give you written advice. That test is the factual step. Looking at a dull grey pipe where the water enters, which DWI describes, can support a suspicion. It does not replace the sample. Running the tap in the morning is a short-term step DWI describes for water that has been standing in the pipe. DWI is clear that this does not remove the need to deal with lead pipework if it is there.
Hazardous materials
What should you not assume when you negotiate?
Do not treat “built before 1970” as proof of lead. DWI says such a home may have lead pipes, not that it must. Do not treat “built after 1970” as impossible. DWI says it is unlikely. Fittings and later alterations can still introduce lead. Do not treat a visual survey as a water sample. Ask the company to test the kitchen tap if you suspect lead. Do not invent a replacement price. Get a plumber’s figure for the pipes that are yours, and the company’s position on the communication pipe. Do not confuse this with the electrics. An electrical report says nothing about the water pipe.
Hazardous materials
Were lead pipes banned?
DWI says lead pipework was commonly used to connect properties to the mains before 1970, and that this use has since been banned. Older homes that were never modernised can still have lead underground or inside. A ban on new use is not the same as a statement that every old pipe has been removed.
Hazardous materials
Is a house built after 1970 free of lead pipes?
DWI says a home built after 1970 is unlikely to have lead pipes. Unlikely is not a certificate. If you can see a soft grey pipe, or you are simply unsure, ask the water company to test the kitchen tap rather than relying on the build year.
Hazardous materials
Is lead put into the water at the treatment works?
DWI says lead is not present in the water in the wider public supply network. The usual problem is lead already in the pipes and fittings at the property, which can dissolve while water stands. Natural lead in groundwater is described as rare in the UK.
Hazardous materials
Who tests the water?
If you suspect lead pipes, DWI says you can ask your water company to test the water at your kitchen tap. If they find lead pipes or another source, they should give written advice. A surveyor’s look at a visible pipe is not that test.
Hazardous materials
What is the legal standard for lead?
The standard DWI publishes is 10 micrograms per litre at consumers’ taps. That is a water-quality limit, not a description of your house and not a works price. Use the company’s test result against that standard. Do not guess the concentration from the age of the building.
Hazardous materials
Can the surveyor see the communication pipe?
Not if it is buried, which it usually is. DWI says the communication pipe, from the main to the outside stop valve, belongs to the water company. The supply pipe into the house is the owner’s. The surveyor reports pipes they can see.
Hazardous materials
Does running the tap fix lead pipes?
DWI describes flushing as a short-term way to clear water that has been standing in the pipe. It also says lead pipes, if they are there, should be dealt with rather than left. Flushing is not a repair a survey can sign off, and it is not a reason to skip a test.
Hazardous materials
How much does it cost to replace lead pipes?
This page does not state a cost. Length, access and who owns each section all change the job. Ask a qualified plumber about the private pipework, and ask the water company about a lead communication pipe. A round number from the internet is not a quote.
Damp
What does mould mean in a home survey?
GOV.UK guidance for rented-housing providers treats damp and mould as a health risk. It is not the RICS rating system and not a price-cut formula. Mould on cold surfaces is often condensation. A survey records it. The survey does not clean the mould or prescribe a product.
Damp
What is the surveyor describing when they write mould?
Mould is a growth on a surface that has stayed damp enough, for long enough, for spores to take hold. In housing the usual pattern is condensation: warm moist air on a cold wall, a cold bridge, a window reveal, or the back of a wardrobe. It can also follow a leak, penetrating damp, or a bathroom that has no working extract. The damp page separates those mechanisms. The survey should say where the mould is and what else they saw. “Mould present” without a location is a thin sentence. Ask for the location if the report has not given it.
Damp
How is the GOV.UK guidance different from a RICS rating?
GOV.UK’s damp and mould guidance is written for people who provide rented housing. It tells them to understand and address the health risks. It is official health and housing guidance. It is not the RICS Home Survey Standard, and it does not redefine condition ratings. A buyer cannot turn a paragraph of that guidance into a percentage off the price. There is no such formula on this page.
Damp
Why is wiping the mould off not the repair?
Cleaning removes a stain. It does not stop the moisture. If the cause is condensation, the lasting work is usually heating, insulation and ventilation, including the fans and background vents the ventilation page describes. If the cause is a gutter, a roof, or a pipe, the lasting work is that defect. A survey records the mould. It does not clean it, and it does not name a product as the cure. Do not accept “wipe it with bleach” as the repair specification. Bleach is not the finding and not the fix this guide recommends.
Damp
What should you ask before you treat mould as priced?
Ask the surveyor which mechanism they think is most likely, and what would change their mind. Ask the seller whether they have had leaks, new windows, or blocked vents. Fresh paint over a mould patch is a reason to look harder. Approved Document F, which is England’s ventilation guidance for building work, explains why new tight windows without vents can make condensation worse. It is not a test of this room’s air. Wales has its own building regulations. Neither document prices the clean.
Damp
Does GOV.UK treat mould as a health issue?
Yes. The damp and mould guidance for rented-housing providers is about the health risks, and about addressing them. It is aimed at those providers. It is not the rulebook for a RICS condition rating, and it does not calculate a buyer’s discount.
Damp
Is mould always rising damp?
No. Mould on cold surfaces is often condensation. Rising damp is a different mechanism and a less common explanation for black mould high up a wall or in a corner. Read the damp page before you accept an injection quote. The survey should say what it saw, not sell a treatment.
Damp
Does a mould photograph equal a rating 3?
Not by itself. The surveyor applies the RICS definitions to how serious or urgent the defect is. A small patch in a steamy bathroom may be maintenance. Widespread mould in a bedroom may be more serious. The paragraph has to say why. The GOV.UK health guidance does not assign the number.
Damp
Should you just clean it before completion?
Cleaning is not the repair. The survey does not clean the mould and does not prescribe a product. Find the moisture, whether that is condensation, a leak, or missing ventilation. Wiping the surface and exchanging anyway leaves the cause in the house.
Damp
Is bleach the recommended fix?
No. This guide does not recommend bleach, or any other product, as the repair. A product can change the look of a patch. It does not mend a cold wall, a dead fan, or a leaking roof. Ask what is keeping the surface damp.
Damp
Does it matter who will sleep in the room?
The GOV.UK guidance treats damp and mould as a health risk, with particular concern for people who are more vulnerable. That is a reason to understand the cause before you commit. It is not a formula that turns the risk into a price reduction.
Damp
Can new windows be part of the cause?
They can, if they made the room tighter and the background ventilation was blocked or never provided. Approved Document F is the England guidance for ventilation in building work. A survey can see a vent painted shut. It cannot, from that, certify the whole ventilation design.
Damp
Can you renegotiate because of mould?
You can discuss a defect you can describe and, where possible, price. Mould without a cause is an investigation, not a finished quote. This page gives no percentage and no cleaning price. Use the findings, then decide whether to renegotiate or walk away.
Damp
What does ventilation mean in a home survey?
Approved Document F is the England requirement for ventilation when building work is done. A survey can see the sort of things that document is about: trickle vents, extract fans, and background ventilation that is missing or painted shut. A home survey is not an air test. It does not measure an air-change rate.
Damp
What is Approved Document F?
Approved Document F is the building-regulation guidance for ventilation in England. It applies when building work is being done, for example a new dwelling, a conversion, or replacement windows that change how the room is ventilated. It is not a retrospective test that every older house is expected to pass unchanged. Wales publishes its own approved documents. Do not quote the England document as if it were the Welsh one.
Damp
What can a surveyor actually see?
A Home Survey is visual. The surveyor can see a trickle vent that has been painted shut, a hole in the wall where a fan used to be, an extract fan with a grille clogged shut, air bricks buried by a new path, or a kitchen with no obvious extract to outside. They can see condensation on glass and mould on a cold corner, and they can say those two often travel together. They cannot see ductwork buried in a ceiling if there is no access, and they do not measure whether a fan moves the air it was designed to move.
Damp
How does poor ventilation show up as damp or mould?
Moisture from cooking, bathing and drying clothes has to leave the building. If it cannot, it condenses on the coldest surfaces and mould can follow. GOV.UK’s damp and mould guidance, written for rented-housing providers, treats that pattern as a health risk and tells providers to look at causes such as inadequate ventilation, not only at the stain. The guidance is not the RICS rating system. A surveyor may still give a condition rating to the defect they see. The number follows the RICS definitions. It is not an air-quality certificate.
Damp
Why is a home survey not an air test?
An air test measures how the building performs. A Home Survey does not. The surveyor does not report an air-change rate, and this guide will not invent one. If you need a measured result, that is a different appointment, with equipment, after you have decided the question is worth it. For most buyers the useful step is simpler: read which vents are missing or shut, get those working, and deal with any leak the survey actually found.
Damp
Does an older house have to pass Approved Document F before you buy it?
No. Approved Document F is the England guidance for ventilation when building work is carried out. It is not a pass certificate that every existing house must already meet. A survey can still say the home is under-ventilated from what the surveyor could see: painted-shut vents, no extract, mould on cold walls. Wales has its own building regulations.
Damp
Are trickle vents the only acceptable ventilation?
No. They are a common form of background ventilator, and a survey can see if they are missing or painted shut. Approved Document F is about adequate ventilation for the work in question, not about one product. This page does not specify a vent size.
Damp
The bathroom has no extract fan. Is that a survey defect?
It is something the surveyor can record, especially if there is mould or streaming condensation. Whether past building work failed a regulation is a separate question. The useful point is that moisture from bathing needs a way out. A fan that is painted shut or dead is not doing that.
Damp
Will the survey measure the air-change rate?
No. A Home Survey is not an air test. This guide does not state a rate in air changes or in litres per second. If a measured test is what you need, commission that test. Do not stretch a visual note until it pretends to be one.
Damp
Is poor ventilation the same as mould?
Often they travel together, because condensation on cold surfaces feeds mould. They are not identical. A leak can cause mould in a well-ventilated room. Read the mould page and the damp page. GOV.UK’s rented-housing guidance treats damp and mould as a health risk and points at causes including ventilation.
Damp
The vents are painted shut. Does that matter?
Yes, if they were the background ventilation. Paint across a trickle vent or an air brick stops the air path the fitting was there to provide. The survey can see that. Opening or replacing the vent is ordinary maintenance once you own the house. It is not an air test.
Damp
Do new windows have to have trickle vents?
In England, replacement windows that are building work are judged against the ventilation guidance in Approved Document F, which expects the ventilation of the room to be maintained. A trickle vent is a common way to do that, not a slogan. Ask what was done on this house. The survey sees the frames. Building control sees the compliance route.
Damp
Does Approved Document F apply in Wales?
The document cited here is the England guidance. Wales has its own building regulations and approved documents. The physical point is the same: a survey can see blocked vents and missing fans, and it still is not an air test. Do not cite the England document as the Welsh rule.
Services
How should you read a heat pump note in a home survey?
A home survey can note a heat pump it could see: the outdoor unit, the pipes and whether it ran if the surveyor tried it. It does not service the machine, decide a grant, or issue a building-regulations certificate. GOV.UK describes the Boiler Upgrade Scheme for heat pumps in England and Wales. Eligibility is not a survey finding.
Services
Which parts of an air-source unit can be described, and which tests were not done?
It can describe the equipment in front of it. An air-source unit on a bracket, a ground-source manifold in a cupboard, staining under pipework, or a control screen that was dark are all things a surveyor can write down. If they ran it, the report should say so. If they did not, silence is not a test.
Services
Does the Boiler Upgrade Scheme replace a look at the heat pump?
No. GOV.UK describes the Boiler Upgrade Scheme as a grant towards replacing fossil-fuel heating with a heat pump or a biomass boiler, for eligible homes and non-domestic buildings in England and Wales. The page says the scheme is not the route for Scotland or Northern Ireland. None of that is a condition report on the unit outside this house.
Services
Why is an energy certificate not a service record for the heat pump?
An EPC is an energy model of the dwelling. It can recommend a heat pump in a house that does not have one, and it can sit in a pack beside a house that already has one. Either way it is not the engineer's service sheet. The survey should not be asked to pretend the certificate is a maintenance log.
Services
The outdoor unit was running. Has the survey measured how efficient it is?
No. Running means it operated while someone was there, if the report says they tried it. Efficiency is a test this inspection does not do. Do not turn a spinning fan into a performance figure.
Services
There is no service sticker on the heat pump. Has the survey failed it?
No. A missing sticker is a missing paper trail, which the survey can note. It is not, by itself, a verdict that the machine is broken. Ask the solicitor for any service record. The survey has not created one.
Services
The house is in Scotland and has a heat pump. Does the Boiler Upgrade Scheme apply?
GOV.UK says that scheme is for England and Wales, not Scotland or Northern Ireland. A Scottish heat pump can still be noted by a surveyor. The grant route is a different question, and this page does not invent the Scottish funding rules.
Services
A ground-source manifold is in a cupboard. Did the survey trace the loops under the garden?
Not unless the report says it did, which a normal inspection does not. The cupboard is what was visible. Loops in the ground were not dug up. Do not read a neat manifold as a survey of the garden array.
Services
The heat pump replaced a gas boiler. Has the survey signed off the old gas pipe?
No. A home survey does not do gas safety work. Any remaining gas pipe, meter or cooker is outside that sign-off. Gas Safe registration is the regime for gas work, and it is a different appointment.
Services
Nothing in the pack mentions planning permission for the outdoor unit. Has the survey decided it is lawful?
No. Planning and permitted development are not decided by a condition survey. The surveyor can see the unit. They have not applied a planning test and they have not granted permission. Ask the solicitor what searches say. Do not invent a distance rule the report did not write.
Services
The energy certificate recommends a heat pump and one is already fitted. Are those the same finding?
No. The certificate is an energy assessment. The survey note is about the machine that was there. One can recommend a technology the other has already seen. Neither is a service, and neither is a grant decision.
Services
Can you add a heat-pump service to a Level 2 and treat it as included?
Not unless the firm agrees that extra scope in writing. RICS describes a home survey as a condition inspection. Servicing a heat pump is a different trade. Ask before you instruct if you want both, and do not assume the standard visit includes the service.
Property types
What should a survey of a leasehold flat cover?
A flat survey rates the parts of the building the surveyor can see. It does not read the lease. Who repairs the roof, what the service charge covers, and how many years are left on the lease are legal questions for your solicitor. A condition rating on a shared wall is a building fact. It is not a bill split.
Property types
What can the surveyor actually inspect in a flat?
The instruction is still a RICS Home Survey at the level you bought. The difference is access. The surveyor can report on the flat itself and on the outside of the block from places they can safely reach. They do not have a right to enter the flat above, the plant room, or a locked roof just because you are buying.
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Why does the lease sit outside the condition ratings?
Condition ratings describe defects. The lease describes obligations. A rating 3 on a roof covering means the surveyor thinks the covering needs urgent repair, replacement or investigation. It does not say whether that cost falls on you, on a service charge, or on a landlord who may then recover it. Your solicitor reads the lease. The surveyor should not guess the split.
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How should you read a Section 20 notice next to a survey?
GOV.UK explains that if you pay a variable service charge you have a right to be consulted about some charges, in steps landlords call a Section 20 consultation. The published thresholds, reviewed on 24 October 2026, are more than £250 for planned work and more than £100 a year for work and services lasting more than 12 months. If consultation was not done properly, GOV.UK says there is a limit on what you can be asked to pay, and points you to the Leasehold Advisory Service.
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Does a short lease or a ground rent show up as a defect?
No. Years left on a lease are not a condition rating. A peppercorn is not a rating 1. The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 stops ground rent above a peppercorn on most new long residential leases granted from 30 June 2022 in England and Wales. The Act says a peppercorn rent means an annual rent of one peppercorn. It does not cancel ground rent on leases that were already granted, and GOV.UK lists exceptions, including some business leases and community-led housing.
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Are Level 1, 2 and 3 defined differently for flats?
No. The RICS levels are the same products. What changes is how much of a block a visual inspection can reach, and how much advice you have bought. A converted house or a block with odd alterations is a reason to talk about Level 3 before you instruct, not a rule this page can impose.
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The housing association valued the flat. Do you still want a survey?
A valuation for a share, a rent, or a lender is not a condition report. MoneyHelper’s description of a mortgage valuation, on a different page of this site, is the same idea: price is not structure. If you want defects described, instruct a survey. The association’s figure does not do that job.
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If the block has cladding, does the survey grade it?
Only to the extent a visual home survey can. The surveyor can see the outside face and record concern. They do not open the wall, and they do not issue a building-safety certificate. GOV.UK’s leaseholder protections are a legal question about certain costs. Ask your solicitor whether this lease is in that regime. Do not treat every panel as a rating 3 because the word cladding appeared in a forum.
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Will the surveyor check the service-charge accounts?
No. Accounts, sinking funds and planned works are papers. GOV.UK says you can ask for a summary of how a service charge is worked out. That request sits with the landlord or the managing agent, via your solicitor, not in the surveyor’s moisture meter.
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Can the surveyor inspect the roof above a top-floor flat?
Only if there is safe access within the inspection they agreed. A loft hatch inside the flat lets them see the roof structure above that flat, not the whole block. A locked hatch is NI, or a limit, not a statement that the covering is sound.
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Is damp more serious in a ground-floor flat?
It is more often visible there, because the floor is on or near the ground. Seriousness is the rating and the paragraph, not the storey. A basement room with no ventilation is a different problem from a stain under a kitchen sink. Read which one they described.
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The survey suggests opening a wall. Can you?
Not from the survey. Alterations in a flat usually need the landlord’s consent under the lease, and sometimes building regulations or listed building consent as well. The survey can say a wall looks loadbearing or that it could not tell. It cannot grant a licence to alter.
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Do you need a snagging survey on a new-build home?
A snagging list is not a RICS level and not a warranty. Where NHBC Buildmark applies, NHBC describes ten-year cover: about two years of builder warranty, then insurance for specified damage. Not every new home has that policy. A Level 2 or 3 before completion reports condition. The warranty is the cover you were offered.
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Is a snagging survey a RICS Level 2 or Level 3?
Not unless the person doing it is instructed to produce one. RICS publishes Level 1, Level 2 (survey only), Level 2 (survey and valuation) and Level 3. Snagging is a word the market uses for a close look at a new or newly converted home, often focused on finishes. If you want the traffic-light ratings and the limits written into the Home Survey Standard, say which level you are buying.
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What does NHBC say the ten years are for?
On its homeowner pages, reviewed for this guide on 24 October 2026, NHBC describes Buildmark as 10-year warranty and insurance for newly built or newly converted homes. Before completion there is insolvency cover for the first owner. For about two years after the start date on the certificate, the builder is responsible for defects that are a breach of NHBC requirements, and NHBC describes a resolution service behind that. For the following years, NHBC describes insurance for physical damage caused by a failure to build specified parts to its requirements.
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Should you inspect before legal completion?
If you wait until you have completed, you own the problem of chasing the builder from inside the house. If you look before completion, you can still ask for items to be finished, and you can still decide the home is not what you agreed, subject to the contract you signed. Reservation agreements and exchange do not all work the same way. Your solicitor tells you which point is the point of no return. This guide does not.
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Which new-build comments are finishes, and which are fabric?
Scratches, missed mastic, decorating and a door that binds are finishing items. They can matter to you and still be ordinary builder’s work. Movement cracking, a floor that ponds, gutters that discharge into the wall, or a roof space with missing restraint are fabric. A home survey is there for the second list. A snagging list can hold both, as long as you do not price them as if they were the same job.
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Are all new homes covered by NHBC?
No. NHBC Buildmark is the policy of NHBC-registered builders who offer it. Other warranty bodies insure new homes. Some conversions and self-builds are arranged differently. Ask for the policy schedule for this address before you rely on a ten-year story.
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When does the two-year builder period start?
NHBC says the builder warranty period is usually two years from the start date on your policy certificate, which is tied to legal completion. Do not count from the day you reserved, or from the day you first visited the site.
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Can you still report a defect after two years?
The route changes. NHBC describes years 3 to 10 as insurance for damage to named parts caused by a failure to meet its requirements, not as a second decorating snagging list. Cosmetic items you did not report in the builder period do not become structural by waiting. Read the section that matches the date.
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Does a building-control certificate mean there is nothing to snag?
No. Building regulations approval is about compliance with the regulations, often on a sampled basis. It is not a room-by-room condition report, and GOV.UK treats that approval as a separate system from a buyer’s survey.
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Is a Level 1 enough on a brand-new house?
RICS describes Level 1 as a visual overview without advice on managing defects, suited to conventional homes that appear in reasonable condition. A new home can fit that description. If you want repair advice, or the home is a complicated conversion, Level 1 will not grow into that advice after you have bought it.
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The developer offered a free survey. Should you take it?
Read who instructs the surveyor and who can rely on the report. A survey paid for by the seller can still be useful. It is written for the client named in the terms. If you want your own reliance and your own questions, instruct your own.
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Should new drains be assumed to be clear?
No. A home survey does not routinely camera the drains unless that was agreed. Standing water, a soft patch in the garden or a slow gully is a reason to ask, not proof of a collapsed run. There is a separate guide to drainage defects.
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If the survey is poor, do you get the reservation fee back?
This page cannot say. Reservation agreements are contracts. Some fees are refundable in stated cases and some are not. Ask your solicitor to read the one you signed. Do not treat a blog’s ‘cooling off’ story as your terms.
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What should you look for in a Victorian or Edwardian terrace survey?
Victorian and Edwardian terraces are often solid-wall houses with timber floors, chimneys and a slate or tile roof. Those are patterns, not a diagnosis. A home survey rates what it could see on the day. It does not prove the wall is solid, the roof original, or a cellar dry just because the street looks Victorian.
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What is different about solid walls and bay windows?
A solid brick wall has one leaf. Rain that gets through the joints has nowhere to fall inside a cavity, because there is no cavity. That is why pointing, render, sills and the ground level against the wall matter so much. It is also why a cavity-wall-tie report copied from a 1930s semi does not belong on a wall that was never tied.
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What should the roof and chimney notes say?
Slate roofs of this age often fail at the fixings before the slates themselves look tired. A surveyor in the loft, if they could get in, is looking at felt or the lack of it, at sagging rafters, and at daylight. From the ground they are looking at slipped slates, ridges, flashings and the stack. Nail sickness is a mechanism, not a phrase you should price without someone having seen the fixings.
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How do you read a cellar or a suspended timber floor?
A cellar in a terrace is often a room that was never meant to be a bedroom. Damp on the lower wall can be condensation, penetrating damp, or moisture from the ground. The damp guides on this site separate those. A high meter reading in a cellar is a finding about that surface on that day. It is not a specification for tanking.
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What if a wall has been taken out between the reception rooms?
Opening up a terrace is ordinary, and it is also how a house loses the wall that was holding it. The surveyor looks for a beam, padstones, and cracking above the opening. If the beam is hidden, the report should say it could not confirm support. Building-regulations approval for the alteration is a paper your solicitor asks about. The survey does not find that paper in the plaster.
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Does every Victorian terrace need a Level 3?
RICS points Level 3 at older, altered or unusual construction, and at buyers planning major work. An unaltered terrace that appears in reasonable condition can be a Level 2 conversation. If the house has been opened up, underpinned, or you intend to, say so when you instruct. The decade does not choose the product by itself.
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If the roof is slate, is it the original Victorian roof?
Not necessarily. Slate is re-laid, mixed with fibre-cement, and patched. The survey describes the covering it could see and the condition of it. Original is a history question. Watertight is the useful one.
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A crack is in the party chimney. Is that your repair alone?
The survey can describe the crack. Who pays is the deed, the chimney’s position, and sometimes the Party Wall etc. Act if work is proposed. Do not split the cost in your head from a photograph.
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Do surveyors always write rising damp on these houses?
They should not. Low-level staining in a solid wall has several causes. There is a guide on rising damp and condensation, and one on damp generally. Ask for the mechanism they think is likely, not a product name.
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Can you turn the cellar into a kitchen because the survey was quiet?
A quiet note means they did not see a defect they needed to rate, within the limits of the inspection. It is not design advice, not a waterproofing guarantee, and not building-regulations approval for a change of use. Tanking a cellar is a project with its own risks. It is not implied by rating 1 on a coal store.
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The back addition has a flat roof. Does that dominate the survey?
It should be rated on its own. A small leaking flat roof can be a rating 3 because water is getting in now, while the main slate roof is a rating 2. Do not average them into ‘the roof’. The flat-roof guide explains what a visual inspection can say.
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The neighbour’s house was fine. Does that clear yours?
No. Terraces share details and still diverge: one roof re-covered, one wall replastered, one drain relaid. The report is about the house in the instruction, inspected that day.
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Is an Edwardian house surveyed differently from a Victorian one?
The RICS service is the same. Later houses are a little more likely to have an early cavity, larger spans, or different windows. The surveyor says what they found. The label on the estate agent’s brochure is not an element.
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What should a survey of a 1930s semi cover?
Many 1930s semis were built with cavity brick walls, a pitched tile roof and a chimney. Wall ties of that era can corrode, and some original windows are metal. Many is not this house. The survey has to say what it saw. Age is context. The condition rating is about the fabric, not the decade.
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How do you tell if this semi actually has a cavity?
Brick patterns, wall thickness at a window reveal, and air bricks can suggest a cavity. They can also mislead where a wall has been rendered or an extension added. The surveyor should say how they reached the view, and say if they could not. Do not buy cavity-wall insulation, or a tie replacement, on the strength of the year 1934 alone.
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What do tie corrosion and cracking look like in the report?
The useful sentence is specific: horizontal cracks in the mortar every few courses, a wall that bulges, rust staining from the joint. A single hairline crack at a window is a different note and may be the lintel, which has its own guide. The survey does not endoscope every joint unless that extra was agreed.
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What is the survey looking at in a 1930s roof?
From outside: slipped and laminated tiles, ridge and hip mortar, flashings at the chimney, and whether the neighbouring roof is doing something different at the party line. From the loft, if there is a hatch and a safe board: rafters, purlins, water staining, and felt. Many of these roofs were built without underfelt and felted later. Both can be fine or failing. The paragraph says which.
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Why do paths and replacement windows matter on these houses?
The damp-proof course on a 1930s house is often only a couple of brick courses above the garden. A new driveway, a raised flower bed or render taken down to the paving can bridge it. That is a classic penetrating or bridging note, not automatic rising damp. The survey should describe the levels it saw.
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Do all 1930s cavities need new wall ties?
No. Ties can corrode, particularly some early types, and many walls of this age are still doing their job. The survey looks for symptoms. A specialist confirms ties. A date range is not a specification.
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What does the survey say about the wall you share?
It rates the visible condition. It does not hear the neighbour’s side, and it does not award costs under the Party Wall etc. Act. Sound between rooms is not a condition rating unless the surveyor has described a defect, such as a hole or a gap at the loft.
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The boiler looks original. Is that a rating 3?
Age is not a rating. The services guide explains that a home survey does not service a boiler. The surveyor may comment on an old appliance because they can see it, and still not certify it. Gas safety is a separate regime.
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The walls are pebbledashed. Can the survey see the brick?
No. Render hides the face. The surveyor can tap for hollow areas and look at cracks, which is the render guide. They cannot grade the brick they cannot see, and they should not pretend a covering is a cavity inspection.
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Is the detached garage part of the same survey?
If it is on the plot and they could get in, it is usually included at a simpler level of comment. A garage roof can be a different condition from the house. Read the outbuildings guide. Do not assume the house rating transfers.
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There is a loft room. Does the survey approve it?
It describes the room it could enter: structure, stairs, roof leaks, fire doors if it comments on what it saw. Approval is building regulations and planning, which your solicitor checks. A pleasant bedroom is not a certificate.
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The chimney breast is gone in the bedroom. Is that a problem?
It is a question about whether the stack above is still supported. The surveyor looks for a beam or a gallows bracket and for cracking. If they cannot see the support, the honest finding is that they cannot see it. Do not paper over that with the seller’s memory.
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Is a Level 2 the usual choice?
RICS describes Level 2 for conventional homes that appear in reasonable condition. A 1930s semi often is that. Choose Level 3 if it is heavily altered, if you plan to remove walls, or if the construction is unclear. Ask the firm with the address, not with the decade only.
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What does listing mean for a home survey?
Listing recognises special architectural or historic interest. Historic England describes Grades I, II* and II, and lists the whole building inside and out. Listing is not a condition rating and not a repair price. Works that affect that special interest can need listed building consent, which is separate from planning permission.
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Is Grade II a condition rating?
No. Historic England uses grades to say why the building is on the list, in a national context. RICS uses 1, 2, 3 and NI to say what the surveyor saw wrong, or could not see, on the day. A Grade I building can have a sound roof. A Grade II cottage can have a rating 3 chimney. The numbers do not convert.
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Which repairs might need listed building consent?
Works that affect the character of the building as one of special interest generally need listed building consent. Like-for-like repair is not a phrase you should treat as a permit. The local planning authority, and in Wales the listed-building regime Cadw describes, is who you ask before you strip plaster, replace windows, or remove a stair. This guide will not issue a list of jobs that are ‘always fine’.
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What should the surveyor say about listing?
If you tell them the house is listed, or they know, the report should not pretend it is an ordinary speculative house when it recommends wholesale replacement of windows, plaster or the roof covering. The condition can still be poor. The repair options on a Level 3 are where that tension belongs. A Level 1 will not give you those options. RICS is clear that Level 1 generally does not advise on managing defects.
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Does listing work the same way in Wales?
The grades use the same names. The statute does not. Cadw explains listing in Wales through the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023, and says all grades are treated equally in the planning system. Historic England’s pages are about England. Do not attach an English consent anecdote to a house in Wales, or the other way round.
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The house is old but not listed. Can you alter it freely?
Listing is one control. Conservation areas, article 4 directions, planning permission and building regulations are others. ‘Not listed’ is not ‘unregulated’. Your solicitor and the local authority answer the control. The survey answers the condition.
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Does listing include the garden wall and the outbuilding?
It can. Curtilage structures are a legal question about what was ancillary to the listed building at listing, and the law is fact-specific. Do not demolish a barn because the list entry only names the house. Ask the authority. The survey can describe the barn’s condition either way.
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Can you put in double glazing because the EPC is poor?
An EPC is not consent. Replacement windows on a listed building often affect its character. Whether a slim unit, secondary glazing, or a repair of the original is acceptable is a consent question. The survey can say the existing windows are rotten. It cannot approve the replacement.
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Does listing change insurance?
Insurers set their own terms for older and listed homes. This page does not quote a premium and does not say you will be refused. Tell the insurer it is listed, and the grade, because the list is a public fact. The survey’s reinstatement figure, if you bought a product that includes one, is not an insurance policy.
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Is Grade II* in worse condition than Grade II?
No. The star is about special interest, in Historic England’s and Cadw’s definitions, not about disrepair. Condition is the survey.
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The list entry does not mention the staircase. Is the interior unlisted?
Historic England says the whole building is listed, interior and exterior, even if the entry never describes the inside. Do not remove a stair, a fireplace or plaster because the pdf was short.
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Which RICS level suits a listed house?
RICS describes Level 3 where the building is older, altered or unusual, or you plan major work. Listed houses are often in that group. A small, simple, recently repaired listed cottage might still be discussed as a Level 2. Tell the firm it is listed before they agree the level. This page does not book it for you.
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The roof is leaking now. Do you wait for consent?
Urgent weatherproofing and consent are both real. What you may do before consent, and what you must record, is for the local planning authority, not for a general guide. A rating 3 means the surveyor thinks the defect is serious or urgent. It does not licence the works.
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What should a survey of a thatched home cover?
Thatch is a roof covering with its own fire, moisture and maintenance life. A home survey can describe the coat it could see, the ridge, and damp in the roof space if access allowed. It does not certify thatch as insurable. Unusual construction is one reason RICS gives for considering a Level 3.
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What is the surveyor judging when they rate thatch?
They are judging the covering they could see: thinning at the eaves, a ridge that has slipped, moss holding water, birds pulling at the face, and staining in the rooms or the loft. A thick roof can look picturesque and still be at the end of its coat. A new ridge on an old coat is a repair to the ridge, not a new roof. The paragraph should separate those.
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Why do chimneys and wiring matter more under thatch?
A chimney that cracks, a flue that is used, and cables laid in the roof space are ordinary survey topics with a less ordinary consequence if heat or a fault meets dry thatch. The surveyor records what they could see. They do not sweep the flue, and they do not test the circuits. If the report suggests a specialist, that is a further instruction: a chimney sweep, a competent electrician, or both. It is not included in the visual inspection unless the terms say so.
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Does a thatched roof ‘need to breathe’?
Thatch and the rooms under it cope badly with trapped moisture and with impermeable layers people add in the name of warmth. A survey can see felt pressed against the coat, insulation stuffed into a void, and staining. It should not specify a proprietary insulation. If you are planning energy work, listed or not, get advice from someone who will look at this roof. The ventilation guide explains what a visual note can and cannot prove.
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Is thatch a reason to commission a Level 3?
RICS describes Level 3 as the survey for older, altered or unusual buildings. Thatch is an unusual covering for the purpose of that sentence. Level 2 can still be discussed if the firm, having heard the address and seen a photo, believes the home is straightforward and in reasonable condition. Ask them. Do not let a marketing page decide.
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The ridge looks new. Is the rest of the roof new?
Not from the ridge alone. Ridges are replaced more often than the main coat. The survey should describe each. If it only says ‘thatched roof’, ask for the condition of the coat, the ridge and the eaves as separate remarks.
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There is wire netting over the thatch. Is that a defect?
Netting is often there to deter birds. It can also hide the face and hold debris. The surveyor says whether they could see the coat through it. Hidden is a limit, not a pass.
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Will the survey satisfy an insurer?
Only if that insurer has agreed to accept it. Many want their own questions answered, sometimes by a specialist. Send them the report and ask. This site cannot say you will be offered cover.
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Can you replace thatch with tiles to make life easier?
That is planning, and listed building consent if the house is listed, and a structural question about whether the roof was built to carry tiles. The survey can note the existing covering. It does not consent to a different one.
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The survey mentions pests in the thatch. Is that dry rot?
No. Birds, insects and rodents are not fungal decay. Dry rot is a timber problem in the right damp conditions, covered in its own guide. Ask which material is affected: the coat, or the timbers under it.
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Can you see the thatch from a bedroom?
Sometimes, in older roofs with no ceiling. That lets the surveyor see more of the underside and the timbers. It also means there is no separate loft to hide defects, or to hide wiring. Describe what is there. Do not call it a loft inspection if there is no loft.
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The terrace next door is also thatched. Whose roof is leaking?
The survey is of the roof over the house in the instruction, from the access available. Water can cross a party line. If the surveyor could not tell which coat is leaking, that uncertainty is the finding. Do not invoice the neighbour from a stain.
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Do lenders refuse thatch?
Some will lend on terms they set, some will not. Criteria change and are not in the RICS condition ratings. Ask the lender you intend to use, and tell them the roof is thatched before you spend the fee. This page will not name a bank.
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How does a survey treat a timber-framed house?
Timber frame means a timber skeleton carries the building, not that every old beam is failing. Historic frames and modern factory panels are different buildings. A visual survey can record distortion, infill and damp staining. It does not open the frame, and it is not a structural calculation. Movement in old timber is not automatically a rating 3.
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Which timber frame is this house?
A historic frame shows timber, or once showed it: posts, beams, sometimes a jetty, infill of wattle and daub, brick or light panels. A modern timber-frame house often looks like any other cavity house from the kerb. The surveyor should say which they think it is, and why. ‘Timber frame’ written once, with no sentence after it, is an incomplete finding. Ask them to unpack it.
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When is an old frame allowed to look crooked?
Historic frames were built green, and they have moved for centuries. A floor that slopes and a post that leans can be long-settled. They can also be a joint that has failed, a sole plate that has rotted, or a wall that is still moving. The surveyor’s job is to say what they saw and whether they think it needs investigation now. A photograph of a crooked cottage is not that judgement.
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What should you ask about the panels between the timbers?
Infill fails when it is loose, cracked, or kept wet. A cement render or a modern gypsum plaster on a frame that was meant to dry can hold water against the oak. The survey can record cracking at the junction of timber and panel, and hollow or detached coats. It should not tell you to hack it all off in a weekend. If the house is listed, that work may need consent. Even if it is not, it needs someone who understands the frame.
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What can a survey see of a modern timber-frame house?
Cladding, the cavity if there are signs of problems at openings, seals around windows, and any staining that suggests water is past the outer leaf. The structural panels stay hidden. A warranty from the original builder, if it still exists, is a document. The survey does not confirm that the warranty is in force.
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There are beams in the lounge. Is the house timber-framed?
Not by itself. Beams are added for effect, and chimneys and floors have timbers in masonry houses. A frame means the timber is the structure. The surveyor should say which they are looking at. If they cannot tell without opening up, that limit belongs in the report.
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What is a sole plate, in plain words?
It is the horizontal timber at the bottom of a historic frame, closest to the ground and to splash. Rot there matters because the posts stand on it. A survey can see the ends where they are exposed, and cannot see a plate buried behind a raised path. Buried is a reason to look, not a diagnosis of rot.
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What is wattle and daub?
A historic infill: a lattice of small timbers with a plaster of earth, lime and fibre. It is not rubbish to be replaced with foam. Cracks and loss of keys are condition. Replacement with cement is often how the frame starts to stay wet. The survey describes what it can see.
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Is every old oak house full of woodworm?
No. Furniture beetle and deathwatch beetle are real insects, covered in the timber guide, and flight holes are evidence of attack at some time. They are not proof of ongoing attack, and they are not proof the frame is finished. Ask whether the surveyor saw fresh frass. Do not commission treatment from a brochure.
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Should you render over the timbers to protect them?
Covering a frame that was meant to be seen, especially with a hard cement, is a good way to hide decay and trap moisture. If the house is listed it may also need consent. Repair and shelter are not the same as wrapping. Take advice before you cover anything.
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The modern timber frame is 15 years old. Is the warranty still the survey?
A warranty is a contract with an insurer or a manufacturer, if it remains in date and the conditions were met. A survey is a condition report for you. One does not renew the other. Ask for the policy. If there is no paper, the survey is what you have.
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Can you knock through a timber frame the way you would a brick wall?
You can cut a masonry wall and insert a beam, with the right design and approvals. Cutting a post in a frame is removing structure that may also be historic fabric. The survey can flag the post. An engineer and, if listed, the planning authority, come before the saw.
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Which level should you book?
Tell the firm it is timber-framed, and whether you think it is historic or modern. RICS points Level 3 at unusual and older construction and at major work. A recent conventional timber-frame house in fair condition may be a Level 2. Concealment is the reason to ask them, not to guess from this page.
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What is different about a survey of a bungalow?
A bungalow puts the rooms on one level, so the roof, ground-floor damp-proofing and loft are a larger share of daily life. A survey only reports what it could inspect. It does not value a loft you have not converted, and the word bungalow is not a defect. Read the roof and damp notes first.
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Why does the roof dominate a bungalow survey?
In a two-storey house a leak can show in a spare bedroom or a loft you rarely enter. In a bungalow the ceiling over the living room is often the underside of the roof. Staining, a flat-roofed dormer, and valley gutters between a hipped roof and an extension are the notes that matter. The roof guide explains what can be seen from the ground and from a hatch.
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What damp notes matter when every room is on the ground?
Outside ground levels, paths, render taken below the damp-proof course, and flower beds against the wall. Approved Document C is the moisture guidance for building work; it is not a score for the bungalow. The survey records what it saw at the floor and the wall base. Because you will live on that floor, a rating 2 you might have tolerated in a spare cellar is in your bedroom. That is a judgement about your use, not a change in the RICS definition.
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What if there are already rooms in the roof?
Then it is not an empty loft, whatever the agent calls it. The survey looks at the dormers, the junctions, the stairs that are there, and whether the roof structure appears to have been altered. Papers for the conversion are for your solicitor. Fire doors and escape are not fully tested by a visual survey. If the report is unsure the floor was designed for rooms, believe the uncertainty.
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Do services get a different inspection?
No. Electrics, gas, heating and drains are still not tested the way a specialist tests them. In a bungalow the consumer unit, the boiler and the manholes are sometimes easier to reach, which means fewer excuses for NI, not a more thorough test. Easy access is not an EICR. The services guides set out that line so this one does not have to pretend otherwise.
Property types
Is a bungalow automatically a Level 2?
If it is conventional and looks in reasonable condition, that is the RICS description of where Level 2 sits. A thatched, listed, system-built or heavily altered bungalow is a different conversation. Tell the firm what the roof is made of.
Property types
The bungalow has a flat-roofed extension. Should that worry you?
It should be read as its own element. Flat roofs are a common place for a rating 3 because they fail at outlets and upstands. They are also sometimes fine. Use the flat-roof guide, and the sentence in your report, not the word extension.
Property types
Can the survey say the loft is suitable for conversion?
It can say what it could see: the timber sizes it measured or did not, the water tanks, the party wall, the access. Suitability is a design. Headroom rules and stair rules live in building regulations, and they are not applied by a condition rating. If conversion is why you are buying, appoint someone to design it, and do not exchange on a hope.
Property types
Does a bigger garden mean the drains were inspected?
No. Drains are inspected to the limit of the level you bought, which is not a full camera survey unless you agreed one. Garden size does not add a CCTV van.
Property types
You are buying a bungalow for one level. Will the survey comment on access?
Only if something affects access and they choose to note it, such as steps at every door. A home survey is not an occupational therapist’s report and not an Approved Document M assessment. Steps are not a defect because someone would prefer a ramp. They might still matter to you. That is your brief, and you can ask the surveyor to look.
Property types
Are bungalow walls the same cavity question as a semi?
Yes if they are cavity walls of the same era. A 1930s bungalow can have the same tie question as a 1930s semi. A new bungalow should not inherit that history. Read the construction note, then the wall-tie guide only if it applies.
Property types
There are several valleys on the roof. Is that bad?
Valleys collect water. They are a place surveys look, not a defect by existing. A valley that overflows into the loft is a defect. A valley that is simply there is a feature. Ask which.
Property types
Are bungalows harder to insure?
Not as a class, on any figure this page is willing to invent, because it will not invent one. Insurers price construction, roof covering, flood, subsidence and the lock you fit. Give them the survey’s construction and roof notes rather than the word bungalow.
Property types
What can a survey say about a park home?
A park home is not a bungalow under another name. GOV.UK treats park homes as a special case and says to take specific advice. If you instruct a RICS survey, it can describe the shell and chassis it was able to see. It does not set a pitch fee or replace the written agreement.
Property types
What should you do if the particulars use the wrong name for the unit?
A bungalow is a building of one storey, of whatever construction the survey finds. A static caravan or park home is sold under a different set of papers. GOV.UK’s how-to-buy guidance lists park homes, houseboats and mobile homes as special cases and tells you to seek specific advice. If the brochure uses the word bungalow, the report should say what the unit actually is, or say that the legal character is for the solicitor. It should not tidy the brochure up.
Property types
What if the skirting hides the chassis?
Then the chassis was not inspected. A condition rating cannot be invented for steel the surveyor could not see. The honest line is a limit: skirting, no access, no comment on corrosion, supports or the ground under the unit. Ask whether a hatch can be opened before the visit if the chassis is the point of the instruction.
Property types
Does the site licence or the pitch agreement belong in the rating?
No. A seller may put the site licence in the same envelope as the report. The licence is a site document. The pitch agreement and the fee are the solicitor’s reading, not a condition rating of the shell. This page does not summarise the park-home legislation and does not quote a fee. GOV.UK’s point is that these purchases need their own advice.
Property types
Will the survey tell you if the pitch fee is fair?
No. The visit does not set, review or audit a pitch fee. Fairness is a legal and site question. Nothing in the condition ratings is a fee.
Property types
The unit is on a holiday park. Is a house survey the right product?
Not until you know what you are allowed to buy and occupy. A residential Level 2 or Level 3 assumes a home. A holiday-park unit can be a different contract. Ask the solicitor first. If you still want condition comments, agree a scope that says what the unit is.
Property types
Can the survey make the unit mortgageable?
No. Lenders decide what they will secure. MoneyHelper’s point is that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. The converse holds here: this report is not an offer of mortgage.
Property types
Does the survey include a gas check?
No. Gas work belongs with an engineer on the Gas Safe Register. The survey can note an appliance it could see. It does not service it.
Property types
There is mould on an outside wall of the unit. Is that rising damp?
Not from the mould alone. Park homes are not masonry on a damp-proof course. Cold surfaces, condensation and a failed seal are the sorts of things to ask about. Do not import a brick-house damp diagnosis.
Property types
The licence was stapled to the report. Is it part of the survey?
Only as a document the seller supplied. The surveyor does not issue site licences and does not rate them 1, 2 or 3. Read it with your solicitor.
Property types
Which RICS level should you book?
Ask the firm whether they inspect park homes at all. Unusual construction is a reason RICS gives for considering Level 3, and some firms will decline. A refusal is not a verdict that the unit is unsound. It means that firm will not take the job.
Property types
Should you use the bungalow guide instead?
Use it only if the building is actually a bungalow. This page is for park homes, static caravans and holiday-park units. The bungalow page assumes a one-storey building on its own site, which is a different purchase.
Property types
What does a home survey of a barn conversion actually inspect?
A barn conversion is a dwelling made inside a former farm building. The home survey reports the condition of what it could see: roof, walls, floors, damp and limits of the services. Planning papers and building-regulations certificates sit with the solicitor. The visit does not grant the change of use, and lining does not prove the hidden wall is sound.
Property types
What can the survey see when the conversion has been lined out?
Most converted barns are lined. Plasterboard, insulation and a new floor hide the stone, the frame or the block that used to be the farm building. The survey records the lining, any cracks in it, and the patches of original fabric left at openings, eaves and unlined stores. It does not remove the lining, and it cannot describe timber or masonry it did not see.
Property types
Why are the original roof timbers a different job from the new covering?
A new tile or slate coat can sit on trusses that were built for a hay barn, not for bedrooms. The survey can record the covering, the flashings and the timbers it could see from a hatch or from a room in the roof. It does not recalculate the farm loading, and it does not certify that a cut member still works as it did.
Property types
Why do the planning papers not describe today's roof?
A planning decision says what the authority approved, often years ago. It is not a condition report. Building-regulations approval, where it was needed, is a separate file and is not issued by the surveyor. The roof note in the survey is what could be seen on the day. Read the papers with the solicitor and the roof note with the survey. Do not treat one as the other.
Property types
Is a converted barn treated as a new house in the survey?
No. The survey describes the building that is standing, including older fabric that was kept. A warranty product aimed at a house built from scratch is a different contract. The report does not enrol the barn on a warranty.
Property types
Can the survey confirm a damp-proof membrane under a former livestock floor?
Only if that membrane was visible, which it usually is not once a slab and finishes are down. The survey can note the floor type, any damp at the edges and any ventilation. It cannot see through the slab.
Property types
A mezzanine was added for bedrooms. Has the survey designed it?
No. The survey can note how the floor looks, whether it shakes, and whether the supports it could see appear to land on something solid. It does not calculate the joists and it does not approve the stair.
Property types
Who checks whether the converted barn is itself a listed building?
The survey does not search the list. Historic England explains listing as a status that covers the whole of a listed building, which is not a condition score. Your solicitor matches the barn to the list entry. The report only describes the fabric it inspected.
Property types
The rainwater from the long barn roof discharges beside the wall. Is that a drainage design?
It is a condition note about where the water falls. The survey has not designed a soakaway and has not camera-surveyed the drains unless the report says so. A long roof can concentrate water in one place. Read that note beside the drainage comments.
Property types
Should every barn conversion be a Level 3?
RICS points buyers of older and altered buildings towards the more detailed survey levels, and a firm may decline a Level 1 or 2 where the construction is outside what that product is for. Ask the firm. The product name does not prove the barn is defective.
Property types
The estate agent called the barn a new build. Should the report copy that?
No. The report should say what the building is: a conversion of an older structure, if that is what the surveyor saw. Marketing words are not a construction type. A new roof on an old barn is not a house built entirely last year.
Property types
Does the survey replace the building-regulations file for the conversion?
No. Building-regulations approval is the council or approved-inspector file, not a paragraph in a home survey. The surveyor may note alterations they could see. They do not issue the certificate and they do not search the council records as standard.
Selling
Should a seller in England or Wales get a survey?
In England and Wales a seller does not have to commission a RICS Home Survey before marketing. In Scotland a Home Report, including a Single Survey, is required. RICS says a purchaser can rely on that Scottish report. A survey you commission in England or Wales is written for you. A later buyer cannot assume they may rely on it.
Selling
Is there a seller’s survey duty in England and Wales?
No statute makes a RICS Level 1, 2 or 3 part of marketing a home in England or Wales. You may still choose one. RICS’s consumer material talks about surveys helping a sale because you understand the building you are selling. That is a reason, not an obligation.
Selling
What does Scotland require instead?
mygov.scot sets out the Home Report a seller obtains before marketing. RICS describes it as a prescribed pack: a Single Survey with valuation, an EPC, and a property questionnaire. The same consumer guide says the purchaser can rely on the Home Report. That is a different legal product from an English Level 2 you commissioned for yourself.
Selling
Should you show your survey to a buyer?
If you show it, show the whole report, including the limits, not the rating 1s with the rating 3s cropped out. A buyer’s solicitor will notice the missing pages, and so will their surveyor. You are not obliged to disclose a report you never commissioned. You are in different territory if you answer a direct question untruthfully. That is legal advice this page will not give. Ask your solicitor before you write the words ‘no survey has mentioned damp’.
Selling
Which level is useful if you do choose one?
The same RICS descriptions apply. Level 1 if you want a visual overview of a conventional home and you do not need repair advice. Level 2 if you want advice on a straightforward house. Level 3 if the building is older, altered or unusual, or you want to know the consequences before a buyer points them out. The fee is whatever the firm quotes. This page does not have a seller’s discount.
Selling
Can you agree the buyer will rely on your survey and split the fee?
Only if the surveying firm agrees in writing. Reliance is their professional risk. Two names on a handshake do not amend their terms. Ask the firm. If they refuse, the buyer instructs separately.
Selling
Will commissioning a survey make the house harder to sell?
It will tell you things a buyer’s surveyor might later tell them. That can change your asking price, or it can let you repair first. It does not create the defect. This page will not pretend there is a statistic for ‘surveys that sink sales’.
Selling
Is the EPC enough to show the condition?
No. An EPC is an energy rating. Sellers in England and Wales do have EPC duties, described on the EPC page. Those duties are not a home survey.
Selling
Should you do every repair the survey mentions?
No. Rating 1 is ordinary maintenance. Rating 2 is not, in RICS’s words, serious or urgent. Rating 3 is the list RICS tells a buyer to price before commitment. You might still leave a rating 3 and negotiate. Do it with the sentence visible, not with a tin of paint.
Selling
The agent offered a valuation. Is that the survey?
An estate agent’s market appraisal is not a RICS Home Survey, even if the agent is also a valuer. If you want condition ratings, instruct a survey. If you want a price opinion, say that. They are different products. Our valuation guide draws the same line for buyers.
Selling
You are selling a flat. Does a survey cover the block?
Only the parts the surveyor could see, which is the same limit as for a buyer. The lease and the service charge are not in the ratings. Read the leasehold guide before you describe the roof as ‘not your problem’ in the listing.
Selling
Can you reuse a survey from when you bought?
It described the house on that date, for that client. Years of wear, leaks and alterations sit outside it. A buyer should not be asked to rely on it. You can reread it for your own memory. It is not a current report.
Selling
In Scotland, can a buyer still get another survey?
Yes. Reliance on the Home Report does not ban a further instruction. People commission more when the Single Survey is silent on something they care about. The legal pack is still the seller’s Home Report. mygov.scot is the place to read the duty.
After the survey
When can you walk away after a home survey?
A survey does not order you to withdraw. RICS says that for a condition rating 3 you should obtain written quotations before you are legally committed. If you are not committed, you can still ask, renegotiate, or decide against the home. If you have exchanged, or you bought at auction, ask your solicitor before you assume you can leave.
After the survey
Does a rating 3 mean you should walk away?
No. The published definition is serious defects, or urgent repair, replacement or investigation, and a prompt to get written quotes before you are legally committed. Some rating 3 items are a single trade and a clear price. Some are a reason you no longer want the house. The paragraph, and the quote or specialist report that follows, is how you tell them apart. The renegotiation guide walks that without turning it into a script.
After the survey
What does ‘before you are legally committed’ mean?
In a typical private treaty purchase in England and Wales, people talk as if exchange is the moment you are bound. That is the usual pattern and not a description of your file. New-build reservation agreements, options, and auctions can bind earlier. Scotland’s missives are a different sequence. The only honest instruction from a survey website is: ask the solicitor who can see the papers, and ask before you spend money assuming you can withdraw.
After the survey
Which reasons for leaving are the survey, and which are yours?
The survey contributes facts: this element is serious, this one was not inspected, this one needs a specialist. You contribute the rest: you will not live with a house that needs that investigation, or you will. A damp note you do not understand is a reason to ask, not yet a reason to leave. A structural note the surveyor says needs an engineer before commitment is a reason to pause. If the seller refuses access for that engineer and you would not buy blind, leaving is coherent. If you would buy anyway, say so, and do not perform a negotiation you do not mean.
After the survey
What about the survey fee and other costs if you withdraw?
The survey fee is the price of the information. It is not refundable because the news was unwelcome, unless the firm failed to do what it was instructed to do. Other costs, such as legal fees already incurred, or a reservation fee, depend on those contracts. This page will not tell you they come back. Ask the people you paid.
After the survey
The seller will not let a contractor in. What then?
Then you do not have the quotation RICS suggested you obtain. You can decide without it, or you can say you will not exchange without it. If you are not yet committed, both are available. The seller does not have to cooperate. Your solicitor explains the consequence of waiting.
After the survey
You are buying at auction. When is the survey useful?
Before you bid, if a bid would bind you. After the hammer, a survey can still explain the building, and it may be too late to walk away. Ask your solicitor which auction conditions apply. Do not discover them from this paragraph.
After the survey
Can you walk away from a new build after snagging?
Only if your contract still allows it. Snags are often remedied by the builder after completion, under the warranty described on the new-build page. A serious concern is different from a scratched worktop. The reservation agreement is the document, not the snagging list.
After the survey
One of you wants to leave and the other does not.
The survey will not vote. Write down the item you disagree about, the rating, and whether a quote would settle it. If a quote would settle it, get the quote. If the disagreement is about whether you want the house at all, that is not a surveying question.
After the survey
Is walking away the same as gazundering?
No. Gazundering is a price cut pressed late. Walking away is leaving the purchase. Renegotiating is a third thing, covered in the renegotiation guide. Using a survey as a pretext for a cut you always planned is a commercial choice. It is not what the condition rating says.
After the survey
The loft is NI. Should you withdraw?
NI means not inspected. Withdraw only if the hidden part is one you are unwilling to buy unseen, and you cannot arrange an inspection before commitment. A locked hatch you can get opened next Tuesday is a delay, not a principle.
After the survey
Your solicitor says the contract is already binding. Can the survey undo it?
No. A survey does not rescind a contract. If you have exchanged, the remedies are the ones in that contract and in law, which your solicitor explains. Read the report so you know the building you are now committed to. Do not read it as an exit.
After the survey
Is there a checklist that decides for you?
There is a question flow on this site. It sorts rating 3, quotes, and whether you are committed. It ends in sentences, not a score, and it tells you when the next person to speak to is the solicitor or the surveyor. It does not decide.
After the survey
What further investigations can a survey ask for?
Further investigation means someone else looks at a part the home survey could not settle. Where a part was not inspected and the surveyor is concerned, RICS says the report should name the investigation. That may be electrics, drains, timber, structure or knotweed. It is a new instruction unless your terms included it.
After the survey
Why does a home survey stop where it stops?
Because the level you bought is a visual inspection with agreed limits. Surveyors do not lift fitted floors, empty lofts, or test circuits as an electrician would. When they are worried about something they could not see, the Home Survey wording is to say what further investigation is needed. That sentence is the product working, not the product failing.
After the survey
Who do you actually phone?
Match the sentence. Damp and timber notes go to a specialist who will explain cause, not only sell a treatment; there are guides on this site for damp, rot and woodworm. Cracks the surveyor thinks may be structural go to a structural engineer, not to the same firm that injects walls. Drains go to a firm that will camera them and give you the video. Electrics go to a person who can produce an EICR. Knotweed goes to a firm that will identify the plant; the knotweed guide cites the RICS standard and GOV.UK.
After the survey
Do you need the result before exchange?
RICS’s rating 3 text is about quotations before legal commitment, not about every follow-up in the first year you own the house. A drip from a gutter you can see may wait. A floor that may be rotting under the only bathroom may not. The surveyor’s words ‘before commitment’ and ‘in the normal course of maintenance’ are the sorting. If you cannot get the specialist in before you would be committed, you are back to the walking-away question: will you buy without the answer?
After the survey
Who pays, and who can rely on the second report?
Usually the buyer pays, because the buyer wants the answer. A seller sometimes pays to keep the sale. The report belongs to the client named on it. If you want to rely on a seller’s damp report, ask that firm whether they will extend reliance. If they will not, you have a document you can read and no duty of care you should invent.
After the survey
Will the original surveyor do the further investigation?
Sometimes, if it is within their competence and you agree a fee. Often it is a different profession. Read what they recommended. ‘Further investigation by a specialist’ means they are not offering to do it inside the original fee.
After the survey
Do you need three quotes for every rating 3?
RICS says written quotations before commitment, not a particular count of them. One clear quote can be enough to decide. Three quotes are a buying habit, not a clause in the rating. For a complex repair, more than one price is how you learn the range. This site does not invent that range.
After the survey
The seller already has a damp report. Can you use it?
Read it, including who it was written for and how old it is. If the firm will not confirm you may rely on it, treat it as information, and decide whether you need your own. A report addressed to a seller who wanted a particular outcome is still worth reading. It is not automatically yours.
After the survey
The survey says ‘seek structural advice’. Is a builder enough?
A builder can price a repair they understand. Structural advice means a structural engineer when the surveyor has said the cause or the support is unclear. Using the builder as the engineer is how assumptions get built into the wall. If the report names an engineer, believe the noun.
After the survey
Should you camera the drains whenever drainage is NI?
NI with no concern is a limit. NI with a recommendation, or a slow gully the surveyor did see, is a reason. Camera surveys are the investigation. They are not compulsory because the word drain appeared. Read the drainage guide.
After the survey
Does every purchase need an EICR?
No. An EICR is the electrical investigation, and it is compulsory in some rented homes under the regulations the electrics guide cites. A purchase is not those regulations. Commission one when the surveyor has seen something dangerous, when the installation looks improvised, or when you want the test the survey could not do. Do not commission one because a checklist said always.
After the survey
The specialist contradicts the survey. Who is right?
They may both be, on different questions. The surveyor saw a symptom within a visual limit. The specialist opened it up or tested it. Take the tested evidence on the point that was tested, and ask the surveyor if it changes their advice. Do not throw either document away in the group chat.
After the survey
What do these reports cost?
This page does not know. Firms quote after they know the house and the question. Any number printed here would be invented. Ask two firms for the investigation the survey described, and label their answers as quotes, not as facts from RICS.
Money
What is a mortgage retention, and is it a condition rating?
A mortgage retention is a lender holding back part of the loan until stated work is done. It is the lender’s decision, not a RICS condition rating and not a repair quote. MoneyHelper says a mortgage valuation checks price or the loan, and is not a structural survey. A down-valuation and a rating 3 are different documents.
Money
Where does a retention actually appear?
In the mortgage offer, as a condition of how much they will release and when. It does not appear as a condition rating, because the valuer and the surveyor may not even be the same visit. Some lenders upgrade a valuation into a survey if you ask and pay. MoneyHelper describes that possibility. An upgrade is a different report. Read which one you received.
Money
What can you do if the valuation is below the price?
The lender will not lend against a price their valuer will not support. You can ask the seller to match the figure, you can put in more of your own money, you can ask whether another lender would instruct another valuation, or you can withdraw if you are still free to. None of those is a right to the seller’s agreement. The survey’s repair notes might explain why you no longer want to bridge the gap with cash. They are not the valuation.
Money
Why must you not add the rating to the valuation?
A rating 3 is not a sum of money. A valuation is a sum of money for lending. Adding ‘ten per cent for the roof’ because the roof is a rating 3 invents both the percentage and the link. If you want a price for the roof, get a quote, which is the renegotiation guide’s point. If you want to know what the lender will advance, read the offer.
Money
Should you send the home survey to the lender?
If they ask, yes. If they do not, think before you do. A lender who sees a rating 3 may retain, or may ask for work, or may do nothing because their own valuer already reported. Hiding a report you were asked for is a different matter, and it is not a tactic this site will dress up. Your solicitor and your broker know what this lender asked for. The survey website does not.
Money
What percentage do lenders usually retain?
This page does not say, because a single percentage would be invented. The offer states the holdback if there is one. If you want a market anecdote, it will not come from us.
Money
How do you get a retention released?
By doing the work the offer names, and sending the evidence the lender asks for. Sometimes that is an invoice, sometimes a reinspection. The survey you bought at the start is not that reinspection.
Money
You are a cash buyer. Can you ignore retentions?
You can ignore the lender’s mechanism, because there is no lender. You cannot ignore the defect. The condition rating was never their idea. It was the surveyor’s.
Money
The valuation passed and the survey is full of rating 3s. Which matters?
Both, for different decisions. The lender is willing to lend on their figure. The survey is telling you about condition. You can be allowed to borrow and still not want the house. You can want the house and still fail a valuation. Do not let one document delete the other.
Money
The survey is mostly rating 1 and the valuation is short. Why?
Because condition and price are different questions. A sound house can be agreed above what the valuer will support. The survey will not ‘correct’ the valuation. Renegotiation, if you try it, is about the price the seller will accept, not about a rating that was never the problem.
Money
The report has a reinstatement cost. Is that the valuation?
No. Reinstatement is a figure for insurance rebuilding, when the product includes one. Market value is what a buyer might pay. A mortgage valuation is what the lender’s valuer reports. Three jobs. The RICS level descriptions say which products include a valuation. Your instruction says which one you bought.
Money
The broker says to ignore the survey and trust the valuation.
The broker is talking about the loan. The survey is talking about the building. If you wanted only a loan, you would not have commissioned a survey. Read both. Ignoring a rating 3 because the valuation was convenient is how people buy a problem they have already paid to be told about.
Money
Can you tell me whether to proceed with the mortgage?
No. That is regulated advice, and we are not a lender or a broker. Use the documents. Speak to your broker and your solicitor. Use the survey for the building.
Reading the report
Is an EPC a home survey?
An Energy Performance Certificate rates energy efficiency from A to G. GOV.UK says you need one when selling, renting or building a new home, with exceptions, and that it lasts 10 years. It is not a RICS Home Survey or a condition rating. A high grade is not a sound roof, and a low grade is not a failed structure.
Reading the report
What is an EPC actually measuring?
Energy performance: how the model thinks the building will use energy, from the fabric and services data the assessor records. GOV.UK says it also suggests improvements. It does not open the walls, it does not rate damp, and it does not tell you the boiler is safe. A boiler that is new can lift the letter and still be a gas-safety question. A boiler that is old can drag the letter and still be working. Condition is the survey.
Reading the report
When do you have to have one?
GOV.UK’s selling guidance says you must have an EPC when selling, renting out, or building a new property, and that you must order it before you market to buyers or tenants. It also says there are cases where you do not need one, on that same page. Read the exceptions there rather than from memory. Scotland’s display rules are mentioned separately by GOV.UK; do not mix them into an English listing.
Reading the report
Should you do every improvement on the certificate?
No. The recommendations are options the methodology produces. Some are sensible. Some are wrong for a listed building, a timber frame, or a house with damp. Spray foam and solid-wall insulation are the examples we already warn about in their own guides. An EPC recommendation does not override listed building consent, and it does not override a surveyor who has seen moisture.
Reading the report
How do you read an EPC next to a home survey?
Keep the letters apart. A is not rating 1. G is not rating 3. If the survey says the roof is tired and the EPC recommends insulation in that roof, solve the leak before you bury it. If the EPC is old, GOV.UK’s ten-year validity tells you whether it can still be used for marketing. It does not tell you the boiler has been serviced in those ten years.
Reading the report
Can you skip a Level 2 because the EPC is a B?
No. The B is energy. The Level 2 would have been condition. A new, efficient, badly built house can score well and still have defects. A draught is sometimes a rating and sometimes a ventilation path. The survey separates them. The EPC averages them into a model.
Reading the report
The EPC is 11 years old. Can you use it?
GOV.UK says an EPC is valid for 10 years. After that you need a new one from an accredited assessor before you market, if the duty applies. The old certificate can still be read as history. It is not current.
Reading the report
Will your RICS surveyor produce the EPC?
Only if they are also an accredited assessor and you instruct that service. A Home Survey does not include an EPC as standard. Ask. Do not expect the rating letter at the back of a Level 3.
Reading the report
The EPC says replace the windows and the house is listed.
Then consent may be needed, and the recommendation may be inappropriate. Read the listed-building guide. An assessor is not the conservation officer.
Reading the report
The EPC recommends insulation and a salesperson offered spray foam.
Stop. Spray foam has its own guide because it can hide the roof timbers and worry lenders. An EPC line is not an instruction to spray. Get advice that has seen the roof.
Reading the report
A new home has an EPC. Does that replace snagging?
No. New homes are assessed for energy as part of being built. Snagging and warranties are the new-build page. The letter on the EPC is not a snagging list.
Reading the report
What is the fine for marketing without an EPC?
GOV.UK says you can be fined. The amount and the enforcement sit on the official page and can change. We are not copying a figure into a survey guide for it to go stale. Follow that page if you are the seller.
Reading the report
Does a low EPC stop you buying?
Not by itself. Minimum energy standards for private renting are a landlord’s duty when they apply, and they are a different regime from a buyer’s survey. If you will need to let the home, ask your solicitor what standard applies. Do not treat a D as a defect rating.
Reading the report
Which condition rating do the surveyor’s words describe?
This checker repeats the RICS definitions of condition ratings 1, 2 and 3, and of NI and the document mark R. You pick the sentence that matches the report. It shows that meaning, and what the mark is not. It does not re-rate your house, and it does not invent a repair price.
Reading the report
What if the report already prints 1, 2, 3 or NI?
Use the printed mark. The checker is for the moment you cannot see it, or you cannot tell a condition rating from the document mark R. It is not a second opinion, and it cannot see the photograph the surveyor took. The longer guide on condition ratings is the page to cite.
Reading the report
Why will the checker not show a cost?
RICS does not attach a price to a colour. Two rating 2s can be entirely different jobs. A cost without a quote would be a number we invented. The cost guides on this site explain what can be looked up, and they label ranges as ranges. This tool stays with the definitions.
Reading the report
Can you send this result to the seller as the survey?
No. The seller’s surveyor wrote the report. This page only restates published definitions against a sentence you selected. If you think the surveyor has mis-labelled something, ask them. Do not paste a web result over their rating.
Reading the report
Can this checker change a rating you disagree with?
No. Disagreement goes back to the surveyor, in writing, while you can still use the answer. The checker has no file and no photograph. It will not upgrade a 3 to a 2 because the defect sounds manageable.
Reading the report
The report has many ratings. Do you run the checker once?
Once per element you do not understand. The house does not have a single rating. RICS does not add them into a score, and neither does this page.
Reading the report
Does it work on a Level 1, which has less advice?
The definitions of 1, 2, 3 and NI are the same scale. Level 1 often gives you less help under the number. The checker will not invent the repair advice Level 1 was never going to include.
Reading the report
Does the same scale apply to a Scottish Single Survey?
Scottish Home Reports use their own categories. Do not force this England-and-Wales RICS scale onto a Single Survey. Read the category definitions printed in that pack.
Reading the report
The letter R is next to a request for guarantees. Is that a rating 3?
No. R is the document mark. Your solicitor asks for the papers. The condition of the element, if it has one, is a separate number.
Reading the report
NI is printed but the sentence sounds worried. What do you pick?
Pick NI, and read the sentence. NI plus a recommendation to investigate is not a hidden rating 1. The checker’s NI result says that in the same words as the ratings guide.
Reading the report
The words mention safety. Is that automatically rating 3?
RICS includes serious safety issues in the rating 3 definition. If the surveyor printed a different number, ask them why before you overwrite it. Safety is not a prompt for you to improvise a rating.
Reading the report
Is the result advice to renegotiate?
No. A rating 3 is a prompt to get quotations before commitment. Whether you renegotiate is the other tool and the renegotiation guide. This checker stops at the definition.
After the survey
A question flow: renegotiate, wait, or walk away?
This flow asks whether the report flags urgent repair or investigation, whether you can get a quote before you are committed, and whether you would buy without that answer. It replies in sentences. It is not a score, not a percentage off the price, and not advice to withdraw.
After the survey
Why does this flow refuse to score the survey?
A score would pretend that five rating 2s and one rating 3 are a sum. RICS does not add them. A percentage off the price would be a number we do not have. The sentences point you at a quote, a specialist, your solicitor, or a decision you were already free to make.
After the survey
What can the questions not know?
They cannot know the house, the contract, or the seller. If you answer ‘I do not know whether I am committed’, the only honest result is to ask your solicitor. The flow will not guess from the type of sale you think you are in.
After the survey
What should you do with the paragraph it gives you?
If it says get a quote, instruct the quote and keep the survey sentence next to it. If it says the items are maintenance, do not dress them up as a rating 3. If it says speak to your solicitor, do that before you tell the agent you are withdrawing. Then read the longer guides, which carry the sources.
After the survey
Will the flow tell you how much to ask off?
No. A discount without a quote is a made-up number. The renegotiation guide says the same thing at more length. Come back when you have a quotation, and even then the seller does not have to accept it.
After the survey
Can the result tell you that you must withdraw?
No. Leaving a purchase is your decision, and only if you are still free to leave. The flow’s strongest sentence is that RICS wants quotations before commitment, or that you should ask your solicitor whether commitment has already happened.
After the survey
You only have rating 2s. Does the flow still run?
Yes. It should steer you away from treating ordinary repairs as urgent. A long list can still be a lot of money. Add it up from quotes if you want a total. The colours will not add it up for you.
After the survey
The thing you care about is NI, not a 3.
Answer the investigation questions as if the unseen part is the issue. NI is a gap. If you would not buy while it stays a gap, and you cannot get it opened, that is the walking-away guide, not a hidden rating.
After the survey
The seller has already offered a reduction. Do you still use this?
You can. An offer is not a diagnosis. If you do not yet know the work, a reduction might be generous or nowhere near. The flow will not compare the offer with a price it does not have.
After the survey
Does the flow work for a new-build snag list?
Only for the condition points. Cosmetic snags are the new-build guide and the warranty, not a rating 3 by default. A structural worry is the same ‘get advice before commitment’ idea, if you are not yet committed.
After the survey
Are your answers saved?
No. They stay in the browser while the page is open. We do not want a record of your decision, and we do not use it as a lead. The quote buttons elsewhere on the site are a different, separate form.
After the survey
How is this different from the renegotiation guide?
The guide is the sourced article, including a real step-by-step. This page is the same ideas as questions, so you can see which branch you are on. If they ever seem to disagree, the guide and the RICS wording win.
Glossary
What does “Home survey” mean in a UK 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.
Glossary
What does “Level 1” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Level 2” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Level 3” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “HomeBuyer Report” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Building Survey” mean in a UK home 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.
Glossary
What does “Condition rating” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “NI” mean in a UK home survey?
Not inspected. The surveyor did not give that element a condition rating. It is a gap, not a statement that the element is sound.
Glossary
What does “R (documents)” mean in a UK home survey?
A mark RICS uses for papers they suggest you request before exchange, such as guarantees or approvals. It is not a condition rating.
Glossary
What does “Element” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Further investigation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Visual inspection” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Terms of engagement” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Reliance” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Reinstatement cost” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Market value” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Mortgage valuation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Down-valuation” mean in a UK home survey?
When the lender’s valuer reports a figure below the price you agreed. It is a lending figure. It is not a condition rating.
Glossary
What does “Retention” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Snagging” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Single Survey” mean in a UK home 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.
Glossary
What does “Home Report” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Limitation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Traffic light” mean in a UK home survey?
The informal name for condition ratings 1, 2 and 3. The colours are a summary. The paragraph under the number is the finding.
Glossary
What does “Roof space” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Solid wall” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Cavity wall” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Wall tie” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Damp-proof course” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Damp-proof membrane” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Lintel” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Padstone” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “RSJ” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Footing” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Subsidence” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Heave” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Landslip” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Crack” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Bowing” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Roof spread” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Spalling” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Pointing” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Render” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Pebbledash” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Ashlar” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Party wall” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Flank wall” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Gable” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Sleeper wall” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Air brick” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Joist” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Wall plate” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Rafter” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Purlin” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Ridge” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Hip” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Valley” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Flashing” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Soaker” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Verge” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Eaves” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Soffit” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Fascia” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Bargeboard” mean in a UK home survey?
The board along a gable verge. It is joinery, not structure, unless the surveyor has seen the timber behind it decayed.
Glossary
What does “Underfelt” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Sarking” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Nail sickness” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Flat roof” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Ponding” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Parapet” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Thatch” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Chimney stack” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Flaunching” mean in a UK home survey?
The mortar that holds chimney pots on. Cracked flaunching lets water into the stack. It is a local repair, distinct from rebuilding the chimney.
Glossary
What does “Flue” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Rising damp” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Penetrating damp” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Condensation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Bridging” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Hygroscopic salts” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Tide mark” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Moisture meter” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Dry rot” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Wet rot” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Woodworm” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Common furniture beetle” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Deathwatch beetle” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Frass” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Fruiting body” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Sole plate” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Wattle and daub” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Timber frame” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Mould” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Tanking” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Consumer unit” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “EICR” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “RCD” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Main bonding” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Rewire” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Lead pipe” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Stopcock” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Combination boiler” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Unvented cylinder” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Gas Safe Register” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Soil stack” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Gully” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Inspection chamber” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Soakaway” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “CCTV drain survey” mean in a UK home 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.
Glossary
What does “Gutter” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Downpipe” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Asbestos” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Textured coating” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Asbestos cement” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Spray foam” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Radon” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Radon Action Level” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Flood zone” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Japanese knotweed” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Rhizome” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Knotweed management plan” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Coal mining search” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Tree preservation order” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Leasehold” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Freehold” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Ground rent” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Peppercorn rent” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Service charge” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Section 20 consultation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Reserve fund” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Building regulations” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Planning permission” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Lawful development certificate” mean in a UK home survey?
A council certificate that work was lawful, often because it was permitted development. It is evidence. A surveyor’s silence is not this certificate.
Glossary
What does “Indemnity insurance” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Listed building” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Listed building consent” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Grade II” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Conservation area” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Energy Performance Certificate” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Competent person scheme” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Party wall award” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Flying freehold” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Restrictive covenant” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Controlled waste” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “PRC” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “BISF” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “No-fines concrete” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Airey house” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Laing Easiform” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “System-built” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Right to buy” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Bay window” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Bressumer” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Dormer” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Hip-to-gable” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Cellar” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Suspended timber floor” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Solid floor” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Victorian terrace” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “1930s semi” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Bungalow” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Chalet bungalow” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Buildmark” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Builder warranty period” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Completion certificate” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Reservation agreement” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Approved Document A” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Approved Document C” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Approved Document F” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Approved Document H” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Approved Document J” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Trickle vent” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Cavity tray” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Weep hole” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Monitoring” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Structural engineer” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Damp quotation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Written quotation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Exchange of contracts” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Private treaty” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Auction conditions” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Gazundering” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Licence to alter” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “External wall assessment” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Service riser” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Demise” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Staircasing” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Missives” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Wayleave” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Easement” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Ransom strip” mean in a UK home survey?
A sliver of land someone else owns that the property needs, often for access. It is a title problem. No condition rating describes it.
Glossary
What does “Party fence wall” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Schedule of condition” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Dilapidations” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Snagging retention” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Latent defect” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Patent defect” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Making good” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Provisional sum” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Scaffold” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Abatement” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Forfeiture” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Deed of variation” mean in a UK home survey?
A document that changes a lease. People seek one for ground rent or alteration clauses. The survey cannot promise a landlord will sign it.
Glossary
What does “Escape of water” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Double insulation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Earthing” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Smoke alarm” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Means of escape” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Permitted development” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Article 4 direction” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Curtilage” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Heritage statement” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Lime mortar” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Cement fillet” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Leadwork” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “GRP roof” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “EPDM” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Interstitial condensation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Breathable membrane” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Cold bridge” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Relative humidity” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Background ventilation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Extract fan” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Purge ventilation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Radiator” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Thermostatic radiator valve” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Insulation resistance test” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “EICR code C1” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “EICR code C2” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “EICR code C3” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Further investigation code” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Part P” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Sill” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Boot lintel” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Settlement” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Differential movement” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Underpinning” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Drain connection” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Pitch fibre drain” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Interceptor trap” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Septic tank” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Treatment plant” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Oil tank” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Bund” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Pressure relief pipe” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Expansion vessel” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Immersion heater” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Header tank” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Asbestos flue joint” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Artex” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Lead paint” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “RAAC” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Cladding” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Cavity wall insulation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “External wall insulation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Internal wall insulation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Airtightness” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Party floor” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Compartmentation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Balcony” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Podium deck” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Right of support” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Chimney breast removal” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Gallows bracket” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Mathematic thatch ridge” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Water reed” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Long straw” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Fire barrier at thatch” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Jetty” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Nogging” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Green oak” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Felt sag” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Over-battening” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Roof light” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Conservatory” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Porch” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Outbuilding” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Retaining wall” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “French drain” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Land drain” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Surface water” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Reservoir flood risk” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Invasive plant” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Running bamboo” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Mining subsidence” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Brine extraction” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Clay shrinkage” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Root barrier” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Desiccation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Level 2 (survey and valuation)” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Level 2 (survey only)” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Sum insured” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Insurance excess” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Non-standard construction” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Cross-wall construction” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Mundic concrete” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Wimpey no-fines” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Orlit” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Unity house” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Modern steel frame” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Structural insulated panel” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Cob” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Clunch” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Mathematical tile” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Flint wall” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Rubble stone” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Tie bar” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Patress plate” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Helical bar” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Crack stitching” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Movement joint” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Sulphate attack” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Concrete deterioration” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Carbonation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Cover meter” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Borescope” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Thermal imaging” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Drone inspection” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Environmental search” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Contaminated land” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Radon sump” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “EPC recommendation” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “SAP rating” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Legionella” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Thermostatic mixing valve” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “External stop valve” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Meter box” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Service head” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Voltage” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Smart meter” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Building notice” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Regularisation certificate” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Consent under a covenant” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Chancel repair” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Riparian responsibility” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Culvert” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Percolation test” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Sustainable drainage” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Oversailing” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Encroachment” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Party wall notice” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Line of junction” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Glossary
What does “Schedule of photographs” mean in a UK home survey?
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.
Damp
Can a pinless moisture meter read foil-backed plasterboard as if the wall were wet?
Own page
A pinless meter can react to metal in the wall, including foil on the back of plasterboard, as well as to water. A high number on its own does not prove rising damp, penetrating damp or a failed damp-proof course. Ask which meter was used and what the surveyor could actually see.
Damp
What should you ask if a survey quotes a moisture reading but does not name the meter?
Own page
Ask for the type of meter and for what else was seen at that spot. A reading without the instrument, the location and a description of the surface is not a diagnosis. The surveyor may still be right that the area needs a proper look.
Damp
What are hygroscopic salts, and why can a meter still read them after the wall has dried?
Own page
Hygroscopic salts absorb moisture from the air and can keep a patch looking damp, and a meter reading high, after the original water has gone. They are a clue to past wetting, often from the ground or from a chimney, not proof that water is still rising today.
Damp
Can mortar debris in a cavity be reported in the same words as rising damp?
Own page
Yes. Debris bridging a cavity can let rainwater track to the inner leaf and show as a low-level damp patch. A survey that cannot see inside the cavity should say it has not proved the cause. The words “consistent with rising damp” are not a cavity inspection.
Damp
Can a failed cavity tray above a window show as damp only after driving rain?
Own page
Yes. A cavity tray is meant to catch water that crosses the cavity above an opening and lead it outside. If it is missing, blocked or torn, the stain indoors can appear after wind-driven rain and then fade. A dry day of inspection does not prove the tray is sound.
Damp
Is black mould on a cold external wall proof that the damp-proof course has failed?
Own page
No. Black mould on a cold outside wall is often condensation: warm, moist room air meeting a cold surface. It can also grow where rainwater is getting in. It does not, by itself, prove that the damp-proof course has failed.
Damp
What does a surveyor mean by high readings at skirting level if the plaster was replaced last year?
Own page
New plaster at the floor can still read as damp if it was applied over salts, over a bridged course, or before the wall had dried. It can also be sound plaster that a meter is misreading. The recent replastering is a reason to ask what was done, not a reason to ignore the comment.
Damp
Can a leaking shower on the floor above be mistaken for a roof leak on the ceiling?
Own page
Yes. A ceiling stain under a bathroom can be the shower, the bath seal, a pipe or the roof. A visual survey records the stain and where it sits. It does not usually flood-test the shower or open the ceiling.
Damp
Does a solid stone wall in an exposed place always fail a moisture-meter check?
Own page
No. Many solid stone walls hold some moisture and still do the job they were built for. A meter can read that moisture as “damp” without proving a defect. The survey should say whether rain is getting through, or whether the wall is simply an old solid wall.
Damp
What is the difference between a damp contractor’s quote and the surveyor’s damp comment?
Own page
The survey comment says what was visible and how serious it looked within a visual inspection. A contractor’s quote is an offer to do specified work. The quote is not a second survey, and the survey is not an instruction to inject a damp-proof course.
Damp
Should you open up a wall before exchange if the only evidence is a meter reading?
Own page
Not automatically. Opening up is worth it when the rating, the visible damage or your plans make the hidden condition matter before you are committed. A lone meter reading is a reason to ask questions, not a reason to strip plaster on the eve of exchange.
Damp
Does a Scottish Home Report describe damp in the same way as a RICS Level 2 in England?
Own page
No. In Scotland the seller provides a Home Report, and the Single Survey inside it is a set product that a purchaser can rely on. A Level 2 in England or Wales is commissioned by the buyer and is not that product. Damp can appear in both, but the form, the valuation and the reliance are different.
Roofs
What is nail sickness in a slate roof, and can a surveyor see it from the ground?
Own page
Nail sickness is the failure of the nails that hold slates, often by corrosion, so slates slip even though they look whole. From the ground a surveyor may see slipped or uneven slates, not the nails themselves. A neat-looking roof can still be losing its fixings.
Roofs
What is the difference between a slipped slate and a slate that has already fallen?
Own page
A slipped slate has moved but may still be on the roof, often letting water in at that point. A fallen slate leaves a gap and may be in the gutter or on the ground. Both need attention. Neither one, on its own, tells you the whole covering is at the end of its life.
Roofs
What does moss on a roof covering change, and what does it not prove?
Own page
Moss holds moisture and can lift tile edges, block gutters and hide the surface. It does not prove the roof needs replacing, and it does not prove the structure is sound. It is a maintenance finding until a surveyor or roofer can see what is underneath.
Roofs
Are mortar-bedded ridge tiles a separate defect from the slates or tiles on the slope?
Own page
Yes. Ridges and hips are the units along the peak and the angles, often bedded in mortar. The mortar can crack and the units can lift while the slopes are still doing their job. A survey should rate what it saw, not fold the ridge into a vague “roof”.
Roof and rainwater
What is the difference between a torch-on felt flat roof and a single-ply membrane?
Own page
Torch-on felt is a bitumen sheet bonded with heat, usually in layers. A single-ply membrane is a single sheet, such as a synthetic rubber or plastic, joined at its seams. They fail in different places. A survey that only says “flat roof” has not told you which one you are buying.
Roof and rainwater
What is a cold-deck flat roof, and why does a surveyor care where the insulation sits?
Own page
In a cold-deck roof the insulation is below the deck, with a ventilated space that is supposed to stay cold. If that space is blocked, or insulation is pushed in later, moisture can condense on the deck. A surveyor who cannot see the build-up should say so rather than approve it.
Roof and rainwater
Does ponding on a flat roof mean the covering has failed?
Own page
No. A pond is water that does not drain. It ages some coverings and it shows the falls are poor, but a pond on an intact sheet is not the same as a leak. A surveyor reports what was on the roof on the day. Rain may have left the pond, or an outlet may be blocked.
Roofs
What should you ask if the loft has no underlay beneath the tiles?
Own page
Ask whether the surveyor could see the underside, and whether water staining or daylight was there. An older roof can be tile or slate on battens with no underlay. That is not automatically a fail, but it means driving rain and snow can blow in, and a slipped tile leaks straight through.
Roofs
Can a split lead valley leak while the tiles on either side still look even?
Own page
Yes. A valley is the gutter-like channel where two slopes meet, often lined with lead. Lead can split or be dressed short while the tiles look orderly. Water then runs down the valley and into the roof instead of to the gutter.
Roofs
Will a home survey comment on how solar panels are fixed through a roof covering?
Own page
It can comment on what is visible: brackets, uneven tiles around them, and stains below. It does not test the electrical generation, and it does not certify the flashing kit. Fixings that puncture a covering are a weatherproofing question as well as an energy question.
Roof and rainwater
What is a parapet gutter, and how does it wet the top of a wall?
Own page
A parapet gutter is the hidden channel behind a low upstand wall, common on terraces and some Victorian roofs. If it blocks or the lead splits, water sits against the wall head and soaks down inside. You may see the damp on a top-floor wall while the outside face looks fair.
Roof and rainwater
What is chimney flaunching, and can it fail while the pots still look upright?
Own page
Flaunching is the mortar that weathers the top of a stack and beds the pots. It can crack or wash out while the pots still look straight from the street. Water then gets into the top of the stack and down into the bedrooms.
Roof and rainwater
Should an unused flue be ventilated, and will a home survey check both ends?
Own page
An unused flue is often ventilated at the top and at the fireplace so moisture and soot deposits do not sit in a sealed shaft. A home survey can see a cap, a vent or a closed register if they are visible. It does not prove the flue is clear from top to bottom.
Roof and rainwater
What is sulphate staining on a chimney breast from an old coal fire?
Own page
Old coal soot contains salts that migrate through the plaster and leave brown or yellow patches, often with a fluffy deposit. They can appear long after the fire last burned, especially if the breast is damp. They are not the same as a live roof leak, though a leak can wake them up.
Roof and rainwater
Can a television aerial fixed to a chimney crack the mortar?
Own page
Yes. A mast and brackets add leverage in the wind, and rusty straps can burst the mortar joints they grip. A surveyor can often see the straps, a slight lean, or cracked joints. They cannot load-test the mast.
Roof and rainwater
What does a missing chimney pot or cowl change for rain entry?
Own page
A missing pot or a broken edge lets rain fall straight down the flue and soak the breast from inside. A cowl is there to keep rain and birds out while letting air move. Absence is a defect in the cover, not a comment on whether you need a fire.
Roof and rainwater
What is an open flue, and why is that not a gas-safety certificate?
Own page
An open flue takes combustion gases up a chimney from an appliance that also draws air from the room. Naming that arrangement is not a test of the flue, the ventilation or the appliance. Gas safety checks are for an engineer on the Gas Safe Register.
Roof and rainwater
Can a parapet wall let water in behind its flashing even when the pots look fine?
Own page
Yes. A parapet meets the roof at a flashing, often lead chased into the joints. If that joint opens, water runs behind the covering and down the wall, while the chimney pots, if any, are irrelevant. The leak is at the junction, not at the crown.
Walls
What is a borescope inspection for cavity wall ties, and is it part of a Level 2?
Own page
A borescope inspection drills small holes and looks into the cavity with a camera to see the ties and the debris. A standard Level 2 does not include that. It is a further investigation when the visual clues suggest the ties may be failing.
Walls
Why might wire ties in an early cavity wall corrode while the brick face still looks fair?
Own page
Early cavity ties are often thin metal. They can rust where they cross a damp cavity, and the outer leaf can start to move before the bricks themselves look damaged. A fair face is not a certificate that the ties are sound.
Walls
What do horizontal cracks in regular brick courses suggest about wall ties?
Own page
Regular horizontal cracks, often every few courses, can suggest the outer leaf is being lifted or distressed by expanding rusty ties. They can also be ordinary movement, a render crack, or a joint that was cut for another reason. The pattern is a clue, not a verdict.
Walls
Can cavity insulation hide the condition of the wall ties from a visual inspection?
Own page
Yes. Foam, beads or fibre in the cavity can cover the ties, so a camera cannot see them properly. A visual home survey already cannot see them. Insulation makes a later borescope harder, not easier.
Walls
What is a cavity tray, and how is it different from a wall tie?
Own page
A cavity tray catches water inside the cavity and leads it outside, usually above a window, a door or a roof abutment. A wall tie holds the two leaves of brick or block together. One deals with water. The other deals with how the wall stands up. They are not alternative names for the same thing.
Walls
What does the Energy Saving Trust say should be repaired before cavity insulation is installed?
Own page
The Trust’s cavity-wall advice, updated 8 May 2026, says defects should be repaired first, including damaged brickwork or pointing, roofs and gutters. It also says not to insulate while internal walls are damp, and that very narrow or rubble-filled cavities, and walls exposed to driving rain or flood, may be unsuitable.
Walls
What should you ask a lender if the report suspects wall-tie failure?
Own page
Ask the lender what evidence they want, and ask them before you pay for the most expensive investigation you can find. Many lenders want a specialist report when ties are suspected. The survey does not decide the lending. The lender does.
Walls
Can slumped cavity insulation leave a cold band that is then called condensation?
Own page
Yes. If fibre or beads settle, part of the wall can be uninsulated and cold. Moisture in the room air then condenses on that band. The stain can look like penetrating damp. A home survey cannot see the slump inside the cavity. It can see the pattern on the plaster.
Structure and movement
How does a survey use the word settlement differently from subsidence?
Own page
Settlement is the movement that happens as a new or altered building’s weight beds into the ground, often early in its life. Subsidence is the ground moving downwards later and taking the building with it. Surveyors sometimes say “movement” when they cannot yet tell which. The word they chose matters.
Structure and movement
What is clay heave, and why can it follow the removal of a tree?
Own page
Heave is the ground moving upwards. On a shrinkable clay, a tree can dry the soil and the soil can swell again after the tree is removed or dies. The building can crack as the ground rises. That is not the same pattern as the ground sinking away.
Structure and movement
Does an old underpinning guarantee mean the movement has stopped?
Own page
No. A guarantee is evidence that someone designed and insured a repair, if the paperwork is real. It is not a measurement of the wall today. Movement can be stable, or it can have started again for a new reason, such as a drain.
Structure and movement
What is crack monitoring, and who instructs it before you exchange?
Own page
Crack monitoring is a series of measurements over time to see whether a crack is still moving. You instruct it, with the seller’s permission, or an insurer instructs it if a claim is open. A single survey visit cannot do that job, because it only sees one day.
Structure and movement
Can a leaking drain under a bay mimic subsidence cracks?
Own page
Yes. A drain that washes fine soil away can leave a void, and the bay or the wall above can crack. The pattern can look like clay subsidence. A home survey does not camera the drain as standard, so it can flag the possibility and still not prove it.
Structure and movement
What does the Association of British Insurers suggest about subsidence, and what is different before you own the house?
Own page
The ABI explains subsidence as downward ground movement that damages the building, and tells owners to tell their insurer and not to organise major repairs before the insurer has agreed. Before completion you are not that owner, and you should not open a claim on a policy that is not yours.
Structure and movement
Are cracks where a later extension meets the old house the same thing as subsidence?
Own page
Often they are differential movement: the new part and the old part are not moving as one. That can be historic and finished. It is not automatically subsidence of the whole house. It still needs the surveyor’s actual words, because a leaking drain or a poor foundation under the extension can be serious.
Japanese knotweed
What is RICS management category A for Japanese knotweed?
Own page
Category A is “Action”. The 2022 RICS property journal describes it as knotweed on the property causing visible material damage to a significant structure. The same article says that in all cases the client should be advised to consult a remediation specialist, and that lenders were expected to look for a specialist report where the category is A or B.
Japanese knotweed
What is RICS management category B for Japanese knotweed?
Own page
Category B is also headed “Action”. The RICS journal describes it as knotweed on the property that is not causing material damage to a structure, but is likely to prevent use of, or restrict access to, amenity space. Specialist advice is still recommended. Any effect on lending is a question for the lender, not a figure in the survey.
Japanese knotweed
What is RICS management category C for Japanese knotweed?
Own page
Category C is “Manage”. The RICS journal describes knotweed that is present but not causing damage and not affecting amenity. The impact is lower. The journal still says a remediation specialist should be recommended in all cases. It also said lenders were not expected to retain funds for this category. Confirm that with your own lender.
Japanese knotweed
What is RICS management category D for Japanese knotweed?
Own page
Category D is “Report”. The RICS journal uses it for knotweed seen off the property, within three metres of the boundary. It says lenders were not expected to retain money, because the owner cannot control the neighbour’s land. Growth further than three metres was not to be given that formal category. Specialist advice is still the journal’s general recommendation when knotweed is reported.
Japanese knotweed
Did the 2022 RICS knotweed standard keep the seven-metre rule?
Own page
No. The RICS property journal says the 2022 standard replaced that distance-based approach. Off-site growth is reported under category D when it is within three metres of the boundary, not seven. On the property, the question is the impact: damage, amenity, or management.
Japanese knotweed
If knotweed is visible, does the 2022 RICS journal still expect a specialist recommendation?
Own page
Yes. The journal says that in all cases there will be a recommendation for the client to obtain advice from a remediation specialist. That includes the lower categories. The recommendation is advice, not an order to excavate before exchange.
Japanese knotweed
What should you ask the seller for if knotweed was treated under a management plan?
Own page
Ask for the plan, the surveys, the guarantees and the transfer terms. A sentence that says “it was treated” is not a plan. You want to know what was done, by whom, for how long, and whether the guarantee can move to you.
Japanese knotweed
How should a buyer in Scotland read knotweed if the Home Report is the survey they are given?
Own page
Read the Single Survey and the property questionnaire together. In Scotland the seller provides the Home Report, and RICS says a purchaser can rely on it. That is not an English Level 2. If knotweed is mentioned, ask which standard the surveyor applied and what they could see on the day.
Hazardous materials
Which materials does HSE say can contain asbestos in a pre-2000 house?
Own page
HSE says asbestos can be found in buildings built or refurbished before 2000, in products such as textured coatings, floor tiles, cement roofs and flues, insulation boards and old heating materials. It does not say every pre-2000 house contains them. A home survey does not sample materials to prove which is which.
Hazardous materials
What should you do if a survey mentions asbestos cement on a garage roof?
Own page
Leave it alone if it is sound, and do not break it. HSE treats asbestos cement as a harder, lower-fibre material than insulation board, but it still contains asbestos and it still needs care if it is removed. A cracked sheet is a maintenance and a disposal problem, not a reason to panic-buy.
Hazardous materials
Can a home survey tell a textured coating that contains asbestos from one that does not?
Own page
No. Artex and similar coatings can contain asbestos if they were applied before 2000, and later coatings may not. They look alike. A surveyor who has not had a sample tested should say the coating might contain asbestos, not that it does or does not.
Hazardous materials
Is it safe to sand a textured coating because the survey did not mention asbestos?
Own page
No. Silence is not a test. A home survey can miss a ceiling, or mention texture without using the word asbestos. If the coating might pre-date the ban, do not sand, scrape or drill it until you know.
Hazardous materials
What is the difference between asbestos left in place and asbestos that your works will disturb?
Own page
Left alone and in sound condition, many asbestos products are a management issue. The risk HSE writes about rises when the material is cut, sanded, broken or removed. A home survey can point at the material. Your future kitchen, rewire or loft plan decides whether you will disturb it.
Hazardous materials
Does buying an owner-occupied house require an asbestos management survey?
Own page
No. An asbestos management survey is a duty for some non-domestic premises and for common parts in some blocks. Buying a house to live in does not, by itself, trigger that duty. You still should not disturb suspect materials, and a home survey will not have sampled them.
Hazardous materials
Who should sample a suspect floor tile before you strip a kitchen?
Own page
A competent asbestos surveyor or analyst, not the home surveyor and not you with a chisel. HSE lists vinyl floor tiles among the products that can contain asbestos in pre-2000 buildings. The sample has to be taken so that dust is controlled, and the result has to come back before the floor is smashed out.
Hazardous materials
What should you ask if a boiler cupboard or flue looks like asbestos cement?
Own page
Ask the surveyor what they could see and whether they are guessing at cement, board or metal. Ask a Gas Safe engineer about any working boiler, and ask an asbestos specialist before the cupboard is stripped. The home survey has not tested either the gas or the material.
Electrics
Does a RICS Level 2 test the electrical circuits?
Own page
No. A Level 2 is a visual inspection. RICS does not include an electrical installation condition report, and the Level 1 scope, which is the less detailed sibling, states that services are not tested. The surveyor can comment on what they see, such as an old consumer unit or damaged fittings. They do not issue a pass or a fail for the wiring.
Electrics
What can a surveyor say about an old consumer unit without being an electrician?
Own page
They can describe what is visible: a wooden board, rewirable fuses, signs of heat damage, or a modern unit with RCD protection. They cannot say the circuits are safe, correctly designed or adequate for how you will live. That judgement is an electrician’s.
Electrics
Does an owner-occupier in England have to give the buyer an EICR?
Own page
No. The government guidance on electrical safety standards is aimed at private and social rented homes in England, not at a sale between owner-occupiers. A buyer can still choose to commission an EICR. A lender can ask. The home survey is not that document.
Electrics
What is the difference between an EICR code and a condition rating?
Own page
A condition rating is the surveyor’s 1, 2, 3 or NI on a building element. An EICR code is the electrician’s classification on a circuit or fitting. They live on different reports. A rating 2 on “electrics” is not a C2, and a C3 is not a rating 3.
Services
Does a Level 2 include a gas tightness test?
Own page
No. A tightness test is gas work. The Health and Safety Executive says domestic gas work is for an engineer on the Gas Safe Register. A Level 2 surveyor looks at what is visible and does not test the pipework or service the boiler.
Services
Who should inspect a gas boiler before you exchange?
Own page
A Gas Safe registered engineer, if you want a real inspection. The home surveyor should already have said they did not service it. Your solicitor does not inspect boilers. The seller’s service history is useful and is not the same as your own engineer’s visit.
Services
Can a surveyor call a gas fire safe because the chimney looked clear?
Own page
No. A clear-looking chimney pot is not a test of the fire, the flue or the ventilation. The surveyor is not certifying the appliance. A Gas Safe engineer is the person who can inspect a gas fire.
Services
What is a balanced flue, and why does a home survey not test it?
Own page
A balanced flue draws air from outside and sends combustion gases outside, usually through a terminal on the wall. It does not use a traditional chimney. A home survey can see the terminal and the boiler. It does not test the combustion or the seal.
Services
Should you ask for service records even though the survey did not test the appliances?
Own page
Yes. Records show whether anyone has serviced the boiler, the fire or the heating, and what they found. They do not replace a test. They stop you treating a silent survey as a service history.
Services
What does “services not tested” mean in the limitations section?
Own page
It means the surveyor did not test the electrics, gas, plumbing or heating. The phrase is a limit on the inspection, not a finding that the services have failed, and not a finding that they have passed. Read the comments on what they could see anyway.
Drainage
Will a Level 2 camera-survey the drains?
Own page
No, not as standard. A Level 2 can include looking at chambers that can be opened safely. A camera through the pipes is a separate instruction. If the report recommends a CCTV survey, that work has not already been done unless the report says it has.
Drainage
What is a septic tank, in the words government guidance uses for buyers in England?
Own page
Government guidance describes a septic tank as a system that treats sewage and then releases liquid into the environment, typically into the ground through an infiltration system. It is not a mains sewer. A home survey can note that a tank exists if the surveyor can see it. It does not prove the tank meets the general binding rules.
Drainage
Can a septic tank in England discharge straight into a ditch?
Own page
Not under the general binding rules as published for discharges to surface water. Those rules say sewage going to surface water must be treated by a sewage treatment plant. A septic tank discharging only through a proper infiltration system to the ground is a different case. A pipe into a ditch is a question for those rules, not a detail to ignore.
Drainage
What is a package sewage treatment plant, and how is it different from a septic tank?
Own page
Government guidance calls a package treatment plant a system that treats the liquid so it can go to ground or, unlike a septic tank, to surface water where the rules allow. A septic tank alone is not that plant. A surveyor may not be able to tell them apart from a cover in the lawn.
Drainage
What should you ask if the house is not on a mains sewer?
Own page
Ask where the waste goes, who maintains it, when it was last emptied or serviced, and whether it is shared. Ask the surveyor what they could see. Ask the solicitor to confirm there is no mains connection in the searches and the seller’s replies. A rural listing that says “private drainage” is not the answer.
Drainage
Does a home survey prove the drainage field meets the general binding rules?
Own page
No. The rules cover volume, the type of treatment, pollution, and distances from wells and protected groundwater, among other points. A surveyor walking the garden cannot certify those. They can say the system was not assessed against the rules.
Drainage
What changes for septic tanks in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland?
Own page
The English government page says there are different rules in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It does not set those rules out. A buyer outside England should read the national guidance and ask a local installer. Do not apply the English general binding rules as if they were UK-wide.
Timber
What is the difference between flight holes and frass when a survey mentions woodworm?
Own page
Flight holes are the small exits adult beetles left in the timber. Frass is the bore dust. Fresh, clean holes and bright dust can suggest activity. Old, dark holes and no fresh dust can be historic. A survey photograph of holes alone does not date them.
Timber
Can dry rot spread behind plaster without a fruiting body in the room?
Own page
Yes. Dry rot can travel in damp masonry and behind finishes, and a mushroom-like fruiting body is not always present. A musty smell, cracked paint and soft skirting can be the visible part. A survey that has not opened the wall cannot map the spread.
Timber
Why does the Property Care Association say moisture has to be dealt with as well as the timber?
Own page
Because beetles and rot fungi need damp wood. Killing what you can see, and leaving the leak, invites the problem back. The Association’s homeowner advice puts the building defect first: the gutter, the roof, the ground levels, the unventilated subfloor.
Timber
What is a timber specialist’s brief compared with a woodworm contractor’s spray quote?
Own page
A useful brief asks whether the attack is active, whether the timber is structurally adequate, what moisture is feeding it, and what must be opened up. A spray quote that skips those questions is a product sale. The home survey is neither document.
Timber
Does a Level 2 lift fitted carpets to see every floorboard?
Own page
No. A Level 2 does not strip a furnished, carpeted house. The surveyor may lift a loose corner if it is reasonable and allowed. They will not pull up fitted floors as standard. Floor structure under a carpet is often not inspected, and the report should say so.
Timber
What should you ask if the subfloor is marked not inspected?
Own page
Ask why: no access, a flooded void, a screwed-down hatch, or a risk of disturbing asbestos tiles. “Not inspected” is not a pass. The joists in that void are unknown. If the ground floor matters to you, the next step is access, not a guess.
Timber
Can old beetle holes in sapwood be historic rather than a live infestation?
Own page
Yes. Many softwood joists show old flight holes in the sapwood from beetles that attacked the timber years ago, sometimes before it was installed. If the timber is dry and firm and there is no fresh dust, the attack can be historic. A survey should not turn that into a treatment bill without saying why.
Timber
How does wet rot relate to a leaking gutter, rather than to a missing damp-proof course?
Own page
Wet rot grows in timber that is staying wet. A leaking gutter soaking a fascia, a rafter foot or a window frame is a classic cause. A missing damp-proof course is about moisture at the bottom of a wall. The two meet only if that moisture is what is wetting this piece of timber.
Hazardous materials
Why do some lenders ask about spray foam before they value the roof?
Own page
Because foam sprayed under a roof can stop a surveyor seeing the timbers and, if it was the wrong type or badly fitted, can trap moisture. RICS’s consumer guide explains those concerns. It does not say every lender refuses every house with foam. Ask the lender you are using.
Hazardous materials
What paperwork should a seller look for if foam was sprayed under the tiles?
Own page
Look for the installer’s invoice, the product data sheet, any guarantee, and whether the roof covering’s own guarantee survived the work. A home survey cannot recreate those papers from a yellow layer on the rafters.
Hazardous materials
Does the RICS spray-foam guide say every lender will refuse the property?
Own page
No. RICS explains why foam worries some lenders and surveyors, and what questions to ask. It does not publish a list of lenders who always refuse, and neither does this page. The only accurate step is to ask the lender, with the product details if you have them.
Hazardous materials
What is the difference between spray foam under the roof and a quilt on the loft floor?
Own page
A quilt on the loft floor sits above the ceiling, between or over the joists, and leaves the rafters and the tiles visible. Spray foam under the roof is stuck to the rafters or the underlay and can hide them. Lenders’ questions are aimed at the second. A home survey should say which one is there.
Hazardous materials
Should you remove spray foam before exchange, or wait for the lender and a roofer?
Own page
Wait until you know who is asking and how it would be removed. RICS warns that removal can damage the roof. A seller who rips foam out to secure a sale can leave you with broken tiles and still no proper view of the timbers. A lender may not even require removal.
Structure
What does PRC mean when a survey calls a house non-standard?
Own page
PRC means precast reinforced concrete: wall or frame parts cast in a factory and assembled on site. It is one kind of non-standard construction, not a synonym for every unusual house. A home survey can describe the panels it can see. It cannot, by itself, say whether a lender will lend.
Structure
What is a Cornish unit house?
Own page
A Cornish unit is a named precast concrete house type used after the war. The useful point for a buyer is that it is a PRC system, not that the name itself is a condition rating. The survey should say what it could see of the panels and the roof, and what a lining stopped it seeing.
Structure
How is a modern timber-frame house different from a PRC house?
Own page
A modern timber-frame house is a mainstream way of building, with a timber structure and usually a masonry or boarded outer leaf. A PRC house is a concrete panel or frame system. They are not one category called “non-standard”. A survey should say which one it is looking at.
Structure
Can a home survey prove a concrete house was repaired under a licensed scheme?
Own page
No. A repair scheme is proved by its certificate, the licensee’s papers and, if you need it, the lender’s acceptance of those papers. The survey can say the outside looks like repaired concrete or like original panels. It cannot authenticate a missing certificate.
Structure
What should you ask a lender before you pay for a Level 3 on a non-standard house?
Own page
Ask whether they will consider this construction at all, and what evidence they need. A Level 3 is the detailed survey RICS describes for unusual buildings. It is money well spent only if a mortgage, or your own decision, can still proceed once the construction is known.
Structure
Does non-standard construction always mean the walls contain asbestos?
Own page
No. Non-standard means the structure is not the ordinary brick cavity or similar construction the surveyor expected. Asbestos is a material that can appear in pre-2000 buildings of many kinds, including ordinary brick houses. The two findings can coincide and often do not.
Structure
What does no-fines concrete mean in a home survey?
Own page
No-fines concrete is concrete made without the sand-sized aggregate, so it is full of small voids. It was used for some post-war walls, cast in situ rather than as PRC panels. A survey that uses the phrase should be telling you about the wall type, not insulting the house.
Property types
Should a buyer treat a listed system-built house differently from an ordinary PRC semi?
Own page
Yes. Listing adds consent for works that affect the building’s character, and in Wales that system is explained by Cadw as well as by the survey. The concrete structure is still a construction and a lending question. Listing does not cancel it, and the PRC label does not cancel the need for consent.
Property types
Does listing cover only the front of the house?
Own page
No. Historic England says the whole building is listed, inside and out, not a facade. The list description may mention the front because that is what the inspector wrote down. It is not a schedule of the only parts that matter.
Property types
What is a conservation area, and how is it different from listing?
Own page
Historic England describes a conservation area as an area designated, usually by the council, to preserve or enhance its character or appearance. Listing is a national designation of a particular building. A house can be in a conservation area and not be listed. An unlisted house in an area can still face extra planning control.
Property types
Can you replace windows in a conservation area without listed building consent?
Own page
If the house is not listed, listed building consent is not the consent you need, because that consent is for listed buildings. You may still need planning permission in a conservation area, especially if an Article 4 direction has removed ordinary permitted-development rights. Ask the council. The survey cannot answer for them.
Property types
Who do you ask before you cut a new opening in a listed house?
Own page
Ask the council’s conservation officer whether listed building consent is required, and ask a structural engineer how to support the wall. The home survey does not design the opening and does not grant consent. Historic England’s point that the whole building is listed is why an internal opening is not “only inside, so it is fine”.
Property types
Will a RICS home survey apply for listed building consent for you?
Own page
No. The survey describes condition. Consent applications are a separate instruction, often by an architect or a surveyor acting as your agent, to the council. The inspection you bought does not include drawings, a heritage statement or the application fee.
Property types
What is an Article 4 direction, in plain English, for a buyer?
Own page
An Article 4 direction is a council order that removes some permitted-development rights, often in a conservation area. Work you could do without an application on an ordinary street, such as changing windows or a front door, may need planning permission here. It is not the same thing as the house being listed.
Property types
What is a peppercorn ground rent under the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022?
Own page
For most new leases granted on or after 30 June 2022, the Act says the permitted rent is a peppercorn, which means no money changes hands. Government guidance explains that start date. A home survey does not read the lease and cannot tell you what ground rent you will pay.
Property types
Does the peppercorn ground-rent rule apply to a lease granted in 1998?
Own page
No. The Act and the government guidance are about leases granted on or after 30 June 2022, with the detail set out in that guidance. A 1998 lease keeps the rent it reserved, unless a later deed changed it. The survey of the flat does not change the rent either.
Property types
What should you ask about service charges before you rely on the survey?
Own page
Ask the solicitor for the last three years of accounts, the current budget, any reserve fund and any notice of major works. The survey tells you what is wrong with the building. The service charge tells you how the building pays for it. One does not price the other.
Property types
What is a Section 20 consultation, and does a survey replace it?
Own page
Section 20 is the consultation landlords must carry out before some major works and some long-term agreements, as government leasehold guidance describes. A home survey is not that consultation. It does not set the works, the contractor or your share.
Property types
What is an EWS1 form, and is it part of a flat survey?
Own page
An EWS1 is an external wall system form used by some lenders when they want an assessment of the wall of certain multi-storey residential buildings. It is not a page inside a RICS Level 2 of one flat. Many flats never need one. Ask the lender and the managing agent whether this block is one that does.
Property types
What does government guidance say about extending a lease once fewer than 80 years remain?
Own page
Government shared-ownership guidance says that when the remaining lease drops below 80 years it can be much more expensive to extend, and that a short lease can make selling or remortgaging harder. That warning is the published point. It is not a calculator for the flat you are buying, and a home survey does not count the years.
Property types
Where might HM Land Registry show the length of a lease?
Own page
On the registered title. Government guidance explains that you can search the register and obtain an official copy. The register can show the lease, the parties and the term. It does not show cracks, damp or the condition of the roof. The survey does that. The register does the tenure.
Property types
Can a home survey tell you the ground rent the lease reserves?
Own page
No. Ground rent is a clause in the lease. The surveyor does not read that clause as part of a visual inspection, unless a separate legal review was agreed, which would be unusual and would appear in the terms. Any rent figure in a survey is only repeating what someone else told them, if they repeat it at all.
Property types
What is the difference between a snagging list and a RICS home survey on a new build?
Own page
A snagging list records incomplete or poorly finished items for the builder to put right, such as gaps, damage and sticking doors. A RICS home survey is a condition report on the building, with ratings and advice, and it is not a substitute for the warranty. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. Neither document is the other.
Property types
What does NHBC say Buildmark is?
Own page
NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product for homeowners. It is not a RICS home survey, and it is not a promise that every defect a surveyor might mention is covered. The policy wording says what is covered, in which years, and what you must do to claim.
Property types
Does a 10-year warranty mean the surveyor can skip the roof?
Own page
No. A warranty is an insurance product with conditions. A survey is an inspection. The existence of Buildmark, or any other 10-year policy, does not make the roof invisible or the ceilings irrelevant. If the surveyor could not see the loft, the limitation still stands.
Property types
When in a new-build purchase is a snagging inspection usually done?
Own page
Usually when the home is ready enough to see the finishes, and before you accept it, so the builder can be told while the contract still gives you leverage. The exact moment is in your contract and your solicitor’s advice. A survey done months after you moved in is a different tool.
Property types
What should you ask the builder about defects in the early years of a warranty?
Own page
Ask who you must tell, by when, and what they will repair. NHBC describes a 10-year product, and the early years are often when the builder, not the insurer, is the first place to report defects. The policy, not this page, sets that split. Read it before you assume a year number.
Property types
Can you still renegotiate a new build if you have paid a reservation fee?
Own page
Often the reservation fee holds a plot for a short time and is separate from being legally bound. Whether you can renegotiate or walk away, and whether the fee is refundable, is in the reservation agreement. Read it with your solicitor. A survey finding does not automatically refund the fee.
Reading the report
What does condition rating 1 mean in the RICS definition?
Own page
RICS defines condition rating 1 as no repair currently needed. The property must be maintained in the normal way. It is not a guarantee that a hidden part is perfect, and it is not a promise the element will last a set number of years.
Reading the report
What does condition rating 2 mean if the defect is real but not urgent?
Own page
RICS defines rating 2 as defects that need repairing or replacing but are not considered to be either serious or urgent. The property must still be maintained in the normal way. The defect is real. The timing is not “drop everything”, and it is not “do nothing”.
Reading the report
When does RICS say a condition rating 3 is appropriate?
Own page
RICS defines rating 3 as defects that are serious and/or need to be repaired, replaced or investigated urgently. The definition says that if you do not act there could be serious safety issues or severe long-term damage. It includes urgent investigation, not only a builder already standing by.
Reading the report
What does NI mean if the loft hatch was painted shut?
Own page
NI means not inspected. A painted-shut hatch is a reason the loft was not inspected. It is not a pass for the roof timbers, the insulation or the wiring in the loft. If the surveyor is worried, they should say what further investigation is needed.
Reading the report
Does “further investigation” create a condition rating of its own?
Own page
No. It is advice that the visual inspection was not enough. Look at the rating next to it. If the element is NI, it was not inspected. If it is a 3, RICS’s definition already includes urgent investigation. The words are not a fourth score and they are not a price.
Reading the report
Can one element have a rating 2 and a separate sentence recommending a specialist?
Own page
Yes. The rating says the defect is not, in the surveyor’s view, serious or urgent. The sentence may still say a specialist would describe the repair better than a visual inspection can. That is not a secret rating 3. It is a limit on detail.
Reading the report
What does RICS’s “What to do now” note expect you to do with a rating 3?
Own page
It expects you to act on serious and urgent defects before you are legally committed, including getting written quotations where repairs are needed. It does not set the price, choose the contractor or tell you to withdraw. Those decisions are yours, with your solicitor on the contract and the contractor on the work.
Reading the report
Are condition ratings 1, 2 and 3 used on a Scottish Home Report in the same way?
Own page
Do not assume it. A Scottish Single Survey is a different product inside the Home Report. It has its own categories, explained in that document. RICS’s English and Welsh traffic-light definitions are for the home-survey levels used in that system. Read the key on the report you hold.
Choosing a survey
When is a Level 1 a poor fit for a house you already know has been altered?
Own page
When you need advice on how to deal with the alterations. RICS describes Level 1 as a visual overview that generally does not advise how to manage defects, aimed at conventional homes in good condition. A house with a removed chimney, a loft room or an extension is often the wrong match.
Choosing a survey
What does a Level 2 leave unopened even if you are worried about the floors?
Own page
It leaves covered, fixed and furniture-hidden surfaces unopened, unless you agreed otherwise. Worried is not the same as instructed. If you need boards lifted, that has to be in the terms, with the seller’s consent. A standard Level 2 will not take up a fitted floor because you are anxious.
Choosing a survey
What extra description does a Level 3 give that a Level 2 does not?
Own page
RICS describes Level 3 as explaining how the building is built, the repair options, a timescale and what happens if you do not repair. Level 2 advises on defects, repairs and maintenance for a conventional home in reasonable condition. Level 3 is not automatically a valuation, and it does not automatically open things up.
Choosing a survey
Can you add a drainage CCTV survey to a Level 2 by agreement?
Own page
Yes, if the firm offers it and the seller allows access, but it is an extra instruction, not a hidden part of the Level 2. If the firm does not offer CCTV, you hire a drainage company separately. Either way, put it in writing before the day.
Money
Does RICS publish one national price for a Level 2?
Own page
No. RICS’s consumer guide explains that fees vary and describes Level 1 in broad terms as starting at a few hundred pounds, and some bespoke Level 3 services as costing over £1,000. It does not publish a single Level 2 price for every house. The quote from the firm is the price.
Money
What should a survey fee quote include before you compare two surveyors?
Own page
The level, the address, whether a valuation and reinstatement figure are included, which outbuildings are included, what will not be opened or tested, when the report will be delivered, and the fee. If any of those are missing, you are not comparing like with like.
Money
Who do you ask for the cost of a specialist report the survey has recommended?
Own page
Ask the specialist. The home surveyor has told you an electrician, a structural engineer, a drainage firm, a timber specialist or a roofer should look. That firm’s written fee is the cost of the look. A repair price comes after they have looked, if a repair is needed. The survey does not contain either number.
Money
Is the Energy Saving Trust cavity-insulation figure a repair cost for your survey?
Own page
No. The Trust’s cavity-wall page, updated 8 May 2026, says a typical installation in Great Britain can cost around £2,200, and around £1,000 in Northern Ireland. That is a typical cost to insulate a suitable cavity, not the cost of a defect in your survey and not a quote for this house.
Selling
Should a seller in England commission a survey before marketing?
Own page
They do not have to. There is no rule that a seller in England or Wales must obtain a RICS home survey before marketing. Some sellers do, so they understand the house. A buyer should not assume that a seller’s survey, if one exists, is a document they can rely on.
Selling
If a seller in England already has a survey, can the buyer rely on it?
Own page
Only if the surveyor’s terms, or a later letter, say the buyer may rely on it. A report commissioned by the seller is written for the seller. Showing you the PDF does not make you the client. In Scotland, RICS says a purchaser can rely on the Home Report. That rule does not cross into an English seller’s private survey.
Selling
What should a seller gather before the buyer’s surveyor arrives?
Own page
Access, not a performance. Keys to the loft, the garage, the meter cupboard and any outbuildings. Clear the hatch. Unlock gates. Leave certificates on the table if your solicitor has said to: boiler services, building-control papers, guarantees, the EPC. Do not follow the surveyor round arguing.
Selling
What is different for a seller in Scotland, where a Home Report is part of marketing?
Own page
In Scotland the seller obtains a Home Report before marketing. mygov.scot explains that system. RICS describes the pack as a Single Survey, an energy report and a property questionnaire, and says the purchaser can rely on the Single Survey. A seller in England has no equivalent duty. Do not mix the two jobs.
After the survey
What should you put in writing if you want a price change after a survey?
Own page
The defect in the surveyor’s words, the quote or investigation you rely on, the change you want, and the date you need a reply. Leave out adjectives. A price change is a contract change. Your solicitor should send it or approve it. The surveyor does not negotiate for you.
After the survey
Can you walk away before exchange if the survey is worse than you hoped?
Own page
In England and Wales you are usually free to withdraw before exchange of contracts, but a reservation agreement or a lock-out agreement can change that, and you may already have spent money you will not get back. After exchange you are generally bound. Your solicitor reads what you signed. The survey does not cancel a contract by existing.
After the survey
What is the difference between a price reduction and a retention held by a lender?
Own page
A price reduction changes what you pay the seller. A retention is the lender holding back part of the mortgage until specified works are done. The retention is not cash the seller hands you, and it is not the builder’s quote. They can happen together and they are still different.
After the survey
Should you ask the seller to do the work, or ask for money off?
Own page
Ask for the work when you trust them to do a specified repair before completion, with a chance to see it. Ask for money off when you would rather choose the contractor after you own the house. Do not ask for both in full. A rating is not a voucher.
After the survey
What if you have already exchanged and the survey arrives late?
Own page
In England and Wales you are generally bound after exchange. A late survey does not unwind the contract. Call the solicitor, not the agent, and ask what the contract allows. It may allow very little. Commissioning the survey earlier is the lesson. This paragraph is not a route to cancel.
After the survey
Who decides whether a defect is enough to withdraw: you, the surveyor, or the lender?
Own page
You decide whether to buy. The surveyor decides what to report about condition. The lender decides whether to lend, and on what terms. None of the three can force the other to call the house unacceptable. A survey that refuses to say “walk away” is doing its job.
Damp
How can rain getting through a wall be written up in the same words as damp from the ground?
Own page
Rain that crosses a wall, a sill or a gutter is penetrating damp. Water from the ground moving up the wall is rising damp. From inside, both can leave a low stain, and a moisture meter does not choose between them. The survey should say what was visible, not sell a treatment.
Damp
Why is condensation a different finding from a failed damp-proof course?
Own page
Condensation is moisture from indoor air settling on a cold surface. A failed damp-proof course would be water from the ground getting past the layer that should stop it. Black mould on a cold external wall does not, by itself, prove the course has failed.
Damp
What should you ask if the outside ground is higher than the damp-proof course?
Own page
If soil, paving or a path sits above the damp-proof course, rain and groundwater can bridge it and wet the wall above the floor. That is a ground-level defect a surveyor can often see. It is not proof that the course itself has failed inside the wall.
Damp
Why can salts on a chimney breast be reported without anyone proving rising damp?
Own page
Old coal fires leave salts in the breast. Those salts draw moisture from the air and can keep a patch looking damp long after the flue is unused. That is not the same mechanism as water rising from the ground at the floor.
Damp
Can dot-and-dab plasterboard make a pinless moisture reading hard to trust?
Own page
Yes. A pinless meter reads through the surface, and the dabs, the cavity behind the board and any foil can all affect it. A high number on lined walls is not a map of water inside the masonry.
Damp
Does a positive-input ventilation unit prove the damp comment in the survey was wrong?
Own page
No. A fan or a positive-input unit moves air. It does not identify whether the moisture came from rain, the ground, a leak or condensation, and it does not repair a gutter or a damp-proof course.
Damp
Does Approved Document C mean an old house fails if a moisture meter reads high?
Own page
No. Approved Document C is guidance on meeting building regulations for site preparation and resistance to moisture, mainly when work is being built. It is not a pass mark for a surveyor’s meter, and it does not diagnose rising damp in a house that is already standing.
Damp
Why do surveyors compare a moisture reading with a dry part of the same house?
Own page
Because the useful information is the pattern, not a single number. A reading means more when it is set against a dry part of the same wall, with the same meter, on the same day. Without that, you cannot tell a wet patch from a lining that always reads high.
Roofs
What is the difference between an interlocking concrete tile and a clay plain tile?
Own page
An interlocking concrete tile is a large single-lap tile that overlaps its neighbours with shaped edges. A clay plain tile is smaller, usually laid in a double lap, and it needs a steeper pitch and more tiles to cover the same slope. A surveyor who names the covering is telling you how the roof is built, not how many years it has left.
Roofs
What does a surveyor mean if concrete roof tiles are delaminating?
Own page
Delamination means the surface of the tile is breaking up in layers, often so the tile sheds grit into the gutter. It is wear of the covering you can sometimes see from the ground. It is not a measurement of how many winters the roof has left.
Roofs
What is an abutment flashing, and can it leak while the tiles still look even?
Own page
An abutment flashing is the metal, usually lead, that weathers the joint where a roof slope meets a wall. It can crack, slip or pull out of its chase while the tiles on the slope still look regular. A tidy slope is not proof the joint is dry.
Roofs
What should you ask if the roof is thatch rather than tile or slate?
Own page
Ask which parts of the thatch were visible, when it was last coated or sparred if anyone knows, and what the surveyor could not say about the timbers underneath. Thatch is a covering with its own defects. A comment written as if it were a tiled roof will miss the point.
Roofs
Can a loft conversion change what a surveyor can say about the roof covering?
Own page
Yes. Once the slope is lined and lived in, the surveyor often cannot see the underlay, the battens or the rafters. They are then limited to the outside face and to any stains on the linings. A dry bedroom is not proof the covering is sound.
Roof and rainwater
What is an upstand on a flat roof, and why does a low one matter?
Own page
An upstand is the turned-up edge of the covering where it meets a wall, a kerb or a roof window. If it is too short, split, or buried under paving on a balcony, water can run over the top or behind the skirting. Ponding in the middle of the roof is a separate defect.
Roofs
What is torching under old slates, and why do surveyors mention it in the loft?
Own page
Torching is mortar applied to the underside of slates or tiles from the loft, used on some older roofs to cut out draughts before underlay was common. When it falls off, you may see debris and daylight. Fallen torching is a clue that the covering is moving. It is not, by itself, a quote to strip the slope.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if a chimney stack leans but the pots are still in place?
Own page
Ask whether the lean is in the stack itself, in the pot, or only an illusion from a wide-angle photo, and whether the flashing and the flaunching have cracked with it. Upright pots do not prove the stack is plumb. A lean is not automatically subsidence of the house.
Roof and rainwater
What are lead soakers beside a chimney, and can they fail out of sight?
Own page
Soakers are small pieces of lead, or sometimes another metal, tucked under each tile or slate where it meets the side of the stack. A cover flashing then dresses over them. The soakers can split while the cover flashing still looks present. A survey from the ground often cannot see the soakers at all.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if a chimney breast has been removed in a downstairs room?
Own page
Ask what is holding up the breast that remains in the room above, or the stack on the roof, and whether any building-regulations paperwork exists for that support. A tidy alcove is not proof the load has a beam. A home survey often cannot see the support without opening up.
Roof and rainwater
What changes if the pots have been removed and the flaunching is left open?
Own page
An open hole at the top of a stack lets rain into the flue. The flaunching is the mortar that should weather the top and hold the pots. If the pots are gone and the holes are not properly capped and ventilated, the breast below can become wet even though nobody is lighting a fire.
Roof and rainwater
What is a corbelled chimney stack, and why do surveyors look at the gable under it?
Own page
Corbelling is the way brickwork steps out, course by course, so a stack can sit partly on the wall below. If the courses have dropped or the gable under them is cracked, the support for the stack is part of the question. A straight pot does not answer it.
Roof and rainwater
What is the difference between a rain cap and a ventilated cowl on an unused flue?
Own page
A rain cap is there to keep rain out. A ventilated cowl is there to keep rain out and let the flue breathe. A solid cap with no airway can stop the rain and still leave the flue damp. The survey can usually see only the outside of whatever is fitted.
Roof and rainwater
Can an old chimney have no damp-proof tray even when the flashings look new?
Own page
Yes. A damp-proof tray, where one exists, sits in the stack to catch water that gets past the pots and lead it outside. Many older stacks were built without one. New lead at the roof slope does not insert a tray into the brickwork above.
Walls
What is a butterfly wall tie, and how is it different from a strip tie?
Own page
A butterfly tie is a wire tie with a twist in the middle, used in many cavity walls. A strip tie is a flat metal tie. Both are there to hold the two leaves together. The name does not tell you whether this wall’s ties have corroded. Only an inspection that can see them, such as a borescope where that is agreed, can do that.
Walls
Why do surveyors treat cavity-wall ties near the coast with extra caution?
Own page
Salt air and driving rain keep the outer leaf wetter, and wetter mortar is harder on metal ties. A fair brick face in a sheltered street is not the same evidence as a fair face on an exposed seafront. The survey still cannot see the ties unless someone looks into the cavity.
Walls
What should you ask if replacement wall ties have already been installed?
Own page
Ask for the guarantee, the number of ties, and whether the old ties were isolated or left to keep expanding. New plugs on the face show that someone has worked on the wall. They do not show that every old tie has stopped doing damage.
Walls
What is a cavity closer, and why is it not a wall tie?
Own page
A cavity closer seals the cavity at an opening, such as a window or a door, so the two leaves are closed off and the jamb does not act as a cold bridge. A wall tie holds the leaves together across the cavity in the body of the wall. Seeing a closer, or not seeing one, says nothing about whether the ties have corroded.
Walls
Why does the Energy Saving Trust treat a cavity narrower than 50mm as unsuitable to fill?
Own page
The Trust says cavity wall insulation suits unfilled cavities that are at least 50mm wide and clear of rubble, with sound masonry, and not on walls exposed to driving rain or flooding. Narrower cavities, often in older houses, are unsuitable. A surveyor’s guess at the width is not that measurement.
Walls
Why does the Energy Saving Trust warn against cavity insulation on a wall exposed to driving rain?
Own page
Because rain driven through the outer leaf can track across wet insulation to the inside and show up as penetrating damp. The Trust lists exposure, flood risk and poor condition as reasons a cavity may be unsuitable. A surveyor who calls the elevation exposed is not telling you to inject the wall. They are flagging a limit.
Walls
How can wall-tie cracking be told apart from subsidence in the same wall?
Own page
Tie failure, where it shows, tends to crack the bed joints in fairly regular horizontal lines as the outer leaf expands. Subsidence tends to crack in a diagonal or stepped pattern as support is lost under part of the building. The patterns can be confused, and a visual survey should say which pattern it saw and what it could not prove.
Structure and movement
What does a crack that is wider at the top over a door suggest, and what does it not prove?
Own page
A tapering crack over an opening often means the masonry is moving around a weak point, sometimes because a lintel has failed and sometimes because support under a corner has changed. The shape is a clue, not a diagnosis of subsidence, and it is not a measurement of whether the movement is still live.
Structure and movement
What do surveyors usually mean by settlement in a house that is only a few years old?
Own page
They usually mean the small amount of movement as a new building and its ground adjust, often minor cracks at joints. They do not mean the foundations are failing. The word is not a promise that every crack in a new house is harmless, and it is not the same as subsidence.
Structure and movement
How can heave lift a building when subsidence drops it?
Own page
Subsidence is the ground going down under the building, so part of the house drops. Heave is the ground swelling, often when a clay soil takes on water after a tree is removed, so part of the house is pushed up. The crack patterns can look similar on one visit. The history of the trees is part of the evidence.
Structure and movement
Why is a Victorian bay a common place for a surveyor to record movement?
Own page
A bay is a heavy projection, often with a poor or shallow foundation of its own, and it contains large openings. It can crack or pull away from the main wall while the rest of the house looks quieter. That pattern is common. It is not automatically subsidence of the whole house.
Structure and movement
Does fresh pointing over a crack prove the movement has stopped?
Own page
No. Pointing hides the crack. It does not tell you whether the crack opened again afterwards, and it does not strengthen the foundation. A surveyor who can see new mortar in an old crack should say the history is concealed, not that the wall has been cured.
Structure and movement
What should you ask if a large tree stands on clay near a cracked wall?
Own page
Ask whether the surveyor thinks the tree, the clay and the crack belong in the same sentence, and what they would need to investigate that. A tree near a house is not proof of subsidence. A crack near a tree is not proof the tree is the cause. Clay soils change volume with moisture, which is why the combination is taken seriously.
Structure and movement
Does a comment that a drain may be leaking mean the Level 2 already tested the pipe?
Own page
No. A Level 2 is a visual inspection. The surveyor may have seen a sunken gulley, a wet patch or a crack in a bay and mentioned a drain as a possible cause. That is not a camera survey, a water test or a proof that the pipe is broken.
Japanese knotweed
Can Japanese knotweed be missed on a winter inspection?
Own page
Yes. The canes die back in winter and the live growth is underground, so a survey in January can miss a stand that would be obvious in July. A winter visit that says knotweed was not seen is not a certificate that the ground is clear.
Japanese knotweed
Does a RICS knotweed management category tell you how much to take off the price?
Own page
No. The 2022 categories describe whether knotweed is damaging a structure, affecting amenity, or sitting off site within three metres. The Property Journal notes that the effect on value differs for those reasons. It does not publish a percentage to deduct, and neither does this page.
Japanese knotweed
What should you ask if Japanese knotweed is next door and within three metres of the boundary?
Own page
Ask whether the surveyor is reporting management category D, which the 2022 journal uses for infestations seen off site within three metres of the boundary. Ask what they could see of the boundary, and what a specialist would be asked to do when the plant is not on the seller’s land.
Japanese knotweed
Does a seller’s note that herbicide was sprayed mean the knotweed category is now clear?
Own page
No. A note that someone sprayed is not a management category, and it is not evidence the plant has gone. The 2022 journal still expects knotweed that is seen to be reported, and it expects a remediation specialist to advise on action. Ask for the management plan, the dates and the guarantee, if any exist.
Japanese knotweed
What should you ask before anyone digs out knotweed soil?
Own page
Ask who will take the soil, under what waste rules, and whether GOV.UK’s guidance on not spreading Japanese knotweed has been built into the method. Digging is not gardening once the plant and the soil it has contaminated are involved. A home survey does not give permission to excavate.
Japanese knotweed
Why should a surveyor’s “possible knotweed” not be treated as a confirmed management category?
Own page
Because the 2022 categories apply when Japanese knotweed is identified. “Possible” means the surveyor is not sure, often because growth was dead, immature or similar to other plants. You need an identification before you report category A, B, C or D to a lender or a seller.
Japanese knotweed
What is a knotweed rhizome, and why can a survey not measure it?
Own page
The rhizome is the underground stem the plant grows from. The surveyor sees canes, leaves or dead stems above ground. They do not excavate the rhizome, and they cannot tell you how far it runs under a patio or a foundation. A management category is based on what is seen and how it affects the property, not on a dug-up map.
Hazardous materials
What is the difference between asbestos insulating board and asbestos cement in a home?
Own page
Asbestos insulating board is a board product used in places such as partitions, soffits, ceiling tiles and panels around windows. Asbestos cement is a harder cement product used in roofs, flues, gutters and some pipes. HSE lists them separately because the risk and the type of contractor are not the same. A surveyor naming “asbestos” without saying which material has not finished the sentence.
Hazardous materials
Can the black adhesive under old floor tiles contain asbestos even when the tiles have gone?
Own page
Yes. HSE lists asbestos bitumen adhesive used to stick floor tiles, as well as the tiles themselves, among the materials that turn up in buildings. A survey that does not lift the carpet may not see either. A glued residue left after someone has already taken the tiles up is still not something to sand.
Hazardous materials
Why do surveyors mention the fuse board when they talk about asbestos?
Own page
Because HSE lists asbestos textiles and flash guards inside older fuse boxes among the places asbestos was used. A surveyor who sees an old fuse board can suspect that and still not be allowed, or qualified, to dismantle it. The suspicion is not an electrical test, and it is not a sample.
Hazardous materials
What should you do if a survey suspects a sprayed coating on a steel or a concrete beam?
Own page
Stop and treat it as a material not to be disturbed. HSE lists sprayed asbestos coatings as fire protection and insulation on steels, concrete beams and sometimes the underside of roofs. That is a different and more serious finding than a cement garage roof. A home survey naming the suspicion is not a licence to sample it yourself, and it is not a removal quote.
Hazardous materials
Does a RICS Level 3 count as an asbestos survey?
Own page
No. The Level 3 description says the surveyor reports suspected asbestos-containing materials if they are identified, and does not act as an asbestos inspector under the Control of Asbestos Regulations. They do not consult an asbestos register for you, and they do not sample as standard. HSE’s location pages are the background for where materials can be, not a checklist the surveyor has signed off.
Hazardous materials
How should you treat asbestos cement gutters, downpipes and flues differently from a boarded soffit?
Own page
HSE lists asbestos cement gutters, downpipes and flues as cement products, and lists insulating board separately in soffits and panels. A sound cement gutter you can leave alone is not the same decision as a damaged board someone is about to drill. Ask which material the surveyor means, and do not let one skip cover both.
Hazardous materials
Why can a house built after 2000 still have asbestos if it was refurbished earlier?
Own page
HSE’s diagrams of where asbestos can occur are about buildings built or refurbished before 2000. A later extension, a new boiler or a new floor can sit beside older materials that were left in place. The year on the estate agent’s particulars is not an asbestos survey.
Electrics
Is a plastic consumer unit in an older house a failed electrical test?
Own page
No. A Level 2 or Level 3 does not test the circuits, and a plastic cover is not an EICR code. An electrician may recommend a non-combustible enclosure when the board is replaced as new work. That is not a retrospective order, published on GOV.UK, that a seller must swap the unit before exchange.
Electrics
What should you ask if the survey says sockets may lack RCD protection?
Own page
Ask whether the surveyor could see a residual-current device, or simply could not confirm one, and remember they have not tested the circuit. Lack of a visible RCD is a reason to ask an electrician. It is not already an EICR code, and it is not a RICS condition rating by another name.
Electrics
What is rubber-insulated cable, and why can a surveyor mention it without testing the circuit?
Own page
Older rubber insulation around cables dries and cracks, and a surveyor who can see that in a loft may say so. Seeing perished rubber is not an insulation-resistance test, and it is not a quotation for a rewire. The electrical safety of the circuit is what an EICR is for.
Electrics
What should you ask if a kitchen was rewired and there is no building-regulations paperwork?
Own page
Ask your solicitor to check whether the work needed building-regulations approval and whether a competent-person certificate or a building-control notice exists. A surveyor can see a new consumer unit or a new kitchen. They cannot see a certificate that was never shown to them, and they do not issue one.
Services
Who does HSE say should work on a domestic gas appliance?
Own page
HSE says gas work should be done by an engineer on the Gas Safe Register. A surveyor looking at a boiler is not that engineer, even if they are a member of RICS. The home survey does not include a gas tightness test, a flue gas analysis or a landlord gas safety record.
Services
Does a landlord’s gas safety record become a guarantee to the person buying the house?
Own page
No. A landlord gas safety check is a duty for rented homes, repeated on a cycle the regulations set for landlords. It is not a warranty that transfers to a buyer, and it is not a substitute for the tests a home survey has already said it did not do. If you want to know the boiler’s condition, ask a Gas Safe engineer.
Services
What should you ask if the house uses LPG rather than mains gas?
Own page
Ask where the tank or cylinders are, who owns the tank, and whether a Gas Safe engineer with LPG competence has ever been instructed. A survey sentence about “gas” may assume mains. LPG is still gas work. The survey has not tested the installation either way.
Services
Does a carbon monoxide alarm on the wall mean the survey tested the flue?
Own page
No. An alarm is a warning device. It is not a flue-flow test, a gas tightness test or a service. A surveyor who sees an alarm, or who does not see one, should not be read as having certified the appliance. HSE still expects gas work to be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer.
Drainage
What is a cesspool, and how is it different from the septic tank GOV.UK describes?
Own page
GOV.UK describes a septic tank or treatment plant as a system that treats sewage and releases liquid to the environment. A cesspool stores sewage and does not treat it. It has to be emptied. A cover in the garden does not tell a surveyor which one is in the ground.
Drainage
What daily volume do the English general binding rules set for a small discharge to ground?
Own page
For a discharge to ground, the rules in force from 2 October 2023 say the discharge must be 2 cubic metres or less a day, and the sewage must be treated by a septic tank and infiltration system or by a treatment plant and infiltration system. A home survey does not measure that volume and cannot tell you the household meets the rule.
Drainage
What do the English rules require before a small sewage discharge can go to surface water?
Own page
The general binding rules say a discharge to surface water must be 5 cubic metres or less a day, and the sewage must be treated by a sewage treatment plant. A septic tank on its own is not that plant. The discharge is to a watercourse that normally flows all year, not to a pond or a dry ditch. A survey does not measure the flow or certify the plant.
Drainage
What is a drainage field, and can a home survey see whether it works?
Own page
In the English general binding rules, a discharge to ground is through an infiltration system, often called a drainage field, after a septic tank or a treatment plant. The pipes are buried. A surveyor walking the garden cannot see whether they are complete, waterlogged or missing. A soggy lawn is a clue, not a test.
Drainage
Why should a buyer in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland not assume the English septic-tank rules apply?
Own page
GOV.UK says there are different rules for septic tanks and treatment plants in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and it points to Natural Resources Wales, SEPA and DAERA. The English general binding rules, including the volumes and the treatment-plant requirement for surface water, are England’s. A survey written as if those rules were UK-wide is overclaiming.
Drainage
What should you ask if an inspection chamber was not lifted?
Own page
Ask why it was not lifted and what that means for the rating. A seized cover, a parked car or a cover buried in a border is a limit of the inspection. It is not evidence the drain is clear. A Level 2 does not include a camera, and it does not include breaking a seized lid.
Drainage
What should you ask if an extension seems to stand over where a public sewer might run?
Own page
Ask your solicitor what the drainage and water search shows, and ask the surveyor whether they could see any sign of a sewer, a manhole or a build-over. A home survey does not produce a water-company build-over agreement. Looking at a rear extension cannot prove the pipe was bridged lawfully.
Timber
What is the difference between common furniture beetle and deathwatch beetle in a survey note?
Own page
Common furniture beetle is the usual “woodworm” in softwood, leaving small round flight holes. Deathwatch beetle is associated with damper hardwood, often oak, and is a more serious structural question when it is active. A surveyor who only writes “woodworm” has not said which, and old holes are not the same as a live attack.
Timber
Can the colour of bore dust tell you a beetle attack is active?
Own page
Fresh, bright dust that reappears after it is cleared is a clue that insects are still emerging. Dust that has sat for years, or grit from the roof, is not. Colour alone is not a laboratory result, and a surveyor cannot date a handful of dust to a season just by looking.
Timber
What does a dry-rot fruiting body tell you that a musty smell does not?
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A fruiting body is the fungus showing itself, often as a rust-coloured growth, and it means dry rot has found enough damp timber to fruit. A musty smell only says something is damp. The Property Care Association treats dry rot as a fungus that can run beyond the visible patch. The smell is a reason to look. The fruiting body is evidence the look has found it.
Timber
Why does the Property Care Association treat wet rot as a moisture problem first?
Own page
Because wet rot grows in timber that stays wet, and it stops when the timber dries and stays dry. The Association’s advice is to deal with the leak or the damp, then the damaged timber, not to sell a chemical as the repair. A survey that names wet rot should also say, if it can, where the water is coming from.
Timber
Why are joist ends built into a damp wall a different risk from flight holes in a dry loft?
Own page
Joist ends buried in a wet wall stay damp and can rot where you cannot see them, which is a structural question. Flight holes in a dry, ventilated loft rafter are often historic and may not affect strength. A surveyor should not use one sentence for both.
Timber
Should you assume every fungus in a cellar is dry rot?
Own page
No. Cellars are damp, and several fungi and moulds grow there. Dry rot is one possibility, wet rot is another, and surface mould is a third. The Property Care Association distinguishes fungal decay from a general damp patch. A survey that says “fungal growth” without a name is asking for identification, not for a dry-rot contract.
Timber
What should you ask if a woodworm certificate is decades old?
Own page
Ask what it covered, whether the firm still exists, and whether the surveyor has seen fresh dust or damp timber that the old treatment never claimed to prevent. A certificate is evidence of a past visit. It is not a finding that the roof is clear today.
Hazardous materials
What is the difference between open-cell and closed-cell spray foam under a roof?
Own page
Open-cell foam is softer and more vapour-open. Closed-cell foam is rigid and far less vapour-open, and it is the type that most often sticks to the underside of a covering and hides the timbers. RICS says some spray foam makes it difficult to see roof problems from the loft. The names do not tell you whether this installation is acceptable to a lender.
Hazardous materials
Why does blocked eaves ventilation matter if foam has been sprayed between the rafters?
Own page
Because a pitched roof often relies on air moving from the eaves to keep the timbers and the underlay dry. Foam that fills the eaves gap can stop that air. RICS warns that incorrectly installed insulation can lead to dampness and uncontrolled condensation, and that a leak you cannot see can rot the timber.
Hazardous materials
What does a BBA or Kiwa certificate show on a spray-foam job, and what does it not show?
Own page
RICS says you should ask the installer for the contract, the calculations, the works to the roof, any guarantee, and any independent certificate such as a BBA or Kiwa certificate. That certificate is about the product or the system that was assessed. It is not a statement that this roof was suitable, or that your lender will accept the job.
Hazardous materials
Why does the RICS spray-foam guide ask for photographs from before the foam was sprayed?
Own page
Because once the foam is on, the surveyor cannot see the timbers, the felt and the defects that were there already. RICS says records and photographs should be taken before, during and after the work and kept with the handover information. Without them, a later buyer cannot show a valuer what the roof looked like.
Hazardous materials
Does a surveyor’s comment on spray foam replace the lender’s own policy?
Own page
No. RICS tells you to check with the mortgage provider whether their policy allows the product. The survey describes the roof and the limits on the inspection. The lender decides whether they will lend on it. A sentence that foam is present is not a refusal, and a sentence that the roof looked tidy is not a lender’s consent.
Hazardous materials
What does RICS say about topping up loft quilt compared with installing spray foam?
Own page
RICS says topping up existing mineral wool is likely to be substantially cheaper than installing spray foam, and that energy-saving claims may not be achieved if foam is not planned properly. That is a comparison the guide is willing to make. It is not a quote for your loft, and it is not a reason to rip foam out before a lender has asked you to.
Hazardous materials
What does the RICS spray-foam guide say about fire, without turning it into a ban?
Own page
RICS says polyurethane spray foam is a combustible material and can increase the likelihood and extent of damage in a fire. That is a reason to take the installation seriously and to keep the paperwork. It is not, in the guide, a statement that every foamed roof must be stripped, and it is not a fire-risk assessment of your house.
Hazardous materials
Is a foam overlay on a flat roof the same product as spray foam under the rafters?
Own page
No. Foam sprayed under a pitched roof sits in the loft and can hide the timbers. A sprayed or liquid system on top of a flat roof is a covering, judged like other flat-roof coverings: edges, upstands, ponding and how it was detailed. Lenders may still ask what was used. Do not answer them with a loft-foam script that describes the wrong surface.
Structure
What is a BISF house, and why is the frame a survey question?
Own page
A BISF house is a post-war steel-framed house, named after the British Iron and Steel Federation system. The frame, not a conventional brick cavity, is what carries the building. A survey should say if that is what the surveyor believes they are looking at. It cannot, from the cladding alone, prove the steel is sound.
Structure
What is an Airey house, and what should you ask before you treat it as an ordinary semi?
Own page
An Airey house is a precast reinforced-concrete system, with concrete posts and panels, widely built after the war. It is one of the systems people mean when they talk about designated defective concrete houses. A survey can suspect the system from the construction. It cannot issue a repair certificate, and it cannot tell a lender to accept the house.
Structure
What should you ask if a survey says the house may be a designated defective type?
Own page
Ask the surveyor which system they mean and what they could actually see. Then ask your solicitor whether that system is on the designated defective list and whether a repair certificate exists. The survey cannot place the house on the statutory list, and it cannot take it off.
Structure
What should you do if the survey says “non-traditional” but does not name the system?
Own page
Go back to the surveyor and ask what they saw: frame, panels, roof form, party wall, cladding. “Non-traditional” is a flag, not an identification. Lenders and repair schemes ask for the system. A second paragraph that names the clues is more useful than a stronger adjective.
Structure
What should you ask about fire stopping in a timber-frame party wall?
Own page
Ask whether the surveyor could see the party wall construction at all, and whether any alteration, such as a new socket or a loft conversion, has opened it. A modern timber-frame house is not a defective concrete system. Fire stopping is about how the frame was built and whether later work has punched holes in it. A visual survey often cannot see the cavity barriers.
Structure
Can a brick outer leaf hide a steel or concrete frame from a visual survey?
Own page
Yes. Brick, stone and render are claddings. They can sit in front of a frame or a concrete panel the surveyor never sees, unless a junction, a loft or a meter cupboard gives the construction away. A house that looks like a cavity semi from the street may not be one. The report should say how the construction was identified and where it is only assumed.
Structure
What should you ask if concrete panels are cracked on a house that was supposedly repaired?
Own page
Ask whether the repair certificate, if there is one, covers this address and these panels, and whether the cracks are in the original concrete or in a later coating. A certificate is not a promise that the concrete cannot deteriorate afterwards. A visual survey cannot see reinforcement behind a coating.
Property types
Does Grade II listing protect less of the house than Grade I?
Own page
The grade records the level of special interest. It does not mean a Grade II house is only protected at the front, or that more of it can be altered without consent. Historic England explains list entries and that the building is listed, not a single elevation. A home survey does not grant listed building consent and does not regrade the house.
Property types
What is the difference between listed building consent and planning permission?
Own page
Planning permission is about development. Listed building consent is about works to a listed building that affect its character, which can include works that would not need planning permission at all. You can need one, the other, both, or neither. A home survey does not apply for either, and it does not tell you which box your future kitchen sits in.
Property types
Does a local heritage list give the same control as national listing?
Own page
No. Historic England describes local heritage lists separately from the national list, alongside other area designations such as conservation areas. A local list is not Grade II by another name. A home survey might mention that a building is noted locally. It has not listed the building, and it has not checked the planning constraints for you.
Property types
Who deals with listing in Wales, and does a RICS survey replace Cadw?
Own page
Cadw explains listing in Wales, including grades under the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023. A RICS home survey does not list a building, does not grant consent, and does not replace Cadw or the local planning authority. If you apply an English Historic England habit to a Welsh list entry without reading it, you are guessing.
Property types
What should you ask before you remove a fireplace or a fitted cupboard in a listed house?
Own page
Ask the local planning authority whether that removal needs listed building consent, and ask the surveyor only about the condition of what you can see. Historic England treats listing as covering the building, which includes interiors and fixed features, not a shell you may strip. The survey is not the consent.
Property types
What can a home survey tell you about a house in a conservation area, and what can it not?
Own page
It can tell you about condition: roofs, damp, movement, services it could see. It cannot tell you whether an Article 4 direction has removed permitted development, whether a replacement window will be allowed, or whether demolition would be controlled. Historic England describes conservation areas as area designations, separate from listing a single building.
Property types
If an older lease is extended voluntarily, what does the 2022 Act do to ground rent on the new term?
Own page
GOV.UK’s guidance on the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 says that where an existing leaseholder extends voluntarily after the Act started, ground rent on the extended portion is a peppercorn. The Act does not rewrite the rent on the years that were already in the old lease. A home survey does not calculate either rent.
Property types
When did the peppercorn ground-rent rule start for retirement homes?
Own page
GOV.UK says the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 came into force on 30 June 2022 for most new leases, and not before 1 April 2023 for retirement properties. A retirement flat sold under a lease granted before that later date can still reserve a real ground rent. The survey does not tell you which date this lease was granted.
Property types
Does the 2022 ground-rent Act cancel the rent on a statutory lease extension?
Own page
No. GOV.UK says statutory lease extensions, for houses and for flats, remain unchanged and are exempt from the Act. A statutory extension is not the same document as a new lease granted on or after 30 June 2022, and it is not the same as a voluntary extension, where the guidance says the added years drop to a peppercorn. Your solicitor has to say which route is available.
Property types
Which service-charge accounts should you read when a flat survey rates a communal roof?
Own page
Read the accounts, the budget and any major-works notice with your solicitor before you treat that roof rating as your private bill. GOV.UK explains service charges and consultation on major works. The survey says what was visible. It does not audit the money already collected.
Property types
Does a reserve fund belong to you if you sell the flat later?
Own page
Not as a personal savings account. GOV.UK’s shared-ownership guidance says that if you sell, you will not usually be able to get back money you have paid into a reserve fund, and that this depends on the lease. A reserve is there to fund future works. A survey that finds those works are now due does not refund the reserve to the buyer or the seller.
Property types
Why is an EWS1 form not a substitute for the condition ratings inside the flat?
Own page
An EWS1 is a form about the external wall of a block, used by many lenders when they decide whether to lend. It is not a RICS condition rating of the flat, and a Level 2 or Level 3 of one flat does not produce it. The Level 3 description says the surveyor does not inspect external wall systems of flats.
Property types
What should you ask about building-safety leaseholder protections, rather than guessing from the survey?
Own page
Ask your solicitor whether the protections on GOV.UK could apply to this lease, and what evidence the landlord has already provided. The survey does not decide who is a qualifying leaseholder, and it does not decide which cladding or insulation costs can be passed on. It can tell you what the outside of the building looked like from the places the surveyor stood.
Property types
Does a surveyor calculate the cost of extending a lease that has fewer than 80 years left?
Own page
No. GOV.UK’s shared-ownership guidance says that when the remaining lease drops below 80 years, it can be much more expensive to extend, and that you should check the landlord’s rules and the cost before you buy. The premium is a valuation and legal process. A home survey does not produce it, and this page does not invent the premium.
Property types
What is the difference between the first two years of NHBC Buildmark and the later years?
Own page
NHBC describes Buildmark as 10-year warranty and insurance cover. For the first two years after completion the builder is liable to put right defects that are a breach of NHBC requirements, and NHBC guarantees that obligation. For the following eight years the insurance covers damage from defects in specific parts of the home set out in the policy, not every snag.
Property types
If the warranty is not NHBC, can you assume it copies Buildmark’s two-year and eight-year split?
Own page
No. NHBC is describing its own Buildmark policy. Other providers issue their own wording. A board on a site that says “10-year warranty” has not promised you NHBC’s sections. Ask for the policy schedule and read the periods, the exclusions and who to notify.
Property types
What is the difference between a building-control completion certificate and a new-build warranty?
Own page
A completion certificate is the building-control record that the work signed off under the building regulations. A warranty is an insurance or builder product, such as NHBC Buildmark, with its own sections and exclusions. You can have either one without the other. A home survey is a third document and replaces neither.
Property types
Why should you not treat the show home as the house the survey will see?
Own page
The show home is dressed and often upgraded. Your plot is the one in the contract, built to the specification in that contract, and it may still be unfinished when you reserve. A survey or a snagging visit has to be of the plot you are buying. NHBC’s warranty, if that is the warranty, covers the home named in the policy, not the show house next door.
Property types
What should you ask about snagging if you are buying before the builder finishes the plot?
Own page
Ask when you will be allowed in, what a snagging visit will be able to see, and how defects must be notified under the contract and the warranty. A snagging list is not a RICS survey. A RICS survey is not a reservation. Neither one can inspect rooms that are not yet built.
Property types
Does a 10-year new-build warranty replace an electrical test or a drain test?
Own page
No. NHBC describes Buildmark as warranty and insurance for defects in the home, within the sections of the policy. It is not an EICR and it is not a camera survey of the drains. A RICS home survey does not include those tests either, unless you agreed them as extras.
Property types
Does mygov.scot say a new house sold off-plan still needs a Home Report?
Own page
mygov.scot lists exceptions to the Home Report duty, including new houses sold off-plan. Do not assume a Scottish new-build comes with a Single Survey the way an ordinary resale does. An energy report can still be required. Read the current exceptions on that page before you are told “Scotland always has a survey”.
Property types
What should you do if a crack appears after completion and a warranty is in force?
Own page
Record it, tell the builder or the warranty provider in the way the policy requires, and do not cover it up. NHBC’s Buildmark, where that is the policy, makes the builder responsible for defects that breach NHBC requirements in the first two years, and then insures damage from defects in specified parts. A crack in paint may be neither. A crack in masonry may be. The policy wording decides.
Reading the report
What does RICS still expect you to do when an element is condition rating 1?
Own page
The Level 3 description says condition rating 1 means no repair is currently needed, and that the property must be maintained in the normal way. It is not a promise the element will never wear out, and it is not a reason to skip ordinary maintenance such as clearing gutters or decorating.
Reading the report
What does the RICS Level 3 description tell you to do before you commit, if an element is rating 3?
Own page
It says rating 3 defects are serious and/or need to be repaired, replaced or investigated urgently, and that written quotations for repairs should be obtained prior to legal commitment to purchase. The rating is the reason to get those quotations. It is not itself the quotation.
Reading the report
What is wrong with calling a survey all rating 1s when some elements are marked NI?
Own page
A seller who says the report was all rating 1s is leaving out every NI line. In the RICS Level 3 description, NI means those elements were not inspected, so they were not given a rating at all. A loft, a drain or a flat roof marked NI has not passed.
Reading the report
Does a Level 3 assess whether the gas or the electrics are safe?
Own page
No. The Level 3 description says the surveyor inspects visible parts of the services only, does not carry out specialist tests, and does not assess the safety or efficiency of the electrics, the gas or other energy sources. A rating on the services element is not an EICR and not a Gas Safe record.
Reading the report
What does the Level 3 description say about hatches more than three metres up?
Own page
It says the surveyor uses a ladder for hatches and flat roofs no more than three metres above ground, where that is safe. A hatch above that, or a hatch that is unsafe, can be NI. The loft has not been rated just because the rest of the house has.
Reading the report
Does a Level 3 of a flat inspect the block’s external wall system?
Own page
No. The Level 3 description says the surveyor does not inspect external wall systems of flats and does not carry out specialist tests on them. If they are concerned, they say further investigation is needed. That sentence is not an EWS1 form, and it is not a rating of the cladding system.
Reading the report
Can a house have several condition rating 2 items and still have no rating 3?
Own page
Yes. Each element is rated on its own. Rating 2 means defects that need repairing or replacing but are not considered serious or urgent. Several of those are several jobs. They do not add up, by any rule in the RICS definition, into a rating 3. A rating 3 is used when a defect is serious and/or needs urgent repair, replacement or investigation.
Reading the report
Does a condition rating contain the cost of the repair?
Own page
No. The RICS definitions say what is wrong and how urgent it is. They do not contain a price. For rating 3, the definition tells you to obtain written quotations before legal commitment. For rating 2, it tells you the repair is not serious or urgent, and that the property must still be maintained. Neither sentence is a builder’s invoice.
Choosing a survey
What does MoneyHelper say a mortgage valuation is, and why is that not a Level 2?
Own page
MoneyHelper says a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. It is for the lender, so the lender can decide what security it has. A RICS Level 2 or Level 3 is instructed by you to describe condition. Reading the valuation as if it were your survey is how buyers miss the defects the valuer was not asked to report.
Choosing a survey
When is a Level 1 a poor fit, given how limited its inspection is?
Own page
A Level 1 is the shortest RICS home survey. The scope-of-inspection page for Level 1 is the list of what that visit includes and what it leaves out. It is a poor fit when you already know the house is old, altered, non-standard, thatched or in obviously poor condition, because you will pay for a report that was not designed to describe those problems in any depth.
Choosing a survey
Why do buyers of heavily altered older houses often move from a Level 2 to a Level 3?
Own page
Because a Level 2 is a visual report on a home that is not expected to be a puzzle. A Level 3 describes construction and defects in more detail and is the RICS level aimed at older, larger, altered or non-standard buildings. If the house has been extended, re-roofed and opened up, the extra description is the point of the fee.
Choosing a survey
What does a survey of one flat leave to the solicitor and the managing agent?
Own page
It leaves the lease, the service charge, the reserve, any major works, and usually the external wall system. The survey covers the flat and the common parts the surveyor can enter. The Level 3 description says external wall systems of flats are not inspected. GOV.UK’s leasehold pages are the solicitor’s reading, not a chapter the surveyor will write for you.
Choosing a survey
Can you agree extra opening-up before the surveyor visits?
Own page
Yes, if the firm and the seller agree, and if it is written into the instruction with a price. It is not included because you mentioned a crack on the phone. The Level 3 description does not let the surveyor open the fabric as standard, and a Level 2 is no more invasive.
Choosing a survey
Why is an EPC not a way of choosing between a Level 2 and a Level 3?
Own page
GOV.UK requires an Energy Performance Certificate when a home is sold, and a certificate is valid for 10 years. It rates energy cost, not whether the bay is moving or the roof is leaking. A high or low EPC does not tell you which RICS level to book.
Choosing a survey
If you want the surveyor to come back after a repair, is that included in the first fee?
Own page
Usually no. The first fee is for the inspection and the report described in the terms. A return visit to see whether a repair was done is a new instruction unless the quote says otherwise. Ask before you promise the seller that “the surveyor will sign it off for free”.
Choosing a survey
Can a buyer in Scotland commission their own survey as well as the Home Report?
Own page
Yes. The Home Report is the seller’s pack: a single survey and valuation, a property questionnaire and an energy report, where mygov.scot says one is required. You may still instruct your own surveyor if you want a second opinion or a closer look at something the single survey flagged. You are paying twice for a reason you should be able to name.
Money
Why can two Level 2 quotes differ when RICS does not set one national price?
Own page
Because the fee is the firm’s, not a RICS tariff. Size, age, distance, outbuildings and how busy the diary is all change the price. RICS explains the levels and does not publish a single Level 2 fee. A higher quote is not automatically a Level 3, and a lower quote is not automatically a shortcut.
Money
What should you ask about VAT when you compare two survey fees?
Own page
Ask whether the figure includes VAT, and ask for the total you will pay. A quote that looks cheaper can be the same money once VAT is added. RICS does not publish a fee schedule that settles the question. The firm’s written quote does.
Money
What should a survey quote say about cancellation or a seller who refuses access?
Own page
It should say what you pay if the visit is cancelled, by whom, and what happens if the surveyor arrives and cannot get in. Those terms are the firm’s contract, not a RICS national policy. If the quote is silent, ask before you book. A cheap fee with a full charge for a wasted visit is not always the cheap option.
Money
Why is a drain camera or an EICR not inside the fee RICS declines to set nationally?
Own page
Because they are different instructions, done by different people, with their own prices. A RICS home survey does not include a camera survey or an electrical installation condition report unless the quote says so in words. There is no national bundle price for “survey plus everything the survey might recommend”.
Money
Is the lender’s valuation fee the same invoice as your home survey?
Own page
No. MoneyHelper describes the mortgage valuation as something done for the lender, and it is not a structural survey. Your home survey is an invoice between you and the survey firm. Sometimes one visit produces both, and you should still see two scopes. Sometimes you pay the lender and the surveyor separately.
Money
Does RICS publish a tariff that tells a Level 3 firm what to charge?
Own page
No. RICS explains what a Level 3 is and leaves the fee to the firm. Anyone who shows you a “RICS fee scale” for a three-bedroom house is not quoting a current RICS tariff, because the consumer guide does not set one. Ask the firm for a written price for this address.
Money
What should you tell the firm about annexes and distance before you accept a survey quote?
Own page
Tell them the floor area if you know it, the number of outbuildings, whether there is a separate annex or a swimming pool, and where the house is. Those facts change the time and the travel. A quote given on “three-bed semi” that turns out to be a semi plus a cottage in the garden is a quote for the wrong job.
Money
Why should you not negotiate with a forum’s average survey price?
Own page
Because an average on a forum is not a quote for this house, and RICS does not publish the number the forum thinks it is recalling. The only figures you can compare are written quotes for this address, with the level, the VAT and the exclusions shown.
Selling
What does GOV.UK require a seller in England to have about energy, and why is that not a survey?
Own page
GOV.UK says you need an Energy Performance Certificate when you sell, and that a certificate lasts 10 years. That is an energy rating. It is not a RICS condition survey, and it does not describe damp, structure or roofs. In Scotland the Home Report is a separate duty, with its own exceptions.
Selling
What should a seller do with a defect they already know about when a buyer’s surveyor is coming?
Own page
Tell your solicitor, and do not hide it behind furniture. A buyer’s survey is a visual inspection. Covering a crack does not make it unreportable if the surveyor sees the signs, and a later argument about what you knew is a solicitor’s problem, not a surveying trick. This page does not invent a disclosure form. Your solicitor has the property questions they want answered.
Selling
If an earlier buyer pulled out after a survey, can the next buyer treat that PDF as their own report?
Own page
Not automatically. In England and Wales a survey is written for the person who instructed it. You do not step into their shoes because the agent forwards a PDF. You may read it as gossip or as a useful warning. You should not rely on it as your report unless the firm confirms, in writing, that you may. In Scotland, a Home Report is a different document, intended for purchasers.
Selling
Which sales does mygov.scot say may not need a Home Report?
Own page
mygov.scot lists exceptions, including houses that were on the market before 1 December 2008, new houses sold off-plan, and seasonal holiday homes. It also says an energy performance certificate can still be required. If you are selling in Scotland, read that page against your sale rather than assuming every listing has a Home Report. England and Wales do not use the system at all.
Selling
In a Scottish Home Report, what is the property questionnaire for, as against the single survey?
Own page
The questionnaire is the seller’s information about the property. The single survey is the chartered surveyor’s visual report on condition, with a valuation. mygov.scot describes the Home Report as those parts plus the energy report. The seller’s answers are not the surveyor’s findings, and the surveyor’s findings are not a promise the seller remembered every alteration.
Selling
Should a seller repair a rating 3 before exchange, or wait to be asked?
Own page
Wait until you, the buyer and the two solicitors agree what will be done, and get written quotations first if you are the buyer. The RICS definition says rating 3 items should have written quotes before legal commitment. A seller who repairs in a hurry may fix the wrong thing, or fix it in a way the buyer’s surveyor cannot sign off.
Selling
What should a seller in England prepare so the buyer’s inspection is not cut short?
Own page
Keys to outbuildings, a clear loft hatch, access to the consumer unit, and a note of where the stopcock and the boiler are. A Level 2 or Level 3 is visual and will not move heavy furniture. NI entries caused by a screwed-down hatch or a locked garage become the buyer’s unanswered questions, and unanswered questions become price talks.
After the survey
Why is a condition rating not a contractor’s invoice you can deduct from the price?
Own page
Because the rating classifies urgency. RICS says a rating 3 means you should obtain written quotations before legal commitment. Those quotations are the money. The rating is the reason you asked. Deducting a round figure because a box says 3 is not what the definition tells you to do.
After the survey
What should you have in hand before you ask the seller for money off after a survey?
Own page
The survey wording, a written quote or specialist report where the survey says further investigation or rating 3, and your solicitor’s view of what the contract allows. A disappointed reading of the report is not yet a figure. RICS points you to quotations before commitment. Your solicitor points you to the moment you are still free to walk away.
After the survey
How is renegotiating a new-build reservation different from a private sale before exchange?
Own page
A reservation agreement can restrict what you can do before the building contract, and the builder’s contract may not let you reopen the price because a snagging list exists. A private sale before exchange is usually a negotiation with no binding contract yet. Read the reservation before you assume the two are the same. NHBC Buildmark, if it applies, is a warranty with its own sections. It is not a right to a discount.
After the survey
What are your options if the seller will not move on price and you have not exchanged?
Own page
You can proceed at the original price, with your eyes open and the quotes in the file, or you can walk away. Before exchange in England and Wales there is usually no binding contract forcing you to buy. The survey does not make that choice. RICS tells you to get quotes for rating 3 items before you commit. It does not tell you that any particular defect is a reason to withdraw.
After the survey
Why should you not take a standard percentage off the price because of a rating 3?
Own page
Because neither the RICS rating definitions nor the “What to do now” note publishes a percentage. A rating 3 on a chimney and a rating 3 on a garden wall are not the same money. Written quotations are the method the Level 3 description actually gives you. A percentage borrowed from a forum is an invented price.
After the survey
What should you keep in writing if the seller offers to do the work?
Own page
The specification, who pays, the standard of the work, the date, and whether your surveyor or another inspector will see it before completion. A text that says “we’ll sort the roof” is not a specification. The RICS advice to obtain written quotations exists so the work is defined. Your solicitor should attach that definition to the contract if you are going to rely on it.
After the survey
Who should send a proposal to change the price: the surveyor or your solicitor?
Own page
Your solicitor. The surveyor has reported condition to you. RICS’s “What to do now” note tells you how to use the report, including getting quotes before you commit. It does not appoint the surveyor as your negotiator. The solicitor knows whether you have exchanged and what the other side has been told.
Damp
Can a raised path or a render coat let damp in by bridging the damp-proof course?
Own page
Yes. If soil, a patio or render sits above the damp-proof course, rain and ground moisture can cross into the wall above the course. That is bridging, not proof that the course itself has failed. A home survey should say what it could see outside, and a meter cannot separate the two.
Damp
What should you ask if the air bricks under a suspended timber floor are blocked or buried?
Own page
Ask whether the surveyor could see ventilation to the void under the floor, and whether the boards themselves were inspected. Blocked air bricks can leave that void stale and damp. They are not, on their own, a failed damp-proof course in the wall, and a Level 2 does not lift fitted floors to prove the joists.
Damp
Does a tanked basement mean the surveyor has signed off the waterproofing?
Own page
No. Tanking is a lining or barrier someone has applied. A home survey can see stains, salts or a musty smell on the day. It cannot test the tanking, the land drain or the water pressure behind it. Approved Document C is about moisture resistance in building work, not a pass certificate for an old cellar.
Damp
Can a small flat roof over a bay window wet the pier without the main roof leaking?
Own page
Yes. A bay often has its own tiny roof or lead topping. If that covering, its upstand or the flashing into the wall fails, the pier and the window head get wet while the main slope looks sound. A survey from the ground may not see the top of the bay at all.
Damp
Can a leaking radiator valve be written up in the same words as rising damp?
Own page
Yes, if the only record is a high meter reading at low level. A slow leak from a valve or a pipe can wet the plaster just where people expect rising damp. The survey should say whether a radiator, a stain shaped like a drip, or a tide mark from the floor was actually there.
Damp
Can insulation fixed to the inside of a solid wall create damp that a meter then calls rising damp?
Own page
It can create condensation inside the build-up, especially if the room’s moisture is pushed into a cold wall with nowhere to go. That is not the same finding as water rising from the ground. A home survey cannot see the hidden face of the insulation, so “high readings” on the lining are not a map of the old brick.
Damp
Can water dripping from a ceiling be condensation in the loft rather than a hole in the roof?
Own page
Yes. The Building Research Establishment has reported that drips into rooms are often condensation that has built up in a cold roof void, not a leak, even when they show up in bad weather. A home survey should separate what it saw on the covering from what it saw on the underside of the felt.
Damp
Does an old chemical damp-proof course guarantee mean the wall is dry now?
Own page
No. A guarantee is a contract about work that was done, if you can find it and if it still has a named installer. It is not a test result for today. The wall can be dry, still wet from another cause, or wet again because the outside levels were never changed.
Damp
What does spalling brickwork mean, and why is it not the same comment as rising damp?
Own page
Spalling is the face of a brick or stone flaking off, often after water in the surface has frozen. It is a weathering defect of the outer face. Rising damp is a theory about water from the ground in the base of the wall. A survey can record both, and neither phrase is a specification for cutting out every brick.
Roofs
Why can a dormer leak while the main tiles still look even?
Own page
A dormer is a box built through the slope. Its cheeks, its flashings and its little flat or pitched top fail on their own. Even tiles on the main roof do not speak for those joints. From the street you mostly see the front of the dormer, not the lead or felt where it meets the tiles.
Roofs
What should you ask if a stain sits under a roof window but the tiles around it look tidy?
Own page
Ask about the flashing kit and the frame, not only the tiles. Roof windows leak at the junction: the flashing, the lining, and sometimes condensation on a cold frame. Straight tiles do not prove that junction. A survey from the loft can see a stain and still not see the outer flashing.
Roofs
What is a roof verge, and why does failed pointing there matter if the tiles look even?
Own page
The verge is the sloping edge of the roof at a gable. Mortar or a dry-verge system is supposed to close that edge against wind and rain. If it has dropped out, water gets into the bargeboard and the wall head even while the field of tiles looks regular. A surveyor can often see that gap from the ground.
Roofs
What is roof spread, and how is it different from a crack caused by the ground?
Own page
Roof spread is the feet of the rafters pushing the tops of the walls outward because the roof is not tied well enough. The clues are at the eaves: walls bowing out, a gap at the ceiling line, sometimes a hump in the ridge. That is not the same pattern as subsidence, which shows at the base and around openings.
Roofs
What are sarking boards, and why does a Scottish roof survey read differently from an English loft?
Own page
Sarking is boarding laid over the rafters under the tiles or slates, common on older Scottish roofs. The underside is timber boards, not the open felt an English surveyor often sees. A Home Report still only records what was visible. It does not mean the boards have been tested for rot, and an English Level 2 habit of “looking at the felt” may not apply.
Roofs
What is a mansard roof, and which part should you ask about if the survey is brief?
Own page
A mansard has a steep lower slope and a shallow upper slope, so it is two coverings and a junction, not one field of tiles. Leaks favour the junction, the dormers in the steep slope, and the gutters in the valley between them. Ask which of those the surveyor could actually see.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if the fascia behind the gutter is soft but the tiles are intact?
Own page
Ask about the gutter and the timber, not about a new roof. A rotten fascia or soffit usually means the gutter has overflowed or the felt has sagged into the gutter for a long time. The tiles can still be doing their job. A home survey can see a stained or sagging board from the ground and still not see how far the rot goes into the rafter feet.
Roofs
What is a dry-ridge system, and does it mean the mortar ridge was a defect?
Own page
A dry ridge is a mechanical fixing for ridge tiles, with no mortar bed. Mortar bedding is the older method. Mortar that has cracked is a maintenance defect. A dry ridge is an alternative way of holding the tiles, not proof that every mortar ridge has failed, and not something a survey can pass or fail by brand.
Roofs
Can a stain on a ceiling under the loft be the cold-water tank rather than the roof?
Own page
Yes. A tank, a ball valve or a pipe in the loft can wet the ceiling from above and copy a roof leak. The survey should say whether a tank sits over that stain and whether the timbers around it were wet. A roof sentence that never mentions the tank has not ruled the tank out.
Roofs
What is the difference between old roofing felt and a breathable membrane, as far as a survey can tell?
Own page
Old bitumen felt is a vapour-tight underlay. Many later membranes are meant to let vapour through. A surveyor can sometimes tell them apart by look and age, and sometimes cannot. Neither type proves the tiles are sound, and a torn underlay is a defect of the underlay, not a full description of the covering.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if a chimney stack was removed above the roof but the breast is still downstairs?
Own page
Ask how the roof was made good, and whether the breast is still carried. Taking the pots off and tiling over is a roofing detail. It does not by itself prove the breast below was supported or that the flue was vented. A home survey sees the ceiling line and the roof slope. It does not open the roof timbers to find every trimmer.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if a wood stove uses a chimney the survey calls unlined?
Own page
Ask whether anyone has seen a liner, and do not treat the survey as a stove certificate. An unlined flue can let tars into the brick and can be the wrong size for a modern stove. A home survey looks at the stack and the breast. It does not sweep the flue, camera it, or sign the installation off under Approved Document J.
Roof and rainwater
What is a gallows bracket, and why does a survey mention it when a chimney breast is gone?
Own page
A gallows bracket is a steel frame sometimes used to hold up the remaining breast after the part below was removed. The survey can see a boxed-in bulkhead and a gap where the breast was. It cannot see whether the bracket was designed, built or shared with next door unless the work is exposed. Support is a structure question, not a damp reading.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask when a thatched house has a chimney, rather than treating them as one defect?
Own page
Ask about the stack and the thatch as separate elements. The junction where the chimney leaves the thatch is a common place for water and for a poor flashing, and the flue is a fire question the survey has not tested. A comment on the ridge of the thatch is not a comment on the flue, and Approved Document J is not a certificate the surveyor has issued.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if the chimney stack is newer brick than the house?
Own page
Ask why it was rebuilt and how it is weathered into the roof. New brick can mean a sensible rebuild after decay, or a stack that was taken down and put back badly. The survey can see the junction, the flaunching and whether the flashings are there. It cannot see the flue lining inside the new work.
Roof and rainwater
Why is a flue liner note in a survey not a Gas Safe record?
Own page
Because a liner is a component in a chimney, and a Gas Safe record is the work of a registered engineer on a gas appliance. The surveyor is not issuing either document when they mention a liner. They are saying what they could see, which is often only a plate at the fireplace or nothing at all.
Walls
What does a bulging outer leaf suggest, and why is it not automatically subsidence?
Own page
A bulge in the outer brick leaf of a cavity wall, often with horizontal cracks, can mean the ties are no longer holding that leaf to the inner one. Subsidence is movement of the ground under the building. The patterns differ: tie trouble sits in the brick courses of one leaf; ground movement tends to taper around openings and continue into the plinth. A survey from the ground cannot see the ties.
Walls
Can render stop a surveyor seeing wall-tie cracks that are still in the brick?
Own page
Yes. Render covers the bed joints where tie corrosion usually cracks the mortar. The surveyor then sees render cracks, hollow render, or nothing. They should not convert a rendered wall into a clear bill of health for the ties, and they should not declare tie failure without a pattern they can point at.
Walls
Does a cavity wall built in the last few decades carry the same tie risk as an early one?
Own page
Not automatically. Early cavity walls often used mild-steel ties that can rust. Later ties are often stainless or non-ferrous, which is why surveyors ask roughly when the wall was built. The survey still cannot see the metal unless it is exposed. Age is a reason to look, not a verdict.
Walls
What is a tell-tale on a crack, and why does it not answer a wall-tie question?
Own page
A tell-tale is a gauge fixed across a crack to see if the crack moves. It measures movement at that point over time. It does not look into the cavity, identify a tie, or say why the crack opened. Leaving one in place for a week before exchange rarely proves anything.
Walls
Why do people say wall ties should be dealt with before a cavity is filled?
Own page
Because insulation blown or injected into a cavity can hide the ties and can sit against a wall that is already cracking or bridged. The Energy Saving Trust says the masonry should be in good condition, the cavity at least 50mm and clear of rubble, and repairs to pointing, roofs and gutters done first. A home survey does not carry out that pre-install check for you.
Walls
What should you ask if cracks inside line up with regular brick courses?
Own page
Ask whether that pattern is on the inner leaf and whether it matches anything outside. Tie corrosion cracks the mortar courses that hold the ties, sometimes seen inside as well as out. A single diagonal crack over a door is a different pattern. The survey still has not seen the tie.
Structure and movement
What is stepped cracking, and what does it not prove on its own?
Own page
Stepped cracking follows the mortar joints in a staircase pattern, usually in brick or stone. It means the wall has moved enough to open the joints. It does not, by itself, tell you whether the ground has dropped, a drain has washed out, a lintel has failed, or the movement stopped years ago.
Structure and movement
How can shrinkage cracks in plaster be told from a crack you should worry about?
Own page
Shrinkage in plaster or a sand-cement render coat is usually a fine, wandering crack in the finish, not a crack that goes through the brick and opens wider at one end. A surveyor who can see it is only in the skim should say so. If they cannot tell, they should not call it subsidence to be safe.
Structure and movement
What does a dropping lintel look like in a survey, and what should you not assume?
Own page
Look for a crack or a gap over the opening, a window or door that sticks, and brickwork sagging above the head. That pattern is the support over the opening, not the foundations. The survey can see the distortion. It cannot tell you the lintel type if it is hidden in the wall, and it has not designed a replacement.
Structure and movement
Why should you not call roof spread subsidence when you write to the seller?
Own page
Because they are different mechanisms, and the repair is different. Subsidence, in the Association of British Insurers’ words, is downward movement of the ground affecting the foundations. Roof spread is the roof pushing the tops of the walls out. Underpinning does not tie a roof, and a roof strap does not stabilise bad ground.
Structure and movement
What should you ask if a floor slopes but the walls are not cracked?
Own page
Ask whether the slope is in the floor structure or in the whole room. Joists can sag, a sleeper wall can settle, or packing can have crushed, while the masonry is still where it was. A slope alone is not subsidence. Subsidence needs the ground and the foundations, which a sloping floorboard does not prove.
Structure and movement
What should you ask the seller if crack-monitoring studs are already on the wall?
Own page
Ask for the start date, the readings and who fitted them. Studs or discs without a log do not show whether the crack is moving. A surveyor will note that monitoring is there. They cannot invent the history, and a few weeks of new readings before exchange are not a substitute for the missing log.
Structure and movement
What should you ask if a retaining wall in the garden is leaning but the house walls are not?
Own page
Ask the surveyor to keep the garden wall separate from the house. A leaning retaining wall can be dangerous and expensive, and it can hold up soil that affects a path or a drain. It is not, by itself, subsidence of the house. A home survey looks at what it can see. It does not design a new retaining wall.
Structure and movement
How is a bowing wall different from a wall that has cracked but stayed in line?
Own page
A bow is the wall leaving the vertical line, often over a whole storey or at the top. A crack can exist in a wall that is still straight. The bow is the more serious description because it means the wall itself has distorted, not only that a joint has opened. A survey photograph of a crack does not show a bow unless the line of the wall was looked at.
Japanese knotweed
Why should a surveyor’s note of bamboo not be filed as a knotweed category?
Own page
Because bamboo and Japanese knotweed are different plants, and the 2022 RICS management categories apply to knotweed. A cane in a garden is not a category A, B, C or D finding. If the surveyor says “possible knotweed” they are not sure. The next step is an identification, not a price cut based on a category they have not given.
Japanese knotweed
What should you ask if the knotweed is on a verge or a path rather than in the garden?
Own page
Ask whose land it is, and do not assume the RICS category for “within the boundaries” applies to a council verge. The 2022 journal uses category D for infestation off site within three metres of the boundary, which is a report, not the same action as plants inside the garden. The surveyor may not know who owns the verge.
Japanese knotweed
What should you ask if the seller says they dug the knotweed out and there is no paperwork?
Own page
Ask where the soil went and who did the work. GOV.UK says you must not let Japanese knotweed spread and you must not put it in the green waste. Dug soil can still contain rhizome. A cleared bed with no waste note and no specialist report is not a management category and not a completion certificate.
Japanese knotweed
Can you assign a RICS knotweed category from a single photograph in the survey?
Own page
No. The categories in the 2022 standard depend on whether there is visible material damage to a significant structure, and on amenity, and on whether the plant is on or off the site. A photo of a cane does not measure damage or distance. The surveyor’s words, if they give a category, are the finding. If they do not, you do not invent one.
Hazardous materials
What should you ask if a bath panel in a pre-2000 house might be asbestos insulating board?
Own page
Ask the surveyor what they could see and do not drill it. HSE lists asbestos insulating board in many internal linings, and older bath panels are one of the places people later find it. A home survey does not sample the panel. “Possible asbestos” means leave it alone until someone competent has identified it.
Hazardous materials
What should you do if the loft has an old black cistern the survey flags as possible asbestos?
Own page
Leave it in place and do not sand or break it. HSE includes asbestos cement among the materials found in pre-2000 buildings, and cold-water cisterns are a known example. A home survey does not sample the plastic-looking or fibre-cement tank. If it is sound and you are not replacing it, identification can wait. If you are replacing it, the person who removes it needs to know what it is.
Hazardous materials
What should you ask before you replace soffit boards on a pre-2000 house?
Own page
Ask whether the boards might contain asbestos, and do not let a fascia contractor grind them off because the survey was silent. HSE lists asbestos insulating board and cement sheets in soffits and similar linings on buildings built or refurbished before 2000. A home survey may not see the soffit closely. Silence is not a clearance.
Hazardous materials
What is a bitumen sink pad, and why do surveyors mention it in older kitchens?
Own page
It is the black pad sometimes found under a stainless-steel sink or behind a drainer, and older ones can contain asbestos. HSE includes bitumen products and sink pads among places asbestos turns up in pre-2000 buildings. A home survey will not lift the sink to sample the pad. If the kitchen is staying, it is not an emergency. If you are stripping the kitchen, do not let the fitter snap it off unthinkingly.
Hazardous materials
What should you ask if an airing cupboard is lined, or has old pipe lagging, in a pre-2000 house?
Own page
Ask whether the lining and the lagging were visible and whether they might contain asbestos. HSE lists insulating board in cupboards and lagging on pipes among the places asbestos was used before 2000. A home survey does not take samples and should not pull lagging off to look. Damaged lagging is a reason to stop and get advice. Intact board is a reason not to drill it for a shelf.
Hazardous materials
What should you ask about a pre-2000 shed, garage or coal-bunker roof made of cement sheet?
Own page
Ask the surveyor to say if they think it is asbestos cement, and do not break the sheets. HSE’s diagrams include cement roofs, wall sheets and gutters on older outbuildings. A home survey can recognise the look of a cement sheet. It does not sample it. If the sheet is intact, the usual HSE message is not to disturb it. If you need it gone, it has to be taken off whole and disposed of properly, not smashed into a rubble sack.
Electrics
What should you ask if a survey says the lighting may have no earth?
Own page
Ask for an electrician, not a guess from the consumer unit. Older lighting circuits sometimes have no earth conductor. A home survey can see an old cable or a two-core flex. It cannot test the circuit. GOV.UK’s electrical safety guidance, with its inspection codes, is written for landlords. It is not a pass for the house you are buying.
Electrics
What can a surveyor say about rewireable fuses without testing the installation?
Own page
They can say the consumer unit is an old rewireable type, which is visible, and that they have not tested it. They cannot say the circuits are safe or unsafe. Rewireable fuses are a form of protection, not a test result. An EICR is what classifies the installation. A Level 2 does not do that test.
Electrics
Does a home survey check whether a bathroom’s electrics are suitable?
Own page
No. It can see a cord pull, a fan, or a socket that looks out of place. It does not test zones, bonding or the circuit. Suitability of bathroom electrics is an electrician’s inspection. The survey line “services not tested” covers the bathroom as well as the consumer unit.
Electrics
What should you ask if the loft has taped joints or a homemade junction on the cables?
Own page
Ask for that to be included in an electrical inspection, and do not tidy the tape yourself. A taped joint is a visible clue that the wiring has been altered in a way the surveyor cannot test. It is not already an EICR code. Building-regulations approval for electrical work is a paper question for your solicitor if the work was notifiable. The survey does not supply the certificate.
Electrics
What is lead-sheathed cable, and what can a surveyor say about it?
Own page
It is an old cable with a lead outer sheath, usually a sign of an early installation. The surveyor can recognise the look. They cannot test whether the insulation inside is still sound. Seeing it is a reason to ask for an EICR, not a completed rewire specification.
Electrics
What should you do with an FI code on an EICR before you treat the report as finished?
Own page
FI means further investigation required without delay, in the classification GOV.UK describes for electrical reports. The item has not been given a clean code. You need the investigation the electrician named, and the EICR is not complete for that item until they have done it. It is not a RICS condition rating, and it is not a C3.
Electrics
Does a modern-looking split consumer unit mean the survey has passed the electrics?
Own page
No. A newer board with devices and a split of circuits is something the surveyor can see. It is not a test of the cables behind it. RICS home surveys do not carry out an EICR, whatever the board looks like. The board can be new and the bathroom or the loft still be on old cable.
Electrics
What should you ask if the consumer unit has been moved and the meter tails look improvised?
Own page
Ask an electrician to look at the tails and the earthing, and ask your solicitor whether the electrical distributor’s equipment was moved with consent. A surveyor can see a long, untidy tail or a board in an odd place. They cannot approve the connection. That is outside a RICS condition rating.
Services
What is a back boiler, and why does a survey not call it safe because the fire lights?
Own page
A back boiler is a boiler hidden behind a gas fire, heating water as well as the room. Lighting the fire does not test the boiler, the flue or the heat exchanger. HSE’s position is that gas work is for a Gas Safe registered engineer. A home survey does not do that work.
Services
Why is a Gas Safe record the wrong paper for an oil-fired boiler?
Own page
Ask for the service record for the oil boiler, and do not ask for a Gas Safe certificate as if it were gas. Gas Safe registration is for gas work, which is what HSE’s domestic gas guidance is about. An oil appliance is a different fuel. A home survey does not service either.
Services
What is a combi condensate pipe, and why is a drip under it not a roof leak?
Own page
A condensing boiler produces water that should run away through a small pipe, often to a drain. If that pipe leaks, blocks or has been poured into a gutter wrongly, you get a drip or a frozen stub in cold weather. That is a boiler waste, not a failed roof covering. The survey can see the pipe. It does not service the boiler.
Services
What should you ask if the gas meter sits in a cupboard the survey could not examine properly?
Own page
Ask for the limit to be clear: meter seen or not seen, smell or no smell, and no test done. A cupboard full of coats is not an inspection. HSE expects gas work to be done by Gas Safe engineers. The surveyor is not testing for leaks and should not move the meter.
Services
Does a service sticker on a boiler replace the surveyor’s “not tested” sentence?
Own page
No. A sticker is the engineer’s label, if you can read the date and the firm. The surveyor does not adopt it as their test. HSE’s gas guidance is about registered engineers doing gas work. The sticker may show someone did. It does not extend the RICS inspection to a combustion test.
Drainage
What is a pitch-fibre drain, and can a home survey see that it is deforming?
Own page
Pitch fibre is a black pipe made of wood fibre and pitch, used for some drains in the mid-twentieth century. It can oval and blister. A home survey cannot see that from a manhole cover. It can say the house is of an age where these pipes turn up, and that the run was not camera-surveyed. Approved Document H is the building-regulations document for drainage, not a camera report.
Drainage
What is a misconnection, and will a home survey trace one?
Own page
A misconnection is a foul pipe, often from a sink, washing machine or toilet, that discharges to a surface-water drain or a ditch instead of the foul sewer. A surveyor may see a washing-machine hose into a rainwater gulley. They will not dye-test the whole house unless that was agreed. Seeing one hose is not a map of every pipe.
Drainage
What is an interceptor in an old inspection chamber?
Own page
It is a trap in the last chamber before the sewer, common in older houses, meant to stop sewer air entering the drains. It has a rodding eye that should be sealed. If the stopper is missing or the trap is blocked, you get smells or a recurring blockage. A surveyor who lifts the cover can see a missing stopper. They cannot see a blockage further down without rodding or a camera.
Drainage
What is a soakaway, and why should it not be taking foul water?
Own page
A soakaway is a pit or crate that lets rainwater seep into the ground. It is for surface water. Foul water from toilets and kitchens belongs in a foul drain, a septic system or a treatment plant. A home survey may see a downpipe disappearing into the ground. It cannot see the crate, and it cannot prove the ground will keep accepting water.
Drainage
Can grease in a kitchen drain be written up as a collapsed sewer?
Own page
It should not be. Grease, fat and food block a small-bore kitchen run and a gulley. That is a blockage. A collapsed pipe is a structural failure of the drain. A surveyor who sees a slow gulley or a smell can say so. They cannot see a collapse without a camera. Do not price a new sewer for a greasy trap.
Drainage
What should you ask if a drain appears to run under the floors of the house?
Own page
Ask whether that is known or only suspected, and do not assume a leak under the floor is causing the cracks. Suspended floors sometimes have a drain beneath. A surveyor may see a gulley on one side and a chamber on the other and infer a line. They have not seen the pipe in the void unless they entered it. A camera, if you commission one, is what shows the condition of that length.
Drainage
What is the difference between a combined drain and separate foul and surface systems?
Own page
A combined system takes foul water and rainwater in one pipe. Separate systems use two. A home survey does not map the public sewer. It may see one gulley or two. Which system you are on is a water-company and search question. Connecting a new downpipe to the wrong one is how misconnections start.
Timber
What do dry-rot strands mean when they cross masonry, not just timber?
Own page
Dry rot can send strands through and across damp masonry to reach more timber. Seeing a strand on brick is a reason to treat the outbreak as able to travel, not as a patch on one skirting. It is still not a map of every joist. The Property Care Association’s guidance is that the fungus and the moisture both have to be dealt with.
Timber
If only the skirtings are soft, is the whole floor suffering from wet rot?
Own page
Not necessarily. Wet rot stays where the timber is damp. A soft skirting against a wet wall can be local, while the boards a metre away are firm. The Property Care Association describes wet rot as decay that needs persistent moisture. The surveyor who did not lift the floor should not sentence the joists they could not see, and should not clear them either.
Timber
What is the wall plate, and why does rot there matter more than a soft fascia board?
Own page
The wall plate is the timber on top of the wall that the joists or rafters bear on. Rot in it can affect how the roof and floors are held. A fascia board is the trim behind the gutter. A surveyor may see a rotten fascia and only suspect the plate. They should not claim the plate has failed unless they could see it.
Timber
Why should flight holes in a piece of furniture not be written up as an attack on the floor joists?
Own page
Because the beetle left the holes in the piece it was in. Old furniture and willow baskets often have common furniture-beetle holes that say nothing about the joists. A surveyor should say where the holes were. If they only saw them in a chair, the floor has not been diagnosed.
Timber
If roof timbers are stained under a leak, is that automatically rot?
Own page
No. A stain means they have been wet. Rot means the wood has decayed. A surveyor can see staining and can probe softness where they can reach. A stained but firm rafter is a leak to fix. A soft rafter is decay and may need a carpenter. The Property Care Association’s point is that the moisture has to stop, or any repair is temporary.
Timber
Does a musty loft without a fruiting body mean dry rot is present?
Own page
No. A musty loft is often poor ventilation, damp felt or stored belongings. Dry rot is identified from the fungus and the way the timber fails, not from the smell alone. The Property Care Association describes the fungus. A surveyor who saw no growth should not be upgraded to a dry-rot outbreak in your email to the seller.
Timber
What should you ask if plywood roof sheathing has insect holes but the rafters do not?
Own page
Ask which board and whether the rafters were checked. Some beetles attack the starch in certain plywoods and hardwoods and do not move into the structural softwood. A surveyor who writes “woodworm in the loft” without saying plywood or rafter has not given you a specification. Treatment of the wrong timber does not answer the question.
Timber
What is the difference between old flight holes and fresh bore dust for a buyer?
Own page
Old holes with no fresh dust usually mean an attack that is not active now. Fresh, pale dust on the timber or on the floor below means insects have emerged recently. A surveyor should say which they saw. “Woodworm” alone does not say whether anything is still happening, and a spray quote that ignores the difference is not a diagnosis.
Hazardous materials
Can removing spray foam from under the tiles damage the covering?
Own page
Yes. RICS’s spray-foam guide says foam can stick to the underside of the roof and make defects hard to see, and that an undetected leak can rot timber. Cutting foam off can tear underlay and damage tiles. Removal is a roofing job with a scope, not a weekend scrape.
Hazardous materials
Why is a mortgage valuer’s note about spray foam not the same as the home survey?
Own page
The valuer is reporting to the lender under the lender’s rules. The home survey is reporting to you about condition. RICS says spray foam affects lender decisions and that you should check the lender’s policy. A sentence on a valuation is not a condition rating of the rafters, and your survey is not the lender’s consent.
Hazardous materials
What should you ask if spray foam in a loft runs up to a party wall or into a neighbour’s roof space?
Own page
Ask whether the foam crosses the boundary line, and do not treat it as only your loft. In a terrace the roof space may be separated poorly. Foam sprayed across a party line is a neighbour and fire-separation question as well as a timber question. A home survey sees your loft. It may not be able to say what was done next door.
Hazardous materials
Who should decide whether spray foam comes out: you, the surveyor, or the lender?
Own page
The lender decides whether they will lend on that roof. The surveyor decides what they could inspect and how they rate it. You decide whether you still want the house. RICS does not order removal in the consumer guide. It tells you to check the lender’s policy, gather the installation papers, and take independent advice before you alter the roof.
Structure
What is RAAC, in the words a buyer needs when a survey mentions it?
Own page
RAAC is reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. The Institution of Structural Engineers says it has been used in the UK since the late 1950s, most commonly as precast roof panels in flat roofs, and that structural deficiencies became apparent in the 1990s. A home survey is not the investigation IStructE describes. If the surveyor suspects RAAC, the condition of those panels has to be assessed by a chartered or incorporated structural engineer.
Structure
Why do surveyors talk about RAAC on flat roofs more than on a pitched tile roof?
Own page
Because IStructE says RAAC was most commonly used as precast roof panels in flat roof construction. A traditional pitched roof with timber rafters and tiles is a different structure. A flat roof with concrete planks from the late 1950s onward is where the question arises. The survey still has to see the plank, not infer it from the word “flat”.
Structure
Can a RICS home survey confirm that a panel is RAAC?
Own page
It can suspect it from what is visible. Confirmation and the structural condition are what IStructE says a chartered or incorporated structural engineer should determine. RICS home surveys are visual, do not open up the structure as a matter of course, and do not replace that assessment. “Possible RAAC” is a referral, not a finished diagnosis.
Structure
Does a 1960s or 1970s flat automatically have RAAC because of its age?
Own page
No. IStructE says RAAC has been used since the late 1950s, most commonly as precast flat-roof panels, not that every building of the period is made of it. System-built housing, timber roofs and ordinary concrete exist in the same decades. Age is a reason to ask what the roof is made of. It is not an identification.
Structure
What should you do if a concrete soffit is stained or cracked and the survey mentions RAAC?
Own page
Treat staining and cracking as reasons for the structural assessment, not as a DIY diagnosis. IStructE’s guidance exists because the condition of RAAC panels, including how they are performing, is an engineer’s judgement. A stain also means water has been getting in, which is a covering failure whether or not the plank is RAAC. Stop the guesswork and separate the two questions.
Structure
Why should a woodwool slab roof not be reported to a lender as RAAC?
Own page
Because they are different decks. Woodwool is a slab of wood strands and cement, often used in mid-century flat roofs. RAAC is aerated concrete with reinforcement, which IStructE describes as precast roof panels. A surveyor who cannot tell should say the deck was not identified. Writing RAAC on a woodwool roof sends the lender and the engineer after the wrong material.
Structure
What should you give a lender who asks whether the building contains RAAC?
Own page
Give them the surveyor’s words and, if RAAC is present or suspected, the structural engineer’s assessment. Do not answer “no” because you did not like the question, and do not answer “yes” because the building is old. IStructE says that if the construction is unclear it should be inspected, and that if RAAC planks are present a chartered or incorporated structural engineer should determine their condition.
Structure
If the felt on a flat roof has failed, does that mean the RAAC underneath has failed too?
Own page
No. The covering keeps the water out. The panels, if they are RAAC, are the structure. Both can be wrong, or only the felt can be wrong. IStructE’s assessment is about the panels. A roofer’s view of the felt is about the covering. A home survey may see ponding and a stained soffit and still not have assessed either properly.
Reading the report
What should a “further investigation” sentence include before you book anyone?
Own page
It should say what is suspected, where, and which kind of specialist is needed. RICS uses further investigation when the surveyor cannot conclude from the inspection. It is not a condition rating by itself. A sentence that only says “further investigation recommended” is a reason to ask the surveyor to specify the trade and the question, not a reason to instruct three firms at random.
Reading the report
Does the RICS wording that says get quotes before you commit apply to condition rating 2?
Own page
No. In the Level 3 description that sentence sits with rating 3: defects that are serious and/or need repairing, replacing or investigating urgently, with written quotations before legal commitment. Rating 2 is defects that need repairing or replacing but are not serious or urgent, and the property must be maintained in the normal way. You may still want a quote. The standard does not tell you the purchase depends on it.
Reading the report
Can you average a house with ratings 1 and 3 into an overall rating 2?
Own page
No. RICS rates elements. A rating 3 roof and a rating 1 kitchen do not become a rating 2 house. There is no overall score in the definitions. Averaging hides the thing the Level 3 text tells you to quote before you are legally committed.
Reading the report
If the electrics are condition rating 3, has the surveyor completed an EICR?
Own page
No. A condition rating is the surveyor’s opinion of the element from a visual inspection. An EICR is an electrician’s test with its own codes. The Level 3 description says the surveyor does not assess the safety of the electrics and does not carry out specialist tests. A rating 3 on services means they think there is something serious or in need of urgent investigation, not that they have tested the circuits.
Reading the report
Where does RICS put the phrase about investigating urgently?
Own page
Inside the definition of condition rating 3 in the Level 3 description: defects that are serious and/or need to be repaired, replaced or investigated urgently, with the risk of serious safety issues or severe long-term damage, and written quotations before legal commitment. It is not a fourth rating called “urgent”. If the surveyor wants something looked at urgently, it belongs in that definition or in a clearly worded further investigation.
Reading the report
Why does the report rate the roof, the walls and the services separately?
Own page
Because the definitions apply to elements, and the decisions are different. A rating 3 roof needs a roofer’s quotation before commitment if you follow the Level 3 text. A rating 1 bathroom needs ordinary maintenance. Adding them into a single “house condition” throws away the only structure the form has.
Reading the report
Why does RICS talk about quotations before legal commitment when an element is rating 3?
Own page
Because after exchange, and certainly after completion, you have usually lost the chance to renegotiate or to walk away. The Level 3 definition of rating 3 says written quotations for repairs should be obtained prior to legal commitment to purchase. Leaving a rating 3 until you have the keys means you have accepted the cost and the risk.
Reading the report
Is an “urgent” repair in a Scottish Home Report the same thing as an English condition rating 3?
Own page
Not automatically. mygov.scot says the single survey tells you about condition and about repairs that are urgent or that need attention later, from a visual inspection by a chartered surveyor. The English Level 3 text defines rating 3 in its own words, including written quotations before legal commitment. The forms are related and they are not the same document. Read the one you were given.
Property types
What does a solid brick wall in a Victorian terrace change about a damp comment?
Own page
A Victorian terrace wall is often solid brick, with no cavity to fill or to drain. Damp advice written for cavity walls does not describe it. Rain can cross the brick, and a high path can bridge the damp-proof course. The survey should say the wall is solid if that is what it found.
Property types
What is different about the roof over an Edwardian bay, compared with the main roof?
Own page
The top of an Edwardian bay is often a small flat, or a lead-covered cap, with its own flashings. It is not the tiled or slated slope of the main roof. A damp patch in the bay can be that small roof, not rising damp in the terrace. A comment on the main slopes does not cover it.
Property types
Is an empty cavity in a 1930s semi a defect on its own?
Own page
No. An unfilled cavity is how many 1930s houses were built. It is not, by itself, a condition rating. The Energy Saving Trust’s cavity guidance is about whether a wall is suitable to fill, including that the cavity should be clear and the masonry sound. A survey that says the cavity is empty has not said it must be filled.
Property types
Are original steel windows a defect just because they are the original windows?
Own page
No. Steel windows, often called Crittall whether or not that firm made them, are a window type. Age is not a condition rating. The survey should describe rust, failed putty, cracked glass, and whether they open and close. Replacement is a choice, and on a listed building it may need consent.
Property types
What should a surveyor name when a 1960s or 1970s house might be system-built?
Own page
Ask for the system if it can be named, and for a clear ‘not identified’ if it cannot. ‘Non-standard’ on its own does not tell a lender, an insurer or a repairer whether this is concrete panel, in-situ concrete, steel frame or timber. A date in the 1960s does not prove a system, and it does not prove a defect.
Property types
What does a survey of a flat above a shop leave to the solicitor?
Own page
It leaves the lease, who repairs the structure between the shop and the flat, and any fire separation the surveyor could not open. The survey reports the flat and what was visible from the street and the common stair. It does not inspect the shop unless access was agreed, and it does not decide the commercial use.
Property types
What should a survey of a barn conversion keep separate from the planning papers?
Own page
The survey describes the building it could see: damp walls, the roof, the floor, the services that were visible. Planning permission and building-regulations approval are council records. GOV.UK treats building-regulations approval as its own process. A home survey does not search that file and does not grant the change of use.
Property types
If a loft conversion has no building-regulations certificate, does the survey fail the house?
Own page
No. A missing certificate is a records question, not a condition rating. GOV.UK describes building-regulations approval as a separate process. The survey can still describe the stairs, the roof structure it could see, fire doors if they were visible, and any damp or sagging. It cannot clear the conversion, and it cannot condemn it for the missing paper alone.
Property types
What should you tell the survey firm about the roof before they quote for a bungalow?
Own page
Tell them the roof is large relative to the walls, and mention dormers, flat sections and any garage roof. A fee based on ‘a small house’ can be the wrong job. The inspection still does not lift the covering, and a loft that cannot be crossed should be written as a limit, not as a sound roof.
Property types
What is the difference between a thatch ridge and the thatch coat?
Own page
The ridge is the cap along the top. The coat is the main thickness on the slopes. A worn ridge can be renewed without redoing the whole roof, and a thin coat can be the real problem while the ridge still looks neat. A home survey describes what it can see. It does not give a thatcher’s remaining-life figure, and this page does not invent a lifespan in years.
Property types
Can a brick skin on a timber-frame house be read as if it were a cavity wall?
Own page
No. On a timber-frame house the brick outer leaf is a skin, with a cavity and usually a membrane behind it. It is not the wall that carries the floors. Wall-tie advice written for two masonry leaves can be the wrong repair. The survey should say whether it confirmed a frame, from a hatch or the eaves, or whether it is only inferring the frame from the lining and the age.
Property types
What does a Home Report on one Scottish tenement flat not decide about the common roof?
Own page
It does not decide how a roof repair is split between the flats. mygov.scot says the single survey is a visual inspection and includes a valuation, as one part of the Home Report. The surveyor reports the flat and the common parts they could see. They do not open every neighbour’s ceiling, and they do not write the title shares.
Property types
Is pebbledash on an interwar house a defect, or only a finish?
Own page
It is a finish: render with stones in it, common on interwar houses. It is not a defect because it is pebbledash. The survey should say whether it is cracked, hollow, detached, or taken down across the damp-proof course. A sound coat is decoration and weather protection. A cracked coat can let water in. Those are different findings.
Property types
What is the difference between naming a 1930s lintel and saying that lintel has failed?
Own page
Naming it — concrete, timber, a steel angle, a stone — is identification. Failure is a separate sentence: dropping, cracking at the bearings, a gap over the frame, or a dip you can see. A 1930s house can still have its original lintels and be fine. Do not replace every opening because the report named the type.
Property types
Why is a Victorian cellar sometimes left as not inspected even though the house was entered?
Own page
Because access was not safe, or the space was locked, flooded, or too obstructed to see. Entering the hall is not entering the cellar. An element that was not inspected should be recorded as not inspected. It has not passed, and it has not failed. A silent cellar is not a dry cellar.
Property types
Does a crack on a party wall mean the surveyor has made a Party Wall Act award?
Own page
No. GOV.UK’s party wall guidance is about notices and disputes when someone does certain work on or near a shared wall. A home survey does not serve those notices and does not appoint a party wall surveyor. A crack the surveyor records is a condition comment. Any award that already exists is a paper your solicitor asks for.
Choosing a survey
What will a Level 1 usually leave unsaid about a thatched roof?
Own page
Level 1 is the most limited RICS home survey. Its scope page is the list of what that product includes. Thatch needs a description of the coat, the ridge and the chimney junction. A Level 1 is a poor match for that description. A tidy view from the lane does not widen the scope you bought.
Choosing a survey
Why do the words ‘full structural survey’ not mean you have booked a RICS Level 3?
Own page
Because that phrase is not a RICS level. Level 3 is a defined Home Survey with a published scope. A firm working outside the RICS Home Survey Standard should show you its own scope in the quote. The report may be careful, and it may not use condition ratings 1, 2 and 3. Do not rename it a Level 3 when you negotiate.
Choosing a survey
Why does a Scottish single survey include a valuation when an English Level 2 usually does not?
Own page
Because they are different products. mygov.scot says the single survey, inside the Home Report, gives a valuation: an opinion of what the home is worth, based on a visual inspection. A typical Level 2 in England is a condition survey you commission. MoneyHelper’s warning still applies in England: a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. Do not swap the names.
Choosing a survey
Why is the time a surveyor spends on site not the same thing as the survey level?
Own page
RICS distinguishes Level 1, 2 and 3 by the scope of the inspection and the report, not by a national minimum number of minutes. A short visit can be a proper Level 1. A long visit can still be a Level 2 if that was the instruction. Buy the level named in the quote. Do not buy ‘three hours’ as if it were a level.
Choosing a survey
Why is a flood-risk map not a substitute for the survey’s comments on the ground floor?
Own page
GOV.UK’s long-term flood-risk check is a map for an area in England. It is not an inspection of this house’s floors, air bricks or drains. A home survey comments on what it sees at the building. It does not replace the map, and the map does not replace the survey. Scotland and Wales have their own services. Use the one for the country the house is in.
Choosing a survey
Why is a radon map or address search a different instruction from a Level 2?
Own page
UKradon publishes maps, and separate radon searches, as information about an area or an address. That is not a measurement taken in this house, and it is not a RICS Level 2. A Level 2 does not include a radon test unless the quote says so in words. If the map prompts a question, ask a competent tester for a measurement. This page does not quote an action level.
Property types
Does a home survey test whether a flat entrance door resists fire?
Own page
No. A home survey is a visual inspection. It can say the door is damaged, missing a closer, or ill-fitting. It does not fire-test the door and it does not certify a fire rating. Whether this door must meet a particular standard is a question for the lease, the building’s fire-safety papers and your solicitor, not a condition rating.
Property types
Who is asked to produce an EWS1, and why is that not the surveyor who inspected one flat?
Own page
The surveyor who inspected one flat is not the person who fills in an EWS1. That form is commissioned for the whole block, usually through the landlord or the managing agent, and only when a lender actually wants it. It is not inside a normal survey fee. Ask your solicitor who would provide it for this building, and do not chase the survey firm as if the form were already in their file.
Property types
If a lease from before June 2022 raises the ground rent on a timetable, does the survey cancel that clause?
Own page
No. GOV.UK says the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 stops ground rent above a peppercorn on most new long leases from 30 June 2022, and not before 1 April 2023 for retirement homes. It does not rewrite a lease granted before the Act. If the older lease raises the rent on a timetable, your solicitor reads that clause. The survey of the flat does not delete it.
Property types
What does a missing service-charge account change about a rating on a communal roof?
Own page
A missing account does not change the roof rating, and it does not put a pound figure on that rating. You simply cannot tell whether a reserve already exists. Until the solicitor has the accounts, do not deduct the whole roof from the price and also assume you will pay it again through the service charge. That double-counts a sum nobody has shown you.
Property types
What can a survey of one flat say about a communal boiler it did not service?
Own page
It can say whether the surveyor saw the boiler, where it was, and any obvious leak or warning light. It cannot service it, and it cannot produce a gas safety record for the block. HSE and Gas Safe are the safety regime. A condition rating is not that record. Ask the managing agent for the maintenance papers.
Property types
What can a surveyor see of a balcony from inside the flat, and what stays hidden?
Own page
They can see the door, the threshold and, if they can step out safely, the surface and the obvious edges. They do not open the fixings into the slab or the brackets as part of a normal home survey. That look is not an EWS1, and it is not a load test. Ask what was walked on and what was only seen from the room.
Property types
If the survey says cladding was noted and further advice is needed, have you been given an EWS1?
Own page
No. A note that cladding was seen, and that someone else should advise, is only a limit written into your survey. An EWS1 is a separate external-wall form from a different instruction, the one many lenders ask for. You have not been handed that form, and the note is neither a pass nor a fail of the wall system. Ask the lender whether they want the form for this block before anyone commissions it.
Property types
Can you paste a snagging list into the condition-rating boxes of a Level 2?
Own page
No. A snagging list is a list of items for the builder to finish or correct. RICS ratings are a different language: rating 1 no repair now, rating 2 repair that is not serious or urgent, rating 3 serious and/or urgent. Pasting a snag into a rating box invents a survey you did not commission. If you have both documents, keep them in separate columns.
Property types
What should you ask when a new estate’s drains may not yet have been adopted?
Own page
Ask your solicitor whether the sewers have been adopted, and ask the survey only what it could see. A home survey does not confirm adoption by the water company. Adoption is a search and a status, not a condition rating. The survey can describe gullies, chambers and leaks. It cannot say the estate has been taken in charge.
Property types
After the first two years, does NHBC Buildmark turn every leftover snag into an insurance claim?
Own page
No. NHBC says the builder is liable for defects reported in the first two years, and that NHBC guarantees that obligation. For the following eight years the insurance covers the cost of repairing damage caused by defects in specific parts described in the policy. Unfinished decoration is not that sentence. NHBC says the policy documents are the full wording, and that some claims have a minimum value set out there. This page does not quote that value.
Property types
What should you check so the survey address matches the plot the contract names?
Own page
Check the plot number, the postal address and the plan in the contract against the quote and against the house the surveyor is shown. A marketing name, a show home, or the plot next door is a different building. If Buildmark applies, NHBC covers the home named in the policy, not the show house. A survey of the wrong door is a survey you cannot use.
Property types
Does a new-build survey test sound insulation between flats?
Own page
No. A RICS home survey does not run a sound test, and it does not certify compliance with the building regulations. A noisy visit is a reason to ask a question. It is not a test result. GOV.UK treats building-regulations approval as its own process. The papers for that approval, if they exist, are for your solicitor, not a sentence the surveyor can recreate by listening in the lounge.
Property types
What should a buyer keep from handover that a later survey cannot recreate?
Own page
Keep the warranty schedule, the plot address, any building-control completion certificate, and the builder’s snagging record. A surveyor who visits years later can see the building as it is. They cannot recreate a schedule that was never kept, and they cannot say what the builder was told in year one. NHBC says the policy documents are the full cover. Ask the provider for a copy if yours is missing.
Money
Why is a roofer’s quote not a reason to call the survey fee too high or too low?
Own page
They are different invoices. The survey fee buys the inspection and the report. The roofer’s quote buys a repair, if you accept it. RICS does not publish a tariff that ties one number to the other. A large roof quote does not mean you overpaid the surveyor. A small survey fee does not cap the repair.
Money
If the lender holds a retention, can you spend that money on the repair?
Own page
Not unless that lender releases it, on the terms they set. A retention is an amount they do not advance with the rest of the mortgage. It is not cash the seller has given you, and it is not a builder’s invoice. Ask the lender what they held and what they need before they release any of it. The survey does not set the figure and does not release it.
Money
Why is the Level 3 fee not a budget for the repairs the report may recommend?
Own page
The fee pays for the Level 3 inspection and report. Repairs are later quotes from contractors. RICS does not fold those quotes into the survey fee, and the fee is not a sum you deduct from the price. Where an element is rating 3, the definition points you to written quotations before you commit. Those quotations are a different column from the invoice you paid the surveyor.
Money
Why should you not add the mortgage valuation fee to the survey fee and call the total one structural survey?
Own page
Because they are two jobs. MoneyHelper says a mortgage valuation is for the lender and is not a structural survey. Your home survey is the instruction you give a survey firm to describe condition. Adding the fees does not merge the inspections. If one visit is doing both, the quote should say so as two scopes. If it does not, the valuation fee has not bought you a Level 2.
Selling
Can a seller in England remove pages from an earlier buyer’s survey before showing it to the next buyer?
Own page
They should not. That report was written for the person who instructed it. Deleting pages does not create a new survey, and it does not create a Home Report. The next buyer should not rely on the PDF unless the firm confirms in writing that they may. In Scotland, use the Home Report the seller must provide where one is required, and do not confuse the two documents.
Selling
How long does mygov.scot say a seller has to provide a Home Report after you ask?
Own page
mygov.scot says a seller or selling agent must give you a Home Report within nine days of you asking for it, where a Home Report is required. The pack is a single survey and valuation, a property questionnaire and an energy report. An English seller has no equivalent Home Report duty. Some Scottish homes are exempt.
Selling
Should a seller fill and paint a crack the weekend before a buyer’s survey?
Own page
No. Filling it hides the width and the shape the surveyor needs to see. Tell your solicitor about the crack and leave it visible. A home survey is a visual inspection. Paint over the evidence does not turn the element into a rating 1, and it can leave the buyer with a fresh patch and no way to judge the crack.
Selling
Does a condition rating, by itself, force the seller to pay for the repair?
Own page
No. The rating is the surveyor’s opinion for the person who instructed the survey, or, in a Scottish Home Report, part of the pack a purchaser can rely on. It does not create a debt. In England and Wales, what the seller pays is a matter for the contract your solicitors are negotiating. In Scotland the offer and the missives are the solicitor’s work. The rating tells you the urgency. It does not send an invoice.
After the survey
Why does one written quote not settle the price on its own?
Own page
Because it is one firm’s price for the work they described, not the condition rating and not the only price in the market. RICS tells you to obtain written quotations for rating 3 items before you commit. It does not say the first number is the reduction. Show the quote to your solicitor with the survey wording, and say what the quote includes and what it leaves out.
After the survey
What goes wrong if you ask for a price reduction and a lender retention for the same repair?
Own page
You can count the same work twice. A price reduction changes what you pay the seller. A retention is money the lender does not advance, on the lender’s terms. They are different mechanisms. Using both against one defect, without checking, invents a second pot of money for a single job. Ask your solicitor and the lender which one, if either, this sale is actually using. The survey does not design the deal.
After the survey
Where does the RICS rating 3 wording stop, so that it does not tell you to withdraw?
Own page
It stops at the defect and the quotations. The Level 3 description says rating 3 items are serious and/or need repair, replacement or investigation urgently, and that written quotations should be obtained before legal commitment. It does not say you must withdraw. Withdrawing is your decision with your solicitor, once you know whether you are still free to. A quote you can accept is a reason some buyers proceed.
After the survey
What goes wrong if you add every condition rating 2 into a single price demand?
Own page
You treat ordinary maintenance as if it were one urgent bill. Rating 2 means a repair or replacement that is not serious or urgent, and the property must still be maintained in the normal way. Several rating 2s are several jobs. They do not, under the RICS definition, add up into a rating 3 or into a percentage of the price. If you want money off, attach a quote to a specific job.
After the survey
Why should you not put a price on a ‘further investigation’ line before the investigation has a result?
Own page
Because the line is a limit, not a repair. Until someone with the right brief has looked, you do not know whether the outcome is a small job, a large one, or nothing you need to do. Where the element is rating 3, the RICS wording points you to quotations or investigation before you commit. A round number for the unknown is not one of those quotations.
After the survey
What should you ask your solicitor before you tell the agent you are withdrawing after a survey?
Own page
Ask whether you have exchanged contracts, or in Scotland whether missives are concluded, and which payments you would not get back. Before exchange in England and Wales you are usually free to withdraw, but ‘usually’ is not advice on your file. The survey does not know what you have signed. Do not tell the agent you are out until the solicitor has confirmed the position.
Services
Is FENSA the only way a replacement window in England can satisfy building regulations?
Own page
No. GOV.UK describes competent-person schemes as one way an installer self-certifies certain work, and a building-regulations application as another. FENSA is an example of a scheme, not the only name on a certificate. A home survey does not collect either paper, and missing paper is not the same thing as a rotten frame.
Services
If there is no window certificate, has the survey already decided the frames are defective?
Own page
No. The absence of a certificate is a paperwork gap for your solicitor. A defect is rot, a failed seal, a distorted opening or rain coming in, and only if the surveyor could see it. GOV.UK’s competent-person route and a building-regulations application are both ways work can have been approved. Older replacements may predate the paper you asked for.
Services
What should you ask when one sealed unit is misted but the frame still feels firm?
Own page
Ask for the glass and the frame to be separated in the report. Misting between panes means that sealed unit has failed. A firm frame may still be usable, so a glazier may be able to reglaze rather than replace the whole window. The survey has not tested the seal in a laboratory, and it has not priced either job.
Services
What does rot in one timber sash tell you about the other windows?
Own page
It tells you that sash has been wet long enough for the timber to soften. It does not condemn the rest of the elevation. A home survey should say which frames it could probe and which it only saw from the ground. Splicing a rotten bottom rail is a different job from replacing every window because the house is Victorian.
Services
Why does a window cill that slopes back towards the glass matter?
Own page
A cill should throw rain away from the window and the wall. If it slopes back, or the drip groove is blocked, water sits against the frame and the reveal. That is a route for penetrating damp. It is not, by itself, a failed damp-proof course, and a moisture meter on the plaster below does not prove which path the water took.
Services
What should you ask if trickle vents on the windows have been painted shut?
Own page
Ask whether background ventilation is actually there. Trickle vents were put in the frame to let a controlled amount of air through. Paint, tape or a blocked slot stops that. Approved Document F is the England ventilation document for building work. A sealed vent is a moisture risk the survey can see. It is not a test of the whole ventilation system.
Services
Can single glazing put condensation on the glass without any damp-proof course having failed?
Own page
Yes. Single glass is cold. Moisture from cooking, bathing and breathing lands on it. That is condensation, not water rising from the ground. A home survey can point at the pattern. It does not measure humidity, and it should not turn misted morning glass into an instruction to inject the wall.
Services
What should you ask if an external door no longer meets its frame?
Own page
Ask whether the door has moved or the opening has. A dropped door, a swollen timber leaf or worn hinges is joinery. A frame that is out of square with cracks running into the wall may be the opening, the lintel or movement in the wall. A home survey can see the gap. It does not hang the door, and it does not monitor the crack.
Services
Does a home survey test the window locks and the door bolts?
Own page
No. The surveyor looks at leaves and frames and may try a window that opens. That is not a security audit and not a guarantee that a lock works or meets any standard. If you want the ironmongery tested, ask a locksmith. If the door does not meet the frame, ask the surveyor whether the opening has moved.
Services
What is secondary glazing, and why is it not a replacement window?
Own page
Secondary glazing is an extra pane or panel on the room side of the existing window. The original frame is still the window in the wall. A home survey should say if that extra pane hid the outer frame. It does not turn secondary glazing into a competent-person certificate, and it does not mean the outer sash is sound.
Services
Does a Scottish Home Report include an English competent-person certificate for the windows?
Own page
No. A Home Report is a single survey and valuation, a property questionnaire and an energy report. It does not attach an English FENSA-style certificate. Window condition is whatever the chartered surveyor could see and wrote in the single survey. Approval for replacement windows in Scotland is a building-standards question for a Scottish solicitor, not a line you should import from England.
Services
What should you ask if new windows were fitted and the brickwork over them has cracked?
Own page
Ask whether the support over the opening was disturbed. A new frame does not carry the wall unless it was designed to. Cracks at the corners of an opening, or a gap opening above the head, point at the lintel or the bearing, not at the glass. The survey can see the crack. It has not designed a replacement lintel.
Services
Is the drinking-water lead standard a number your surveyor writes on the pipes?
Own page
No. The Drinking Water Inspectorate publishes a standard of 10 micrograms of lead per litre at consumers’ taps. That is a water-quality limit from a test, not a condition rating and not a pipe measurement a surveyor takes. A home survey does not sample the kitchen tap.
Services
Does a house built before 1970 definitely still have lead pipes?
Own page
No. The Drinking Water Inspectorate says lead pipework was commonly used for connections before 1970 and that the use was then banned. A pre-1970 house may still have lead, including underground, if it was never modernised. It does not say every pre-1970 house still has it. A post-1970 house is unlikely to, which is still not a certificate.
Services
Who tests for lead in the tap water, the surveyor or the water company?
Own page
The water company tests the kitchen tap if you ask them and they agree to sample. A home survey does not. The Drinking Water Inspectorate says that if the company finds lead pipes or another source, it should give written advice. The surveyor, if you ask, comments on pipes they can see.
Services
Does running the tap in the morning repair a lead pipe?
Own page
No. The Drinking Water Inspectorate describes flushing as a short-term way to clear water that has been standing in the pipe, for example overnight. It also says that if lead pipes or another source are present they should be replaced as soon as possible. Flushing is not a repair a survey can sign off.
Services
Can a home survey see the buried pipe between the house and the water main?
Own page
Usually no. The communication and supply pipes are underground. The surveyor sees pipes that are exposed inside or at the point of entry, if they are not boxed in. The Drinking Water Inspectorate still says to ask the surveyor to note the nature of pipes they can see, with lead specially in mind. Invisible pipe is not a pass.
Services
Is lead solder on a joint the same finding as a lead pipe?
Own page
No. A lead pipe is a pipe. Lead solder is a metal used, wrongly, on some drinking-water joints. The Drinking Water Inspectorate says both can add lead, and that older brass fittings can too. A surveyor may not see solder inside a joint at all. Neither finding is a laboratory result.
Services
Who does the Drinking Water Inspectorate say should do plumbing work on a lead pipe?
Own page
DWI says you should employ a qualified plumber, for example one accredited through the WaterSafe scheme. That person is not the surveyor, and the survey does not appoint them. The survey, at most, records visible pipes. The plumber quotes for work after a test or after they have seen the pipe.
Services
Can you turn a suspected lead pipe into a condition rating and a price cut?
Own page
A condition rating is the surveyor’s, and only if they give one. A suspicion is not a rating 3, and the Drinking Water Inspectorate’s 10 micrograms per litre is not a repair price. DWI notes that buyers sometimes discuss the cost of removing lead pipes with the seller. That discussion needs a test or a visible pipe, and your solicitor, not a number copied from the standard.
Environment
Does a colour on a radon map mean the house is over the Action Level?
Own page
No. UKHSA’s Action Level is 200 Bq/m3 as an annual average in the home. UKradon’s maps show where a higher level is more likely. Darker means a greater chance. The map is not a measurement of the named house. The only way to know whether a home is above or below the Action Level is to measure it.
Environment
What should you do with a radon result that sits between 100 and 200 Bq/m3?
Own page
Read it against both published levels. The Target Level is 100 Bq/m3. The Action Level is 200 Bq/m3 as an annual average. UKradon says that between them, action to reduce the level should be considered, especially where someone in the home smokes or used to smoke. It does not say the house has failed a survey, because a survey did not produce this number.
Environment
Why does a radon test take about three months and two detectors?
Own page
Because the Action Level is an annual average, not a moment on the day of the survey. UKradon describes the home test as two detectors, one in a bedroom and one in a living room, left for three months. A home survey visit lasts hours, not a season. The surveyor cannot carry that test inside an ordinary instruction.
Environment
What does UKradon’s individual address search tell you, and what does the fee buy?
Own page
It estimates the chance that the address is above the Action Level. It does not measure the radon in the building. UKradon’s radon searches page publishes a fee of £3.90 for an individual address search for homes and small workplaces. That figure was reviewed on 24 October 2026. It is not a remediation quote and not a survey fee.
Environment
Does a radon sump and a fan mean the house is below the Action Level?
Own page
No. A sump and a fan are a common way of reducing radon. Seeing them means someone installed a system. It does not tell you the level now, whether the fan runs, or whether the level was ever measured. The Action Level is 200 Bq/m3 as an annual average from a proper test, not the presence of a plastic box and a switch.
Environment
Can you use the ordinary radon map for a house with a cellar?
Own page
UKradon says not to use the maps for basements, cellars or underground sites, and to treat those as a higher chance wherever they are. A pale square on the map does not clear a cellar. A home survey that entered the cellar still has not measured radon. Measurement is the three-month test, not a look at the map and not a sniff at the air.
Environment
Does Approved Document C mean this house has already failed a radon test?
Own page
No. Approved Document C is England’s building-regulations guidance on site preparation and resistance to contaminants and moisture, including where new work has to consider radon. It is not a measurement of an existing living room. The Action Level remains 200 Bq/m3 as an annual average from a proper test.
Environment
Can the surveyor smell or see radon during the inspection?
Own page
No. Radon is a radioactive gas from the ground. You cannot see it or smell it. A home survey records what is visible. A comment that the area is a radon area is not a reading, and silence is not a clearance below 200 Bq/m3. Measurement is a three-month test with detectors in a bedroom and a living room.
Environment
Does the GOV.UK long-term flood-risk check tell you that this house will flood?
Own page
No. The service tells you about an area’s long-term risk in England from rivers and the sea, surface water, reservoirs, and groundwater where data is available. GOV.UK says it does not tell you how likely it is that an individual property will flood. A home survey is not that map, and a map is not a condition rating.
Environment
Is surface-water flood risk the same thing as a blocked gutter?
Own page
No. On the GOV.UK long-term flood-risk service for England, surface water is one of the kinds of flooding the map describes for an area. A blocked gutter, a burst pipe or a surcharging drain is specifically something that service says it does not cover. A home survey can see a gutter. It cannot redraw the map.
Environment
Does a dry day of inspection mean the house has no flood history?
Own page
No. The surveyor sees that day. A dry floor is not a history. GOV.UK’s long-term check is about area risk, and it says it does not tell you the likelihood for an individual property. Past flooding, if it matters, is a question for the seller’s forms, the searches and insurers, not a conclusion from dry wallpaper.
Environment
Why is an England flood-risk printout the wrong paper for a Scottish or Welsh purchase?
Own page
No. That service is for an area in England. GOV.UK’s own title says England. Scotland and Wales publish their own map services. A home survey does not switch the maps for you, and an English printout for a Scottish address is the wrong document.
Environment
What should you do if the England flood check mentions reservoirs?
Own page
Read it as reservoir risk for the area, which is one of the kinds of flooding GOV.UK’s service maps. It is not a condition rating, not a statement that this house has flooded, and not a defect the surveyor can photograph. The service also says it does not tell you how likely it is that an individual property will flood.
Environment
Will a home survey tell you the flood-insurance excess?
Own page
No. A home survey is not an insurance quote. GOV.UK’s flood-risk check is not an insurance quote either. No excess and no premium are stated on this page. Ask the insurer, on this address, what they will offer. Do not read a condition rating as an underwriting decision.
Environment
What should you ask about air bricks if a flood map has already worried you?
Own page
Ask what the air bricks are doing, and do not confuse them with the map. Air bricks ventilate a suspended timber floor or a void. Blocking them can raise moisture in the timbers. They are also a path for water if the ground outside floods. The survey can see whether they are blocked or low. It cannot tell you the long-term flood likelihood for the property, which GOV.UK says its area check does not provide either.
Environment
If the flood check says nothing about groundwater, does that mean there is none?
Own page
No. GOV.UK’s England service includes groundwater where data is available. Silence can mean the data is not there, not that the ground is dry. The service also says it does not tell you the likelihood for an individual property. A home survey does not fill that gap with a borehole.
Legal and neighbours
Is a party wall award the same thing as a condition rating?
Own page
No. In England and Wales the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 produces notices and, if there is a dispute, awards about specific work. A condition rating describes the building the surveyor could see. GOV.UK is clear that an agreement under the Act does not replace planning permission or building regulations, and those permissions do not replace the Act. The survey grants none of them.
Legal and neighbours
When does GOV.UK say party-wall notice has to be given?
Own page
Between two months and a year before the planned start of the work the Act covers. That work includes building on or at a boundary, work to a party wall or party structure, and excavation near a neighbour’s foundations. A home survey does not serve notice, and a condition rating does not start the clock.
Legal and neighbours
Can a floor between flats be a party structure?
Own page
Yes. GOV.UK says a party structure can be a floor or other structure separating buildings of different owners, not only the wall of a terrace. A home survey of one flat does not inspect the neighbour’s side of that floor in any thorough way, and it does not produce a party-wall award for work you later do to it.
Legal and neighbours
Is the garden fence a party wall under the Act?
Own page
No. GOV.UK’s party-wall guidance is about walls that form part of a building on the land of two owners, walls separating buildings of different owners, party structures such as floors, and certain excavations and new walls on a boundary. A timber fence is a boundary item. A home survey may comment on its condition if it looked. That comment is not an award.
Legal and neighbours
Does a home survey warn you that your extension plans need party-wall notice for excavation?
Own page
Only if you told the surveyor the plans and they chose to mention the Act. GOV.UK says excavation near and below a neighbour’s foundations is one of the works that can need notice. The survey is about the house as it stands. It does not design your extension, and it does not measure the neighbour’s foundations.
Legal and neighbours
If the seller had planning permission, can you ignore the Party Wall etc. Act?
Own page
No. GOV.UK says agreeing under the Act does not remove the need for planning permission or building regulations, and planning permission or building regulations do not remove the need to comply with the Act. A home survey does not check that any of the three was done. Your solicitor asks for the papers. The survey describes the building.
Legal and neighbours
Why is a crack in a Scottish Home Report not an English party-wall award?
Own page
They are different documents from different systems. A Home Report comments on condition, and RICS says a purchaser can rely on it where that pack is the one in use. An award under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 belongs to the England and Wales procedure GOV.UK describes. The Home Report will not contain that award, and you should not demand one from a Scottish seller. A crack the surveyor saw is still a condition comment. Ask a Scottish solicitor what applies to work on a shared wall.
Legal and neighbours
What should you ask if a loft conversion beam appears to bear on a shared wall?
Own page
Ask whether the bearing was seen, and do not assume notice was given. A beam into a party wall is exactly the sort of work GOV.UK says can fall under the Act in England and Wales. The home survey may see a beam end, a boxed pier or only a bedroom. It cannot see the neighbour’s side, and it cannot confirm an award existed.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if a downpipe discharges onto the ground at the foot of the wall?
Own page
Ask where the water goes next. A downpipe that ends at the base of the wall soaks the foundation line and the brickwork every time it rains. That is a rainwater defect the survey can see. It is not, by itself, subsidence, and it is not the GOV.UK flood map. The repair is to take the water away properly, not to inject the wall and hope.
Roof and rainwater
Does a plastic gutter mean the old cast-iron one has been properly replaced?
Own page
It means someone fitted plastic where you can see it. It does not mean the falls are right, the outlets are sized, or the hidden brackets are sound. Cast iron can still be doing the job if it is painted and jointed. A home survey sees rust, leaks and sagging. It does not certify either material, and it does not require you to replace cast iron because it is old.
Roof and rainwater
What is a hopper head, and why does an overflowing one matter?
Own page
A hopper is the open box that collects a small gutter or a balcony outlet and passes it to a downpipe. If it is blocked or split, water pours down the wall at that point. The survey can see staining even on a dry day. It has not water-tested the hopper, and overflow is not a flood-map category.
Roof and rainwater
Can a surveyor measure the fall of a gutter from the ground?
Own page
They can often see a backwards sag, a pond in the trough, or a drip at a joint. They cannot run a level along a high gutter in an ordinary inspection, and they should not pretend a millimetre fall. Standing water and overflow staining are the evidence. Absence of staining on a dry day is not a measured fall.
Roof and rainwater
What is the difference between a valley gutter and an eaves gutter?
Own page
An eaves gutter runs along the bottom edge of a roof and catches water off the slope. A valley gutter sits between two slopes, often lined with lead, and is hidden from the street. They fail differently. A clear eaves trough does not prove the valley is sound. A home survey from the ground may not see the valley lining at all.
Legal and neighbours
What does it mean if the garage was locked and marked not inspected?
Own page
It means the surveyor did not see inside. NI is not a condition rating 1 and not a verdict that the roof, the electrics or the slab are sound. Level 1’s scope is a more limited visual inspection than Level 2 or 3, and outbuildings are often where access stops. Ask for the key and a return only if you need that building described.
Legal and neighbours
What should you ask if a garage is being slept in?
Own page
Ask whether it is still a garage. Sleeping in a space is a use the survey can see from a bed and a socket. It is not proof that building regulations, fire escape or planning were sorted. The Planning Portal’s outbuilding rules and GOV.UK’s building-regulations pages are the paperwork routes. The survey describes condition, not lawfulness.
Legal and neighbours
Will a home survey say whether a shed met the Planning Portal’s permitted-development rules?
Own page
No. The Planning Portal publishes the England householder guidance for outbuildings, including exceptions a short summary always misses. This page will not repeat a height or a distance as if it decided your shed. The surveyor may say a building looks recent. Lawfulness is for the paperwork and your solicitor.
Legal and neighbours
What should you ask where a conservatory roof meets the house wall?
Own page
Ask about the flashing and the gutter at that junction, and about whether the conservatory was approved. Leaks start where the roof meets the wall, not in the middle of a panel. A home survey can see staining on the wall or a failed flashing. It does not grant planning permission or building-regulations approval for the structure.
Legal and neighbours
Should the flat roof of an attached garage be read as part of the house roof?
Own page
It is a roof, and it often sits against a first-floor wall. It deserves its own sentences: covering, upstand, outlet, and whether anyone could see it. It is not automatically included in a comment about the main tiled slope. A home survey from the ground may see only the edge.
Legal and neighbours
Does a home survey test the electrics in a garage or shed?
Own page
No. A RICS home survey does not test circuits in the house, and it does not test them in an outbuilding. A taped joint, an extension lead as permanent wiring, or a consumer unit in a damp garage is something the surveyor may see and should not pass. An EICR, if you want one, is a separate instruction by a person qualified to do it.
Legal and neighbours
What is a certificate of lawfulness, and will the survey tell you to get one?
Own page
A certificate of lawfulness is a planning document about whether a use or a building is lawful. The survey will not tell the council to issue one, and it will not decide that a shed is permitted development. The Planning Portal explains the England outbuilding rules. Your solicitor explains whether a certificate is worth applying for. The survey tells you if the roof leaks.
Legal and neighbours
Why might a Level 1 say less about a shed than a Level 3?
Own page
Because Level 1 is the more limited visual inspection. RICS publishes its scope. Outbuildings are easily left as a brief note or as not inspected. That is a feature of the product you bought, not a hint that the shed is fine. If the outbuilding is why you are buying, Level 1 is often the wrong product.
Legal and neighbours
What should you do if a garage conversion has no building-regulations papers?
Own page
Treat the missing papers as a solicitor’s question and the finishes as the surveyor’s. GOV.UK explains building-regulations approval and competent-person schemes. A converted garage often needed approval for structure, moisture, electrics and escape. The survey can see damp, a low ceiling or a homemade stair. It cannot issue the approval that was never sought.
Legal and neighbours
What should you ask if a summerhouse sits hard against the boundary?
Own page
Ask the solicitor about the boundary and the Planning Portal rules, and ask the surveyor only what they could see of the structure. A building on a boundary can raise party-wall and planning questions the inspection does not decide. It can also simply be rotten. Those are different sentences.
Damp
What should you read if the cellar hatch was not opened?
Own page
Read NI, or whatever limit the surveyor wrote, as a gap. A cellar that was not entered has no condition rating. Damp, rot, a sump and a cracked wall may all be down there. The survey must not be summarised as “no damp” while the hatch stayed shut.
Damp
Does tanking on a cellar wall mean the cellar is dry?
Own page
It means a coating or membrane was applied. It does not mean water has stopped, and it does not name the cause. Tanking hides the masonry. A home survey cannot see behind it. Bubbling paint, salts at the edge, or a tide above the tanking line are clues the system is not the whole storey. A meter on the coating is not a guarantee.
Damp
Does the survey test a cellar sump pump?
Own page
No. An ordinary home survey may see a pump, a pipe and a high-water mark. It does not run a pumping trial or service the float. A pump that is present is not a pump that works. A pump that works is not a dry cellar if the tanking above it has failed.
Damp
What should you ask about a lightwell drain outside a basement window?
Own page
Ask whether the gully was seen and where it goes. A lightwell is a hole in the ground against the wall. If its drain blocks, the hole fills and the window sits in a pond. That is penetrating damp from outside, not a mysterious failure of a damp-proof course inside. The survey can see leaves in a gully. It does not rod the pipe.
Damp
Does a cellar with a bed in it count as a habitable room in the survey?
Own page
The survey describes the space it could enter. It does not designate habitable rooms, and it does not check ceiling height against a building-regulations standard. A bed shows use. Approval, escape, damp-proofing and ventilation are paperwork and design questions. GOV.UK explains building-regulations approval. The survey explains the damp it could see.
Timber
Why are timbers built into a damp cellar a different comment from a stain on the wall?
Own page
Because timber in persistent moisture is where wet rot, and sometimes dry rot, starts. A stain on masonry may be only masonry. A sole plate or a joist end in that stain can be soft. The Property Care Association treats fungal decay as a moisture problem as well as a timber problem. The surveyor often cannot see the end of the joist without opening up.
Damp
What should you ask if a basement was dug out after the house was built?
Own page
Ask who designed the structure and which building-regulations approval exists. Digging out a cellar changes foundations, retaining walls and moisture. A home survey sees cracks, tanking and a stair. It does not recalculate the underpinning, and it does not phone building control for you.
Walls
Why can a hard cement render be a problem on a soft brick or stone wall?
Own page
Because the render can trap moisture in a wall that used to breathe, and when it cracks, water gets behind a sheet that cannot let it out. A home survey sees cracks, hollowness and blown patches. It does not test the mortar mix in a laboratory, and it should not call every render coat a wall-tie failure.
Walls
Does hollow render mean the wall ties have failed?
Own page
Not by itself. Hollow render means the coat has left the wall. Ties fail in the cavity, usually with a pattern of horizontal cracks in the bed joints, which render hides. A surveyor who cannot see the brick should say the ties were not assessed. They should not declare failure, and they should not declare the ties sound.
Walls
What should you ask if a Victorian brick wall has been repointed in hard mortar?
Own page
Ask whether the pointing is trapping water and damaging the brick, or simply looking different. Hard cement pointing on a soft lime joint can stand proud while the brick edges spall. A home survey sees the spalling and the style of pointing. It does not analyse the mortar in a lab, and it does not mean the foundations have moved.
Walls
Can paint on an outside brick wall trap moisture?
Own page
It can, if the coating stops the wall drying and water is getting in behind it. A home survey sees blistering, trapped salts and patches of blown paint. It cannot prove the chemistry of the paint from the pavement, and it should not call the coating rising damp. The source of the water still has to be found: gutter, joint, ground level or something else.
Property types
Why does the rear addition of a Victorian terrace need its own lines in the survey?
Own page
Because it is often a lower, later, or more lightly built piece than the main house: a flat or shallow roof, a parapet gutter, a solid wall, and a kitchen that hides the damp. A comment on the front slate slope does not describe it. The surveyor should say what they could see of that roof and that wall.
Property types
What should you ask about the roof of a 1930s semi if the loft was not fully boarded?
Own page
Ask which timbers were seen. Many 1930s semis have a hipped roof with purlins and struts. The surveyor can comment on those only where they can move safely. Boarding that covers the ceiling ties, or a loft full of belongings, is a limit. It is not proof the purlins are sound, and it is not proof they have failed.
Property types
What should you ask if a 1930s house has a springy timber ground floor?
Own page
Ask whether the surveyor could see the void. A suspended timber floor is carried on joists over air bricks. Spring can be ordinary, or it can be a joist, a sleeper wall or rot in a damp void. If the carpets stayed down and the vents were buried, the floor was not proved. NI is not a pass.
Property types
Why is the roof void of a bungalow a larger share of the survey?
Own page
Because there is no upstairs floor between you and the roof. The void is the structure you are buying, and hatches are sometimes the only way in. If the hatch is sealed, or the roof is too low to enter safely, that limit covers more of the building than the same limit in a two-storey house. Ask how this firm treats bungalow roofs before you choose Level 1.
Property types
What should you ask about the ridge of a thatched roof, as against the coat?
Own page
Ask which part is failing. The ridge is often a separate, shorter-lived layer on top of the main coat. Netting and wire keep birds off. A home survey from the ground can see thinning, slippage and a tired ridge. It cannot comb the thatch, and it should not quote a life in years it has not been given by a thatcher.
Property types
Can a brick outer skin hide a timber frame from a normal inspection?
Own page
Yes. Modern timber frame often sits behind a cavity and a brick or block skin. From the drive it can look like a cavity masonry house. The survey should say if it could not confirm the structure. It should not invent wall ties for a frame, and it should not call it a PRC concrete house.
Property types
Does an ex-council house mean non-standard construction?
Own page
No. Plenty of former local-authority houses are ordinary brick cavity houses. Some are designated concrete systems or steel frames. The survey should name what it found, or say it could not tell. “Ex-council” is a tenure history. It is not a construction type and not a reason to refuse a mortgage by itself.
Property types
What should a survey of a flat above a shop be honest about?
Own page
It should be honest about what it could not see: the shop below, the commercial electrics, the separation in the floor, and often the structure that carries the shopfront. A residential flat survey is not a commercial survey of the shop. Noise and a smell on the day are observations, not a fire test and not a lease reading.
Property types
What is a flying freehold, and can the survey cure it?
Own page
A flying freehold is a part of a freehold that sits over land someone else owns, such as a room over an alley or a neighbour’s passage. The survey can describe the floor and the cracks. It cannot create a right of support or a covenant to repair. Your solicitor reads the title. HM Land Registry holds the register. The condition rating is not the title.
Property types
Is a maisonette free of the leasehold questions that apply to a flat?
Own page
No. A maisonette is still usually a leasehold home on more than one floor. You still need the lease length, the ground rent, the repairing obligations and the service charge, if there is one. GOV.UK’s leasehold guidance does not stop because there are stairs inside the front door. The survey of the rooms is not the lease.
Property types
What should you ask about a coach house built over a parking bay?
Own page
Ask who owns and maintains the deck you live on, and whether the surveyor could see it. A coach house is a home over an open bay or a passage. The structure that spans the bay is the point. A home survey may see the rooms and not the beam under the floor. It does not read the estate’s management deed.
Property types
Will a standard RICS house survey fit a park home?
Own page
Not as a default. A park home is a different structure, often a chattel on a pitch with a licence, not a house on a freehold plot. A surveyor can still inspect condition if they agree a scope. You should not assume Level 2 on a brick house is what you will get, or that the report makes the pitch agreement safe.
Property types
If a survey says “steel frame”, is the house a BISF?
Own page
Not necessarily. BISF is one post-war steel system. Other steel frames exist, including modern ones. The survey should say what it could see and what it is inferring. “Steel frame” without a system name is a prompt to ask more, not a designated-defective label and not a mortgage refusal this page can issue.
Property types
What should you ask if a stone cottage has been repointed with cement?
Own page
Ask whether the stone face is blowing because the pointing is harder than the stone. Cement ribbons on a lime-built wall can trap water. The survey sees open joints, cement smears and delaminating stone. It does not, from a visual inspection, write a mortar specification, and it does not call that pattern subsidence.
Services
Does a home survey prove a wood stove is safe because the flue looks lined?
Own page
No. A liner you can see at the fireplace or at the pot is not a sweep, a ventilation check or a certificate. Approved Document J covers combustion appliances and fuel storage when building work is done. The survey does not apply it as a pass. HSE’s gas pages are about gas, not a substitute for solid-fuel advice. Different fuels, different competences.
Services
Does water sitting in an oil-tank catchpit mean the tank is leaking?
Own page
Not by itself. A catchpit or bund is there to hold a spill, and rain fills an uncovered tray as well. A surveyor who sees water has not emptied it, dipped the tank or tested the boiler. Staining that smells of oil, or a pipe that is dripping oil, is a different observation from rainwater. A home survey does not certify the installation. Approved Document J is England’s guidance on fuel storage when building work is done. It is not a pass awarded on the day of the inspection.
Services
What is a back boiler, and why is a neat gas fire not a service record?
Own page
A back boiler is a boiler hidden behind a gas fire, heating water as well as the room. The fire can look fine while the boiler and the flue do not. A home survey does not strip the fire or test the gas. Only a Gas Safe registered engineer should work on gas appliances. HSE is explicit that gas work is for those engineers.
Services
Does a home survey service an unvented hot-water cylinder?
Own page
No. An unvented cylinder stores hot water under pressure from the mains. It has safety controls a surveyor does not test. Seeing a modern cylinder is not a service record, and a missing record is not, by itself, a leak. The survey can note a stain, a discharge pipe that looks wrong, or a tank in a cupboard it could not reach.
Services
What should you ask if the house has a heat pump rather than a gas boiler?
Own page
Ask for the commissioning papers and whether the surveyor could see the outdoor unit and the indoor cylinder. A home survey does not test a heat pump, does not measure its efficiency, and does not confirm a grant condition. GOV.UK’s competent-person schemes are one way installation work is self-certified. The survey is not that certificate.
Services
If the survey could not turn the heating on, what has actually been checked?
Own page
Almost nothing about whether it works. A visual survey looks at a boiler, a cylinder or a pump if they are visible. It does not balance radiators, test pressure or prove the programmer. “Unable to operate” is a limitation. It is not a statement that the system failed, and it is not a statement that it passed.
Services
Does a white plume at the boiler terminal prove a concealed flue is jointed properly?
Own page
No. A white plume shows a condensing boiler is running and sending vapour out of the terminal you can see. It does not show whether joints inside a ceiling or a boxed void are supported, sealed or leaking combustion products. A home survey that could not open that void has not cleared those joints. Only a Gas Safe registered engineer should inspect or alter a gas flue. HSE’s domestic gas guidance is that gas work belongs with those engineers, not with a visual survey.
Services
Does a tidy gas meter box mean the installation was tested?
Own page
No. The box is a cupboard. A home survey may note a smell, corrosion or a meter that looks damaged. It does not carry out a tightness test and does not read the meter for billing. HSE says gas work is for Gas Safe registered engineers. Looking at a box is not that work.
Services
What is a condensate pipe, and why does a survey mention it freezing?
Own page
A condensing boiler produces condensate that has to drain away, usually through a plastic pipe. If that pipe is poorly routed outside it can freeze or leak. A home survey can see a pipe that discharges onto a path or into a hopper. It does not test the boiler and it does not prove last winter’s freeze. A visible leak is a plumbing defect. A hypothetical freeze is only a risk if the route is obviously exposed.
Services
What can a surveyor say about radiators without testing the heating?
Own page
They can say what they see: leaks at valves, rusted panels, missing radiators under cold windows, or pipes surface-mounted through rooms. They cannot say the system heats evenly or that the boiler is safe. A cold radiator in summer is not a failed radiator. A wet valve is a leak.
Choosing a survey
If an estate agent offers a HomeBuyer Report, which RICS level are they describing?
Own page
Ask them to say Level 2 in writing. HomeBuyer Report is the old name. RICS now calls that product a Home Survey Level 2. Building Survey is the old name for Level 3. The current three-level Home Survey was introduced on 1 March 2021. The word on the brochure is not the instruction.
Choosing a survey
Is a building survey automatically an RICS Home Survey Level 3?
Own page
Under the current standard, Level 3 is the successor to the Building Survey, but only if the firm is doing an RICS Home Survey Level 3. Some firms still use the old words for a different scope. Ask them to write the level, the standard and what they will not open. The 1st edition of the Home Survey Standard is the one RICS said on 17 June 2026 was still in force while a 2nd edition was under review.
Choosing a survey
Does “chartered surveyor” on a website mean you are buying an RICS Home Survey?
Own page
Not by itself. An RICS Home Survey is a Level 1, 2 or 3 done to the Home Survey Standard by a firm regulated by RICS. Someone can be chartered and still be offering a different product, or a valuation only. Ask which standard this instruction follows and who you complain to.
Choosing a survey
Does a longer visit mean you bought a higher survey level?
Own page
No. RICS says a Home Survey inspection generally takes between two hours and a full day, and several days on a particularly large property. That is the visit, and it varies with size and complexity, not with a stopwatch that proves the level. The written report takes as long as the firm promised. The promise is not a national rule.
Choosing a survey
What should you ask to see before you instruct a home survey?
Own page
Ask for a sample report, the level, what will not be opened, who will inspect, when the report will arrive, and the full fee including VAT. A sample shows how the firm writes limitations and ratings. It is not a survey of your house. RICS does not publish one national price, so the quote is the only price that matters.
Choosing a survey
What changes if a Level 2 is sold with a valuation in the same fee?
Own page
You are buying two products. The Level 2 is the condition survey. The valuation is an opinion of price for whoever instructed it. MoneyHelper says a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. If the valuation is for you, say so. If it is for a lender, the report may be addressed to the lender and you may not be allowed to rely on it in the same way.
Choosing a survey
What did RICS used to call a Level 1, and what does that level still leave out?
Own page
The old name was a Condition Report: a visual overview that generally does not advise how to manage defects. Level 1 is still the limited product. RICS publishes the Level 1 scope. It is a poor fit for a house you already know has been altered, and it will say less about outbuildings, causes and repairs than Level 2 or 3. It is not a mortgage valuation.
Choosing a survey
Who do you complain to if a home survey misses something?
Own page
Ask that before you instruct. If the firm is regulated by RICS, RICS is the complaint route their regulation describes, after the firm’s own process. If the firm is not regulated by RICS, you are using that firm’s process and whoever regulates them, which may be a different body such as RPSA for its members. A review on a website is not a complaint.
Choosing a survey
What is the desktop part of a Level 3, and why is it not the inspection?
Own page
A Level 3 includes enquiries and desktop research as well as the visit. That research can flag radon maps, flood services, listed status or mining. It is not a measurement, a title search or a substitute for walking the house. The Level 3 description still says services are inspected visually and not tested.
Choosing a survey
If you are buying in Scotland, do you still choose a Level 2 the English way?
Own page
Not as the default pack. The seller provides a Home Report in most sales: a single survey and valuation, a property questionnaire and an energy report. mygov.scot describes that pack. You can still commission your own inspection if you want one. An English Level 2 quote does not replace the Home Report the seller must give you.
Money
What should the quote say about a fee if the surveyor cannot get in?
Own page
It should say what you pay if the seller refuses access, nobody is home, or the loft is sealed and the visit is abortive. RICS does not publish that charge. If the quote is silent, ask before you instruct. A dry fee for a wasted morning is a contract term, not a condition rating.
Money
What should you ask about VAT and extras before you compare two survey quotes?
Own page
Ask whether the figure includes VAT, travel, a valuation, and any third-party search. Two headline numbers are not comparable until those are listed. RICS does not publish a national Level 2 or Level 3 price, so the quotes are the only prices. A forum average is not a third quote.
Money
Can you use a website’s typical repair cost as the price of the defect in your survey?
Own page
No. A typical figure, even a careful one, is not a quote for this roof, this access and this finish. RICS condition ratings contain no prices. If a page on this site gives a range, it will say where the number came from. If it does not have a source, it will not invent one. Your number comes from a contractor who has seen the job.
Money
Should the survey fee be added to the list of repairs you ask the seller to pay?
Own page
No. The fee is what you paid for advice. It is not a defect. RICS does not say the seller reimburses it. Some buyers negotiate it. That is a choice, not a rule, and it is separate from the cost of a roof. Your solicitor says what the contract allows before exchange.
Money
Who pays for the specialist the survey has recommended?
Own page
You do, unless the seller agrees to, or the contract says otherwise. The specialist is not inside the RICS fee. A drain camera, an EICR, a timber opening-up or a structural engineer is a new instruction with its own price. The survey should say what question that person is to answer. It should not guess their fee.
Money
Is the reinstatement cost in a valuation the budget for the survey’s repairs?
Own page
No. Reinstatement is an estimate of rebuilding the whole property for insurance, not the cost of the defects in the report. Market value is a third number. Repair quotes are a fourth. They are not interchangeable, and none of them is set by a condition rating.
Money
Why is a lender’s valuation fee not a cheaper alternative to a Level 3?
Own page
Because MoneyHelper states that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. It tells the lender about security. It may be brief, it may not be addressed to you, and it may not use RICS condition ratings at all. A Level 3 is a home survey for you. The smaller invoice buys a different job, not a bargain version of the same job.
Reading the report
What does an R mark mean next to papers the survey tells you to request?
Own page
On these reports, R is a document prompt, not a condition rating. It means papers you may need from the solicitor before you sign: approvals, guarantees, certificates. It is not a rating 3 and not a defect in the brickwork. Condition ratings remain 1, 2 and 3, and NI means not inspected.
Reading the report
Why should you read the limitations before you read the condition ratings?
Own page
Because the ratings only cover what was inspected. The limitations say what was covered, locked, high, or outside the level. A rating 1 on the windows does not flow backwards into a loft marked NI. RICS defines NI as not inspected. It is not a pass.
Reading the report
If the survey’s photo looks worse than the wording, which one do you act on?
Own page
Act on the words, and ask the surveyor to reconcile the photo. A photograph is an illustration. The condition rating and the sentence under it are the finding. RICS defines rating 3 as serious or urgent, and rating 2 as not serious or urgent. A dramatic close-up does not promote a 2 into a 3. A bland photo does not cancel a 3.
Reading the report
What can a condition rating on the grounds actually mean?
Own page
It means the surveyor saw something in the grounds they could inspect: a leaning wall, a dangerous path, a tree close to the house, a retaining wall. It does not decide the legal boundary, and it does not price a new garden. RICS ratings are about condition. Title is the solicitor’s, using HM Land Registry and the deeds.
Reading the report
Why do some surveys rate services as 3 when they also say services were not tested?
Own page
Because the surveyor may think there is a visible reason to investigate urgently, or they are signalling that safety was not confirmed. Read the sentence. RICS defines rating 3 as defects that are serious and/or need repairing, replacing or investigating urgently. “Not tested” alone is a limitation. It should not be dressed up as a test that failed, and a test that never happened is not a pass either.
Reading the report
Can you add the condition ratings up to a score out of ten?
Own page
No. Each rating belongs to an element. RICS does not publish a house score. Three rating 2s are three pieces of non-urgent work, not a secret rating 3. One rating 3 is not cancelled by ten rating 1s. NI is not a zero you can average.
Reading the report
Does RICS’s “What to do now” note force the seller to repair before exchange?
Own page
No. It is advice to you about how to use the report. For a rating 3, the Level 3 description says written quotations for repairs should be obtained before legal commitment to purchase. That is you getting quotes before you are bound. It does not serve a notice on the seller, and it does not set who pays.
Property types
What should you do if the rooms you walked through are not on the lease plan?
Own page
Tell your solicitor. The plan and the lease say what you are buying. The survey describes the building it was shown. A cupboard taken from a common hall, or a bit of roof space with no demise, can look like yours and still not be. HM Land Registry’s register is where the lease is recorded. The surveyor does not correct the plan.
Property types
Will today’s survey still do for a shared-ownership staircase in five years?
Own page
No. Staircasing is a later purchase of more of the home. Condition changes. The survey you commission now describes now. The association may set who values the share later. That valuation is a price, not a new condition report, unless it says it is.
Property types
Can the surveyor tell you what it will cost to extend a lease that is under 80 years?
Own page
No. GOV.UK’s shared-ownership guidance says that when the remaining lease drops below 80 years it can be much more expensive to extend, and that a short lease can make selling or remortgaging harder. The premium is a valuation and a legal process. A home survey does not calculate marriage value, a premium, or your legal fees. Your solicitor orders the term from the register.
Property types
If the block has a reserve fund, do you still care about a rating 3 on the roof?
Own page
Yes. The reserve is an accounting balance under the lease, not a repair that has been done. GOV.UK explains that service charges and consultation sit with the landlord and the lease, including Section 20 consultation for some major works. A home survey that rates the roof is telling you the covering looks serious now. It does not know the fund balance.
Selling
What should a seller in England gather that is not another survey?
Own page
Guarantees, building-regulations certificates, window and electrical paperwork, boiler services, and any damp or timber guarantees they actually have. An EPC is required when marketing, and GOV.UK says an EPC is valid for 10 years. An EPC is not a survey. A seller in England is not required to commission a home survey before marketing. Scotland is different: a Home Report is part of most sales.
Selling
Should a seller open up floors and hatches before the buyer’s survey?
Own page
They should make safe access normal: unlock the loft, clear the hatch, move the wardrobe that blocks a consumer unit, and unfreeze a garage door. They should not rip up floors to “prove” joists. A home survey is visual. Opening up is a different instruction. Destructive help can create the defect you hoped to disprove.
Selling
Does a valid EPC mean the boiler and the windows were surveyed?
Own page
No. GOV.UK requires an Energy Performance Certificate when you sell, and it is valid for 10 years. It is a model of energy performance, not a condition report and not a gas service. A home survey does not produce the EPC, and the EPC does not produce condition ratings.
After the survey
When can you still walk away after a bad survey in England and Wales?
Own page
Usually before exchange, because that is when you become legally committed, unless you have already signed something that binds you, such as some reservation agreements on a new build. RICS tells you to get written quotations for rating 3 repairs before legal commitment. It does not force you to stay, and it does not force the seller to cut the price. Your solicitor confirms this contract.
After the survey
Is one contractor’s quote enough to demand that exact sum off the price?
Own page
It is evidence of what one firm would charge, not a verdict the seller must accept. RICS wants written quotations before you commit where rating 3 repairs are needed. The seller can obtain their own, can offer to do the work, or can refuse. Your solicitor sends the proposal. The surveyor does not invoice the seller.
After the survey
What should you ask if the seller offers to “sort the roof” before completion?
Own page
Ask who will do it, to what specification, by when, and what happens if it is late. A promise to sort the roof is not a quote and not a building-regulations application. Get it in the contract if you are going to rely on it. Your solicitor writes that. A text to the agent is not the contract.
After the survey
What goes wrong if you ask for a price cut and also ignore a lender’s retention?
Own page
You can count the same roof twice, or not at all. A price reduction changes what you pay the seller. A lender’s retention holds back part of the mortgage until works are done. MoneyHelper’s valuation is not the survey, and the retention is the lender’s condition of lending. It is not cash in your pocket on completion day.
After the survey
Should you renegotiate a new-build price from a snagging list the way you would a rating 3?
Own page
Not in the same way. A snagging list is unfinished or damaged items in a new home. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product, with a two-year builder period and then insurance for defects in specific parts. A snag is for the builder under that cover where it applies. It is not automatically a reason to reopen the price, and a reservation agreement may already constrain you.
After the survey
Should you tell the agent you will publish the survey if the seller will not cut the price?
Own page
No. The report is a professional document addressed under the surveyor’s terms, usually to you. Using it as a threat is not how RICS tells you to act on a rating, and it can cause problems with the surveyor’s copyright and with the seller that your solicitor would rather avoid. Negotiate with quotes and a clear request, or walk away.
Drainage
What is a pitch-fibre drain, and will a Level 2 have confirmed it?
Own page
Pitch fibre is a black compressed-fibre pipe used for some post-war drains. It can deform. A home survey does not confirm it unless a camera or an exposed section was in the agreed scope. A Level 2 does not include a drain camera as standard. Seeing a modern plastic gulley at the surface does not prove the buried run was replaced.
Drainage
What should you ask if an inspection chamber is inside the house?
Own page
Ask whether it was lifted, whether it smells, and whether it is still the live drain. An internal chamber is a maintenance burden and sometimes a sign of an altered layout. A home survey can note the cover. It does not guarantee the seal, and it does not camera the run. Building regulations for drainage apply to work that was done. The survey does not retrieve the approval.
Drainage
Why does a gulley set against the wall matter more than one in the middle of the patio?
Own page
Because a blocked gulley at the wall floods the air brick, the damp-proof course and the footings. One in the patio may flood the patio first. A home survey sees the position and the debris. It does not prove the underground pipe. The repair may be as small as clearing it or as large as re-laying a collapsed outlet. The survey cannot tell those apart.
Drainage
What should you ask for if a house has a septic tank the survey could not open?
Own page
Ask the seller for emptying records and where the effluent goes, and treat the tank as not inspected. GOV.UK describes a septic tank as treating sewage and releasing liquid. In England, the general binding rules from 2 October 2023 set volume limits and require an infiltration system for a discharge to ground, and a treatment plant for a discharge to surface water. The survey has not measured the volume and has not proved the outfall.
Electrics
What should you do if a surveyor notices a light or a socket that may have no earth?
Own page
Treat it as a prompt for an EICR, not as the result of one. A home survey does not test circuits. GOV.UK’s guidance for landlords describes EICR codes: C1 danger present, C2 potentially dangerous, C3 improvement recommended, and FI further investigation. Those codes are not RICS condition ratings. An owner-occupier selling a house is not under the landlord’s five-year testing duty.
Electrics
Can a home survey diagnose a borrowed neutral?
Own page
No. A borrowed neutral is a wiring fault an electrician finds by testing, often when a lighting circuit will not isolate properly. A surveyor who does not test cannot diagnose it. They might see odd DIY junctions in a loft. That is a prompt, not a code C1 or C2.
Electrics
What can a survey say about an outside socket?
Own page
It can say the socket is cracked, missing its cover, or fed by a casual lead from a window. It cannot say the circuit is RCD-protected. That is a test. A home survey does not do it. Water in a socket is a visible defect. A socket that merely exists is not.
Electrics
What if the consumer unit is behind fitted units and was not seen?
Own page
Then the electrical installation was not visually inspected at the place that matters most. The report should say so. It should not rate the system as satisfactory, and it should not invent a list of codes. A home survey does not test circuits even when the board is visible.
Electrics
What should you ask about a new loft light wired with connector blocks?
Own page
Ask for it to be included in an EICR, and do not let the survey “pass” it. Connector blocks, taped joints and a cable across insulation are things a surveyor can see. They are not a test of polarity, earth or overload. The lighting circuit may be the one with no earth. Only testing sorts that out.
Services
What should you ask if a new door threshold sits below the outside paving?
Own page
Ask whether rain can run in over the threshold and whether the paving now bridges the damp-proof course. A door that is lower than the patio is a water path. It is not, by itself, a failed damp-proof course in the wall, and it is not a flood-map result. A home survey sees the levels. It does not redesign the step.
Services
Does a home survey test the bathroom extract fan?
Own page
No. The surveyor may see a fan, hear it if they switch it, or see that it is painted shut. That is not a flow-rate test and not Approved Document F compliance. Approved Document F is the England ventilation document for building work. A fan that exists is not proof the house is adequately ventilated, and a missing fan is not automatically rising damp.
Choosing a survey
Do the solicitor’s searches replace the home survey, or the other way round?
Own page
Neither replaces the other. Searches and the title are legal. A home survey is the condition of the building. An EPC is an energy model valid, when required, for the period GOV.UK states. A flood check, a mining search and a lease are not condition ratings. Paying for one and skipping the others leaves a different gap.
Structure and movement
What should you ask if a wall bows but there is no fresh crack?
Own page
Ask how the bow was judged and whether it is progressive. A bow is a shape. A crack is a break. You can have either without the other. A home survey sees the line of the wall. It does not monitor it, and it does not prove subsidence, wall-tie failure or roof spread. Those have different patterns. The Association of British Insurers describes subsidence as a downward movement of the ground. A bow is not automatically that.
Structure and movement
Can the surveyor tell you a tree is protected, or only that it is close?
Own page
They can say a tree is close to the house and, if they know it, what that can mean for shrinkable clay. They cannot, unless they checked and said so, tell you it is in a conservation area or under a tree preservation order. That is a planning record. Felling a protected tree because a survey said “close” can be an offence. Ask the solicitor and the council before anyone cuts.
Drainage
Who repairs a soil pipe that serves more than one flat?
Own page
The lease or the transfers say, not the survey. A home survey can see a cracked external pipe, a stain, or a gulley that smells. It cannot apportion the cost between flats and it cannot read the lease. GOV.UK’s leasehold pages cover how service charges and major works are consulted on. A cracked pipe is still a pipe. The rating does not issue a service-charge demand.
Property types
Will a home survey tell you that you may replace listed sash windows with plastic?
Own page
No. Historic England explains that listing covers the building, not a sticker on the front. Replacing windows in a listed house is a consent question. The survey can say the sashes are rotten. It cannot grant listed building consent, and it should not specify uPVC as the remedy. A conservation area can control demolition and some alterations even when the house is not listed. Those are different designations.
Damp
Does a tide mark on a wall prove the damp-proof course has failed?
Own page
No. A tide mark is a stain line. It can come from moisture rising from the ground, from salts left after an old leak, or from water that ran down and stopped. A home survey can record the line and a meter reading. It does not, by itself, prove the damp-proof course has failed. The Property Care Association treats damp as a diagnosis of the building, not a mark on the plaster.
Damp
Can a stain that starts at the ceiling and runs downward be rising damp?
Own page
No. Rising damp is moisture from the ground at the base of a wall. A stain that begins at the ceiling and tracks down is coming from above: a roof, a flat, a bathroom, a pipe or a chimney, until someone shows otherwise. A home survey records the pattern. It does not turn a ceiling stain into a damp-proof course failure.
Damp
What should you ask if mould is only behind a wardrobe on an outside wall?
Own page
Ask whether the surveyor could see the wall, or only the furniture, and do not treat that mould as proof the damp-proof course has failed. Cold outside walls grow mould where air cannot move, which is a condensation pattern. A leak or penetrating damp can sit in the same place. The home survey should say which clues it actually saw.
Damp
Is a wet concrete ground floor the same finding as rising damp in the walls?
Own page
No. A solid floor can be damp because the slab has no effective barrier, because a screed is bridging, or because a leak is under it. Rising damp is a wall term. A home survey can note a damp floor finish, blown tiles or a high reading. It does not prove which barrier is missing, and it does not test the slab.
Damp
What should you ask if damp follows a pipe chase rather than the base of the wall?
Own page
Ask the surveyor to keep the chase separate from rising damp. A wet vertical or diagonal line along a buried pipe is a plumbing leak until it is shown to be something else. A home survey does not pressure-test pipes and does not open chases. A damp-proof course injection does not mend a leaking joint.
Damp
Why can a window reveal be wet after rain when the skirting below is dry?
Own page
Because the water is arriving at the opening, not from the ground. A failed seal, a cracked sill, a missing cavity tray or driving rain at the frame can wet the reveal and leave the skirting dry. That is penetrating damp at the window. It is not proof the damp-proof course has failed. A home survey sees the day it visits. It may not see the rain.
Damp
Does water on the inside of the glass mean the wall has rising damp?
Own page
No. Water on the room side of the glass is moisture in the air meeting a cold pane. That is condensation on the glass. It does not show that ground water is rising in the wall. A home survey can note streaming windows, mould on the glass and a lack of ventilation. It cannot turn that into a failed damp-proof course.
Structure
What is a weep hole, and why is it not a failed cavity wall tie?
Own page
A weep hole is a small opening, often in a perp joint, left so water in a cavity can drain out above a window, a door or at the base of a wall. It is supposed to be there. A failed wall tie is a different thing: metal in the cavity that no longer holds the two leaves together. A home survey should not call a clear weep a tie failure.
Structure
What should you ask if regular horizontal cracks are only on one elevation?
Own page
Ask whether that elevation is the one the surveyor thinks may have tie problems, and do not spread the comment to walls that were not described. Wall-tie corrosion often shows as cracks in fairly even brick courses. One elevation can be worse because of age, exposure or the ties used there. A home survey has not borescoped the cavity unless it says so.
Structure
Does a wall-tie specialist’s report replace the RICS home survey?
Own page
No. A tie report is about the ties, usually after someone has looked into the cavity. A RICS home survey is a visual report on the building for the person who instructed it, with condition ratings. It does not become a tie certificate because a specialist PDF is stapled to it, and the specialist PDF does not rate the roof.
Structure
Can slumped cavity insulation be written up as if the wall ties had failed?
Own page
It should not be. Slumped or poorly installed insulation is a fill that has settled or bridged, often leaving a cold band or a damp patch. Failed ties are metal that no longer ties the leaves, often with cracks in regular courses. A home survey that cannot see inside the cavity should not swap the names. The Energy Saving Trust’s conditions are about whether a cavity should be filled, not a tie test.
Structure
What should you ask if render or paint covers the base of a cavity wall?
Own page
Ask whether the weep holes and the damp-proof course are still visible, or whether the coating has buried them. Render taken down over the open joints can block the cavity’s way of draining and can bridge the course. That is a moisture detail. It is not, by itself, a wall-tie failure. A home survey sees the coating. It does not remove it.
Structure
Does filler or mastic in a crack prove the movement has stopped?
Own page
No. Filler hides the crack for a while. If the crack opens again, the filler splits. If it has not split yet, you still do not have a history, because a home survey is one visit. The Association of British Insurers describes subsidence as downward movement of the ground. Mastic is not evidence that movement has finished, and it is not evidence it is ongoing.
Structure
What should you ask about a diagonal crack that starts at the corner of a window?
Own page
Ask what else is happening at that opening: a dropped lintel, a local settlement, or a crack that continues past the window into the wall. A diagonal crack from a corner is a common place for stress. It is not, on its own, subsidence. The Association of British Insurers describes subsidence as the ground moving down under the building. One crack at a window does not prove that.
Structure
Does a crack where a conservatory meets the house mean the main house is subsiding?
Own page
Not by itself. Conservatories often move differently from the house because they are lighter, differently founded, or simply bolted on. A crack or a gap at the junction can be that joint. Subsidence, in the Association of British Insurers’ words, is the ground moving down and taking the building with it. The home survey should say whether the crack is in the house wall or only at the add-on.
Structure
What should you ask for if the survey suspects movement and an insurer may already have been involved?
Own page
Ask your solicitor to ask the seller for any claim, monitoring, underpinning guarantee or refusal, and do not expect those papers to be inside the home survey. A survey records the cracks it can see. The Association of British Insurers explains subsidence claims for people who already have cover. A buyer’s visual report is not that claim file.
Structure
What should you ask if a large tree has been cut down and a stump remains near a crack?
Own page
Ask when it was felled, and do not assume the crack is subsidence or that the risk has gone. On a shrinkable clay, a tree can dry the soil, and the soil can swell after the tree is removed. The Association of British Insurers describes subsidence as downward movement, and the same clay mechanism can work the other way as heave. A home survey cannot date the felling and cannot test the soil.
Structure
Why can one survey visit not tell you whether a crack is still moving?
Own page
Because movement is a change over time, and the surveyor sees the crack once. They can record width, direction and whether it looks fresh. They cannot draw a trend from a single afternoon. The Association of British Insurers’ account of subsidence is about the ground moving. A description of a crack is not a monitoring exercise.
Structure
Does a comment that a floor is out of level mean the surveyor monitored the house?
Own page
No. A sloping floor is something a surveyor can see or pace on the day. Monitoring is repeated measurement. An out-of-level floor can be how the house was built, how timber has deflected, or how the ground has moved. The Association of British Insurers’ definition of subsidence is downward movement of the ground. A slope, alone, is not that finding.
Structure
What should you ask if the survey names both a tree and a possible drain leak beside the same crack?
Own page
Ask which one the surveyor actually saw evidence of, and do not pick a favourite. A tree on clay can dry the soil. A leaking drain can wash soil away. The Association of British Insurers treats ground movement as subsidence when the ground goes down. A home survey does not test the soil and does not camera the drain unless that was agreed.
Grounds
What should you ask if Japanese knotweed appears to be growing through a patio or a path?
Own page
Ask where the canes are, and do not treat the hard surface as a barrier. GOV.UK says you must not cause Japanese knotweed to spread, and that soil and plant material are not ordinary waste. A patio can hide the crown and still have growth in the joints. A home survey does not excavate and does not assign a price. The 2022 RICS categories are for a proper assessment, not for a photograph of a crack in a slab.
Grounds
What should you ask if Japanese knotweed is on neighbouring land, clearly more than three metres from this boundary?
Own page
Ask the surveyor to say it was off site and beyond the distance they could judge, and do not invent a category. The 2022 RICS approach, as the journal describes it, uses three metres rather than the old seven for off-site growth that is reported. Plants further away are not that near-boundary category. They are also not a reason to ignore knotweed on this plot. A home survey does not cross the boundary to measure.
Grounds
Why should a surveyor’s unnamed weed not be given a Japanese knotweed management category?
Own page
Because the categories apply to Japanese knotweed that has been identified. A leafy stem, a winter stick or a plant the surveyor will not name is not category A, B, C or D. The 2022 journal account expects identification and, where the plant is knotweed, a specialist recommendation. GOV.UK’s knotweed page is about that plant. An unnamed weed is a limit, not a category.
Grounds
Can you compost or bag an invasive plant with ordinary garden waste after a survey flags it?
Own page
No. GOV.UK says you must not plant invasive non-native plants in the wild or cause them to grow in the wild, which can include moving contaminated soil or cuttings. It also says you cannot compost most of these plants, because they survive composting. Japanese knotweed has its own page: do not put it in the green waste. A home survey does not give you permission to clear the bed.
Grounds
What should you stop a gardener doing if the survey says Japanese knotweed may be present?
Own page
Stop them strimming, mowing the clump into the lawn and taking the cuttings away as green waste. GOV.UK says you must not cause Japanese knotweed to spread, and fragments are part of that risk. A home survey does not supervise the garden. A tidy lawn the week before exchange can be how the evidence disappears and the plant is spread.
Health
What should you ask if a survey says “possible asbestos” but does not name the product?
Own page
Ask what they saw: a cement sheet, a board, a textured coating, a floor tile, or only a hunch from the age of the house. HSE says asbestos can be in buildings built or refurbished before 2000, in different products with different cautions. “Possible asbestos” without a product is a stop sign, not a laboratory result. A home survey does not sample.
Health
Should you drill or screw into a sheet the survey has flagged as possible asbestos?
Own page
No. Drilling is disturbance. HSE’s advice on asbestos in buildings is to avoid uncontrolled work on materials that may contain it, and a home survey is not a licence to fix a shelf. Cement sheet and insulating board are not the same risk, and the survey may not have told them apart. Do not make dust to find out.
Health
Does one suspect material mean the home survey has checked the whole house for asbestos?
Own page
No. A note about a garage roof, a floor tile or a textured ceiling is about what the surveyor noticed. HSE lists many places asbestos was used in pre-2000 buildings. The survey does not open every void, lift every floor or sample anything. One sentence is not a management survey and not a refurbishment survey.
Health
Does a calm note about an asbestos-cement garage roof mean the sheets can be smashed up?
Own page
No. A calm note means the surveyor saw sheets that looked intact and is not telling you to destroy them. HSE treats asbestos cement as a cement product and still expects it not to be broken up casually. Smashing, power-washing and dry-brushing make dust. A home survey is not a removal method and not a waste carrier’s note.
Health
What should you ask if the loft has broken cement pieces or offcuts the survey could not name?
Own page
Ask for them to be left undisturbed and identified before anyone boards the loft or shoves them into a sack. HSE’s concern with asbestos is disturbance, especially of unknown pieces in a pre-2000 building. A home survey that sees debris should say it did not sample it. Offcuts are not a licence to bag them with the old carpet.
Roofs
Is a sagging ridge the same defect as roof spread?
Own page
No. A sagging ridge is the line of the roof dipping, often from the ridge timber, the rafters or the purlins. Roof spread is the feet of the roof pushing the walls outward. They can happen together and still be different. A home survey can see a dip from the ground and sometimes a gap at the top of a wall. It does not calculate the thrust.
Roofs
What should you ask if a gap has opened between an upstairs wall and the ceiling?
Own page
Ask whether the surveyor thinks the roof structure is moving, and what else they saw at the eaves. A gap at the ceiling line can be roof spread, a shrunk timber, or plaster that has let go. It is not automatically subsidence. A home survey sees the crack. It may not see the rafter feet if the loft was not entered.
Roofs
What should you ask if a roof truss has been cut to make a loft room?
Own page
Ask whether the cut is supported, and do not assume the new bedroom has building-regulations approval. Trussed rafters work as a set of timbers. Cutting one changes the roof. A home survey can see a cut member and a boarded room. It does not design a beam, and it does not sign the work off under Approved Document A.
Roofs
What is the difference between a trussed-rafter roof and an older cut roof, as far as a survey can see?
Own page
A trussed-rafter roof is usually a row of thin, repeating frames, common from the 1960s onward. An older cut roof is usually rafters, purlins and sometimes a ridge, built on site. A home survey can tell them apart when the loft is open. It does not strength-test either, and Approved Document A is not a certificate for the one you are buying.
Property types
What should you ask about the roof if the house is called Georgian and has a parapet?
Own page
Ask how the rain gets out. Many of these roofs sit behind a parapet, with a hidden gutter or a valley you cannot see from the street. A home survey may see the parapet, the pointing and a stain in the front room. It may not see the lead. “Georgian” is a description, not a legal age and not a condition rating.
Property types
What should you ask if you are buying a converted church rather than a house built as a house?
Own page
Ask what the surveyor could actually reach. Converted churches are often tall, with roofs, valleys and windows far above a normal house, and with rooms built into a volume that was not designed as a dwelling. A home survey is still a visual inspection. It does not become a longer ladder because the building was a church, and it does not prove the conversion was approved.
Structure
What should you ask if a bay window seems to sit under a timber lintel?
Own page
Ask whether the surveyor could see the timber, or only a crack and a dip at the window head. Older bays often have timber lintels that rot if they stay wet. A home survey does not open the plaster to prove the timber, and it should not call a rotten lintel “subsidence” without saying why. Approved Document A is not a certificate for this opening.
Structure
Is a soldier course of bricks over a window proof that a steel lintel is there?
Own page
No. A soldier course is bricks stood on end as a face. The support may be a steel, a concrete lintel, a timber, or nothing adequate hidden behind the bricks. A home survey sees the face and any crack or dip. It does not see through the brick, and a neat soldier course is not a calculation under Approved Document A.
Structure
What should you ask if a concrete lintel is cracked and stained with rust?
Own page
Ask whether the surveyor can see the lintel itself and how far the crack runs. Rust-coloured cracks in concrete over a window often mean the steel inside the concrete is corroding and expanding. That is a lintel defect. It is not automatically subsidence. A home survey does not break the concrete open to measure the bar.
Structure
What should you ask if a wall has been removed and the beam above is boxed in?
Own page
Ask whether any beam was seen, and do not treat the plasterboard as the structure. A removed wall needs something to carry the load, often a steel or a timber that a home survey cannot see once it is boxed. The survey can see a clear opening, a dip, or a crack. It cannot confirm the beam size, the bearings or the building-regulations approval.
Services
What can a drain camera show that lifting an inspection cover cannot?
Own page
The pipe between the chambers. Lifting a cover shows the chamber: the benching, the water level, maybe a broken channel. A camera, if you instruct one, travels the run and can show cracks, displaced joints, roots or a collapse the cover never revealed. A RICS home survey does not include that camera unless the quote says so.
Services
What should you ask if a drain camera report mentions roots?
Own page
Ask where in the run the roots are, and whether the pipe is cracked or only invaded at a joint. Roots are a drainage finding on that camera report. They are not, by themselves, subsidence of the house, and they are not a Japanese knotweed category. The home survey did not become a camera report because you stapled them together.
Services
What does it mean if a drain camera stopped because it could not pass?
Own page
It means the survey of the pipe is unfinished from that direction. A blockage, a collapse, a root mass or a sharp bend can stop the camera. The report should say how far it got. It should not describe the unseen length as clear. A home survey has not filled that gap by looking in the chamber.
Services
Are the grades on a drain camera report the same as RICS condition ratings?
Own page
No. Camera firms use their own keys for what the video shows. RICS condition ratings 1, 2 and 3 are defined for the home survey’s elements. A grade on a drain chart is not a rating 3, and a rating 3 on “drainage” in the home survey is not a frame of video. Read each document’s key before you add them together.
Services
What should you hand a drainage firm if the home survey only suspects a problem?
Own page
Hand them the survey sentence, the address, and which covers were lifted or not found. Do not hand them a diagnosis the survey did not make. A RICS home survey does not camera the drains unless that was in the quote. The firm should say what they will inspect and what they cannot see if a cover is buried.
Services
Does a clean inspection chamber mean the pipe run is clear?
Own page
No. A clean chamber means that chamber looked clear when it was opened. The pipe between chambers can still be cracked, rooted or collapsed. A home survey that lifts a cover has not filmed the run. Water sitting in the channel is a clue, not a measured fall.
Property types
What should you ask if a barn conversion still relies on the original timber trusses?
Own page
Ask which trusses were seen, and whether any have been cut, plated or left carrying a new floor. A barn conversion is not a new trussed-rafter roof. The old timbers can be the structure. A home survey can look at the members it can reach. It does not prove the conversion was approved, and it does not grade the oak.
Property types
What should you ask if a park home is being sold with an ordinary house-survey quote?
Own page
Ask the firm whether the inspection covers the chassis, the skirt and the site, or only the rooms. A park home is not a brick house on foundations the surveyor can infer from a damp-proof course. A RICS home survey format made for houses can miss the point if the quote pretends it is a semi. The survey still will not test the services.
Property types
What should you ask about tile hanging on an Edwardian bay the survey only saw from the ground?
Own page
Ask which tiles were loose, cracked or hidden by the bay roof, and do not treat tile hanging as a cavity wall. Tile hanging is a face fixed over a frame or a wall. A home survey from the ground can see obvious slips. It cannot see the battens, the felt or the timber behind sound tiles.
Property types
Does a home survey apply GOV.UK’s £250 and £100 leaseholder consultation figures?
Own page
No. GOV.UK’s leasehold page says you have a right to be consulted if you would pay more than £250 for planned work, or more than £100 a year for work and services lasting more than 12 months. That process is the Section 20 consultation. A condition rating does not know the contract price, so it cannot say either figure has been reached.
Property types
Does a home survey tell you whether leaseholders have used the Right to Manage?
Own page
No. GOV.UK says the Right to Manage lets qualifying leaseholders take over management of the building without the landlord’s agreement, and without having to prove bad management. The landlord still owns the building. A home survey describes the flat and what it could see of the block. It does not read the company records.
Property types
What is the difference between the Right to Manage and asking a tribunal to appoint a manager?
Own page
GOV.UK’s leasehold page lists both. Right to Manage is taking over certain management responsibilities without having to prove the landlord managed badly. Asking a tribunal to appoint a manager means proving bad management, for example unreasonable service charges or a failure to follow a management code, and it starts with a Section 22 notice. A home survey proves neither.
Property types
If a block is under the Right to Manage, has the flat stopped being leasehold?
Own page
No. GOV.UK says that if the leaseholders succeed, the landlord still owns the building and the RTM company manages it. The flat remains on its lease. Ground rent, if the lease reserves it, is still a lease question. A home survey does not convert the tenure because the hallway is well kept.
Property types
Can you take a reserve or sinking fund with you when you sell a leasehold flat?
Own page
Usually no. GOV.UK’s leasehold page treats reserve or sinking funds as money set aside for future repairs, such as a roof, and says you will not usually get back what you paid in if you move. A home survey does not hold the fund and does not pay it out. A rating on the roof does not empty the account.
Property types
Who collects the service charge if an RTM company manages the block?
Own page
GOV.UK’s Right to Manage guide says the company becomes responsible for collecting and managing the service charge. It may do that itself or pay a managing agent. A home survey does not see the demands, does not audit the account, and does not become the agent because it rated the stairs.
Property types
Can the owner of a leasehold house use the Right to Manage GOV.UK describes for blocks of flats?
Own page
Not on the qualifying guide’s own test. It says the building must be made up of flats, and that houses do not qualify. A leasehold house can still have a ground rent, a lease and a freeholder. A home survey does not convert the house into a block, and it does not run a Right to Manage claim.
Property types
Will a home survey check whether a block qualifies for the Right to Manage?
Own page
No. The qualifying guide sets tests: the building is flats, at least two-thirds of the flats are let on leases that were originally for more than 21 years, at least half the floor area is residential, and at least half the flats must be in the company before it takes over. A surveyor does not count the leases or the floor area.
Property types
What is a Section 22 notice, and why is it not a home survey?
Own page
GOV.UK says that if leaseholders want a tribunal to appoint a manager, they must first send the landlord a Section 22 notice, giving the landlord a chance to fix the problems. That notice is a legal step. A home survey is a report on condition for the buyer who instructed it. Serving one does not write the other.
Property types
Does a home survey include the service-charge summary GOV.UK says you can ask for?
Own page
No. GOV.UK says that if you pay a service charge you can ask for a summary of how it is worked out and what it is spent on. That right sits with the leaseholder and the landlord. A home survey is not that summary. It does not list last year’s cleaning, insurance or repairs.
Property types
Can you treat a condition rating as a tribunal challenge to a service charge?
Own page
No. A condition rating is the surveyor’s opinion of an element for the person who bought the survey. GOV.UK says you may be able to ask a tribunal if a charge is unreasonable, the work was unsatisfactory, or you do not think you should pay it, and that you cannot do that if you have already agreed the charge. The rating is not the application and not the agreement.
Property types
Why might a small converted house fail the Right to Manage even if the neighbours want it?
Own page
Because the qualifying guide says that if the landlord, or an adult family member, has lived in a flat as their only or main home for the past 12 months, a building that is not purpose-built and contains no more than four flats might not qualify. A home survey cannot know who lived there. Wanting to manage is not the test.
Property types
What should you ask if the corridor outside a new flat is unfinished on survey day?
Own page
Ask for the unfinished parts to be listed as not complete, not as a passed common area. A home survey can only rate what exists. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance, with the builder responsible in the first two years and insurance for certain defects after that. An unfinished corridor is a completion question, not automatically an insurance claim.
Property types
Does a snagging company’s list use RICS condition ratings?
Own page
No. A snagging list is a list of items the snagging firm noticed, often against the builder’s specification. RICS condition ratings belong to a home survey. Stapling them together does not turn a scratched door into a rating 3, or a rating 3 roof into a snag the builder must paint.
Property types
What should you ask if a brand-new house is timber frame rather than brick and block?
Own page
Ask the surveyor to say it is timber frame, and ask the solicitor for the warranty and the structural paperwork that names the frame. A brick skin can hide timber. A home survey does not open the cavity to prove the kit, and a new-build warranty is not a RICS level. NHBC Buildmark is one policy. It is not every warranty.
Property types
Does the NHBC Buildmark policy list the snags the surveyor has just written down?
Own page
No. Buildmark is NHBC’s warranty and insurance policy. The survey is a separate report. NHBC says the builder is responsible for the first two years, and that the later years insure damage from defects in specific parts, not every snag. A scratched worktop is not automatically either. The policy wording is the list that matters, and this page does not replace it.
Property types
What is the difference between a snag at handover and a defect that shows later?
Own page
A snag is something incomplete or unsatisfactory that you can see around handover, such as a badly fitted door. A later defect is damage or a failure that appears after you have moved in. NHBC’s Buildmark puts the builder on the hook in the early years and insures certain later damage. A home survey on day one cannot list the crack that has not happened.
Property types
What can a survey say about a new-build balcony it could see only from inside?
Own page
It can say the balcony was not fully inspected. Glass, decking and the edge you cannot stand on are outside a look through the door. A home survey does not load-test a balcony and does not certify the waterproofing. NHBC Buildmark is not a substitute for that look, and it does not apply if this plot uses a different warranty.
Property types
What should you ask when the builder is still working on the plot during the survey?
Own page
Ask the surveyor to separate finished elements from work in progress, and ask the solicitor what the contract requires before completion. A home survey cannot rate a kitchen that is still in boxes, and it should not pretend the plot is the show home. NHBC’s early period assumes a builder who is responsible for defects. It does not finish the house for you.
Property types
What should you ask if the sales brochure does not match the boiler or the windows on the plot?
Own page
Ask the solicitor to compare the specification in the contract with what is installed, and ask the surveyor only what they could see. A brochure is marketing. A home survey is not a specification audit. NHBC Buildmark does not promote the kitchen in the brochure to a warranted item just because the photograph was nicer.
After the survey
What does mygov.scot say you can do if you do not want to buy after reading urgent repairs in a Home Report?
Own page
It says that if repairs are marked urgent or as needing future attention, you should consider whether you can cope, get estimates if you still want to proceed, and that if you do not want to buy you can walk away at that stage without penalty. That is the Scottish Home Report stage. It is not an English exchange, and it does not define a RICS condition rating 3.
After the survey
Which part of a Scottish Home Report is the visual survey, and which part is only the energy certificate?
Own page
Only the single survey is the inspection. The energy report beside it is the EPC, an energy model, not a condition note and not a repair quote. mygov.scot lists a property questionnaire as the seller’s own answers, separate from both. If you are arguing about a heating-cost figure, you are not arguing about the surveyor’s repair comments.
After the survey
Who writes the property questionnaire in a Home Report, and why is that not the surveyor’s inspection?
Own page
The seller provides the questionnaire. mygov.scot says it covers 16 categories, including past fire, storm or asbestos, alterations, specialist works or guarantees, and notices. The single survey is the chartered surveyor’s visual inspection and valuation. A seller’s “no” on asbestos is not a sample, and a seller’s “yes” on a guarantee is not the surveyor testing that guarantee.
After the survey
What does mygov.scot tell you to do about a Home Report repair marked as needing future attention, not only one marked urgent?
Own page
The same practical things. The page says if repairs are marked urgent or as needing future attention, consider whether you can cope with the cost or inconvenience, and get estimates before you proceed if you think you can. Future attention is not a free pass, and it is not automatically an English condition rating 2.
After the survey
What does mygov.scot say you can do if a seller does not give you a Home Report within nine days?
Own page
Contact the local council’s trading standards service. The page says a seller or selling agent must provide the Home Report within nine days of you asking, where one is required, and points you to trading standards if they do not. That is not a right to a private Level 3, and it is not the remedy for an English seller.
After the survey
Does the word “accessibility” in a Scottish single survey mean the loft was inspected?
Own page
Do not assume that. mygov.scot says the single survey tells you about the home’s condition, its accessibility and repairs. The page does not define accessibility. It might mean how the home can be used, or how much the surveyor could reach. Only the report in your hand uses the word in context. A loft marked not inspected is not inspected, whatever the heading says.
After the survey
Is the energy report inside a Home Report a quote for the repairs in the single survey?
Own page
No. mygov.scot says the energy report is the EPC: energy use, a rough average cost for heating, lighting and hot water, and an environmental rating. The single survey is where repairs are marked. An average energy cost is not an estimate for a rotten sill, and the page tells you to get estimates for those repairs if you intend to proceed.
After the survey
Is the valuation inside a Scottish Home Report the budget for the repairs it lists?
Own page
No. mygov.scot says the valuation is an opinion of what the home is worth. The repairs are a separate comment, and the page tells you to get estimates if you intend to proceed. Worth is not a shopping list. A home survey valuation is not a builder’s quote, in Scotland or anywhere else.
After the survey
If a Scottish home is exempt from a Home Report, what must the seller still give you?
Own page
An Energy Performance Certificate. mygov.scot says that where a Home Report is not required, the seller must still provide an EPC. The EPC is not a single survey. You do not suddenly have a condition report because the exception applies, and you do not have to pretend the exception is a survey.
After the survey
Why should a buyer in England or Wales not copy the Scottish sentence about walking away without penalty?
Own page
Because that sentence is about the Home Report stage in Scotland. mygov.scot says you can walk away without penalty at that stage if you do not want to buy. In England and Wales the moment you are committed is usually exchange, unless you have signed something earlier. A RICS “what to do now” note tells you to get quotes before legal commitment. It does not enact Scottish missives.
After the survey
Should a seller in England choose the surveyor the buyer will rely on?
Own page
No. In England and Wales the buyer’s home survey is instructed by the buyer, and RICS’s consumer material treats it as that buyer’s report. A seller can commission their own survey. They should not appoint themselves as the person who picks the buyer’s inspector and then call the result independent. A Scottish Home Report is the exception people confuse with this, and it is a different legal product.
After the survey
If you are selling in England, do you have to pay for every specialist the buyer’s survey names?
Own page
No. The survey is advice to the buyer. RICS tells the reader to get quotations before they are legally committed. It does not send the invoice to the seller. A seller may choose to pay, or to reduce the price, or to refuse. The contract, not the rating, decides. There is no national rule that an EICR, a drain camera or a damp opening is the seller’s bill.
After the survey
Can a seller in England refuse a return visit the buyer wants before exchange?
Own page
Yes, unless a contract they have already signed says otherwise. The house is still theirs. A RICS survey does not give the buyer a right to come back, and it does not include a second visit unless the quote said so. Refusal has a cost: the limitation stays in the report, and the buyer may walk away if they are not yet committed.
After the survey
What should a seller do if they disagree with the buyer’s rating of the roof?
Own page
Say what they disagree with, and produce the invoice, the guarantee or a contractor’s note if they have one. Do not paint the stain the night before a second look. The rating is the buyer’s surveyor’s opinion. It is not a court judgment, and it does not force the seller to pay. A calm correction of fact is more useful than a complaint about the surveyor’s manners.
After the survey
Does a seller’s builder’s quote cancel the buyer’s survey?
Own page
No. A quote is a price for work the builder is willing to do. The survey is an opinion of condition. They can disagree, and the buyer still has to decide. RICS does not say a builder’s letter deletes a rating. A Scottish Home Report is not cancelled by a tradesperson’s note either.
After the survey
If two buyers each want a survey, does a seller in England have to allow both?
Own page
Only if they want both sales to stay alive. Nothing in a RICS consumer guide forces a seller to host every interested buyer’s surveyor. A seller who refuses the second visit may lose that buyer. A seller who agrees should give each surveyor proper access. Each report is for its own client. Neither buyer should rely on the other’s PDF.
After the survey
Should a seller in England commission a Level 3 and call it a Home Report?
Own page
No. A Home Report is the Scottish pack: single survey and valuation, property questionnaire and energy report. A Level 3 in England is a RICS home survey the client instructs. The names are not interchangeable. Calling a Level 3 a Home Report misleads a buyer about reliance, valuation and the questionnaire.
After the survey
What should a seller reply if a buyer asks them to sign the survey as accurate?
Own page
They should not sign a report they did not instruct and cannot verify line by line. The surveyor is responsible for the survey. The seller is responsible for the answers they give in the forms their solicitor uses, and in Scotland for the property questionnaire. Signing the buyer’s PDF as if it were a warranty is not a RICS step.
After the survey
Does an owner-occupier seller in England have to buy an EICR because the buyer’s survey rated the electrics?
Own page
No. The EICR duty in the GOV.UK guidance is on landlords in the private and social rented sectors, at least every five years. It is not a duty on an owner-occupier who is selling their home. A condition rating is not an EICR. The buyer may still want one. Who pays is a negotiation, not a fine.
Property types
What should you ask if a house called Georgian has a front vault or coal cellar the surveyor did not enter?
Own page
Ask for that vault to be treated as not inspected, and do not call the front room dry because the street looks fine. These vaults sit under the pavement, take water through the stone, and are often locked. A home survey that did not enter has not seen the timbers over them. “Georgian” is not a rating and not a date proved by the survey.
Property types
What should you ask about the edge of a concrete balcony on a 1960s flat?
Own page
Ask whether the surveyor could see the edge, the soffit and the outlet, or only the top from inside the room. Concrete edges of that era can crack and stain where the steel is close to the face. A home survey does not test the slab. Age is not a diagnosis, and it is not a reason to call the concrete RAAC.
Property types
What should you ask about a purpose-built mansion block as against a house chopped into flats?
Own page
Ask which it is, because the risks differ. A purpose-built block was designed as flats, with common stairs and, often, a flat roof or a parapet. A converted house may have a stair cut through floors that were not a block, with thinner fire separation and a roof still built as a house. A home survey of one flat does not measure the fire performance of either.
Property types
What should you ask about fire and sound separation in a house that has been split into flats?
Own page
Ask what the surveyor could see, which will usually be doors, lobbies and the floor of one flat, and do not expect a fire test. A converted house often has timber floors that were not built as separations between homes. A home survey does not cut a hole to see the layers, and it does not issue a building-regulations completion certificate.
Property types
What should you ask if a former school is now a house and still has one very large hall?
Own page
Ask how that hall is roofed and heated, and which parts the surveyor could not reach. A school conversion keeps long spans, high windows and a volume a normal house survey does not assume. The inspection is still visual. It does not prove the change of use was signed off, and it does not test the heating of a hall that tall.
Property types
What should you tell a survey firm before they quote for a 1960s house with a shallow concrete-tiled roof?
Own page
Tell them the roof is low-pitched and concrete tiled, if that is what you can see, and ask how much of the loft the fee includes. Those roofs are often trussed, with little room to move, and the covering is heavy. A quote that assumes a Victorian loft will understate the limit. The survey still will not strength-test the trusses.
Property types
What should you ask if a “flat” is only a room in a house with a shared front door?
Own page
Ask the solicitor whether you are buying a lease of a flat or a share of a house, and ask the surveyor what separation they could see. A room with a lock is not a flat because the advert used the word. A home survey cannot create a lease, and GOV.UK’s Right to Manage rules for buildings of flats do not apply to a lodging room.
Services
What does GOV.UK say a C2 code means, and why is that not a RICS condition rating 2?
Own page
GOV.UK’s rental electrical guidance says code C2 means potentially dangerous. A RICS condition rating 2 means repair or replacement that is not serious or urgent. The numbers match by accident. They are different scales, written by different people, for different jobs. A home survey does not award a C2, and an EICR does not award a condition rating.
After the survey
What should you do if a Home Report questionnaire mentions asbestos and the single survey says nothing about it?
Own page
Treat them as two documents that do not agree yet. mygov.scot says the questionnaire is where the seller reports past issues, including asbestos, and the single survey is the visual inspection. A seller’s yes is not a sample. A surveyor’s silence is not a clearance. The Level 3 description says the surveyor is not an asbestos inspector, and a ticked box does not change that.
Property types
Does a brand-new boiler get a gas test because the house is new?
Own page
No. A RICS home survey looks at services visually. The Level 3 description says they are not tested for safety. A boiler fitted last week is still untested by that survey. NHBC Buildmark does not change the inspection into a gas certificate. The survey can see the case, the flue terminal and a leak. It cannot say the combustion is safe.
Reading the report
Do coloured dots on a survey PDF change what condition ratings 1, 2 and 3 mean?
Own page
No. The colours are a layout. The definitions are the RICS ones. Rating 1 is no repair currently needed. Rating 2 needs repair or replacement but is not serious or urgent. Rating 3 is serious or urgent, or both. A red dot does not add a fourth category, and a green dot does not erase a written limitation.
Reading the report
Does a condition rating 2 on tired decoration mean you should budget for a new kitchen?
Own page
No. Rating 2 means that element needs repair or replacement but is not serious or urgent. Tired paint, worn worktops or dated units can be described that way without anyone ordering a new kitchen. The rating does not contain a price. A home survey is not an interior-design brief.
Reading the report
What should you do if a report seems to rate an element and also mark it not inspected?
Own page
Ask the surveyor which one they mean. Not inspected means they did not see it. A condition rating is an opinion of something they could judge. The two should not be applied to the same unseen thing. If the rating is of a part they saw, and the NI is of a part they did not, the report should say so in words.
Reading the report
Can a missing legal right, such as access or a consent, be given a condition rating?
Own page
It should not be forced into rating 1, 2 or 3. Those ratings describe the condition of building elements. A missing consent, a doubtful access or a short lease is a legal matter. The survey can flag it for your solicitor. The Level 3 description’s ratings are not a title report, and a lease or a missing consent is not a crack.
Reading the report
What should you do if two surveyors rate the same roof differently?
Own page
Read both descriptions, not only the numbers. Ratings are opinions against the RICS definitions, on the day, within what each surveyor could see. One may have entered the loft and the other may not. One may be describing the covering and the other the structure. The higher number does not automatically win, and the lower number is not a clearance.
Reading the report
Is a blank condition box the same as rating 1?
Own page
No. Rating 1 means the surveyor judged that no repair is currently needed. A blank box means the template was not filled. Not inspected means they could not or did not inspect. Those are three different outcomes. Do not promote a blank to a pass because the rest of the page looks calm.
Reading the report
What should you do if the summary looks calm but a rating 3 sits in the back of the report?
Own page
Read the back. The definitions do not say a rating 3 only counts if it is on page one. Serious or urgent is serious or urgent wherever it is printed. The “what to do now” note still expects written quotations before legal commitment. A calm executive summary does not repeal the element.
Reading the report
Does every condition rating 2 entitle you to a price reduction?
Own page
No. Rating 2 means repair or replacement that is not serious or urgent. RICS reserves the “get written quotations before legal commitment” warning for rating 3. A rating 2 may still be something you want priced, especially if many of them add up to real work, but it is not an invoice and not an instruction to the seller to pay.
Reading the report
Does a condition rating on a garage apply to the house?
Own page
No. The garage is its own element unless the report has said the defect continues into the house. A rating 3 on a cracked garage roof is about that roof. It does not regrade the main house, and a rating 1 on the house does not mend the garage. Outbuildings are often less fully inspected, especially if they were locked.
Reading the report
If an agent says the survey was “satisfactory”, which RICS rating is that?
Own page
None. Satisfactory is not one of the three condition ratings. Rating 1, 2, 3 and not inspected are. An agent’s adjective is not the report. Ask for the ratings and the limitations, or read them yourself. A house can be called satisfactory and still contain a rating 3 the agent did not mention.
The survey
What does a Level 1 deliberately not tell you about a defect it has found?
Own page
How to manage it. RICS describes Level 1 as a visual overview that notes defects, risks and urgent matters, and says it will generally not advise you how to manage those defects. It is aimed at conventional homes in reasonable condition. If you need repair advice you can budget from, RICS points you to a Level 2 or, for older or altered buildings, a Level 3.
The survey
Does a standard Level 1 or Level 2 remove secured panels and drain covers?
Own page
RICS says the standard visual inspection at Level 1 and Level 2 does not remove secured panels, electrical fittings, inspection chamber covers and similar features. Level 2 and Level 3 include a more extensive look at roof spaces and drainage chambers than Level 1. None of that is a test of the services, and none of it is a promise to unscrew a panel that has been fixed shut.
The survey
If you buy a Level 2 as survey only, where is the reinstatement figure?
Own page
Nowhere, unless someone added it. RICS says a Level 2 can be survey only, or survey plus a market valuation and a reinstatement figure. The survey-only product does not include those numbers. Reinstatement is an insurance rebuild figure, not a repair budget and not the price you are paying.
The survey
Why does a lender’s valuation visit not become a Level 2 if the valuer stayed an hour?
Own page
Because the instruction is different. MoneyHelper explains that a mortgage valuation is for the lender, to decide what the property is worth as security. It is not a survey of condition for you. Time on site does not change the contract. A Level 2 is a RICS home survey with condition ratings and advice. You are not the client of the lender’s valuation unless the paperwork says you are.
The survey
What should you tell the firm if the house is older or heavily altered before they sell you a Level 2?
Own page
Tell them. RICS describes Level 2 as suiting conventional property in reasonable condition, simple in form, without a stack of alterations. Level 3 is the one it describes for older, altered or unusual buildings, or if you plan major work. A Level 2 on a cut-about Victorian house is often the wrong product, even if it is cheaper.
The survey
What should you agree before a survey of a tenanted house?
Own page
Agree access, in writing, with the seller: who will be in, which rooms can be entered, and whether furniture will be pulled out. A RICS inspection works around occupation. Fitted furniture, stored lofts and floor coverings limit every level. Those limits should be written down. They are not a secret rating 1 for the rooms the surveyor could not cross.
The survey
Whose name has to be on an English home survey before you rely on the ratings?
Own page
The client named in the terms, almost always the buyer who instructed and paid for it. RICS distinguishes that private instruction from a Scottish Home Report, which a purchaser can rely on. Forwarding an English PDF to a later buyer, a lender or a seller does not make them the client. If you need them to rely on it, the letter has to say so.
The survey
Does a Level 2 or Level 3 of your flat include the neighbour’s flat?
Own page
No. The inspection is of the property you are buying, plus the common parts the surveyor is allowed to see. The flat next door is someone else’s home. A higher level does not bring a right to enter it. Leak paths from next door can be suspected and still not proved.
Money
What does the RICS consumer guide actually say about fees, if it is not a price list?
Own page
It says the cost is variable. On that guide, Level 1 sits at the lower end and starts at a few hundred pounds, and a Level 3 sits at the higher end, with some bespoke services costing over £1,000. Those are RICS’s published words, not a quotation for your house. The firm still prices the building in front of it.
Money
What should you ask if one survey quote is far cheaper than the others?
Own page
Ask which level it is, what it excludes, and whether VAT, travel and a valuation are inside it. A low number is not a bargain if it is a Level 1, a desktop note, or a valuation for the lender. RICS does not set a single price. It does describe Level 1 as the lower end and more bespoke Level 3 work as the higher end. Compare like with like.
Money
Does the survey fee include a conversation after you have read the report?
Own page
Only if the terms say so. Some firms include a short call. Some charge for time after the PDF. RICS does not publish a rule that every question is free, and it does not publish a call-out price. Ask before you instruct, and ask whether the call is with the surveyor who saw the house.
Money
Why can a flat survey be priced differently from a house of the same floor area?
Own page
Because the work is different, not because RICS published two tariffs. A flat may need common parts, a roof the surveyor cannot enter, a lease they must not pretend to read, and a block they must describe from limited access. A house of the same floor area may have a loft they can enter and a drain in the garden. The firm prices the time. You should ask what they have assumed.
Money
Should you expect to pay more only because a house is old?
Own page
You should expect the firm to price the time and the level, and age is one reason a Level 3 may be the right product. RICS does not add a fixed sum per century. A small, simple, well-maintained older house can take less time than a large altered modern one. Ask what they have assumed. Do not demand the Level 1 “few hundred pounds” description for a building that needs Level 3.
After the survey
What is the difference between money the solicitors hold back and a lender’s retention?
Own page
A lender’s retention is the lender keeping back part of the mortgage until a repair is done. It is not cash you can spend, and it is not a price cut. Money the solicitors hold is a contract term the two sides agree, if they agree it, about the price. A condition rating does not create either arrangement. RICS tells you to get quotes before commitment. It does not draft the retention.
After the survey
If the seller offers an indemnity policy instead of repairing a rating 3, what have they not done?
Own page
They have not repaired it. An indemnity policy, if one is offered, is an insurance product your solicitor explains. It is often aimed at a legal risk, such as missing consent, not at a crack or a leaking roof. A condition rating 3 still means serious or urgent. A policy does not replace the written quotation RICS tells you to get before you commit.
After the survey
What should you do if two contractors quote wildly different sums for the same survey paragraph?
Own page
Ask whether they priced the same work. One may have included scaffold, VAT and making good. The other may have priced a patch from the pavement. RICS does not average quotes, and a rating does not contain a figure. The quotation you rely on before commitment should describe the defect the survey described.
After the survey
What should you do if the lender values the home for less and your survey found no rating 3?
Own page
Treat them as different documents. A down-valuation is the lender’s view of value as security. A home survey without a rating 3 is a condition opinion that nothing they rated was serious or urgent. One does not cancel the other. MoneyHelper’s distinction is that the valuation is not your survey. Your survey is not the lender’s figure.
After the survey
Should you ask the seller to knock off the reinstatement figure?
Own page
No. Reinstatement, where a Level 2 valuation includes it, is an insurance rebuild figure for the whole home. It is not the cost of the repairs in the survey, and it is not the market price. Subtracting it from the asking price is nonsense. RICS “what to do now” points you at quotations for rating 3 defects, not at the rebuild number.
After the survey
What should you agree if the seller wants to do the rating 3 repair before completion?
Own page
Agree the scope, the standard and what happens if it is not finished, in writing, through the solicitors. A promise to “sort the roof” is not a contract. RICS tells the buyer to get written quotations before legal commitment. It does not supervise the seller’s contractor. A lender’s retention, if there is one, is a further document.
After the survey
Does buying without a mortgage mean a condition rating 3 can be ignored?
Own page
No. Rating 3 means the element is serious or urgent, or both, whether or not a lender is involved. Paying cash only means there is no lender retention and no lender valuation beside the survey. RICS still tells you to get written quotations before you commit. Cash does not repair the defect.
After the survey
Why does RICS talk about quotations before legal commitment rather than after completion?
Own page
Because after you are committed the choice has narrowed. The “what to do now” note says to get written quotations for rating 3 matters before legal commitment, so you know the cost while you can still decide. It does not say the seller must accept the quote, and it does not rewind an exchange you have already made.
After the survey
Does a condition rating 3 mean RICS has told you to walk away?
Own page
No. It means the element is serious or urgent, or both, and that you should get written quotations before you are legally committed. You may still buy, if you understand the cost and want the home. You may walk away if you are not yet bound and you do not want it. The surveyor does not decide. The lender does not decide for you either, though the lender can refuse the mortgage.
After the survey
How do you choose between a price reduction and the seller doing the work?
Own page
Choose on who will control the repair, not on which sounds tougher. A price reduction leaves the work to you after completion, with your contractor and your timing. The seller doing the work can be sensible for a simple, specified job before you complete, and risky if the job is complex, consented or easy to do badly. RICS wants you to know the cost before you commit. It does not pick the option.
The survey
Does a higher RICS level guarantee that something hidden is sound?
Own page
No. RICS is explicit that none of these surveys guarantees a concealed thing is sound. If the surveyor could not see it, the honest mark is that it was not inspected. Level 3 describes more and looks at a wider range. It does not acquire X-ray vision because the fee was higher.
The survey
What should you do with a quote that says “RICS type survey” but never names Level 1, 2 or 3?
Own page
Ask them to name the level before you pay. RICS home surveys come in three levels with different inspections and different advice. A phrase like “RICS type”, “full structural” or “building survey” is not a level. If they will not name one, you do not yet know whether you are buying a visual overview or a Level 3.
Money
Is a drone included because the firm’s website shows one?
Own page
No. A drone is an extra unless the quote says you are getting one. RICS levels are visual inspections from the access the level describes. A photograph on a brochure is not a term of your instruction. If you need a roof seen that a ladder will not reach, ask whether a drone is available, what it will cover, and what it costs.
The survey
Is a desktop or remote “survey” a RICS Home Survey level?
Own page
No. Level 1, 2 and 3 are inspections of the property. A desktop note, a video call or a look at the listing photos is not those levels, even if a surveyor prepared it. RICS describes the levels as visual inspections, more extensive as the level rises, and none of them is a guarantee of what was not seen. If nobody attended, almost nothing was seen.
The survey
What should you ask if the same firm offers the lender’s valuation and your home survey?
Own page
Ask which document is for the lender, which is for you, and who may rely on each. A mortgage valuation is for the lender. A home survey is for its client. Combining the appointments can be convenient. It does not merge the instructions. MoneyHelper’s point is that the valuation is not the survey. A shared diary slot does not change that.
The survey
Can you still rely on a home survey if the purchase drags on for months?
Own page
Rely on what it was: an inspection on a date. It does not update itself. A leak, a repair or a new crack after that date is not in the PDF. RICS levels do not include a season of monitoring. If the roof has been worked on, or winter has passed, ask whether you need a reinspection rather than pretending the old ratings are today’s.
The survey
Do Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 look at the grounds in the same way?
Own page
No. RICS describes Level 3 as the longer look, including the grounds, and Level 1 as a more limited visual overview. A retaining wall, a large tree or an outbuilding can be a passing note at one level and a proper element at another. None of the levels digs the garden up or decides a boundary.
The survey
Does paying for Level 3 mean the electrics and the gas have been tested?
Own page
No. Across the levels, services are a visual inspection. The Level 3 description says the surveyor does not test the safety of the electrics, the gas or other energy sources. Level 1 is explicit that there are no tests of the fabric or the services. A higher fee does not buy an EICR or a Gas Safe record.
After the survey
What should you check if you reserved a new-build plot before the survey exists?
Own page
Check whether the reservation already binds you, and whether you can still walk away when the report arrives. Some reservation agreements are only a holding fee. Some are more. Your solicitor reads that paper. RICS tells you to get rating 3 quotes before legal commitment. A reservation is not automatically that commitment, and it is not automatically harmless.
The survey
Can the next buyer use the survey an earlier buyer commissioned three months ago?
Own page
Only if the surveyor agrees they may rely on it. In England and Wales the report was written for the first client. Three months also means the building may have changed. RICS does not transfer reliance by the passage of time. A seller who hands the PDF over should say whose it was. A buyer who relies on it without a letter is using advice that was not owed to them.
The survey
Should a buyer in Northern Ireland ask for a Scottish Home Report or an English Level 2 by default?
Own page
Neither by default. RICS describes the three levels for the surveys you commission, and the usual path it contrasts with Scotland is England and Wales. Northern Ireland is not the Scottish Home Report system. mygov.scot’s pack, nine-day rule and “walk away without penalty” wording do not cross the Irish Sea because the house is in the UK. Ask a Northern Ireland solicitor what is normal in that purchase, and ask the survey firm which product they are actually selling.
Money
Why should you not add an EPC fee to a survey quote and call the total the survey?
Own page
Because an EPC is an energy certificate, required when a home is sold in England, and it is not a RICS home survey. The assessor does not rate the roof as rating 1, 2 or 3. The surveyor does not produce the EPC unless the quote says they will, as a separate task. Adding the two prices invents a product nobody is going to deliver.
Money
How should you compare a snagging-company fee with a Level 3 quote on a new home?
Own page
As different jobs. A snagging list checks the new plot against incomplete and unsatisfactory items. A Level 3 is a RICS home survey with condition ratings and a description aimed at older or unusual buildings, which a standard new house may not need. RICS does not say you must buy Level 3 for every new build, and a snagging firm does not become RICS because the fee looks similar.
Money
What should the survey terms say before you pay a fee?
Own page
The level, the address, who the client is, whether a valuation is included, what is excluded, what happens if you or the seller cancels, and whether VAT is in the figure. RICS does not supply a national price, but its consumer guide does tell you to get a written quote that names the level. A card machine before those words exist is how people buy the wrong product.
After the survey
Should the survey fee be added again if you are also asking for a price reduction?
Own page
No. The fee bought the report. It is not a defect in the house. RICS “what to do now” is about quotations for rating 3 repairs before you commit, not about invoicing the seller for your decision to be informed. Adding the fee on top of a roof quote double-counts your caution.
Money
If the seller repairs a defect, is the second look included in the first survey fee?
Own page
Not unless the quote said so. A reinspection is another visit or another piece of work. RICS levels describe the first inspection, not a project-management service that returns until the seller is finished. Ask the fee and what the second letter will actually say. It may only say that a stated item appears to have been done, not that the whole house is re-rated.
Damp
When a north-facing wall beads with condensation in January, has the damp-proof course failed?
Own page
No, beads on a cold north-facing wall in January are moisture from the room air landing on a cold surface, not water rising through a failed damp-proof course. A home survey can record the cold face and any mould. It cannot turn one winter visit into proof that the course has failed.
Damp
Can a bathroom with no working extract grow mould while the masonry behind it stays dry?
Own page
Yes. Steam with nowhere to go will grow mould on cold paint, tile grout and ceilings while the masonry behind can still be dry. That is a ventilation failure, not a diagnosis that the damp-proof course has failed. A visual survey does not measure the fan or test the brick behind the tiles.
Damp
If rain is coming through cracked render, has the damp-proof course failed?
Own page
Not on that evidence. Rain through cracked render is water from the outside face, which is penetrating damp. Rising damp, where it exists, is discussed at the base of the wall from the ground. A cracked coat does not show that the damp-proof course has failed, even if the inside face is then wet.
Damp
Is a dripping overflow that keeps wetting one patch of brick actually rising damp?
Own page
No. A dripping overflow wetting one patch of brick is a discharge from a cistern, a tank or a WC fitting. It can green the brick and damage that patch. It is not water rising evenly from the ground, and it is not proof the damp-proof course has failed.
Damp
Does mould on a window board prove the wall below has rising damp?
Own page
No. Mould on a window board is usually condensation on a cold ledge under the glass. It does not prove that the wall beneath the board has rising damp. Check whether the skirtings and the plaster under the window are wet, or whether only the board and the glass edge are affected.
Damp
Will a home survey pull sofas and beds away from the walls to look for damp?
Own page
No. A standard home survey looks at surfaces it can see without moving the household. It does not pull sofas and beds off the walls. Damp or mould behind furniture can be missed, and a calm comment is not a promise about the hidden face of every wall.
Damp
Has a dehumidifier left running for the viewing already cured the damp?
Own page
No. A dehumidifier running on a viewing has dried the air for that visit. It has not cured a leak, a bridged course or a cold wall. Read what is still there when you ignore the machine: salts, stains, mould, and the outside levels.
Damp
Can plaster taken down past the damp-proof course keep the skirtings wet?
Own page
Yes, plaster carried down across the damp-proof course onto the masonry below it can wick moisture up into the skirtings. The course may still be present, and the finish is bridging it. A meter on the skirting cannot separate a sound course from a plaster bridge.
Damp
Does a damp streak that tracks a radiator pipe point to the plumbing rather than the damp-proof course?
Own page
Yes, a wet line that follows a radiator pipe is a plumbing clue: a weeping joint, a pinhole or condensation on a cold pipe can track that route. It is not the pattern of rising damp. The survey can record the line, but it does not pressure-test the heating.
Damp
What should you make of a tumble dryer that is vented into the room rather than outside?
Own page
Treat it as a moisture source, not as a small lifestyle detail. A tumble dryer vented into the room, or into a cupboard, dumps warm wet air where you live. That feeds condensation and mould. It is not a failed damp-proof course, and a home survey does not run the dryer to measure it.
Damp
Is green algae on the outside wall the same thing as black mould indoors?
Own page
No. Green algae on an outside wall is growth on a shaded, often damp outer face. Black mould inside is a different surface and usually a different mechanism. One does not prove the other, and neither proves that the damp-proof course has failed.
Damp
Does a buried air brick prove the floor joists have already started to rot?
Own page
No. A buried air brick means the void under a suspended timber floor may not be ventilating. It does not prove the joists have already rotted. A home survey does not lift fitted carpets or floorboards as standard, so the timber can remain unseen.
Damp
Can fresh paint hide a damp stain from a visual home survey?
Own page
Yes. Fresh paint can hide a stain from a visual survey. The surveyor records the surface they could see that day. Emulsion does not remove a leak or a cold-wall problem, and a freshly painted wall is not a test result that the wall is dry.
Damp
Is a damp patch at the top of an internal wall usually rising damp?
Own page
Rarely. Rising damp is discussed at the base of walls that are in contact with the ground. A damp patch at the top of an internal wall is far more often a leak from above, a pipe, or a roof junction. Calling it rising damp ignores the height.
Damp
Can a cold-water pipe sweat and drip onto the ceiling below without the pipe having burst?
Own page
Yes, a cold-water pipe can sweat in humid air and drip onto the ceiling underneath, so the stain can look like a roof leak or a burst even though the pipe has not split. If both the pipe and the stain are visible, the survey can record them. It cannot prove which drop fell on a dry day.
Damp
Is a musty smell, with no visible stain, already a damp diagnosis?
Own page
No. A musty smell with no visible stain means the air is stale or that something you cannot see is damp. It is not a diagnosis of rising damp, a leak or rot. The survey should record the smell and the limit on what was hidden, not invent a cause.
Damp
Does the surveyor have to cut a plaster sample before they are allowed to mention damp?
Own page
No. The surveyor can mention damp from what is visible: staining, mould, salts, a surface meter, or a limit on access. They do not have to cut a plaster sample first. Opening the wall is a further investigation, not the ordinary inspection.
Damp
Can an unheated house on a cold viewing feel damp without the walls being saturated?
Own page
Yes. An unheated house on a cold viewing often feels clammy because the surfaces are cold and the air is still. That feeling is not a moisture-meter result and it does not mean the walls are saturated. Ask what was seen and measured, not what the rooms felt like.
Damp
Can a leak in the porch roof wet the porch floor without the house damp-proof course having failed?
Own page
Yes. A leak in a porch roof, its flashing or its gutter can wet the porch floor and the porch walls while the damp-proof course in the main house is a separate question. Keep the porch as its own defect. Do not spread one drip across every wall of the house.
Damp
Are white salts on brand-new plaster a category of damp?
Own page
No, white salts on brand-new plaster are often left as the new coat dries, or as salts move into a fresh finish. They are not, by themselves, a category of rising damp, penetrating damp or condensation. A meter can still respond to them, and that response is not the category.
Damp
Can a flat over a shop be wet from the shop below rather than from its own roof?
Own page
Yes. A flat over a shop can be damp from the unit underneath: a leaking pipe, a cold shop ceiling, or steam, showing on the flat's floor or lower wall. That is not the flat's roof. A survey of the flat usually cannot inspect the shop.
Damp
Can a failed shower tray wet the ceiling below even though the roof covering is sound?
Own page
Yes. A cracked tray, or the joint around it, can wet the ceiling of the room underneath while every roof slope is sound. The clue is a bathroom above that ceiling, not a missing tile. A home survey does not flood the tray to prove it.
Damp
What happens if the cooker hood discharges into the loft instead of outside?
Own page
A cooker hood that dumps into the roof void, rather than to the outside, puts steam into the loft and can wet the felt, the quilt and the ceiling edge. That is not a hole in the tiles. If the duct enters the loft, the survey can see it, but it does not test the fan.
Damp
What should you make of an extract fan that blows into the wall cavity?
Own page
The moisture is going into the cavity, not outdoors. An extract that discharges into the wall cavity can wet the cavity and the inner leaf. The room has not been ventilated to outside air. A visual survey may see the grille and still not see where the duct ends.
Damp
Can moisture trapped between secondary glazing and the original sash be nothing to do with the damp-proof course?
Own page
Yes, condensation can sit in the gap between secondary glazing and the original sash when that gap is cold and the room is humid. That is a glazing problem, not proof the wall or the damp-proof course has failed. The survey sees the glass and does not take the secondary panel off.
Damp
Is chipboard that has swollen after a washing-machine leak a form of rising damp?
Own page
No. Swollen chipboard after a washing-machine leak is water from the machine, the hose or the waste. It is a local soaking of the floor deck. It is not rising damp, even when the damage is at floor level and a meter reads high on that spot.
Damp
Can rain splashing off a gutter leave a mark at the base of the wall that looks like rising damp?
Own page
Yes. A gutter that overflows and splashes the base of the wall can leave a horizontal stain which looks like a tide mark. The water came down from the roof edge, not up from the foundations. Look at the gutter and the splash line before anyone names the damp-proof course.
Damp
If only one elevation is wet, and only after wind-driven rain, is that rising damp?
Own page
No. Wetting on one elevation, and only after wind-driven rain, is weather hitting that face. Rain is being pushed through pointing, render, a joint or a detail on the exposed side. Rising damp would not wait for a particular wind and would not spare the other walls.
Damp
If a roof-window blind comes down wet, should every roof slope be treated as failed?
Own page
No. A wet blind on a roof window is often condensation on a cold pane or frame, soaking the fabric. It does not mean the whole roof covering has failed. A leak at that one window would still be a local junction, not a verdict on every slope.
Damp
Can loft quilt pushed into the eaves leave the ceiling edge damp without a tile having slipped?
Own page
Yes, quilt pushed into the eaves can block the air path and leave the ceiling edge cold and damp. The stain at the perimeter can be that blockage, not a slipped tile. A surveyor who entered the loft can see insulation tight against the eaves, but cannot calculate a ventilation rate.
Damp
What has a home survey actually proved about a wet-room floor it could not flood-test?
Own page
Very little about whether the floor holds water. A wet-room floor depends on tanking, falls and the outlet, and a home survey does not flood-test it. Dry feet on the day are not a test. Stains on the ceiling below, if any were visible, are the clue the visit could actually use.
Damp
Should a weeping joint at the back of a WC be recorded as rising damp in the floor?
Own page
No, a weeping connection at the pan or the soil pipe can wet the floor around the WC. That is a plumbing leak, not rising damp in the floor. A home survey does not pull the pan off to prove the joint.
Damp
Is damp inside an electricity meter cupboard automatically a failed damp-proof course?
Own page
No. Damp in a meter cupboard can be condensation on cold equipment, a leak from a pipe in the same cupboard, or rain at the door. It is not automatically a failed damp-proof course. If the cupboard could not be opened safely, the survey is limited to that fact.
Damp
If the boiler condensate pipe discharges against the outside wall, is that rising damp?
Own page
No, condensate discharged against the wall wets that patch from the outside whenever the boiler runs. It is not rising damp and it is not a roof leak. The survey can see the outlet if it is visible, but it does not test or service the boiler.
Damp
Does moss on a shaded wall prove the brickwork is saturated?
Own page
No. Moss on a shaded wall shows that the surface stays damp enough for moss, often because the sun never reaches it. It does not prove the brick is saturated through, and it does not prove rising damp. Read the survey's notes on the wall, not the colour of the growth.
Damp
Do trickle vents that the occupant has merely closed, not painted shut, still matter to condensation?
Own page
Yes, trickle vents closed by the occupant, but not painted over, shut a background air path the windows were given, and condensation can follow while they stay shut. They can be opened again. That is different from vents painted solid, and it is not a failed damp-proof course.
Damp
Can a cold spot on a ceiling be missing loft quilt rather than a leak?
Own page
Yes, a cold spot, sometimes with a faint mark or a little mould, can be a gap in the loft quilt rather than water from the covering. The tiles may be sound. If the loft was entered, a bare patch of ceiling can be seen, but quilt hidden under full boarding cannot.
Damp
Can a gap in the bath sealant wet the room below while the roof is irrelevant?
Own page
Yes, a gap where the bath meets the wall or the floor lets splash water through and can stain the ceiling underneath. The roof has nothing to do with it. A home survey sees the gap if it is visible, and any stain below, but it does not fill the bath and watch.
Damp
If the underside of the roofing felt is wet on a cold morning, is that usually a leak?
Own page
Not necessarily. Water on the underside of the felt on a cold morning can be condensation in a cold roof. The Building Research Establishment reports that drips in a cold roof are often condensation, not a leak. A home survey can record wet felt, but it does not prove a hole from one cold morning.
Damp
Can the chimney breast be damp inside the loft even when the pots look sound from the ground?
Own page
Yes, the breast in the loft can be stained by rain at the stack or the flashing, or by moisture in the flue, while the pots still look upright from the street. That loft stain is separate from the condition of the pots. The survey records what it could see, and it does not sweep the flue.
Damp
Is a brushed bitumen coat on a cellar wall a guarantee that the masonry behind it stays dry?
Own page
No, bitumen paint on a cellar wall is a coating, not a guarantee that the masonry behind it stays dry. It can blister, hide the masonry, or stop short of the floor. A home survey sees the coating and any salt or damp at its edge, but it cannot see the earth face behind it.
Damp
Does mould on stored shoes mean the wall or the floor has a structural defect?
Own page
No. Mould on stored shoes, bags or cardboard is often the belongings sitting in still air against a cold surface. It is not automatically a structural defect in the wall or the floor. The survey does not empty the cupboard, and it should not condemn the structure from the shoes alone.
Damp
Can rain get through the cheek on the side of a dormer without the main roof tiles having failed?
Own page
Yes. The cheek is the upright side of the dormer, and rain can pass a cracked cheek covering, a failed joint where that side meets the slope, or a gap in the tile hanging, while the main roof tiles still sit in an even field. That is rain at the cheek. It is not a verdict on the house covering.
Damp
Can a slipped stepped flashing where a roof slope meets a wall let rain in, with no valley involved?
Own page
Yes. Stepped flashing is the series of steps, often lead, let into the joints where a slope meets a wall, and if those steps have slipped out, rain running down the slope enters the wall head. No valley is required. From the ground you may see a gap, and you may still miss some of the steps.
Damp
Can a cold-water cistern in the loft sweat onto the ceiling even though the tank itself is not leaking?
Own page
Yes, a cistern can sweat on its outside when moist air meets the cold surface, and those drips can stain the ceiling below while the seams stay tight and the water level stays steady. The survey can note beads on the tank and a stain under it. It does not pressure-test the cistern.
Damp
Why might a damp patch appear only after the heating has been off for about a week?
Own page
Because a week without heat lets a wall go cold, or lets a slow weep show that normally evaporates. The delay is a clue, not a damp category. It is not proof of rising damp. One viewing, heated or cold, cannot settle which mechanism you have.
Damp
If a solid bathroom wall is damp on the inside face but the skirtings are dry, is that rising damp?
Own page
No. Damp limited to the inside face of a solid wall in a bathroom, with dry skirtings, fits condensation or splash on the cold inner face. Rising damp would be expected at the base, not as a mid-wall patch above a dry skirting. The survey should describe that limit.
Damp
If the survey saw standing water in a lightwell against a basement window, what has that shown?
Own page
It has shown that water was standing against the basement window on that day, so the window and the wall beside it were sitting in a pond. That is outside moisture at the opening, not a finding about how any drain was designed, and not proof the damp-proof course has failed. The survey saw the water. It did not test where the water ought to have gone.
Damp
If tanking stops halfway up a cellar wall, has the masonry above that line been waterproofed?
Own page
No, tanking that stops halfway leaves the masonry above that line outside the coating, so damp can show along the stop or on the bare wall above it. The coated lower half is not a certificate for the whole wall. A home survey cannot see behind either part.
Damp
If the cellar sump was switched off, what could the survey say about whether it pumps?
Own page
Only what was visible while it was off. If the sump was not switched on, the survey could not see it pump, hear it run, or watch the water level fall. A pump, a float and a pipe on the floor are not a demonstration. The report should say the unit was off, not that the cellar drainage worked.
Roof and rainwater
What is the difference between a hip roof and a gable, and what do the hip tiles hide?
Own page
A hip roof slopes at the ends as well as at the sides, so those ends have no vertical gable wall, whereas a gable finishes in a wall. Hip tiles, or hip slates, cover the external angle and hide the hip rafter, the cut courses and the fixings. A home survey sees that line from the ground and does not strip the hip, so a tidy line is not proof the timber inside is sound.
Roof and rainwater
What is a butterfly or secret gutter between two roof slopes, and why is it not an eaves gutter?
Own page
A butterfly, or secret, gutter is the channel where two slopes fall towards each other, often hidden from the street. It is not the eaves gutter on the outer edge, and if it blocks or splits, water stands between the pitches. A visual survey may never see the lining.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if mortar debris is sitting in a roof valley, even when the lead looks whole?
Own page
Ask whether the lining is split or the valley is simply dammed by broken mortar from a ridge, a hip or a verge, which can hold water even when the lead is intact. That is a blockage, not proof the metal has failed. From the ground the debris is often invisible, and a loft stain under the valley still does not show you the lead.
What should you ask if the upstand of a roof window finishes below the tile line?
What should you ask if the upstand of a roof window finishes below the tile line?
Own page
Ask whether water on the slope can run behind the upstand instead of onto the flashing below it. An upstand that finishes below the tiles around the opening is a geometry problem at that window, not a comment on the glass and not the same thing as a ceiling stain. A home survey can say this only if the upstand was in view, and it does not lift the tiles to prove the lap.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if the ridge tiles look sound but the hip irons are missing?
Own page
Ask about the foot of each hip, not the ridge, because hip irons are the straps that stop the lowest hip tiles sliding off. The ridge can be solid while those straps are missing or rusted through, which is not a failed ridge and not roof spread. From the ground a surveyor may see a bare foot of hip, or only that the lowest tile looks unrestrained.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask about a chipped tile that is still fixed, rather than one that has slipped?
Own page
Ask whether the tile is still fixed and whether the chip opens the lap. A chip in a tile that has not moved is not a slipped tile, and it is not a slate that has already fallen. One small chip may shed water as before. A survey from the ground cannot see the underlay behind it, and it should not be written up as a slope that has failed.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if a cement fillet has been used where a roof meets a wall, instead of lead?
Own page
Ask whether that junction is mortar rather than metal. A cement fillet is a triangular band of mortar used instead of soakers and a cover flashing, and it cracks and parts from the wall so water can run behind it while the tiles still look even. A home survey sees the fillet if it is in view and cannot see how far water has tracked.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if a flashing is dressed so that water can run behind it?
Own page
Ask which way the lap faces. Lead or felt turned uphill, or tucked so the free edge points into the weather, sends water behind the flashing instead of over it, which is a dressing fault rather than a missing flashing. A surveyor may see an upturned edge from a window or the ground and will not peel the flashing back on a standard inspection.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if a slate roof above a door has no snow guard?
Own page
Ask whether the survey is noting an absence, not imposing a duty. Snow guards are rails or brackets low on a slope that can hold a slide of snow, and above a door they are a practical comment, not proof the slates have failed. A home survey does not invent a rule that every slate roof must have them, and snow on the day is not a test.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if the flashing around a pipe through the roof looks split or blobbed with mastic?
Own page
Ask about that pipe only. A soil vent or another pipe through the covering needs a collar or a proper flashing, and a split collar or a blob of mastic is a local rain path, not a valley failure and not an abutment. The survey sees the outside of the pipe if it was visible, does not camera the pipe, and does not pass the rest of the slope.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if the bargeboard on a gable is soft?
Own page
Ask about the timber on the sloping edge of the gable, not the fascia behind the eaves gutter. A bargeboard trims the verge, and if it is soft that board may be decaying even though the tiles still sit evenly, which is not proof the rafters have failed. A survey does not cut the board open.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if thatch eaves have been cut so short that rain misses the gutter?
Own page
Ask how the coat meets the gutter, not how thick the ridge looks. If the eaves of the thatch stop short, drips can fall behind the gutter and wet the wall, which is a junction problem rather than a verdict on the whole coat. A survey from the ground can see that relationship and cannot date the thatch or say how many years the coat has left.
Roof and rainwater
What can a survey say about slates that have been coated in bitumen or roof paint?
Own page
It can say the surface is coated and what that hides. Bitumen or roof paint covers the slate face, so cracks, thin edges and tired fixings may not show, and the survey cannot date the coating from its colour or confirm the slates underneath are sound. A coating is not nail sickness and not a remaining-life figure, and where the coat has cracked, that crack is what was visible.
Roof and rainwater
What is a sprocketed or bellcast eaves, and why is the change of pitch not a sagging ridge?
Own page
A sprocket, or bellcast, is a deliberate easing of the pitch at the eaves so the last courses lie a little flatter and throw water into the gutter. It is a traditional detail, not a sagging ridge and not roof spread, and a surveyor who names it is stopping that change of angle being misread. They still cannot see the sprocket timbers without opening the eaves.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if a flat-roof outlet is blocked by leaves, even when the covering looks whole?
Own page
Ask about the outlet, not only the membrane. Leaves, moss or a silted grate can stop water leaving, so the covering can still be intact while water stands because it has nowhere to go, which is not the same as ponding from a failed or sunken covering. A home survey sees a blocked outlet only if it was visible and does not water-test the roof.
Roof and rainwater
What is a warm-roof build-up, and can a survey confirm that the insulation sits above the deck?
Own page
A warm-roof build-up puts the insulation above the deck, with the waterproofing above the insulation, so the deck is on the warm side. A home survey can confirm those layers only if an edge, an upstand or a drawing actually shows them. The look of the top surface does not prove the order. It is not a remaining-life figure, and it is not a reason to replace a covering the survey could not see through.
Roof and rainwater
Can a home survey date a fibreglass flat roof, or say how it differs from felt?
Own page
It can describe the surface: fibreglass, also called GRP, is liquid-applied, while felt is laid in sheets. A surveyor may say which they believe they are looking at, but they cannot date either from appearance, and a seller's "done recently" is not a date without an invoice. A sound-looking top coat does not prove the deck, and the survey does not core the roof.
Roof and rainwater
What is a roof light set into a flat roof, and how is it different from a roof window on a tiled slope?
Own page
A flat-roof light is a kerb, dome or glass panel in the flat covering, with the waterproofing dressed up the upstand, whereas a roof window on a slope sits among tiles or slates with its own flashing kit. The weak points differ: a low upstand, a split dressing or a cracked dome, rather than a tile apron. A survey comments on the light if it could be seen and does not walk the flat roof as standard.
What should you ask if the lead on a flat roof has split along a roll?
What should you ask if the lead on a flat roof has split along a roll?
Own page
Ask whether the split follows a roll or a drip, because traditional lead flats are joined over timber rolls and the metal often fatigues where it is folded and fixed. That split is a break in the sheet, not a comment on every bay. From a window or the ground a surveyor may see an open split and miss a hairline, and they cannot measure how much thickness is left.
Roof and rainwater
Can the underside of a cold flat roof drip when the covering itself has not split?
Own page
Yes. The Building Research Establishment has reported that drips in a cold roof are often condensation, not a leak through the covering, because moist air meets a cold deck and water forms on the underside. That can mark a ceiling without a hole in the felt or membrane. A home survey can note drips and where insulation was visible, but one visit cannot always prove which mechanism made a single drip.
What should you make of an intact blister in flat-roof felt?
What should you make of an intact blister in flat-roof felt?
Own page
Treat it as trapped air or moisture, not as proof the covering has already failed. A blister can sit unsplit or open later, and a home survey can record one it could see and whether the surface has cracked, but it cannot date the felt from the blister or promise a leak. A blocked outlet is a separate comment.
Roof and rainwater
What can a survey say about the covering on a bay roof, separately from the main roof?
Own page
It can treat the bay as its own small roof, because many bays carry lead, felt or fibreglass that is not the main slope. The survey should say whether that covering was seen and what the rolls, drips or upstands looked like if they were in view, since a bay roof can be tired while the main tiles look even. Not seeing the top from the ground is a limit, not a pass, and the comment is about the covering itself.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask about the internal gutter on an M-shaped roof?
Own page
Ask where the water between the two ridges goes. An M-shaped roof has a central trough as well as outer eaves, a long channel that is easy to miss from the street, and if it blocks or splits, water sits above the middle while the outside gutters look clear. A visual survey may see it only from a loft, or not at all.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if a downpipe aims at a gulley that sits higher than the pipe?
Own page
Ask whether water can enter the gulley. If the rim, the grating or a silted trap is higher than the shoe of the downpipe, rain spills beside the wall instead of going into the drain, even when the brackets are sound, and this is not a pipe that simply ends on open ground. A home survey sees the levels if they were visible and does not lift the gulley or test the underground drain.
Roof and rainwater
Can cast-iron gutter joints leak while the brackets still hold the gutter up?
Own page
Yes. Old cast-iron gutters are bolted at the sockets, and those joints weep when the seal or the bolt fails, while the brackets can still carry the run. A leaking joint is not proof the whole gutter must be scrapped, and it is not a comment on a plastic gutter that has replaced iron. A survey sees drips and rust streaks if they are present, and a dry day does not prove the joint is tight.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if a gutter has no stop-end and water can run off onto the wall?
Own page
Ask where the run finishes. A stop-end closes the end so water goes to the outlet rather than pouring onto the wall, and if it is missing the brackets and the fall can still be in order while the wall gets wet. That is not a measured fall, and it is not a downpipe that discharges onto open ground for its whole height.
Roof and rainwater
What is a back gutter behind a chimney stack, and why might a ground-level survey miss it?
Own page
A back gutter is the short channel on the uphill side of a stack, where the slope meets the back of the chimney, not the main valley and not a parapet gutter. Debris or a split lining there wets the stack and the ceiling beside it while the tiles look even. From the pavement the stack hides the channel, and a loft may show the stain without showing the lining.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if a chimney pot is cracked but still standing upright?
Own page
Ask about that pot, not about a pot that has gone. A crack in a pot that is still bedded lets rain and birds into the flue and can widen, but the pot has not fallen, which is different from a missing pot. From the ground a wide crack may show and a hairline may not, the survey does not sweep the flue, and a fire in use needs a combustion check that is separate from noting the crack.
Roof and rainwater
What does rust staining from a television aerial bracket tell you if you cannot see a crack in the stack?
Own page
It tells you the bracket or its bolts are corroding, not that a crack has been proved. Orange staining in the mortar is different from an aerial that has already split the stack, and a stain may be the start of bursting joints or surface rust only. A home survey should not call it a crack unless a crack was seen, and it does not test the aerial or the cable.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if the fireplace is open but the pot is closed with a solid cap and no vent?
Own page
Ask whether either end can breathe. An open fireplace with a solid cap and no vent is a mismatch, the room open to the flue and the top sealed, so moisture can sit in the shaft, and this is not a general comparison of rain caps and ventilated cowls. A home survey records what it could see at the pot and at the opening, and it has not swept anything or proved the flue clear.
Can a chimney pot sit crooked while the brick stack is still upright?
Can a chimney pot sit crooked while the brick stack is still upright?
Own page
Yes. The lean can be in the pot and its bedding while the brick courses stay plumb, which is not the same defect as a stack that leans. From the street the two are easy to mix up, so the survey should say which one it could see. A tilted pot is not a gas-safety record, and the survey has not tested any appliance in that flue.
Roof and rainwater
What can a survey see if a chimney stack has been rendered?
Own page
It can see the render, not the brick underneath, so open joints, spalled bricks and old repairs stay hidden. Cracks, hollow patches and stains on the render are what a visual survey can record, and sound-looking render is not proof the brick is sound or that the stack is new. The survey does not hack render off, and damp indoors may still come from the crown, the flashings or the flue.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if the lead saddle behind a chimney looks split?
Own page
Ask about the saddle, the lead that weathers the uphill side of the stack where the slope meets it. A split there lets rain in at the back of the chimney, which is not the same as soakers at the sides that sit under the tiles and can fail unseen. A surveyor sees a saddle only when it is in view, will not lift it, and a loft stain is a clue rather than a measurement of the lead.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if the oversailing courses on a chimney are cracked but the pots look straight?
Own page
Ask about the projecting brick courses, not only the pots. Those courses throw water clear of the stack, and if they are cracked or losing their joints, rain can track into the brick while the pots still look upright, which is not a verdict on the crown mortar and not a lean. A ground-level view may show a gap and miss a fine crack, and the survey does not rebuild the course to test it.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if a cowl has fallen into a chimney pot and blocked it?
Own page
Ask whether the pot is obstructed, not whether it is missing. A cowl or cap that has dropped inside can block the flue while the pot is still there and upright, which is a different path from a pot that has gone. From the ground a surveyor may see the cowl askew and may not see an object in the pot, the survey does not camera the flue, and using the fireplace is an appliance question the survey has not signed off.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if the coping stones on a parapet have open joints?
Own page
Ask about the joints in the coping, not only the flashing where the roof meets the wall. Copings cap the parapet, and open joints let rain into the top of the wall even when a flashing lower down looks tidy, which is not a failed parapet flashing and not a chimney pot. A survey sees the joints that were in view and does not lift the stones.
Roof and rainwater
What should you ask if mortar has been smeared over the top edge of a chimney flashing?
Own page
Ask whether the lead can still shed water or the chase is buried. Mortar over the top of a flashing can close the joint the lead was dressed into, so water behind the smear cannot escape on the face of the lead, even though the flashing may still be present. The survey sees the smear if it was visible and does not rake the joint out.
Services
Why does it matter if a balcony door threshold falls back towards the room?
Own page
Rain on the balcony then runs towards the floor inside instead of out onto the balcony, so the fall of that threshold is the point. It is not a window cill that slopes back to the glass, and it is not a door set below the outside paving. A home survey can see the fall if the door was opened and the balcony was in view, it does not hose-test the door, and a dry day is not proof the fall is outward.
Services
What should you ask if a sash window will not stay open because of the cords or the weights?
Own page
Ask about the cords, the pulleys and the weights, not about rot and not about the locks. A sash that slides shut, or will not stay up, often has a broken cord or a weight off the cord, while the glass and the timber can still be sound. A home survey does not open the weight pocket, a painted-shut sash was not tested, and failing to stay open is not by itself a test of the security ironmongery.
Services
If a uPVC window frame is still square and firm, does a misted sealed unit mean the whole frame should go?
Own page
No. Mist between the panes means the edge seal of that glass unit has failed, and a uPVC frame that is still square and firm can remain serviceable, so the failed part is the glass rather than the plastic. A home survey does not measure the frame or order a new window, and replacing every frame because one unit has misted is a choice rather than what the misting proves. A failed seal is not rot, and it is not automatically a condition rating 3 for the whole elevation.
Services
What should you ask if the putty is falling out of a timber sash but the glass is still intact?
Own page
Ask about the rebate and the putty, not about a sealed unit. Traditional putty holds a single sheet of glass, and when it falls out the pane can rattle and still be unbroken, which is not a misted unit and not proof the sash is rotten. Soft timber under the missing putty is a separate finding only if it was seen, and a survey does not re-putty the window to test the rebate.
Services
What can a home survey say if a letterbox or a cat flap has been cut through the entrance door of a flat?
Own page
It can say there is a hole in the door leaf and describe the letter plate or flap it saw. It cannot say the door fails a fire test, because a visual survey does not fire-test doors and cannot tell from a hole alone what the leaf was built to do. The opening is a condition comment about that leaf, not a certificate, and not proof that other doors in the flat match it.
Services
What should you ask if a replacement window has no trickle vent in the frame at all?
Own page
Ask whether any vent was seen in the frame. A replacement with no trickle vent is an observation about that opening, not a vent painted shut, and not rot, a failed seal or a distorted frame. Missing paperwork does not make the glass leak, the absence of a vent does not by itself set the condition rating, and whether a vent was required is a question for the approval papers, which the survey does not issue.
Services
What should you ask if later plaster has buried the sash boxes so the weights cannot be seen?
Own page
Ask the surveyor to record that the boxes were concealed, not to guess the weights. On many older sashes the weights hang beside the frame, and later plaster or lining has buried the pockets, so a home survey will not chop plaster off to find a cord. A sash that opens on the day has not proved the hidden weight is sound, and buried boxes are a limit rather than rotten timber.
Services
What does it mean if you can see daylight under an external door, along the threshold?
Own page
It means there is a gap at the bottom large enough to see light through, which is a draught and a route for driven rain. That is a threshold gap, not the wider finding that the door no longer meets its frame at the sides and the head, and the door can still latch while showing light underneath. A home survey records the gap if it was seen, does not test the locks, and daylight is not a reading of the damp-proof course.
Services
What should you ask if two sash meeting rails no longer line up, so the fastener misses?
Own page
Ask about the meeting rails and the fastener, not about the cords alone. If one sash has dropped relative to the other, the rails no longer meet and the catch cannot close, which is a fit problem in the middle of the window, not by itself a broken cord, a locksmith's test, or rot unless the timber was soft. A surveyor sees the mismatch if the sashes were visible and does not rehang the cords.
Services
What should you ask if a glazing bead is loose but the sealed unit has not misted?
Own page
Ask about the bead that holds the unit, not about the seal between the panes. A loose, split or missing bead can let the glass move and let rain towards the rebate while the unit is still clear, and clear glass means a failed edge seal was not seen. A home survey will not pull the bead off, and a loose bead is not a reason to call the frame rotten or the rebate dry.
Services
What should you ask if the silicone around a window has split while the frame stays square?
Own page
Ask about the sealant joint, not the frame as a whole. Silicone or mastic around a frame is a surface seal, and when it splits, rain can track into the gap even though the frame is still firm and square, which is not misted glass and not missing paperwork. A survey sees the split if it was in view, does not water-test the joint, and a fresh bead is not evidence the gap behind it is sound.
Services
What should you ask if a small top opener or night vent on a window is seized shut?
Own page
Ask whether that small opener moves. A night vent or top light that is painted, rusted or jammed shut cannot be used, which is not a trickle vent painted over and not a trickle vent missing from a replacement frame. The main sash or casement can still work, a home survey does not measure the air in the room, and a seized vent is not a rotten frame unless the timber itself was soft.
Electrics
What can a surveyor say about a consumer unit under the stairs if the cover stayed on?
Own page
They can say they saw the cupboard and that the cover was not removed. A home survey does not test the circuits, and a secured cover is not taken off as part of a standard look. That sentence is not an Electrical Installation Condition Report, and it is not a RICS rating written in electrician’s codes.
Electrics
What does fabric-covered cable in a 1930s loft mean if the survey only looked?
Own page
It means the surveyor could see old braided cable in that roof space. Looking is not an insulation test, and one length in a loft is not a map of the whole house. You have a reason to ask an electrician, not a finished verdict that every circuit must be replaced.
Electrics
An extension seems to be wired from a socket spur. What has the survey not done?
Own page
It has not tested that circuit, counted the load, or proved that the spur is suitable. A cable leaving a socket and heading towards a later room is a visual note. It is not an EICR, and it is not a building-regulations certificate for the extension.
Electrics
There is an EV charger on the wall. Did the home survey test it?
Own page
No. Seeing a charge point on the drive or the garage wall is not a test of the unit, the cable, or the circuit that feeds it. The survey does not plug a car in, and it does not produce an Electrical Installation Condition Report for that equipment.
Electrics
A shower pull-cord was seen in the bathroom. Why is that not a certificate or a test?
Own page
Because the surveyor looked at a switch. They did not test the circuit, and they did not see a Part P certificate unless one was handed over. A certificate, if it exists, is a record of work that was signed off. It is not a test of this circuit today.
Electrics
There is a solar inverter in the loft. Did the survey test that the panels generate?
Own page
No. The surveyor may have seen the inverter, the isolators and the cables. They did not carry out a generation test, and a home survey does not certify the electrical installation. A display that is dark on a dull day is not a failure, and a glowing display is not a test certificate.
Electrics
Red and black cores, or brown and blue: what does cable colour actually tell a buyer?
Own page
Colour is a clue to age, not a test result and not a date certificate. Older cable often shows red and black, and later cable often shows brown and blue. The surveyor has not dated the installation from the plastic, and they have not tested either colour.
Electrics
Outdoor lights have perished gaskets. What can the survey say, and what can it not?
Own page
It can say the seals look cracked, missing or painted over, so water may be able to reach the fitting. It cannot test the circuit, and it has not classified the fitting with an electrician’s code. A worn gasket is a visual defect, not a completed electrical inspection.
Electrics
Electric underfloor heating in a bathroom was not tested. What do you know?
Own page
You know the surveyor was told about it, or saw a thermostat or a floor that is heated electrically. You do not know that the mat works, that the cable is undamaged, or that the circuit is suitable. The survey did not switch it on as a test.
Electrics
A fused spur seems to feed an electric shower. What is still only a visual note?
Own page
Everything electrical about that shower. The surveyor may have seen a fused connection unit, a cable, or the shower itself. They have not tested the circuit, checked that the fuse matches the shower, or confirmed the cable. A neat spur is not a pass.
Electrics
Night-storage heaters were not tested. Why is that not an energy-certificate recommendation either?
Own page
The survey did not switch the heaters on, did not check the off-peak supply, and did not assess whether they are efficient. A line on an energy certificate that suggests a different heating system is not an electrical test, and it is not an EICR code. You have heaters that were seen, not a verdict.
Services
The gas hob shows no flame-failure device. Can the survey call it unsafe?
Own page
No, the survey cannot call the hob unsafe, and it cannot call it safe either. A glance at the burners does not show whether a flame-failure device is fitted, hidden or absent, and it is not a gas tightness test. HSE’s position is that gas work is for an engineer on the Gas Safe Register, which the surveyor has not done.
Services
The boiler is in a bedroom cupboard. What has the survey not checked about that cupboard?
Own page
It has not checked whether the cupboard is ventilated as a Gas Safe engineer would require, and it has not produced a gas safety record. The surveyor can see a door, a vent, or no vent. They cannot say the arrangement is safe because the boiler is indoors, or unsafe because it is near a bed.
Services
An open fire has a gas poker. Why is that not a test of the fire or the flue?
Own page
Because a poker is a gas burner in the grate, and seeing it is not lighting it as a safety check. The survey has not tested the supply, the tap, or whether the chimney clears the products of combustion. HSE expects that gas work to be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer.
Services
What can the survey say about an outdoor LPG cylinder cage, from what it could see?
Own page
It can describe the cage: where it stands, whether it is damaged, rusted, blocked in, or hard against the house. It cannot say the installation is safe, and it has not tested the cylinders or the pipe into the building. Location and condition of the cage are visual notes. They are not a Gas Safe record.
Services
The gas meter is in a basement the surveyor did not enter. What has the report actually seen?
Own page
Nothing of that meter, unless it was visible from a doorway they did use. If the basement was not entered, the meter was not inspected. The survey has not tested for tightness, and it should not describe a room it did not open. HSE still expects gas work to be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer, which this visit was not.
Services
A date on a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm sticker was readable. What does that date not prove?
Own page
It does not prove the alarm works, and it does not prove the flue is safe. The surveyor may have read a replace-by date or a manufacture date on the case. They did not test the sensor, and they did not test any appliance. HSE’s gas work is for a Gas Safe registered engineer, not a reading of a sticker.
Services
The boiler flue terminal looks close to a window. Has the survey measured that?
Own page
No. The survey does not measure the clearances a Gas Safe engineer uses, and it must not invent a distance. “Looks close” is a reason to have a registered engineer check it. It is not already a fail, and it is not a pass.
Services
The air brick for a boiler cupboard has been painted over. What should you ask next?
Own page
Ask a Gas Safe registered engineer whether that cupboard still has the air the appliance needs. The survey can see paint across the holes. It has not measured the free area, and it has not combustion-tested the boiler. Paint is a visual note, not a gas safety record.
Services
Radiators are cold at the bottom and warm at the top. Is that a leak, and was a power flush done?
Own page
It is often sludge sitting in the radiator, which is a different note from a leak at a valve or a pipe. The survey did not power-flush the system, did not dose it, and did not pressure-test it. Warm metal is not a service record. Gas work, if the heat source is gas, is for a Gas Safe registered engineer.
Services
The hot water is an immersion heater and a header tank. What has the survey actually checked?
Own page
It has seen, if access allowed, a vented cylinder and a tank that feeds it. It has not tested the immersion, and it has not certified the tank. This is not the unvented-cylinder question. A header tank and an open vent are a different system, and the survey did not switch the heater on as a test.
Services
There is a magnetic filter on the heating return. Does that mean the system was serviced?
Own page
No. A filter on the heating return is only a pot on the pipe, usually near the boiler, and seeing it is not a service record, a power flush or a gas safety check. The survey did not open the magnet or test the boiler. If the heat source is gas, HSE expects a Gas Safe registered engineer to do that gas work.
Services
The boiler condensate is pumped uphill to a sink. Why is a failed pump not a roof leak?
Own page
Because the water comes from the boiler’s condensate, lifted by a small pump to a waste, and if the pump stops the water appears in or under the boiler cupboard rather than from the roof. The survey did not test the pump or service the boiler. Gas work is for a Gas Safe registered engineer.
Services
The underfloor heating manifold was visible. Did the survey run the loops?
Own page
No. Seeing the manifold, the gauges and the actuators is not running the system, and the survey did not balance the loops or test the heat source. If that heat source is gas, a Gas Safe registered engineer does the gas work, while the manifold note stays visual.
Services
The water softener has a bypass. What did the survey actually establish?
Own page
Only that a softener and a bypass valve were there to be seen, if the cupboard was open. The survey did not test the water, did not prove the bypass works, and did not service the unit. This is not a finding about the metal of the incoming pipe. It is a softener the visit did not operate.
Services
The stopcock could not be turned. Why does that matter before exchange?
Own page
Because it is the valve you would use to isolate the incoming water if a pipe fails. If it will not move, you may not be able to stop a leak without the water company’s valve outside. The survey did not force it, and forcing it is not the inspection. A Gas Safe engineer is for gas, which is HSE’s gas question, not for freeing a stopcock.
Services
The house has both a combi boiler and a hot-water cylinder. Which one is live?
Own page
The survey cannot tell which one is live. Both can be plumbed, one can be abandoned, or each can serve a different tap, and the visit did not trace the pipework or test the gas. HSE expects a Gas Safe registered engineer to do gas work, so seeing two appliances is not knowing which one heats the water.
Drainage
There is a manhole in the pavement outside. Is that the chamber the survey was meant to open?
Own page
No. A cover in the public pavement is not the inspection chamber in the garden or the drive, and the home survey did not lift it or camera any pipe. Approved Document H is building-regulations guidance for drainage work, not a survey of the highway and not a camera report.
Drainage
A pumped macerator toilet was not operated. What does the survey know about it?
Own page
It knows the unit is there, if it could be seen, and that nobody ran it. A macerator, the sort fitted when a WC is far from a gravity soil pipe, is a machine. The survey did not switch it on, did not prove the discharge pipe, and did not camera the drain it pumps into.
Drainage
A rainwater downpipe appears to enter a foul gulley. Has the survey proved a misconnection?
Own page
No. It has seen a downpipe whose shoe looks as if it discharges into a gulley that also smells or looks like a foul waste, which is a visual suspicion rather than a traced pipe or a camera survey. Approved Document H is about how drainage is designed for regulated work, and it does not prove where this pipe goes.
Drainage
The septic tank lid is buried in the lawn and was not found. What do you know?
Own page
You know the survey did not find a lid to open. You do not know the tank type, the condition, or where the outfall goes. Grass over a possible tank is not an inspection. The survey does not prove the outfall.
Drainage
A treatment plant has a warning light the survey could see but not interpret. What now?
Own page
Treat the lamp as a light that was on, off, or flashing, and nothing more. The surveyor is not the manufacturer’s alarm panel, and the survey does not prove the outfall. Ask the seller what the light means and when the plant was last serviced. Do not invent a pass or a fail from the colour.
Drainage
A shared drain may run under next door’s later extension. What can this survey see of that route?
Own page
Almost nothing of the length under their floor. The survey of this house can see covers on this plot, and perhaps a line of covers in the garden. It cannot inspect a pipe beneath a room the neighbour built later, and it did not camera that run unless a camera was a separate instruction.
Drainage
A soakaway takes the roof water. Why is that not a septic discharge, and what was not measured?
Own page
Roof water to a soakaway is the ordinary use of a surface-water soakaway. It is not a septic tank emptying into the ground. The survey did not measure the crates or the pit, did not test how fast the ground takes water, and did not prove the soakaway is large enough. Seeing a downpipe disappear towards the lawn is not that design check.
Drainage
The channel drain across the drive is blocked. Does that mean the foul drain has collapsed?
Own page
No. A channel drain, the sort people often call an ACO drain, takes surface water off the drive, and a blockage there is silt, leaves or a jammed outlet until someone shows otherwise. The survey saw the channel, but it did not camera the underground pipe and it did not prove a foul-sewer collapse.
Drainage
A toilet runs constantly. Is that a collapsed drain?
Own page
No. A cistern that never shuts is usually a valve or a washer in the cistern, and it wastes water. The survey did not dismantle the cistern and did not camera the drain. Running water is not, by itself, a collapsed sewer.
Drainage
The soil stack is inside a boxed duct the survey did not open. What is hidden?
Own page
The pipe, the joints, and any leak above the point you can see. A painted boxing is not an inspection of the stack. The survey did not cut it open, and it did not test the drains. Approved Document H does not see through plywood.
Drainage
The kitchen waste drops into the hopper of a rainwater pipe. Has a misconnection been proved?
Own page
Not underground. The survey can see a waste pipe entering a rainwater hopper, which is the wrong place for foul water to start, but it has not traced the buried pipe, dyed the system or camera-surveyed it. The visible entry is the finding, and the rest is unproved.
Drainage
The cellar drain rises when the kitchen is used. What has that shown, and what has it not?
Own page
It has shown that using the kitchen pushes water to the cellar drain. That can be a blockage, a pump that is not taking the flow, or a connection you did not expect. It has not shown a collapse, because the survey did not camera the pipe. One demonstration is not a graded survey.
Drainage
Clay drain joints look swollen with roots. Why is that still not a camera survey?
Own page
Because nobody filmed the run. Roots at a clay joint, if they were visible in an open chamber, are a visual note at that point. They are not a graded camera report. The next length of pipe was not seen, and the survey has not named any other pipe material from a chamber it could not see into.
Drainage
A downstairs WC smells and the trap is empty. Why is that not a collapsed drain?
Own page
An empty trap lets sewer air into the room. That explains a smell without proving the pipe has collapsed. The survey did not camera the drain, and it may only have seen a dry pan. Refilling the trap is a check, not a repair of the sewer, and it was not a test of the whole run.
Drainage
The inspection chamber was opened and it is full of silt. Why is that still not a camera survey?
Own page
Because the cover was lifted and the silt was seen. A camera was not sent along the pipes. Silt hides the invert and the benching, so you cannot say the run is clear, and you cannot say it has collapsed. The open chamber is the limit of what this visit saw.
Drainage
There is one old invoice for emptying the septic tank at this house. What does it not prove?
Own page
It does not prove the tank is sound now, and it does not prove the discharge meets the rules. One invoice for one house is a record that someone emptied something on that date. It is not a survey, not a shared-tank agreement, and not a camera of the outfall.
Drainage
A rainwater harvest tank in the garden was not opened. What should you avoid calling it?
Own page
Avoid calling it a septic tank, a treatment plant, or a cesspool. It is a store for roof water, if that is what the pipes show, and the survey did not open it. You do not know whether it is clean, cracked, or connected the way the seller describes.
Drainage
This flat’s WC gurgles when another flat flushes. Can the survey prove the stack?
Own page
No. A survey of one flat cannot prove a shared stack, the vent, or the neighbour’s appliances. Gurgling is a symptom you may hear or be told about. It is not a test, not a camera, and not a decision about who repairs the pipe.
Drainage
The house was a takeaway and a grease trap is still there. What has the survey not done?
Own page
It has not opened the trap as a service, has not proved what it still connects to, and has not camera-surveyed the drain. A grease trap left from a commercial kitchen is a piece of equipment. Grease in it is not, by itself, a collapsed sewer.
Drainage
The basement sewage ejector had no power on the day. What can you not conclude?
Own page
You cannot conclude that the pump has failed, and you cannot conclude that the drain has collapsed. The power was off, so the survey did not run the pump. A silent ejector is an untested machine, not a camera survey of the sewer it discharges to.
Drainage
Decking covers the gulley the wastes should reach. What could the survey not see?
Own page
The trap, the grate, and whether the wastes still discharge there. Boards over a gulley hide the fitting a surveyor would otherwise look at. The visit did not lift the deck, did not prove a blockage, and did not camera the pipe. You have a covered gulley, not a drainage test.
Structure and movement
What does it mean if a crack is wider indoors than outdoors, or the other way round?
Own page
It means the two faces have not broken in the same way, so it does not prove which way the ground moved and it does not date the crack. Plaster, render and brick open differently, and a home survey only records the widths it could see. It does not test the soil, and one visit does not monitor the crack.
Structure and movement
A crack has been stitched with helical bars. Can the survey say the movement has stopped?
Own page
No. The bars show that someone tried to tie the masonry back together across a crack, but they do not show that the ground has stopped moving. A home survey can see the slots, the filled chases or the ends of the bars if they are visible, yet one visit does not monitor the crack and the survey does not test the soil.
Structure and movement
What can a survey say if only one corner of the house sits on a concrete plinth?
Own page
It can describe the plinth it can see: the extent along each wall, the height above ground, and any crack that starts or stops at it. It cannot certify that the corner was underpinned to a design, that the concrete is deep enough, or that movement has stopped. One visit does not monitor the building, and the survey does not test the soil.
Structure and movement
The bay looks to be pulling away at the junction. What should you ask about the gap and the flashing, rather than about a crack pattern?
Own page
Ask whether a gap has opened where the bay meets the main wall, and whether the flashing, soakers or mortar at that joint are still closing it. A Victorian bay is a common place for old movement, but the open joint is the defect you can see today. The survey cannot turn that gap into a diagnosis of the ground. It does not test the soil, and one visit does not monitor the bay.
Structure and movement
What can one survey visit say if floor joists bear on a party wall that appears to have dropped?
Own page
It can record a slope in the floor, a gap at the ceiling, or joist ends that look to sit on a wall lower than the wall opposite. It cannot measure how far that party wall has dropped, and it cannot say the drop is still going on. The joists were not uncovered. One visit does not monitor the wall, and the survey does not test the soil.
Structure and movement
What is missing when a glass tell-tale is already cracked on the day the surveyor arrives?
Own page
A baseline is missing. The broken glass shows the slip is no longer intact, but not when it broke, so if it was already cracked on arrival there is no start reading and no later reading to compare. The survey does not test the soil, and that single look cannot be plotted as a trend.
Structure and movement
What should you make of cracks in an extension that is only two years old and stands separate from the main house?
Own page
Read them first as shrinkage and early bedding-in of new work, not as a label on the old house. New walls, new plaster and a new junction dry and shorten. The survey can record the age you were told and the cracks it saw. It cannot say they have finished, because one visit does not monitor a crack and does not test the soil.
Structure and movement
What can a home survey say about pattress plates if it cannot tell whether the rods are tight?
Own page
It can record the plates, which wall they are on, and whether the wall still bows between them, but it cannot see a buried rod or say the rod is tight. Plates mean someone tried to restrain the wall. They are not a certificate that the restraint is working, and one visit does not measure whether the bow is increasing.
Structure and movement
If plaster has come away and the bricks behind the crack still line up, what has the survey not proved?
Own page
It has not proved that the wall has moved as a whole, and it has not proved that the wall never moved. Lined-up bricks behind a plaster crack mean the coat has split where the masonry courses still meet. That is a description of one patch. The survey does not test the soil, and one visit does not say whether some other part of the wall is moving.
Structure and movement
Does a cracked kitchen screed, with the outside walls still plumb, mean the house is subsiding?
Own page
No. A crack in a screed or a tented tile is damage to the floor finish or the slab, and plumb outside walls only mean the shell was not leaning where the surveyor looked that day. Neither fact proves downward movement of the ground, and neither fact clears it. The survey does not test the soil, and one visit does not monitor the floor.
Structure and movement
The large tree is on the neighbour’s land, not in this garden. What can the survey add if you cannot fell it?
Own page
It can record the tree, roughly how it stands relative to the house, and any crack or distortion the surveyor is linking to it only as a possibility. It cannot make the neighbour cut it down, and it cannot tell you that you may. Felling is not your decision to take from a survey. The report also does not test the soil and does not monitor a crack.
Structure and movement
The surveyor has named a willow or a poplar, rather than only a large tree. What does the species add?
Own page
It adds a better description of what they believe they saw, and it does not add a water-uptake figure this report must not invent. An unnamed large tree is a vaguer note, not a different diagnosis. In both cases the survey does not test the soil or monitor any crack, and a species name is not a calculation.
Structure and movement
A stump remains and the new paving beside it has lifted. What can the survey judge from the slabs, rather than from a crack in the wall?
Own page
It can record the stump, the lifted or rocking slabs, and that the paving is new, a pattern that can fit heave after a tree was removed on clay. That is not a measurement of the house and it is not a crack diary. The survey does not test the soil, so lifted paving speaks about the patio, not about whether the walls have moved.
Structure and movement
What should you ask if the large tree is in the public pavement, not in this garden and not in the neighbour’s?
Own page
Ask the surveyor to record where the trunk stands and what, if anything, is wrong with the house. The tree is not yours to fell because you are buying, and a highway tree belongs to the authority that owns the street. The survey cannot tell you they will remove it, prune it or refuse, and it does not test the soil or monitor a crack.
Structure and movement
A nearby tree has been cut back hard but is still alive. Can the survey say later movement will not follow?
Own page
No. A heavy reduction is not removal, and it is not proof the ground will stay still. The survey can note fresh cuts and that the tree is still growing, but it cannot say the reduction was enough or that heave will or will not follow. It does not test the soil, and one visit does not monitor the house.
Walls
Cavity insulation is hanging out of a weep hole. Does that mean the wall ties have failed?
Own page
No. Fill hanging out of a weep hole means insulation has escaped through a hole that lets water out, which is not a finding that the wall ties have failed. Weep holes are not failed ties, and spilled beads or fibres can block the weep so water sits in the cavity. Seeing fill on the sill is not a boroscope inspection of the ties.
Walls
Do drill holes in a regular grid mean the wall ties were replaced?
Own page
No. A regular grid of small holes usually means the cavity was filled with insulation, whereas replacement ties are a different operation and usually leave a different pattern of holes. The survey can describe the pattern it sees. It cannot, from the holes alone, say the ties are new or that they are sound.
Walls
Does an unfilled cavity in an early 1930s house need a condition rating 3?
Own page
No, not by itself. An empty cavity of that age is not a defect, and condition rating 3 is for something serious, urgent, or both, which an unfilled cavity is not. The survey might still use rating 3 for cracks, failed ties or damp if it actually found them. Those are different findings from the simple fact that nobody has injected insulation.
Walls
Render covers the cavity wall, so the ties cannot be seen. Should the cavity be filled anyway?
Own page
Not on the home survey alone. If render stops the surveyor seeing the brick, it also stops them seeing crack patterns that would bear on the ties, so filling now would cover the question rather than answer it. The survey has not looked inside the cavity. Wait until someone who can inspect the cavity has said the wall is fit to fill, if you intend to fill it at all.
Walls
What should you ask if cavity insulation was installed on the front elevation only?
Own page
Ask why only that face was filled, and what the surveyor could actually see on the other faces. Fill on the front is not proof the ties there were checked, and an empty side or rear wall is not proof those walls failed a test. The home survey did not boroscope any of them. Each elevation still needs its own sentence.
Walls
The seller has a boroscope photograph of the cavity. Is that the home survey?
Own page
No. It is someone else’s picture, taken on a day the surveyor may not have been present, of one small spot inside the wall. The home survey is what the surveyor saw and is willing to write. A photograph of a tie or of insulation does not become their inspection, and it does not let them certify the rest of the cavity.
Walls
What should you ask if cavity-fill beads or fibres are sitting on the loft insulation at the eaves?
Own page
Ask where the material seems to have come from, and whether the cavity is open at the head of the wall. Fill on the quilt means insulation has left the cavity and entered the roof void, which is not a test of the wall ties. The surveyor may see the mess at the eaves, but they still have not seen the ties inside the wall.
Walls
Does an invoice for cavity extraction prove the surveyor inspected the ties?
Own page
No. An invoice shows that someone billed for removing fill, and perhaps for putting fill back, but it does not show that your surveyor saw the ties or that every bay was checked. The home survey inspects what it inspects. A contractor’s bill is not that inspection, even if the date is recent.
Timber
There is a mushroom smell in the cupboard under the stairs, but no fruiting body. What can the survey say?
Own page
It can record the smell and the fact that no fruiting body was seen in that cupboard. A smell is not identification of dry rot, and the absence of a mushroom is not a clear bill. Dry rot can be active out of sight. The survey did not open the stair carcase or the floor beside it, so it cannot map any decay from the odour alone.
Timber
What can a survey say about a sleeper wall if the surveyor could not crawl the floor void?
Own page
It can say the void was not entered, so the sleeper wall, the plates on it and the joist ends were not inspected. That is a limitation, not a pass, and it is not a finding that those timbers have failed. A sleeper wall is the low wall that holds up joists under a suspended floor. If nobody reached it, nobody has assessed it.
Timber
There are furniture-beetle holes in the loft rafters and more holes in the staircase. Are the stair strings a structural problem?
Own page
Only if the strings themselves are attacked in the sapwood that is doing the work, and the survey could see that. Holes in loft rafters are a roof-timber comment, while holes in a painted tread are not automatically the same attack on the strings. A home survey often cannot see the hidden face of a string, and flight holes alone do not date the insects.
Timber
Wet rot in one window sill is not an attack on the floors. Why should you not price a whole-house timber treatment from that sill?
Own page
Because wet rot stays with the timber that is wet. A soft sill is a window and weathering repair, not proof that the floor joists are decaying, and it does not justify spraying the house. The Property Care Association treats wet rot as a moisture problem first. The survey has not opened the floors because a sill was soft.
Timber
The timber guarantee excludes the floors because the carpets were not lifted. What has that guarantee not done?
Own page
It has not inspected the floors, and it has not guaranteed them. A treatment firm that could not lift the carpets could not see the boards or the joists, so it wrote them out. That paper does not contradict a survey limitation on the floors, and it does not prove the floors are sound. The home survey did not lift the fitted carpets either.
Timber
Plywood has been laid over a bouncy floor. What can the survey say about the boards underneath?
Own page
Almost nothing, if the plywood was not lifted. The survey can say the floor feels excessively springy and that a sheet covering hides the boards, but it cannot call those boards rotten, beetle-eaten or sound. Spring under a new layer is a reason not to take the surface as the structure. A home survey does not take up a fixed overlay to prove the timber.
Timber
A reclaimed beam has old flight holes. Can the survey treat the house as having active woodworm?
Own page
No. Holes in a beam brought from somewhere else may have been made years before it was fixed here, and they do not show live insects in the joists. The survey can note old holes in that piece, but it cannot date them. It should not spread a diagnosis from reclaimed timber onto timber it has not seen attacked.
Timber
There is wet rot in the sole plate of a timber porch. Does that mean the floors inside the house are decaying?
Own page
No. Wet rot in a porch sole plate is a porch repair, because that timber sits in the weather, and it is not an inspection of the floor joists or a reason to treat the house. The Property Care Association puts moisture first: stop the plate staying wet, and replace timber that has failed. The floors were not opened because the porch was soft.
Japanese knotweed
The knotweed management plan covers only the front garden. What has it not told you?
Own page
It has not told you about the back, the side passage, or next door. A plan is as wide as the ground it says it inspected and treats. Silence on the rest of the plot is not a clearance. The home survey does not fill that gap by walking the lawn once, and it should not invent a management category for ground the plan never mentioned.
Japanese knotweed
The seller says the knotweed was killed and the canes removed, but the survey still says possible because the ground is disturbed. Why is that not a category?
Own page
Because “possible” means the surveyor is not confirming the plant. Disturbed soil, old cane stumps or a cleared bed can be the reason for the caution. A possibility is not a RICS management category, and you should not award one to fill the silence. Dead canes in a skip are not a survey finding that the rhizome has gone.
Japanese knotweed
The seller has a neighbour’s herbicide letter. Is that a management plan for this plot?
Own page
No. A letter about treatment on the other side of the fence is about the neighbour’s land, not a plan for the ground you are buying. It may help your solicitor ask better questions, but it does not clear this garden. The home survey should not turn it into a management category.
Japanese knotweed
The survey did not lift a decking board. Why might a winter crown still be a limit rather than a clear garden?
Own page
Because knotweed dies back in winter to crowns at or below the surface, and a board the surveyor did not lift can hide that crown. Not looking under the deck is a limit of the inspection, not a finding that the deck is clear. The survey should say the boards stayed down, and you should not turn that limit into a management category or prise a board up yourself.
Japanese knotweed
A root barrier is visible at the fence. Can the survey say it is continuous?
Own page
No. The survey can say a membrane is visible along the length seen at the fence, but it cannot say the sheet continues, that the joints are lapped, that it is deep enough, or that it encloses the plant. A short run of barrier above the soil is not a completion certificate. It is also not a management category.
Japanese knotweed
The survey says knotweed is at the rear boundary but not which side of the fence the crowns are on. What should you ask?
Own page
Ask which side the surveyor could actually see, and whether they crossed the boundary. Crowns tight against a fence can belong to either garden, so a surveyor who stayed on this plot should not guess the neighbour’s soil. You should not award a management category from the phrase “at the boundary”, because which side the crowns are on is still missing.
Hazardous materials
The textured coating is only on one ceiling. Has the survey checked the house for asbestos, and can it say that ceiling is safe to scrape?
Own page
No. One ceiling is one material in one room: a home survey is not an asbestos survey, and the surveyor is not an asbestos inspector. Looking at an Artex-style coating cannot tell you whether it contains asbestos, so do not scrape it to see if it looks old. HSE says suspect material should not be drilled, sanded or otherwise disturbed, and a scrape is disturbance rather than a laboratory result.
Hazardous materials
New laminate has been laid over old floor tiles the survey did not lift. What is still unknown?
Own page
Whether those tiles, and any adhesive under them, are still there, and what they are made of. The survey did not lift the laminate, so it cannot identify the floor beneath and cannot sample it. In a pre-2000 house, floor tiles are among the materials HSE says can contain asbestos, the surveyor is not an asbestos inspector, and a new covering is not a test result.
Hazardous materials
Why should an asbestos-cement flue pipe on the boiler be written up separately from a sheet in the cupboard?
Own page
It is a different product in a different place. HSE treats asbestos cement, used for flues, as distinct from insulating board used as panels, so a cement flue left alone is not the same decision as a cupboard sheet someone is about to drill. The surveyor may suspect cement from the look of the pipe, but they are not an asbestos inspector and they have not sampled it.
Hazardous materials
Metal sheets now cover the garage roof. Can the survey confirm that any older cement sheets were taken away?
Own page
No. Metal on top can hide older sheets rather than replace them, and the survey cannot see through the metal or say what was left on the rafters. In a pre-2000 garage, cement roof sheets are a material HSE says can contain asbestos. The surveyor is not an asbestos inspector and has not sampled anything under the new covering.
Hazardous materials
The cellar has old pipe lagging. How should you read that when the airing cupboard was a different question?
Own page
Read the cellar run as its own material, in its own place. Pipe lagging in a pre-2000 house can contain asbestos, and HSE treats lagging as different from cement and from textured coating. The airing cupboard, if it also has a lining or a lagging note, is not this pipe. The surveyor is not an asbestos inspector, has not sampled the cellar lagging, and has not given you permission to pull it off.
Hazardous materials
Will scraping a corner of a textured coating tell you whether the coating is old?
Own page
No. Scraping does not date the coating and does not identify it, because you only disturb it. HSE says not to sand, drill or damage material that may contain asbestos, and a scrape to see if it is old is that kind of damage. Coatings in pre-2000 homes can contain asbestos, and the home surveyor is not an asbestos inspector and has not sampled the ceiling.
Hazardous materials
A pre-2000 warm-air heating cupboard is lined. What should you ask before anyone drills that lining?
Own page
Ask what the lining is, and assume the home survey has not identified it. Insulating board was used as linings in cupboards and heater casings in buildings built or refurbished before 2000. HSE treats insulating board as different from cement and from textured coating. The surveyor is not an asbestos inspector, did not sample the board, and the warm-air cupboard is not the airing-cupboard lagging question.
Hazardous materials
There are vinyl floor tiles in a 1970s cloakroom. Is that the same note as a bitumen sink pad?
Own page
No. The tiles are a floor product in that room, while a bitumen sink pad under a kitchen sink should stay in the kitchen sentence if the survey mentioned one. Vinyl and thermoplastic tiles in a pre-2000 house can contain asbestos. The survey can see exposed tiles, but it cannot tell by looking, it has not sampled them, and the surveyor is not an asbestos inspector.
Hazardous materials
Spray foam is only in the lean-to roof, and the main loft is quilt. Do lenders still ask their own question?
Own page
Yes. Lenders ask what their own criteria require, and a lean-to is still a roof with foam in it. A quilted main loft means those rafters could be seen, but it does not turn the lean-to into an unfoamed house. RICS does not say every lender refuses foam, or that a partial installation is invisible to a valuer, so ask the lender you are using.
Hazardous materials
Foam has been sprayed only between the rafters at the eaves, and the ridge is still visible. Has the roof been inspected?
Own page
Only in part. The bare ridge and upper rafters could be seen, but the eaves timbers under the foam could not, so this is not a full inspection of the roof structure. RICS explains that foam hides what it covers. Lenders can still ask their own question about the foam that is there, and not every lender refuses.
Hazardous materials
The seller has a quote to remove the spray foam. Is that a RICS instruction, and what can removal do to the tiles?
Own page
No. A removal quote is a contractor pricing a job for the seller, not an instruction from the surveyor and not a RICS decision. RICS notes that taking sprayed foam off can damage the roof covering, and the quote does not prove these tiles will survive or answer the lender. Not every lender refuses a foamed roof, because their criteria are theirs.
Hazardous materials
The loft quilt is already about 300 millimetres deep. Does the survey require spray foam as well so the roof can pass?
Own page
No. A home survey does not set a legal depth of insulation, and it does not require spray foam on top of a quilt so the roof can pass. About 300 millimetres of quilt, if that is what is there, is a description of the loft, not a fail. Foam under the tiles is a different product, so do not install it to satisfy a report that has not asked for it.
Hazardous materials
Spray foam is only in the dormer cheeks, and the main rafters are bare. What has the survey been able to see?
Own page
It has seen the main rafters that are bare, and it has not seen the dormer timbers stuck behind the foam. The dormer is still part of the roof, so lenders can ask their own question about that foam, and RICS does not say every lender will refuse. The home survey has not identified the product and has not instructed anyone to remove it.
Property types
What should you ask if water is sitting on the flat roof of a Victorian closet wing?
Own page
Ask about that small roof, not the main slope. A rear closet wing is the projection at the back, often a former scullery or water closet, and ponding is water sitting on its own flat covering, separate from the pitched roof. The survey should say what it could see of the outlets and of the ceiling underneath.
Property types
Should a survey treat an Edwardian stained-glass window as ordinary glazing?
Own page
No. Stained glass is leaded or painted glass in its own frame, not a modern sealed unit, and cracked pieces, bowed leads and failed putty are the condition points a survey can describe. Listing is a different question: nothing here says this window is listed, and the survey does not decide that.
Property types
The survey records a slight sag in a steel lintel over a wide 1930s window. What has been established?
Own page
Only that the surveyor saw a slight sag in that one lintel: an observation, not a measured deflection and not a calculation of the wall above. It is also more than a note that a lintel exists. Ask how the sag was judged, whether the masonry over it is cracked, and whether they want an engineer to look.
Property types
Is a post-war precast concrete garage the same construction as the house?
Own page
No. The garage is its own building, and precast panels are a description of that garage if that is what the survey could see, not a name for the house walls and not a label for the house as a repaired concrete system. The survey should describe the garage and the house separately.
Property types
What should a survey say about a bungalow that already has rooms in the roof?
Own page
It should describe the rooms that are there: the headroom it could judge, the purlins, any cut timbers, and the roof windows. Those rooms are part of the inspection, not a sentence you were supposed to tell the firm before they quoted. The survey does not certify the rooms under the building regulations. It records what it could see.
Property types
What do the knee walls of a chalet bungalow hide that a full two-storey house would show differently?
Own page
They hide the slope: a chalet has upper rooms partly in the roof, and the knee walls close off the eaves, where rafter feet, a wall plate and insulation may sit unseen. A house with a full storey and a separate loft is not inspected in the same way. Ask whether anyone looked past those walls.
Property types
If a timber-frame house is lined with plasterboard, has the survey seen the frame?
Own page
Not if the lining stayed in place. Plasterboard, often on battens with a gap behind it for services, is a finish, so the studs and sheathing were not seen, and a brick outer skin is a further layer rather than a view of the timber. The report should say the frame was not seen, rather than describe timber it did not look at.
Property types
If render on a no-fines house is cracked, has a cavity with failed ties actually been seen?
Own page
Not on that sentence alone. Render cracks are a comment on the render, while wall-tie failure belongs to a cavity wall the survey could identify. If this report could not see a cavity, it should say so, and it should not report tie failure or invent a construction it did not see.
Property types
Can you call a rendered 1950s semi an Airey house because of the decade?
Own page
No. A decade and a coat of render do not identify a named system, and Airey is a particular form of construction, not a synonym for a post-war semi. The survey should use that name only if it could see the features it is relying on, and if it could not tell, it should say so.
Property types
What should a survey say about a 1960s cross-wall house?
Own page
It should describe the walls and floors it could see, and stop there. In this kind of house the walls that carry the floors can be built differently from the front and the back. That is a reason to look, not a diagram to paste on. If the claddings, the floors or the gables were hidden, the report should say they were hidden.
Property types
What should you ask about a coal store built against a 1930s house?
Own page
Ask about its condition and the junction with the house: the roof, the walls and any damp where it meets the main wall. It is not a planning class, and the survey should not invent one. Describe the small structure that is there.
Property types
What should a survey say if mathematical tiles on a timber bay look like brick?
Own page
It should name what it saw, and it should not call the bay solid brick unless it could see brick. Mathematical tiles are made to imitate brick, often over a timber background, which is different from overlapping tile hanging. A bay that looks brick-faced from the pavement can be tiles on timber, so the structure behind is not a solid wall.
Property types
Why does a boot scraper or a hollow in a Victorian threshold matter?
Own page
Because it can hold water against the bottom of the door, which is a path for moisture into the door, the frame and the floor edge. It is not, by itself, rising damp, and it is not a verdict on the damp-proof course. The survey should describe the hollow and where the water sits; filling it in is not something the inspection does.
Property types
What if the coal cupboard under the stairs was full of junk and not entered?
Own page
Then it was not inspected. An internal coal store under the stairs is a cupboard in the house, not the vault under the pavement, and a comment on a front coal hole does not clear it. The hallway has not been given a pass for whatever is inside that cupboard.
Property types
Should a later side addition on a 1930s semi be described as if it were the original cavity wall?
Own page
No. A single-storey addition on the old side drive can be a different build from the 1930s house. The survey should describe the addition’s walls and the original walls from what it could see of each. It should not copy a cavity comment onto a solid addition, or a crack in the addition onto the main house, unless it actually saw both.
Property types
What should you ask about a glazed lantern over a Victorian or Edwardian stair?
Own page
Ask for the lantern as its own element. It has glass, a kerb and flashings where it meets the roof, and a leak there drips on the stair, not through the main tiles. The survey should say whether it saw the lantern from the landing, from outside, or both. It should not fold the lantern into a single sentence about the slates.
Property types
Is a concrete porch canopy a reason to call the whole house non-standard?
Own page
No. A canopy is a projection over the door, and cracks, staining or a gap at the wall are comments on the canopy and that junction, not a name for the house walls and not a system-built label. The survey should describe the canopy it could see and leave the walls as whatever it could see of the walls.
Property types
What if the shallow crawl space under a bungalow floor was not entered?
Own page
Then the underfloor void was not inspected, and a comment on the loft does not cover it. Not inspected means the joists, the sleeper walls and the oversite were not seen. Air bricks on the outside, if they were seen, are only the outside and do not prove the void is dry or clear.
Property types
Should a survey of a listed house separate the original fabric from a modern rear extension?
Own page
Yes, in the way it describes condition. Historic England explains that listing covers the building, not a single front, and a modern rear extension can still stand on a listed house. The survey should describe the older fabric and the extension separately, and it does not decide whether the extension was consented.
Property types
Can a home survey approve solar panels it can see on a listed roof?
Own page
No. It can describe the panels, the frames and any staining or disturbance of the covering it could see from a safe place, but it cannot approve the installation or file listed building consent. Historic England’s account of listing is about the building being listed, not a permission the surveyor grants.
Property types
What can a survey say about replacement rainwater goods on a conservation-area house that is not listed?
Own page
It can describe the gutters and downpipes it saw: the material, the leaks, the brackets and where the water discharges. The house not being listed means listed building consent is not the label to reach for. A conservation area is a different control. The survey cannot decide whether replacing those goods needed permission, and it should not treat the house as listed.
Property types
Is a coat of paint inside a listed house a consent application the survey can file?
Own page
No. The survey does not file applications, and paint is only a condition comment if the film is flaking, blistering or trapping moisture. Whether any decoration needed consent is for your solicitor and the council; the survey does not decide that outcome, and a tin of paint is not a condition rating of the structure.
Property types
What should you ask if a listed roof shows a mix of older and newer slates?
Own page
Ask which slopes have which slates, and what condition each patch is in. A newer patch is not proof that consent was granted, and it is not proof the rest of the covering is sound. The survey should describe slipped, broken and mismatched slates it could see. It does not apply for consent to keep them or to replace them.
Property types
Can the surveyor confirm the official list entry from the estate agent’s particulars?
Own page
No. In England the grade and the description sit on Historic England’s list, a brochure is not that record, and a home survey does not amend it. If the surveyor did not check the list, they should not copy a grade off the particulars. The survey describes the condition of the building it inspected.
Structure
What should a survey say about a concrete plinth with a timber upper storey?
Own page
It should describe them separately. Concrete at the base of the wall and a timber upper storey are not one material, and a name that fits the plinth may not fit the timber. If ceilings hid the upper floor structure, the survey should say it was not seen rather than invent a single system for the whole house.
Structure
What may the survey call a steel frame later clad in brick when no certificate was produced?
Own page
Only if the survey identified it as BISF. Steel that was seen should be called steel, and later brick is cladding the survey could see, not a reason to pick a system. A missing certificate is a paper gap: it is not an identification, and it is not proof that a repair was or was not carried out.
Structure
Should the survey name a frame it could not see because the brochure names one?
Own page
No. A brochure, a neighbour’s house or a decade is not a frame the surveyor saw. The report should name a frame only where it could see it, and it should say unseen where it could not. Copying the sales description into the construction line is not an inspection.
Structure
What should you ask if a panel joint shows at the corner of a non-standard house?
Own page
Ask for the joint to be described, not named into a system. A straight line in the render, or a panel edge at a corner, can be open, cracked, stained or filled, which is evidence of a joint and not the name of the house. If the survey could not tell what is behind the render, it should say so.
Structure
What should you ask where a concrete lower storey meets a timber upper storey?
Own page
Ask about that line: cracks, a gap, staining, a flashing, or a shelf where the materials change. The junction is a condition question, while a certificate, if one exists, is paper the survey may not have read. The paper does not replace the junction on the day, and a missing paper does not invent the system.
Structure
Does a glimpse of the structure in a meter cupboard describe the whole house?
Own page
No. An open cupboard shows the corner someone cut for the meter, not every wall, and the survey should not paste that build-up onto elevations it did not open. Secured panels are not removed on a standard inspection, and the Level 1 scope does not include that work.
Damp
Can a survey use the ceiling height of a basement room to call it lawful habitable space?
Own page
No. The survey can describe the headroom it saw, and it should say whether it measured, but it cannot apply the building regulations or call the room lawful habitable space. GOV.UK explains building-regulations approval as its own process, so a low ceiling is a description, not an approval and not a refusal.
Damp
Does a waterproofing guarantee in a drawer mean the basement walls are dry today?
Own page
No. The certificate records a system someone installed, on the terms written on it, while dry, damp or hidden is what the walls are today, and only where the survey could see them. A guarantee is not the same observation as a dry wall on the day of the inspection. Read the paper for what it claims, and do not let it replace the stains.
Damp
The survey could see leaves covering the lightwell grille. Is that a failed drain design?
Own page
No. Leaves on the grille are what was there on the day, and they can stop water passing so the lightwell holds water against the window. They do not describe how the drain was designed or whether the pipe beyond the grille is broken, and the survey did not rod that pipe.
Damp
Why might a cellar consumer unit be marked not inspected because of standing water?
Own page
Because the surveyor would not stand in water to open it. Not inspected means it was not inspected: the electrics have not passed and have not failed, and a home survey does not test circuits. Nobody should switch that unit on in standing water so that a box can be ticked.
Legal and neighbours
What should you ask if a detached garage has an inspection pit?
Own page
Ask whether it was seen, and what was in it. A pit is a hole in the garage floor: if it was open, the survey can describe the edges, any water and whether it looked safe to approach, but it is not a vehicle-lift certificate or a drain test. If a cover was not lifted, the pit was not inspected.
Legal and neighbours
Is a conservatory with a polycarbonate roof a room of the house because the survey found a sofa?
Own page
No. The survey should say whether the roof is polycarbonate sheet or glass, and what condition that roof and the junction are in, because the materials are not the same. Neither finding turns the conservatory into a room of the house, and the survey does not apply the building regulations to reclassify it.
Legal and neighbours
Does a home survey test the flue of a wood stove in a workshop?
Own page
No. It can see a stove, a flue pipe and the place the pipe enters a wall or a roof, if those parts were visible, but it does not sweep the flue, test the draw or apply Approved Document J as a certificate. A neat stove is not a safety record. Someone competent on that installation should be asked, and the survey will not sign it off.
Legal and neighbours
Does an annex with its own consumer unit count as a separate dwelling in the survey?
Own page
No. A second consumer unit means there is a distribution board in the annex, and the survey did not test it or decide that the annex is a separate dwelling. Use, planning and the title are questions for your solicitor. The survey can describe the parts of the annex it entered, and nothing more legal than that.
Legal and neighbours
What does it mean if the pool plant room was not entered?
Own page
It means the plant was not inspected: pumps, heaters, electrics and whatever is stored in there were not assessed. Not inspected is not a pass for the pool and not a pass for the house. If you need the room described, agree access, because silence is not a working plant.
Legal and neighbours
The neighbour has already started a loft, and a steel is visible in this loft against the party wall. Does the survey know notice was served?
Own page
No. The survey can see a beam or a bearing on this side of the wall, but it cannot see the neighbour’s paperwork and does not know whether notice was served. GOV.UK’s party-wall rules apply in England and Wales, not in Scotland or Northern Ireland, and the home survey does not serve notice or make an award.
Legal and neighbours
Can a home survey make an award for a garden wall it photographed astride the boundary?
Own page
No. It can photograph the wall and describe cracks, leaning and the parts it could see, but it cannot make an award, decide who owns the wall, or serve notice. In England and Wales the Act can apply to certain work on a boundary, a fence is not that wall, and the Act does not apply in Scotland or Northern Ireland. The survey is not the notice.
Legal and neighbours
If a chimney breast has been removed from a party wall, does the survey say what remains on the neighbour’s side?
Own page
Only if it actually knows, which a survey of this house usually does not, because the inspection did not go next door. A bracket or a beam on this side is a description of this side, not a view of the neighbour’s breast, not an award, and not proof that notice was served. The Act GOV.UK describes applies in England and Wales, not in Scotland or Northern Ireland.
Legal and neighbours
A crack in this terrace party wall continues into the render next door. Has the survey made an award?
Own page
No. A crack that appears to run into next door’s render is still only what the surveyor could see from this side and from the street. It is not an inspection of the neighbour’s house, not a party-wall award, and not a decision about who pays. The Act applies, where it applies, in England and Wales only, and the survey does not serve notice.
Legal and neighbours
If you can see foundations dug next door from this garden, has the survey decided that notice was required?
Own page
No. The survey can describe the excavation it could see, but it does not measure whether the Act applies and it does not serve notice. GOV.UK says excavation near a neighbour is one of the works that can need the party-wall procedure in England and Wales. The survey is not that procedure, and the Act does not apply in Scotland or Northern Ireland.
Structure
Does seeing the flat roof of a 1970s school conversion from a hatch identify RAAC?
Own page
No. A hatch shows whatever was visible, such as felt, timber, a deck or a soffit, and that view does not by itself identify reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. The Institution of Structural Engineers says RAAC has been used since the late 1950s, most commonly as precast flat-roof panels. Age and a flat roof are why you ask, not the identification.
Structure
Is a plank soffit in a garage a RAAC finding about the house?
Own page
No. It is a finding about the garage, and only if the surveyor saw planks there. A plank is not identified as RAAC because it is a plank; IStructE describes RAAC as reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, most commonly precast roof panels. The house roof is a different structure unless the survey saw the same material there and said so.
Structure
Does a seller’s letter that says there is no RAAC replace an inspection?
Own page
No. A letter is only a sentence, and if no survey or engineer sits behind it, nothing has been identified. IStructE says that where the construction is unclear it should be inspected, and that if RAAC planks are present a chartered or incorporated structural engineer should determine their condition. The letter does not do that, and the home survey does not become an engineer’s report because the seller is confident.
Structure
Is a concrete lintel over a window a RAAC plank?
Own page
No. A lintel is a member over an opening, while RAAC, as IStructE describes it, is reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete used most commonly as precast roof panels. Ordinary concrete is not RAAC because it is concrete. A crack or rust stain on a lintel is a lintel comment: it does not identify the roof, and a tidy lintel is not a RAAC survey of the roof.
Structure
Who identifies RAAC, and does the home survey include a RAAC fee?
Own page
A chartered or incorporated structural engineer determines the condition of RAAC panels if they are present, which is the Institution of Structural Engineers’ position. A home survey can record what it saw and can suspect, but it does not finish that identification. The RICS consumer guide says the cost of a survey is variable and that there is no national tariff. It does not state a RAAC fee, so do not invent one.
Property types
Does the peppercorn rule for newer leases rewrite a doubling ground-rent clause already written into a 2016 lease?
Own page
No. A doubling clause in a lease granted in 2016 is still in that lease, and the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 does not rewrite existing leases. A home survey looks at the flat. It does not delete the rent clause or replace it with a peppercorn.
Property types
Is the management pack your solicitor asks for included in the flat survey PDF?
Own page
No. The pack is the bundle the solicitor asks the managing agent or landlord to provide, and the survey PDF is only the inspection report. They are different documents. A sentence that says you should check the management arrangements is not the pack itself.
Property types
Is the block buildings policy inside the survey PDF, or only among the papers the solicitor collects?
Own page
Only among the papers the solicitor collects. Buildings insurance for the block is a policy, a schedule and a premium arrangement under the lease. The survey does not produce that policy. A comment that you should confirm insurance is not the schedule, the excess or the name of the insurer.
Property types
If the balcony ceiling looks like the neighbour’s floor, did the survey inspect the flat above?
Own page
No. A survey of one flat does not inspect the flat above. What you can see from below is the underside. The neighbour’s floor, their balcony build-up and their finishes were not part of this inspection, even if a stain seems to come from that direction.
Property types
If scaffold and dust show major works are already underway, does the survey record the consultation stage?
Own page
No. The survey can describe the scaffold, the dust and the condition of what is exposed. It cannot tell you whether leaseholders were consulted, which notice was served, or what stage that process has reached. Those questions sit in the papers your solicitor asks for.
Property types
What should you do if a parking space or store on the lease plan cannot be found on site?
Own page
Tell the solicitor, and do not assume the survey has solved it. The surveyor reports what they could see. If a space or a store shown as demised on the plan was not there, or could not be identified, that is a mismatch between the plan and the ground. The survey does not redraw the lease plan.
Property types
Can a home survey read a restriction on a right-to-buy flat?
Own page
No. The survey looks at the building and does not know the wording of any restriction. Your solicitor reads the title and the lease. Do not invent what a restriction says from the fact that the flat was once bought under right-to-buy.
Property types
Are service-charge arrears a condition rating?
Own page
No. Arrears are a balance on the service-charge account, while a condition rating describes an element of the building. Rating 1 does not mean the account is clear, and rating 3 does not mean the seller owes money. The survey does not read the ledger.
Property types
If the lease still has 83 years, has the under-80 extension warning already arrived?
Own page
Not from the figure of 80 alone. Government guidance warns that extending a lease can be much more expensive once fewer than 80 years remain, and 83 is not under 80. The survey does not count the years or calculate a premium. Ask the solicitor how the years on this lease are counted.
Property types
Is a residents’ management company the same as a Right to Manage company, and does the survey appoint you as a director?
Own page
No. A residents’ management company is whatever the lease and the company papers say it is. Right to Manage is the statutory route GOV.UK describes: qualifying leaseholders can take over management without the landlord’s agreement and without proving bad management, and the landlord still owns the building. The survey does not appoint you as a director, and you become one only if the papers say so.
Property types
If one elevation has two colours of external panel, can the survey treat them as the same product?
Own page
No. Two colours on one elevation are not proof of one product, one specification or one fire performance. A visual note of panels is not an EWS1 form and not a fire test. A survey of one flat does not inspect the block’s external wall system as a cladding specialist.
Property types
If the surveyor rode in the lift, does that count as a lift service record?
Own page
No. A ride shows that the lift moved on that visit. It is not a service record, a thorough examination or a test of the safety devices, and services in a home survey are visual rather than safety-tested. The paperwork, if it exists, is with the managing agent, not in the photograph of the buttons.
Property types
If the plot is beside a site compound, with dust and an unfinished pavement, is that a defect in the house?
Own page
Not by itself. Dust and an unfinished pavement describe the estate around the plot, and they are not automatically a defect in the house fabric. Road adoption is a question for the solicitor. NHBC Buildmark is a warranty and insurance for the home, not a statement that the road has been adopted.
Property types
If white goods listed in the specification are missing, what can the survey say?
Own page
The survey can see the space. It cannot read the specification. An empty alcove where a contract lists an appliance is a gap the solicitor should compare with the specification. It is not, by itself, a defect in the wall, and the survey does not decide whether the seller must supply the machine.
Property types
The balcony deck on a new flat looks dry. Has the inspection seen the waterproofing layer beneath it?
Own page
No. Standing on the balcony shows you the surface, the upstands you can see, and any ponding or damage on top. The waterproofing membrane underneath is concealed. A dry day is not a test of that membrane, and a warranty is not a substitute for the limit of the inspection.
Property types
If the survey could see a pumping station on the new estate, has it tested it?
Own page
No. Seeing a pumping station, a kiosk or a fenced compound is not a test of how the pumps work, who maintains them, or whether the sewers have been adopted. Adoption and responsibility are questions for the solicitor. The visual note is only that the kit was there.
Property types
Is an email to the builder’s customer-care desk a warranty claim?
Own page
No. A customer-care email is a message to the builder, not, by itself, a claim on NHBC Buildmark or on any other warranty. In the first two years NHBC says the builder is responsible and NHBC guarantees that responsibility. A friendly reply does not replace the policy or rewrite the survey.
Property types
The legal pack contains a foundation warranty from a provider other than NHBC. What must you read before you treat that policy as Buildmark?
Own page
Read that policy on its own terms. Other brands are not Buildmark, and NHBC’s two-year builder period plus the following eight years of insurance for specific parts belong only to the product NHBC describes. A different foundation or structural warranty must not be given that split. The survey does not convert one policy into the other.
Property types
If a snag was noted and then painted over before you move in, has it been repaired?
Own page
Not proved. Paint covers the look of a snag, but it is not a second inspection and it is not evidence that the cause was put right. NHBC does not keep a list of the snags your surveyor wrote down. Buildmark covers defects on the terms NHBC describes, not every item someone has painted.
Reading the report
If the boundary wall is condition rating 3 and the house is rating 1, has the house failed?
Own page
No. The rating 3 belongs to the boundary wall, while rating 1 on the house means no repair is currently needed to those elements. Do not transfer the wall’s rating onto the house or average them. RICS says to get written quotations before legal commitment where an element is rating 3.
Reading the report
The survey says further investigation on the electrics and also NI. Should you book an EICR because that looks like the code FI?
Own page
No. Do not match the letters: FI on an Electrical Installation Condition Report means further investigation required without delay, and it is an electrical code, not a RICS condition rating. The survey’s phrase further investigation is advice in the home survey, and NI means the element was not inspected. Those survey words are not the code.
Reading the report
What should you do if the ratings table omits an element the later section still discusses?
Own page
Read the later section. An element missing from the summary table has not been deleted, and it has not been given rating 1 by silence. Ask the surveyor to reconcile the table with the text before you rely on the front of the report. The discussion in the section is part of the report.
Reading the report
If a rating 3 is described as serious but the report never says urgent, has it become a rating 2?
Own page
No. Rating 3 means serious or urgent, or both, and the definition does not require both words. Rating 2 is for repair or replacement that is not considered serious or urgent. If the surveyor has used rating 3 and called the defect serious, you do not demote it because they did not also write urgent.
Reading the report
Does a condition rating 1 mean the parts the surveyor could not see are sound?
Own page
No. Rating 1 means no repair is currently needed for the element as they could judge it. None of the home survey levels guarantees that concealed parts are sound. A rating 1 on a ceiling does not certify the joists above it, and a rating 1 on a wall does not certify what is inside the cavity.
Reading the report
Can the floors be condition rating 1 if the surveyor did not lift the fitted carpets?
Own page
Yes, but only for what was visible. A home survey does not lift fitted carpets. Rating 1 means no repair is currently needed from the surfaces and edges they could judge. It is not a statement about every board, joist end or damp patch under the carpet.
Reading the report
Can the electrics be condition rating 1 without anyone testing the circuits?
Own page
Yes. Services are inspected visually and are not safety-tested, so rating 1 only means no repair is currently needed from that look. It is not an Electrical Installation Condition Report and not a statement that the circuits passed a test. A modern-looking consumer unit can still be untested.
Reading the report
If a rating 2 says a crack should be monitored, has the surveyor already monitored it?
Own page
No. The survey is one visit, so a sentence that says monitor the crack is advice about what could happen next, not a record that monitoring has been carried out, and not a soil test. The rating stays the rating they gave, unless they change it. You cannot turn the word monitor into a result.
Choosing a survey
Can you copy a Level 2 reinstatement figure onto a Level 3 that did not include a valuation?
Own page
No. The reinstatement figure belongs to the instruction that included it. A Level 2 can be survey only, or survey plus market valuation and reinstatement. If the Level 3 terms did not include a valuation, that report does not contain a reinstatement figure, and you cannot paste one across from a different job.
Choosing a survey
What should you ask if the quote says Level 2/3 as if that were one product?
Own page
Ask which product you are buying. Level 2 and Level 3 are different surveys, and a slash does not merge them: Level 2 is for a conventional home in reasonable condition and of simple form, while Level 3 is for an older, altered or unusual building, or where major works are planned. The quote should name one.
Choosing a survey
You paid extra so the report would state market value. Has the inspection itself moved from a Level 2 to a Level 3?
Own page
No. A valuation can be added to a Level 2, and the inspection remains a Level 2. Level 3 is a different product, with a more detailed description, for older, altered or unusual buildings or where major works are planned. Paying for a valuation does not add that scope.
Choosing a survey
If you plan major works on a simple modern house, is that a reason to discuss Level 3?
Own page
Yes. Level 3 is not only for old or unusual buildings. RICS also describes it where major works are planned, so a straightforward newer house can still be a Level 3 conversation if you intend to alter it heavily. The survey will not design those works, but it can tell you more about the building you mean to change.
Choosing a survey
Does booking a Level 3 mean the surveyor will use a ladder taller than three metres?
Own page
No. The Level 3 description allows a ladder to a hatch only if it is no more than three metres and it is safe. Choosing the longer report does not waive that limit. If the hatch is higher, or the access is unsafe, expect the roof space to be not inspected rather than a guessed rating.
Choosing a survey
The house has been extended several times. Why might Level 2’s simple-form description not fit?
Own page
Level 2 is described for a conventional home in reasonable condition and of simple form. Several later extensions can mean the building is no longer that simple form. Ask the firm why they are still offering Level 2. Do not treat Level 3 as automatic, but do not hide the extensions to keep a shorter product.
Choosing a survey
The firm has sold you its most detailed inspection. Does that, on its own, include taking fittings off or opening drainage chambers?
Own page
Do not assume it does. A standard Level 1 or Level 2 inspection does not remove secured panels, electrical fittings or chamber covers. Level 3 is a more detailed survey, but it removes those things only if this instruction says so. None of the levels guarantees that concealed parts are sound.
Choosing a survey
When a Level 2 includes a valuation, can you use the reinstatement figure as the purchase price?
Own page
No. Market value and reinstatement are different figures. MoneyHelper describes reinstatement as an insurance rebuild figure, not the price you pay for the house and not a budget for the repairs in the survey. Use market value only for what the valuation says it is, and keep reinstatement for insurance.
Money
What fee applies if you cancel after the inspection but before the PDF arrives?
Own page
Whatever the terms say. RICS does not set a cancellation fee, and it does not set a national price for the survey. Ask, before you instruct, what is earned once the surveyor has inspected, and what is earned only when the report is delivered. Do not invent a percentage of the quote.
Money
Is a survey firm in breach if its Level 1 fee is above a few hundred pounds, or its Level 3 fee is under £1,000?
Own page
No. Nothing in the RICS consumer guide fines a firm, or voids a quote, for sitting either side of those illustrations. The words show that fees vary and that the levels are not the same product. Your comparison is the written quote for this address: which level, and what is included.
Money
Can you compare a single fee quoted for Level 2/3 with a quote that names one level?
Own page
No. A single figure beside Level 2/3 does not tell you which service you would be buying, so you cannot compare it with a Level 2 quote or a Level 3 quote. Ask the firm to name one level and to price that level. RICS does not publish a price for a slash between products.
Money
Does the survey fee become payable when you instruct, when they inspect, or when the PDF arrives?
Own page
Whatever the terms you accept say. RICS does not choose that moment, and it does not publish a tariff. Ask the firm which stage earns the fee, whether a deposit is separate, and what happens if the inspection cannot take place. Do not assume a payment in advance is refundable.
Money
If you pay for a follow-up letter, have you upgraded a Level 2 into a Level 3?
Own page
No. A letter answering questions on a Level 2 is still about that Level 2, unless the terms say the firm is now instructed to carry out a Level 3. The level is the product, and RICS does not price a letter as an upgrade or publish a fee for one. Ask what any further comment costs and what it will not reopen.
Selling
If you attend the buyer’s inspection and answer questions in every room, does the report become your survey?
Own page
No. The buyer’s survey stays the buyer’s survey. Walking round and explaining each room can help with access, but it does not make you the client and it does not let you decide the ratings. In Scotland a Home Report is part of marketing; standing in the room during a buyer’s own inspection in England or Wales does not create one.
Selling
If you offer a damp-proof guarantee from 1998, does it answer a stain the buyer’s survey has found today?
Own page
No. A guarantee from 1998 is a paper about whatever work that contractor described then, not a reading of the stain found on this inspection. Hand it over if you have it. Do not present it as proof the wall is dry now, or ask the buyer to treat the rating as cancelled.
Selling
If you write on the buyer’s PDF that you disagree, have you changed the condition rating?
Own page
No. Notes in the margin are your comments, not a new rating and not the surveyor’s opinion. Send any disagreement separately, and do not present an annotated file as if the surveyor had revised it. The number in the report stays until the surveyor changes it.
Selling
Should you tell the buyer that a recent boiler service means they do not need a home survey?
Own page
No. A service record is evidence about that appliance on the day the engineer saw it, while a home survey is a visual inspection for the buyer and does not safety-test services. The record is worth giving them. It is not a reason to skip the survey, and it is not the survey.
Selling
If you lock the loft on the day of the buyer’s survey, can you later say the loft passed?
Own page
No. If the surveyor could not get in, the loft should be not inspected. NI is not rating 1, and it is not a pass you can advertise. Give safe access if you want the space seen, because a locked hatch does not create a clean bill of health.
After the survey
Should you ask the surveyor to change a rating because the seller shouted?
Own page
No. A condition rating is the surveyor’s opinion against the RICS definitions, and the seller’s anger is not one of those definitions. Do not ask for a rating 3 to be rewritten as a rating 2 to calm the sale. Your solicitor carries any price conversation, and the what to do now note is advice to you, not a request that the surveyor give way.
After the survey
Two quotes for the same survey paragraph are far apart. What if one includes VAT and the other does not say?
Own page
Ask which quote includes VAT, and ask whether both describe the same work. Do not assume a rate, and do not subtract one total from the other and call the difference the value of the defect. Until the basis matches, you do not have two prices for one job.
After the survey
Can you ask the surveyor to change a rating 2 into a rating 3 so a price cut looks stronger?
Own page
No. Rating 2 means repair or replacement that is not serious or urgent, and rating 3 means serious or urgent, or both. Asking for a higher number to frighten the seller asks the surveyor to abandon the definition. If you think they have understated the defect, ask them to explain the rating rather than inflate it.
After the survey
What should you do if the agent tells the seller the survey was rating 2 when the element is rating 3?
Own page
Correct it in writing. The agent does not regrade the report, so if the element is rating 3 that is the finding the seller should hear. Send the wording through your solicitor, and do not let a misheard number become the offer. There is no standard deduction hiding behind either number.
Reading the report
If a single slate has slipped over one bedroom, has the entire roof covering been marked condition rating 3?
Own page
No. One slipped slate above a single bedroom is a local gap in the covering, not a mark against every course on the house. The line should name that slate and the slope it sits on. Slates that were seen and still seated can keep a milder judgement. Do not let the bedroom underneath turn one displaced unit into a whole-roof failure, and do not assume the rest of the covering has reached the same state.
Reading the report
A thick moss coat sits on the concrete tiles. Does that, by itself, force condition rating 3?
Own page
Not quite. A thick moss coat on the concrete tiles is growth sitting on the covering, and that sight alone does not force rating 3. Moss can hold moisture and hide a tile edge, which is worth a clear sentence. It is not, by itself, proof the tiles have failed. Ask what the surveyor could still see of the tile surface under the growth, and keep that note separate from any leak they actually found.
Reading the report
Felt on a small rear flat roof is blistered and the ceiling under it was dry. What rating has that scene earned?
Own page
Not quite. Blistered felt on a small rear flat roof is a defect in that felt, and a dry ceiling under it does not choose the number. Dry plaster on the day only says no drip was showing then. The blisters still need the surveyor's own judgement of how serious the felt is. Do not read a dry ceiling as a pass, and do not promote every blister to the most severe mark without their words.
Reading the report
A split in a lead valley was visible from inside the loft. Does that share the rating of the tiles next to it?
Own page
No. A split in the lead valley, visible from inside the loft, belongs to the valley, not to the tiles sitting next to it. Those tiles can look even while the lead underneath is open. The rating, if one was given, should name the valley. Do not copy a tile number onto the lead, and do not assume the loft view rated the outer covering.
Reading the report
Underfelt is torn where it could be seen from the hatch. Has the tile covering itself been rated?
Own page
No. Underfelt torn in the view from the hatch is the lining, not a rating of the tiles above it. The hatch shows the underside. It does not turn each tile over. Unless the report separately judges the covering, the tiles have not been given that torn-felt number. Keep the lining and the covering as two sentences when you talk to a roofer.
Reading the report
Ridge mortar is missing in patches and the ridge tiles have not shifted. Is that automatically condition rating 3?
Own page
Not quite. Ridge mortar missing in patches, with the ridge tiles still unmoved, is not automatically rating 3. Empty mortar is a real gap at the ridge, and it can let weather in later. Tiles that have not shifted are a calmer observation than a ridge that has walked. The number follows how serious the surveyor thinks that gap is, not a rule that any missing mortar is the top mark.
Reading the report
Can a parapet gutter be condition rating 3 while the slate covering on the same roof is rating 1?
Own page
Yes. A parapet gutter can be rating 3 while the slate covering on the same roof is rating 1. The gutter is the channel behind the parapet. The slates are the covering. Water can sit in a failed gutter and wet the wall head while the slates themselves need nothing now. Do not average those two lines into one roof score.
Reading the report
The roof covering was recorded from the pavement with binoculars. Why might that line be NI instead of rating 1?
Own page
Only the part that binoculars could pick out from the pavement was available to judge, which is why that covering line may be NI rather than rating 1. A distant look is not a close inspection of fixings, moss in the laps, or the far slope. Rating 1 would claim no repair is currently needed. If they could not inspect it properly, the honest mark is that it was not inspected.
Reading the report
Flashing is lifted beside a chimney stack that still looks plumb. Do the flashing and the stack share one rating?
Own page
No. Lifted flashing beside a chimney stack does not share one rating with a stack that still looks plumb. The flashing is the weather joint. Plumb describes the stack's line. A joint can be open while the brickwork of the stack has not moved. Rate, or read, each of those separately, and do not let a straight stack cancel an open flashing.
Reading the report
The text mentions roof spread while the covering is rating 2. Has spread been given a separate condition rating?
Own page
Not quite. Mentioning roof spread in the text, while the covering is rating 2, has not by itself handed spread a separate condition rating. Spread is the roof pushing the walls. The covering rating is about slates or tiles. A sentence can warn you without awarding a second number. Look for a structure line of its own, and ask if the table never gave spread a mark.
Reading the report
How should you read a slipped hip tile differently from a hole that shows daylight, when both sit under the roof heading?
Own page
Not as one defect. Read a slipped hip tile as a unit that has moved at the hip, and read a hole that shows daylight as an opening through the covering. Both can be written under the roof heading and still deserve different weight. A displaced hip piece is often a local repair. Daylight means the weather has a path indoors. Do not let one heading flatten those two observations into a single account.
Reading the report
Solar panels cover one slope and were not lifted. Can the hidden bays still be condition rating 1?
Own page
No. Bays hidden under solar panels that were not lifted cannot still be condition rating 1. Those bays were not seen. An unseen bay is not a pass. Any rating on that slope can only speak for the panels' edges and the covering that remained in view. Ask the report to mark the covered bays as not inspected rather than quietly sound.
Reading the report
A hairline crack in the render runs down the side elevation only. Has every wall of the house been rated 3?
Own page
No. A hairline crack in the render on the side elevation only has not rated every wall of the house as 3. That crack is one line in one coat on one face. Other elevations can be unmarked, or marked more mildly, if the surveyor found nothing comparable. Do not export a hairline on the flank onto the front, the rear, or the party wall.
Reading the report
The report describes a bulge in one brick panel. Why is that a different rating conversation from a hairline crack nearby?
Own page
Not the same conversation. A bulge in one brick panel means that panel has left the line it was built on, which a hairline crack nearby has not done. The hairline may be a surface note. The bulge is a change of shape. Those observations can carry different ratings even on one wall. Read the paragraph that describes the bulge, and do not file it under the hairline.
Reading the report
A few brick courses are spalled beneath one leaking gutter. Does that mark the whole elevation as failed?
Own page
No. A few spalled brick courses beneath one leaking gutter have not marked the whole elevation as failed. Spalling there follows the wet from that gutter. Bricks further along the same face, if they were sound, keep their own description. Deal with the gutter and the damaged courses as the local defect, and do not describe the entire wall as failed when only those courses were named.
Reading the report
Mortar joints are open near the ground. Has the survey diagnosed rising damp and rated it 3?
Own page
No. Open mortar joints near the ground have not diagnosed rising damp, and they have not automatically been rated 3. Open joints are missing or weathered mortar that the surveyor could see. Rising damp is a moisture mechanism. The two can appear in the same paragraph only if the surveyor actually links them. Until that link is written, keep the joints as a pointing defect.
Reading the report
Insulation in the cavity could not be named. What can the wall rating still say?
Own page
Only the wall that was seen can still be rated. Insulation in the cavity that could not be named is unidentified fill, not a pass and not a named defect. The rating can describe brick, render, cracks and damp that were visible. It cannot say the mystery fill is sound, harmless, or the wrong product. Leave the unnamed material outside the number, or marked not inspected.
Reading the report
The front is rendered and the flanks are fair-faced brick. Can those faces carry different condition ratings?
Own page
Yes. A rendered front and fair-faced brick flanks can carry different condition ratings. Render is a coat. Fair-faced brick is the masonry itself. One face can need work while another does not. Read each elevation's number beside its own paragraph, and do not paint the flanks with the front's rating because they belong to one house.
Reading the report
A concrete window sill is cracked. Does that number replace the rating of the wall around the opening?
Own page
No. A cracked concrete window sill keeps its own line and does not replace the rating of the wall around the opening. The sill is the projecting piece under the frame. The wall is the masonry or render beside and below it. A crack in the concrete can be local. Unless the report says the crack continues into the wall, leave the wall's number where it is.
Reading the report
Wall ties are suspected and the cavity was not opened. Can that wall still be written as rating 1?
Own page
No. Wall ties that are only suspected, where the cavity was not opened, cannot honestly be written as rating 1. Rating 1 would say no repair is currently needed, and nobody looked at the ties. The outer leaf that was seen can still be described. The ties themselves stay unseen. Unseen metal in a closed cavity is not a clean bill, and it should not be recorded as one.
Reading the report
The hall floor is springy and no board was lifted. What has the floor rating actually settled?
Own page
Only the spring underfoot has been settled. The hall floor felt springy and no board was lifted, so the rating speaks to that feel and to whatever edges were already exposed. It has not opened the joists, the sleeper walls or the ends built into the masonry. A number on a springy hall is not a certificate that the timber underneath is sound.
Reading the report
A moisture meter read high on a solid kitchen floor that shows no stain. Is that floor rating 3 for rising damp?
Own page
No. A high moisture-meter reading on a solid kitchen floor with no stain is not, by itself, rating 3 for rising damp. The meter is a reading taken on one day. The floor surface showed no mark. Rising damp is a diagnosis the surveyor must actually make in words, and a condition rating is a separate choice. Do not promote a figure into the top rating on your own.
Reading the report
Chipboard beside the bath feels soft underfoot. Has the survey proved the joists have failed?
Own page
No. Chipboard that feels soft beside the bath has not proved the joists have failed. The soft spot is the deck the foot found, usually where a spill has reached the board. Joists sit under that deck and were not exposed by feeling the surface. The survey can rate the soft board. It cannot, from that feel alone, declare the timbers beneath rotten or broken.
Reading the report
The suspended timber floor is still written as rating 1 even though the air bricks along the front are buried in soil. What has that number not proved about the void?
Own page
No. A rating 1 on the suspended timber floor has not proved the void, even though that number was written, while the front air bricks sit buried in soil. The number matches the floor as it was walked on. Buried vents mean the space under the boards was not shown to be dry or moving air. Concealed joists in a choked void stay outside what rating 1 can promise.
Reading the report
Wide gaps between old pine boards are noted. Are those gaps a structural condition rating 3?
Own page
No. Wide gaps between old pine boards are not a structural condition rating 3. Gaps of that sort are usually shrinkage and wear in the boarding itself. They are not, on that note alone, a broken joist or a failed wall. The surveyor can still say the boards need attention. They have not, merely by recording the gaps, condemned the floor structure.
Reading the report
Quarry tiles in the hall were not lifted. Can whatever is beneath them be condition rating 1?
Own page
No. Whatever lies beneath quarry tiles in the hall that were not lifted cannot be condition rating 1. The tiles are the surface that was seen. Bedding, a screed, or timber under them was covered. An unseen layer is not a statement that no repair is needed. If the report rates the tiles, keep that rating on the tiles and leave the covered build-up unrated.
Reading the report
A bedroom ceiling sags between the joists. Is that the same rated element as the floor of the room above?
Own page
No. A bedroom ceiling that sags between the joists is not the same rated element as the floor of the room above. The sag is in the ceiling finish, often old lath and plaster dropping between the timbers. The floor above is what you walk on in the next storey. Those can be marked apart. Do not repair-plan the upstairs boards because the ceiling below has bellied.
Reading the report
A high moisture-meter figure sits in the prose and the ratings table has no damp row. Where is the condition rating?
Own page
Not in the table. A high moisture-meter figure sitting in the prose, with no damp row, has not been given a condition rating at all. The figure is a reading. A rating is a numbered judgement on an element. Until the surveyor puts damp on a row, or tells you which existing row carries it, you do not have a damp rating to negotiate with.
Reading the report
Condensation on the glass in winter is described. Have the plaster walls been rated 3 for rising damp?
Own page
No. Condensation described on the glass in winter has not rated the plaster walls as 3 for rising damp. The water is on the pane, in cold weather, which is a glazing and ventilation observation. Plaster is a different surface. A tide mark, salts, or a high reading on the wall would be the wall's evidence. Do not move a misted window onto the plaster.
Reading the report
A tide mark is confined to one chimney breast. Does that number apply to every wall in the room?
Own page
No. A tide mark confined to one chimney breast does not apply that number to every wall in the room. The breast is the chimney's projection. The other walls were separate surfaces. If they were dry and unrated, or rated more mildly, leave them there. Do not tell a decorator the whole room has the breast's problem.
Reading the report
A ceiling stain was dry when the surveyor visited. Can it still be rating 2 or rating 3?
Own page
Yes. A ceiling stain that was dry when the surveyor visited can still be rating 2 or rating 3. Dry on the day means no drip during the visit, not that the mark is harmless history. The rating depends on whether they think the source still needs repair and how serious that source is. A dry stain is not automatically the mildest mark.
Reading the report
One bedroom stayed locked. Why can damp comments for that room be NI when the hall was rated?
Own page
Only the hall was available for a damp rating. The locked bedroom was not entered, so damp comments for that room can be NI even though the hall carries a number. A rating needs somewhere the surveyor stood. A shut door is not a dry room. Do not copy the hall's mark through the lock, and do not treat the blank bedroom as a pass.
Reading the report
Staining directly under a window is called penetrating damp. Why is that not the same box as a tide mark at skirting level?
Own page
Not the same box. Staining directly under a window, which the report calls penetrating damp, is water at the opening. A tide mark at skirting level is a low horizontal line on the wall. They can both be damp and still be different elements, different paths, and different ratings. Do not file the sill stain in the skirting box because both involve moisture.
Reading the report
Mould sits on the bathroom silicone. Has the plaster behind the tiles been rated 3?
Own page
No. Mould on the bathroom silicone has not rated the plaster behind the tiles as 3. The mould is on the sealant bead that was visible. Plaster behind tiles is covered. Covered plaster was not inspected, so it has no rating 3 and no rating 1 either. Deal with the seal as the thing that was seen.
Reading the report
The boiler looks old. Is its age, on its own, a condition rating?
Own page
No. A boiler that looks old has not, by its age alone, been given a condition rating. Age is a description. A rating is a judgement that something needs repair, or does not. The surveyor may still comment on leaks, corrosion, or a poor flue they could see. Those observations, not the year it looks, are what a number would rest on. Services were looked at, not safety-tested.
Reading the report
No gas service sheet was in the drawer. Has the survey rated the gas installation 3 for that absence?
Own page
No. The absence of a gas service sheet in the drawer has not rated the gas installation as 3. A missing paper is a document gap. It is not a visual defect in the boiler, the meter, or the pipework. The survey does not turn an empty drawer into a failed gas rating. If a paperwork prompt appears, that prompt is not a condition rating either.
Reading the report
Rewirable fuses were seen and nobody operated them. What can the electrical condition rating honestly claim?
Own page
Only what was visible. Rewirable fuses that were seen, and that nobody operated, let the electrical rating describe the board as it looked. They do not let it claim the circuits were tried, loaded, or found safe. A home survey looks at services. It does not safety-test them. Do not read a number beside those fuses as a certificate that the installation passed.
Reading the report
The cold-water cistern could not be reached. Why is that NI rather than a rating 1 for the plumbing?
Own page
Because it was not reached. A cold-water cistern left unreached in the roof space is NI, not rating 1 for the plumbing. Rating 1 would mean no repair is currently needed, and nobody was close enough to say that about the tank, the lid, or the supports. Other pipework that was seen can still be described. The cistern itself stays unseen.
Reading the report
Radiators were cold on a summer visit with the heating off. Has the heating system failed its rating?
Own page
No. Radiators that were cold on a summer visit, with the heating off, have not failed their rating. Cold metal in July, when the system was not running, only shows that it was off. It does not show a seized valve, a failed pump, or a boiler that will not heat. The look was visual. It was not a test of the heating.
Reading the report
The stopcock was not located. Is that a condition rating 3 for a leak?
Own page
No. A stopcock that was not located is not a condition rating 3 for a leak. Not finding the valve means the surveyor could not point to the internal shut-off. It does not mean water is escaping. There is no leak in that sentence unless the report describes one. Keep a missing valve as an access note, not as an urgent plumbing failure.
Reading the report
An external soil pipe is stained. Does that rating transfer to the bathroom fittings indoors?
Own page
No. Staining on an external soil pipe does not transfer that rating to the bathroom fittings indoors. The stain is on the outside pipe. Basins, the pan, and the bath are different fittings, and they are rated only if they were seen and judged. A marked external pipe can sit beside indoor fittings that were fine, or beside fittings that were not inspected.
Reading the report
The gutters are rating 2 and the fascia on the same run is rating 1. Can rainwater goods be split like that?
Own page
Yes. Rainwater goods can be split, so gutters at rating 2 may run beside fascia at rating 1 on the same length. The gutter is the channel. The fascia is the board it is fixed to. One can need repair while the other does not. Do not repaint the fascia's number onto the gutter, and do not assume a tired gutter has ruined the board.
Reading the report
A downpipe ends in a gulley whose cover stayed on. What part of that arrangement is still unrated?
Own page
Only the parts in view. A downpipe that ends in a gulley whose cover stayed on leaves the inside of that gulley, and the outlet it feeds, unrated. The pipe above ground could be described. The trap under the cover was not opened, so it was not inspected. Do not award the closed gulley a pass because the downpipe looked clear.
Reading the report
Cracks cross a concrete drive. Do they change the condition rating of the house walls?
Own page
No. Cracks that cross a concrete drive do not change the condition rating of the house walls. The drive is a hardstanding in the grounds. The walls are the building. A crack in concrete can be the drive's own note. Unless the report writes a link from that crack into the brickwork, leave the wall ratings where the surveyor put them.
Reading the report
A close-boarded fence is rating 3. Does any indoor element inherit that number?
Own page
No. A close-boarded fence at rating 3 does not pass that number to any indoor element. The fence is panels, arris rails and posts in the garden. Rooms, floors and the main roof keep whatever marks they were given. A failed boundary screen is not a failed chimney, and it is not a reason to regrade the inside of the house.
Reading the report
The conservatory roof is rating 3 and the main house roof is rating 1. Which covering has failed?
Own page
Only the conservatory covering. That roof is rating 3, so that is the covering that has failed in this pair. The main house roof at rating 1 has not. They are different structures, often different materials, meeting at a flashing. Do not let the conservatory's number crawl onto the house slates or tiles, and do not average the two into one roof.
Reading the report
The garage consumer unit is rating 3. Has the house consumer unit been given the same number?
Own page
No. A garage consumer unit at rating 3 has not given the house consumer unit the same number. The garage board is in the outbuilding. The house board, if it was seen, has its own line. If the house board was not seen, it is not inspected, which is still not the garage's rating. Do not tell an electrician the dwelling failed because the garage did.
Reading the report
Several elements are NI and the roof covering is the only rating 3. Is the whole survey incomplete?
Own page
No. Several elements marked NI, with the roof covering as the only rating 3, do not make the whole survey incomplete. NI means those elements were not inspected. The roof covering was inspected enough to be rated, and that rating stands on its own. What you must not do is read the blank lines as passes. The report is unfinished only for the parts that were not seen.
Reading the report
The table shows roof as rating 2 while the prose treats a pitched roof and a flat roof separately. Which text do you follow?
Own page
Follow the prose split, and then ask which roof the table's single rating 2 was meant to cover. A pitched roof and a flat roof are different coverings. One cell labelled roof cannot honestly stand for both if the writing treats them apart. Do not pick the table when it is coarser than the text, and do not invent a second number the surveyor never gave the flat roof.
Choosing a survey
The mortgage valuation includes a photo of the roof and no column of condition ratings. Has the roof been rated?
Own page
No. The roof picture is only an image the valuer tucked into the mortgage valuation. MoneyHelper treats that valuation as the lender's check on the property as security for the loan, not as a home survey that grades elements. With no condition-rating column beside the photograph, the covering has not been given a survey rating, and the picture itself is not a substitute grade.
Choosing a survey
The valuation notes that the cellar was not entered. Is that the same limitation as an NI line on a Level 3?
Own page
Not quite. The cellar sentence is a limit written on the mortgage valuation. MoneyHelper describes that valuation as the lender's loan check, not as the structural survey you buy for yourself. An NI line is an entry inside the Level 3 about something that home survey did not inspect. The valuer's note does not travel across and fill that line.
Choosing a survey
You bought a Level 2 as survey only. Why are both the market value and the reinstatement figure absent?
Own page
They are absent because survey only leaves both of them out on purpose. A Level 2 is either the condition survey by itself, or that survey plus a market valuation and a reinstatement figure. You bought the first of those. The pair of numbers belongs to the second. Reinstatement is not the market value, and it is not a repair budget, so neither gap is a missing repair price.
Choosing a survey
A market valuation was added to the Level 2 fee. Have the drains now been camera-surveyed?
Own page
No, the drains have not been camera-surveyed just because a market valuation was added. That extra buys a value figure on the Level 2. It does not put a camera down the pipes. Level 2 can look further into drainage chambers than Level 1 where it is safe to do so, but a look in a chamber is not a camera survey, and no level promises that hidden pipework is sound.
Choosing a survey
The Level 3 advises you about the defects it found. Does that advice replace the lender's decision to lend?
Own page
Not the lending decision. Advice in the Level 3 is written for you about defects the surveyor found. It does not stand in for the lender's choice to lend, to refuse, or to change the loan. MoneyHelper keeps the mortgage valuation on the lender's side of the table: it is their check, not a structural survey, and your Level 3 does not become that check in reverse.
Choosing a survey
The quote still says Condition Report. Which current RICS level should you make the firm name?
Own page
Level 1. Condition Report is the old name for the Level 1 home survey, and the current three-level names have been in use since 1 March 2021. Make the firm write Level 1 on the quote if that is the product those old words were reaching for. Until they name a current level, the old label has not shown you which inspection you are about to buy.
Choosing a survey
An agent offers a HomeBuyer plus valuation. How many RICS products is that, and which level?
Own page
One product only: a Level 2. HomeBuyer Report is the old name for Level 2, and the valuation version of that level is the survey plus a market valuation and a reinstatement figure. The agent has not described two surveys stacked together. They have described, in old words, the single Level 2 option that includes those figures, if the firm is actually selling that RICS product.
Choosing a survey
The email says building survey and never says Level 3. What should you ask before you pay?
Own page
Confirm Level 3 in writing before you pay. Building Survey is the old name for Level 3, but an email that never uses the current name has not yet shown which product the fee buys. Ask the firm to state that the instruction is an RICS Home Survey Level 3, and to say what that visit will and will not open, before any money moves.
Choosing a survey
The valuer was on site for less time than the Level 3 surveyor. Does the shorter visit become a survey if the fee is higher?
Own page
Not by lasting less time, and not by costing more. A visit is generally anywhere from about two hours to a full day, and that clock does not choose the product. MoneyHelper's mortgage valuation is for the lender and is not a structural survey, however long the valuer stayed and however the fee compares with your Level 3. A higher charge does not re-label the shorter attendance.
Choosing a survey
Floors step up by half a storey from room to room. Why might that layout sit outside the conventional simple-form house a Level 2 is aimed at?
Own page
It may sit outside simple form because the floors do not share one plain level. Level 2 is aimed at a conventional home in reasonable condition and of simple form. A plan that steps by half a storey from room to room is a more complicated arrangement of structure and floors, so the surveyor can reasonably say it is not the simple-form house that level is built for.
Choosing a survey
You instructed a Level 3 because the boiler is old. Has anyone safety-tested that boiler?
Own page
Nobody on the Level 3 brief has safety-tested that boiler. Choosing Level 3 because the appliance is old widens the building survey. It does not turn the visit into a safety test of the heating. Services on a home survey are visual only. They are not safety-tested, at Level 3 or at any other level, and an ageing boiler is not an exception written into the product.
Choosing a survey
A screw-fixed bath panel stayed on during a Level 2. Is that a failure to follow the level?
Own page
Not a failure. A screw-fixed bath panel is a secured panel, and a standard Level 2 does not take secured panels off. Leaving it in place follows the inspection rather than breaking it. The surveyor can say the void behind the panel was not seen. That limit is the honest result, not a missed duty to fetch a screwdriver.
Choosing a survey
Why might a Level 2 lift an inspection-chamber cover that a Level 1 leaves alone, and when might neither lift it?
Own page
Only where it is safe, and not where the cover is secured shut. Level 2 and Level 3 look further into drainage chambers than Level 1 where that can be done safely, so a Level 2 may lift a cover a Level 1 leaves alone. Neither a standard Level 1 nor a standard Level 2 removes a secured cover, and neither should lift a cover where it is unsafe to do so.
Choosing a survey
Level 2 and Level 3 look further into the roof space than Level 1. Does that guarantee the unseen slopes are sound?
Own page
Not a guarantee. Level 2 and Level 3 do look further into the roof space than Level 1 where it is safe to do that, but no home survey level promises that the slopes, the timbers or the coverings you could not see are sound. A better view of the void is still a view of what was visible from the place the surveyor could safely reach.
Choosing a survey
The house looks conventional and you plan to remove two internal walls. Why is that a Level 3 conversation even though the decoration is new?
Own page
Planned alterations change the level conversation. Level 3 is the survey for a home where major works are planned, as well as for older, altered or unusual construction. Taking out two internal walls is that sort of plan. New decoration does not make the house a simple project, and a conventional look does not cancel the reason Level 3 exists for works of that scale.
Choosing a survey
Only the mortgage valuation mentions a retention. Does your Level 2 have to repeat that sum?
Own page
It does not have to. A retention written only on the mortgage valuation is the lender's point, on the lender's document. MoneyHelper describes that valuation as their check for the loan, not as your structural survey, so the sum does not have to be copied into the Level 2. A retention is not cash you can spend, and it is not a down-valuation.
Choosing a survey
The lender used a desktop valuation and you booked a Level 3. Which of those documents describes condition?
Own page
Only the Level 3. The desktop valuation is still a mortgage valuation for the lender. MoneyHelper's distinction applies to it: that valuation is their check on the loan security, not a structural survey, whether or not anyone walked the rooms for it. Condition is what the Level 3 was booked to describe. The desktop paper is not a second description of defects.
Choosing a survey
The valuer and your surveyor both attend on Tuesday. Do their notes merge into one report?
Own page
They stay separate. Sharing a Tuesday, a key safe or a parking space does not merge the valuer's notes into your surveyor's report. MoneyHelper puts the mortgage valuation with the lender, as their check rather than a structural survey. Your surveyor is writing the home survey you instructed. Two people in the house on one morning produce two documents, unless a single instruction actually said otherwise.
Choosing a survey
The Scottish Home Report already contains a valuation. Does that stop you commissioning a private Level 2 as well?
Own page
It does not stop you. The valuation sits inside the Home Report's single survey, which is a visual inspection by a chartered surveyor, packaged with a property questionnaire and an energy report. That bundle does not bar a buyer from commissioning a private Level 2 as well. A purchaser may rely on the Home Report, and that reliance is still not a guarantee that concealed parts are sound.
Reading the report
A high meter reading says further investigation. Has the home surveyor appointed a damp firm for you?
Own page
Nobody has been appointed. A high meter reading with a call for further investigation is the surveyor telling you that the damp question is not finished. It is not a contract with a damp firm, and it does not put that firm on the surveyor's account. You still have to choose and instruct someone if you want that next look done.
Reading the report
The crack paragraph says ask a structural engineer. Why is a builder's price not that investigation?
Own page
A builder's price is not that investigation because it prices work rather than answering the structural question. The paragraph asked you to put a structural engineer on the crack. A builder can tell you what they would charge to stitch, pin or replaster. That figure does not identify cause, mechanism or whether the crack is still moving, which is what the engineer was named to consider.
Reading the report
Further investigation of the electrics is recommended. Who carries out an EICR, and why is it not the surveyor returning on the same brief?
Own page
Someone instructed as an electrician for that electrical report, not the home surveyor coming back on the same brief. An EICR is a different job from the home survey. Services in the survey are visual only and are not safety-tested, so a return visit under the original instruction still does not carry out the electrical installation condition report the paragraph pointed at.
Reading the report
The drains are said to need a camera. Is that camera part of the surveyor's Level 2 visit?
Own page
Outside that visit. A camera in the drains is a further investigation, not a tool the Level 2 surveyor is already using as part of the standard inspection. Level 2 may look further into drainage chambers than Level 1 where it is safe, and that chamber view is still not a filmed run of the pipes. If the report asks for a camera, the camera has not already happened.
Reading the report
You hold a roofer's price for the slipped slates. Has the further investigation the report asked for been done?
Own page
The investigation has not been done. The paper in your hand is a roofer's price for the slipped slates, which is a cost for a repair they are willing to price. Further investigation, where the report asked for it, is a look at the cause and the extent, not a figure on its own. Until that look has been written up, the request in the survey is still open.
Reading the report
The report names both timber decay and damp. Why might one contractor's visit fail to answer both sentences?
Own page
One visit can miss one of the two questions because the sentences do not ask the same thing. Timber decay and damp can share a room and still need different eyes, different opening-up and different written answers. A contractor instructed only for the damp, or only for the timber, has not automatically cleared the other line by being in the house.
Reading the report
A tree is implicated beside a crack. Who investigates the tree, and what does the home surveyor not decide?
Own page
A tree specialist investigates the tree. The home surveyor has pointed at it beside the crack and stopped. They do not decide that the tree is the cause, that it must be felled, that it must stay, or who would pay. Those conclusions belong to the investigation you have not yet commissioned, read with whatever legal advice your solicitor gives about the boundary.
Reading the report
A chimney sweep's certificate is on the mantel. Has the further investigation of the stack been completed?
Own page
The stack investigation is still open. A sweep's certificate on the mantel shows that a sweep attended and issued that paper. It does not show that anyone has done the further investigation of the stack the survey asked for. Sweeping a flue and investigating the chimney as building work are different jobs, and the certificate answers only the first.
Reading the report
Further investigation of the boiler means a gas engineer, not a second home survey. What does each instruction refuse to do?
Own page
Each brief refuses the other job. The gas-engineer instruction refuses to be a second home survey of the whole building. The home-survey instruction refuses to safety-test the boiler. Services on the survey are visual only, at every level, so booking the surveyor again does not create the appliance investigation, and booking the engineer does not rewrite the Level 2 or Level 3.
Reading the report
The Level 3 suspects asbestos and says this was not an asbestos inspection. Who is instructed next, and what must they avoid doing to the material?
Own page
A separate asbestos surveyor is next, not the Level 3 author on the same brief. The Level 3 description is clear that the home surveyor is not an asbestos inspector, which is why the report can suspect a material and still say this was not that inspection. Whoever is instructed next must not break, drill, sand or power-wash the material in order to find out.
Reading the report
Wall ties are only suspected. Who uses a borescope, and why did the Level 2 not already do that?
Own page
The specialist with the borescope, which a Level 2 does not include as standard. Wall ties were only suspected because they sit in the cavity, and a Level 2 does not open that cavity to look. The person instructed to investigate uses the borescope as opening-up. The Level 2 stopped at suspicion precisely because that opening-up was not part of its visual inspection.
Reading the report
Your solicitor is told about a rating 3 crack. Are they the person who investigates the crack?
Own page
Not the solicitor. They are told so that the legal side of the purchase knows there is a rating 3 crack, which means something serious or urgent, and that you are being pointed toward written quotations before you enter a legal commitment. Investigating the crack, opening it or explaining the structure, is not the solicitor's work. That remains a survey or engineering instruction.
Reading the report
What should be written down before you book the person named in a further-investigation line?
Own page
The scope, in writing, before any diary slot. Write the element, the question the survey left open, whether opening-up is allowed, that you require a written report, and who is instructing and paying. A named trade in the further-investigation line is not a brief. Until those points are on a page, a booking only reserves time.
Money
The report lists an electrician and a drainage firm. Why is there no single published fee that covers both?
Own page
There is no such combined published fee because the electrician and the drainage firm are two later instructions, not a package RICS prices as one. Survey cost is variable, and there is no national tariff even for the home survey itself. Nothing in that guidance publishes a single figure that binds both specialists, or folds them into the Level 1, 2 or 3 fee you have already seen.
Reading the report
The further investigation has not happened yet. Why should you not treat today's rating as the last word on that element?
Own page
It is only this inspection's view. Today's rating records what the surveyor could say from the visit they have already made. The further investigation has not happened, so a later specialist can add facts this rating could not include. Treat the rating as the current grade of what was seen, not as the final description of that element once someone has opened it up or tested it.
Choosing a survey
A damp firm offers what it calls a survey. Does that document become your RICS Level 2?
Own page
It stays a damp firm's document. Calling that visit a survey does not turn it into your RICS Level 2. Level 2 is a defined home survey for a conventional house of simple form in reasonable condition, either survey only or with a market valuation and a reinstatement figure. A trade report on moisture is a specialist paper. The word survey on the cover does not change its job.
Reading the report
A structural engineer writes a two-page letter about one crack. Has the rest of the house been re-surveyed?
Own page
The rest of the house has not been re-surveyed. A two-page letter about one crack is that engineer's answer on that crack. Roofs, services, other walls, drainage and every element the home survey already described stay as they were in that survey. The letter does not walk the building again, and it does not replace the ratings on parts it never mentions.
Reading the report
A contractor prices the work without opening anything. Is that the investigation, or only a price?
Own page
Only a price, not the investigation. The contractor has numbered a repair while every cover, board and floor they would need to look under has stayed in place. Where the report asked for investigation, investigation means finding out, which this closed-up figure has not done. Keep the paper. Call it a price. Do not call it the look the survey still wants.
Reading the report
You ask the original surveyor to come back. Is that the specialist investigation the report named?
Own page
Not unless that return was the named specialism. Asking the original surveyor back is a further visit by the home surveyor. If the report named an engineer, an electrician, a drainage firm or another specialist, their investigation is a different instruction. A second morning with the same surveyor, on the same kind of brief, does not become that other profession's report.
Reading the report
The survey asks for further investigation of one kitchen spur. Is that sentence the EICR observation code FI?
Own page
Not code FI. The kitchen-spur sentence is the home survey asking for a further look at one circuit it did not test. FI on an EICR means further investigation required without delay, and it is an observation code from that electrical report, not a RICS condition rating. A surveyor's prose about a spur is not that code, and it does not become one because both mention further investigation.
Reading the report
The chamber was not opened, the drains are NI, and a camera is suggested. Which fact is a rating and which is a next instruction?
Own page
The NI label is the report's fact about the inspection, and the camera is the next instruction. NI means not inspected. It is not rating 1, 2 or 3, and it is not a grade of how bad the drains are. The suggestion of a camera is what the surveyor wants you to commission next. The unopened chamber is the reason they could not inspect, not a third rating hiding in the paragraph.
Reading the report
A rating 2 on a stair crack says monitoring is appropriate. Who starts that monitoring, given the inspection itself was a single visit?
Own page
Monitoring starts after the visit, not during it. You start it, or you instruct someone to start it, once the survey has said that monitoring is appropriate. The inspection was one attendance. One attendance cannot already be a programme of watching the crack over time. Rating 2 means repairs or replacement are needed but are not serious or urgent. It does not mean the watching has been done.
Reading the report
The seller mentions a loss adjuster from an old insurance claim. Is that person the further investigation your report is asking you to commission?
Own page
Not that loss adjuster. They were involved in an old insurance claim for whoever instructed them then, on the questions the insurer asked at the time. Your report is asking you to commission a further investigation now, for you, against the sentence the surveyor wrote. A name from a historic claim is not that appointment, even if the seller still has the email.
Reading the report
The crack is in a party wall and the neighbour will not let an engineer in. What can your survey still not finish?
Own page
The neighbour's side remains unseen, and so does any investigation that needed that access. Your survey can record the crack from your side only. It still cannot finish a view of the neighbour's face of the wall, and it cannot finish the engineer's investigation while the neighbour refuses entry. The surveyor also does not serve party-wall notices or make an award. Access refused is a limit, not a hidden all-clear.
Reading the report
A damp report dated 2014 is in the drawer. Does it answer a further-investigation line written this month?
Own page
It answers 2014, not this month. A damp report from that year describes what that firm found then, under the brief they had then. A further-investigation line written in this month's home survey is a new request about the building as it is now. The drawer copy does not close it, however thorough it looked at the time.
Reading the report
The lender wants a timber report that the Level 2 only hinted at. Who chooses the firm that does it?
Own page
You place the instruction, after asking the lender what they will accept. The Level 2 did not choose a timber firm by hinting, and it did not appoint one. MoneyHelper's mortgage valuation, which is the lender's own check and not a structural survey, also does not choose that firm for you. Ask the lender which timber report they will accept, then instruct a firm on a written brief you can show them.
Reading the report
The seller offers their own damp contractor as the further investigation. What should you ask before you rely on that visit?
Own page
Treat the offer as a proposal until you have checked it. Before you rely on the seller's damp contractor, ask who instructed them, what they opened, which survey sentence they were told to answer, whether the report is in writing, and whether you may use it. A visit arranged for the seller is not automatically the further investigation you were advised to obtain for yourself.
Reading the report
The specialist finds no decay. What should you do with the original rating 3 sentence?
Own page
Leave the rating 3 sentence in place, and put the specialist's written finding beside it. Do not delete, rewrite or soften the surveyor's words because the specialist found no decay. Send both papers to your solicitor, and ask the surveyor whether they want to add a comment. The original sentence remains the record of what the inspection concluded on the day.
Reading the report
The damp firm telephones and says the wall is fine. Is that the written investigation you needed before a legal commitment?
Own page
A phone call is not enough. You needed a written investigation before a legal commitment, and a telephone remark that the wall is fine is neither written nor a report you can put in the file. Where the element is rating 3, the survey tells you to obtain written quotations before you enter that commitment. A voice on the phone does not meet that bar, and it does not meet a request for investigation either.
Reading the report
The loft was NI because the hatch was above the three-metre ladder limit. Does naming a further investigation open that hatch today?
Own page
The hatch stays shut today. NI means the loft was not inspected, and the reason is the ladder limit in the Level 3 description: a hatch is entered with a ladder only if it is no more than three metres and it is safe. Naming a further investigation does not open that hatch on this visit. It tells you a later instruction, with its own safe access, would be needed if you want the loft seen.
Money
Does RICS publish the price of replacing the particular slates a report has rated?
Own page
No. RICS does not publish the price of replacing the particular slates a report has rated. House-survey guidance explains the levels and what a visual visit is for. It does not catalogue slate types, clips, nails or how this roof should be stripped. The figure that matters is a roofer's quote after seeing these slopes. That quote belongs to the roofer. Nothing in the guidance turns it into an endorsed tariff.
Money
Is there a national price for the damp investigation a home survey has asked you to commission?
Own page
There is not a national price. When the home survey tells you to commission a damp investigation, it is sending you to another firm. It is not quoting that firm's fee. Moisture meters, salts tests, opening finishes and a written opinion are priced by the specialist who will do them. Compare those scopes before you compare the fees. A higher fee does not prove the original survey was wrong.
Money
Does the RICS home-survey guidance set the fee for an EICR that the report has recommended?
Own page
No. The home-survey guidance does not set the fee for an EICR. Recommending an electrical condition report is not the same as pricing one. The electrician who will test the installation sets that charge under their own terms. RICS has not published a tariff for it. Ask the electrical firm what the test includes before you treat any number as comparable with another firm's quote.
Money
Is the cost of a drainage camera written into the RICS home survey standard?
Own page
No. The cost of a drainage camera is not written into the RICS home survey standard. A camera survey is a further instruction to a firm that will put equipment through the drains. The standard does not print that firm's charge, and it does not make the charge part of the original home-survey invoice. Ask the camera firm for their fee and for what length of drain, and which chambers, the fee covers.
Money
A roofer quotes for the lead valley. Is that figure a RICS repair tariff?
Own page
No. The roofer's figure for the lead valley is that firm's quote, not a RICS repair tariff. RICS does not publish a price for renewing lead, for the timber under it, or for the scaffolding this valley needs. The survey can describe what was seen. The number in the roofer's email is the roofer's offer. You may use it in a negotiation. You may not pretend the report certified it.
Money
Two roofers price the same rating 3 paragraph differently. Which of those prices does RICS endorse?
Own page
Neither. RICS does not endorse either roofer when two firms price the same rating 3 paragraph differently. The paragraph is a condition warning. It is not a bill of quantities, and it does not pick a winner between contractors. The gap usually means they have not priced the same work. Ask each one to restate the job in the same words before you treat either total as the figure the survey had in mind.
Money
The consumer guide's words about Level 1 fees describe the survey invoice. Do they also budget the slate repair?
Own page
No. They describe the survey invoice, not a budget for the slate repair. The consumer guide says cost is variable, and that Level 1 sits at the lower end and starts at a few hundred pounds. Those words are about what a Level 1 survey can cost. They are not money set aside for slates, and they are not a cap a roofer must respect. The repair still needs prices from contractors who have seen this roof.
Money
The consumer guide says some bespoke Level 3 services cost over £1,000. Does that sentence cap the repairs the report may list?
Own page
No. That sentence does not cap the repairs the report may list. The consumer guide says cost is variable, and that Level 3 sits at the higher end, with some bespoke services costing over £1,000. Those words describe the survey fee. They do not limit what builders may charge for defects, and they are not a repair budget you can subtract from the price. Each listed defect still needs its own contractor quotes.
Money
The survey fee has already been paid. Why is the structural engineer's invoice a different bill?
Own page
Because the engineer was instructed separately. The survey fee bought the home survey: the visit and the report from that firm. A structural engineer's invoice buys the engineer's own work, such as a visit, a letter or calculations. Recommending an engineer does not pay the engineer. The two firms are not required to share one bill, and the home-survey guidance does not fold the second profession into the first fee.
Money
An online forum states a typical cost to rebuild a chimney. Why must you not deduct that sum from the purchase price?
Own page
Because a forum figure is not this chimney and the report never adopted it. Someone else's stack, in another year, with another scaffold, is not a quote you can subtract from the price. RICS does not publish forum averages as deductions. If the chimney needs work, the usable numbers are contractor quotes for this stack. Until those exist, a deduction based on the forum is a number you invented, even if the post looked confident.
Money
The rating 3 paragraph has no VAT line. Where does VAT on a builder's quote get decided?
Own page
On the builder's quote, not in the rating. A rating 3 paragraph has no VAT line because it is not an invoice for building work. The surveyor is not selling the repair. Any tax is decided when a contractor prices the job, under that firm's tax position and the nature of the work. Do not pencil a tax rate under the paragraph. The report has not chosen one, and the guidance does not print one for you to copy.
Money
A builder's provisional sum sits in an email next to the survey. Has the surveyor certified that sum?
Own page
No. The surveyor has not certified that provisional sum. A provisional sum is the builder's own allowance for work they have not fully measured. An email placed next to the survey does not insert the email into the report, and it does not make the surveyor the signer of the builder's figure. The ratings describe condition. They are not a certificate that a contractor's allowance is right, complete, or safe to deduct.
Money
A contractor prices daywork because the floor was not opened. Is that daywork rate a RICS condition rating?
Own page
No. A daywork rate is not a RICS condition rating. The contractor is charging for time because the floor was not opened and the extent is unknown. Ratings are a condition language. Rating 1 means no repair is currently needed, normal maintenance. Rating 2 means repairs or replacements are needed but they are not serious or urgent. Rating 3 means serious and/or urgent. NI means not inspected. A daily charge is none of those.
Money
You add a contingency because the loft was NI. Is that contingency a figure the report printed?
Own page
No. The contingency is not a figure the report printed. You added it because the loft was NI, and NI means not inspected. The PDF recorded that limit. It did not choose your allowance, add a tax line, or certify the sum. Keep the allowance in your own notes, labelled as yours. If you mention it to the seller, say it is your contingency for unseen loft work, not a number taken from the survey.
Money
You paid the lender's valuation fee. Which condition ratings has that fee bought?
Own page
None. The lender's valuation fee has not bought condition ratings. It bought the valuation the lender wanted on the security for the loan. There is no ratings column hiding in that product. Roof, damp and services are not scored 1, 2, 3 or NI because you paid that fee. A home survey is a different instruction. Until you commission one, you do not have those ratings, whatever the valuation cost.
Choosing a survey
MoneyHelper says the mortgage valuation is for the lender. Why might it ignore the question you most wanted answered about the roof?
Own page
Because the valuation is written to the lender's question, not to yours. The point of it is the security for the loan. The roof detail you most wanted, a valley, a flat dormer, a patch of slipped covering, can sit outside that brief even if it is the only thing you care about. Nobody was retained to answer you. A home survey is the instruction you aim at your own question. The lender's valuation is not that instruction.
Choosing a survey
The selling agent offers a free valuation of the house. Is that a RICS Level 2 home survey?
Own page
No. A selling agent's free valuation is not a RICS Level 2 home survey. It is a sales opinion of price, offered so the instruction to market the house, or the negotiation, can proceed. Level 2 is an inspection and a report on a conventional home. The agent has not agreed to rate defects, to follow the home survey standard, or to carry the duties of that product. Complimentary price talk does not change its name because it happened at a viewing.
Choosing a survey
You are buying with cash, so there is no lender valuation. Which document, if any, has rated the roof?
Own page
None, unless you commission a home survey. Cash does not produce a lender valuation, and it does not produce ratings by default. No document arrives from a bank to score the roof. The agent's particulars have not rated it either. The document that would rate the covering is a home survey you choose and pay for. Until that report exists, the roof is unrated, however confident everyone sounds about the price.
Money
The valuation states a retention. Is that sum a builder's quote for the defect named in your survey?
Own page
No. The retention is not a builder's quote for the defect named in your survey. A retention is the lender holding money back on the loan. A builder's quote is a contractor's price for described work. The two numbers are produced by different people for different reasons. Do not paste the retention into a works budget and call it the quote. If you want the cost of the defect, ask a contractor to price the work the survey described.
Choosing a survey
The lender's figure is below the agreed price and the valuation does not list repairs. Where do you look for condition?
Own page
Look in a home survey, not in that valuation. A lender's figure below the agreed price, with no repair list, is a view of value for the loan. It does not itemise slates, damp, timber or drains. Condition, if you want it itemised, is what survey ratings are for, and only after you instruct that survey. Do not reverse-engineer a works schedule out of the gap between the price you agreed and the number the lender prefers.
Money
You paid for a Level 3 and the lender then retains money. Does the retention repay the survey fee?
Own page
No. The retention does not repay the Level 3 fee. You paid the survey firm for the report, and that payment stands. Money the lender holds back is a condition of the mortgage, held in the lending, not a refund routed to the survey invoice. The two sums answer different questions and sit with different organisations. A later retention is not a sign the survey fee is being returned, reduced, or reclassified as the lender's money.
Money
Can you hand the reinstatement figure to a roofer as the budget for the slipped slates?
Own page
No. You cannot hand the reinstatement figure to a roofer as the budget for the slipped slates. Reinstatement is not a repair budget and it is not the market value. It is a rebuild-style figure used for insurance purposes where a valuation product includes one. The slipped slates need a roofer's quote based on access and the work they will actually do. Offering them the reinstatement number asks them to treat a whole-building rebuild assumption as a small repair.
Money
The valuation is lower than the price. Does that drop equal the cost of each rating 3 added together?
Own page
No. The drop does not equal the rating 3 items added together. Those items were not given prices, so there is nothing honest to total. A lower valuation is a view of value. It is not an invoice broken into defects. Do not invent repair sums that add up to the gap and then say the ratings cost that much. The survey did not do that addition, and the valuation did not either.
Money
RICS's What to do now note tells you to obtain quotations before commitment. Does the note itself state the quotation?
Own page
No. The note tells you to obtain quotations before you commit. It does not state the quotation. There is no price sitting in that advice, because the advice is to go and get prices from the people who will do the work. The note advises you, the buyer. It does not invoice the seller, and it does not fill in a number the contractors have not given. Any figure you write underneath the note is yours or a contractor's, not the note's.
Money
Two damp firms quote different fees after the same survey. What must match before those fees can be compared?
Own page
The work they have priced must match. Before two damp fees can be compared, each firm should be pricing the same rooms, comparable tests, a similar visit length and a similar written report. If one includes salts sampling and small opening-up, and the other is a brief meter visit, the fees buy different investigations. The home survey did not set either fee. There is no official damp price that makes the two numbers comparable when the scopes are not.
Money
The house is remote and the loft hatch is awkward. Why might a specialist's fee differ from a neighbour's without either fee being a national tariff?
Own page
Because the jobs are not the same job. A remote house adds travel, and an awkward loft hatch adds time and difficulty, so a specialist can price this visit differently from a neighbour's without either fee being a national tariff. RICS does not publish one specialist price that both addresses must match. The neighbour's invoice is evidence of the neighbour's agreement, not of a legal rate for your hatch. Ask each firm what they have assumed about access and distance.
Money
A contractor wants paying to lift boards before they will price the repair. Is that opening-up charge inside the original survey fee?
Own page
No. The charge for lifting boards is not inside the original survey fee. That fee bought the inspection you instructed. It did not buy a later visit in which a contractor opens floors so a repair can be priced. Opening up is a new agreement, with its own cost, even if the survey is the reason you are now considering it. Ask what will be lifted, what will be put back, and whether the charge is payable if you then decline the repair.
Money
The firm will not promise which day the PDF will arrive. Is a faster turnaround a figure RICS has set?
Own page
No. A faster turnaround is not a figure RICS has set. The firm sets when the report is issued, and the guidance does not publish a surcharge for speed or a promised day. If this firm will not name the day the PDF arrives, that is their timetable. It is not a missing national extra you can demand to see on a tariff. Any quicker service, where they offer one, is their own commercial term, not an RICS line.
Money
You booked a camera survey and the seller then refused access. What should that firm's terms already have said about the fee?
Own page
They should already have said what happens to the fee if access is refused. A kept charge, a reduced charge, a free rearrangement or no charge are all things the booking can spell out. You contracted with the camera firm. Their terms govern the seller's refusal. The home survey standard does not write cancellation rules for that separate contractor, and the original survey invoice does not decide the camera firm's money either.
Money
The survey does not say the seller pays half the engineer. Who decides any split of that bill?
Own page
The buyer and the seller decide any split, if they agree one at all. The survey did not say the seller pays half the engineer, and you must not pretend it did. A recommendation to take engineering advice is not a costs order. Unless the contract, or a later written deal, allocates that bill, it stays with the person who instructed the engineer. Solicitors can record an agreement. The PDF cannot be stretched until it looks like one.
Money
An old insurance schedule mentions an excess. Is that excess the cost of the crack described in this survey?
Own page
No. The excess on an old schedule is not the cost of the crack described in this survey. An excess is a policy term about what the policyholder bears if a claim is made on that policy. This report described a crack. It did not price the crack, and it did not adopt the old excess as that price. Leave the schedule in the insurance papers. Do not paste its figure into the purchase talks as if it were the repair quote.
Money
A new-build warranty may have an excess the survey does not state. What should you not type into the price negotiation as if the survey had priced it?
Own page
Do not type an excess, or any other warranty sum, into the negotiation as if the survey had priced it. The report does not state a warranty excess. A number you insert would be an invention. If a new-build warranty exists, any excess is in that policy, which you should read rather than guess. Do not invent a minimum claim. Do not name a product the PDF never named and then negotiate as though the survey had costed it.
Money
GOV.UK's £250 and £100 leaseholder consultation figures are not the price of this block's roof repair. What are those figures actually for?
Own page
They are consultation triggers, not the price of this roof. GOV.UK leasehold guidance provides for consultation if the leaseholder would pay more than £250 for planned work, or more than £100 a year for work and services lasting more than 12 months. Those figures mark when consultation is required. They do not say what this block's roof will cost to repair, and they are not a sum the survey has calculated or a budget you should deduct.
Money
An ordinary house-survey quote arrived for a park home. What inspection, and therefore what cost conversation, has that quote skipped?
Own page
It has skipped the chassis and the skirt, so the cost conversation about those parts has not started. An ordinary house-survey quote is drawn up for a house. A park home is not a PRC, Airey, Cornish or BISF house. A standard quote can miss the chassis and the skirt, and it does not read the pitch agreement. Until someone is instructed to inspect those parts, you do not have a price for that inspection, and you should not pretend the house quote included it.
Money
A thatched roof may need a thatcher's own inspection. Is that inspection included because you paid for a Level 2?
Own page
No. Paying for a Level 2 does not include a thatcher's own inspection. The Level 2 fee pays for that home survey. A thatched roof may still need a thatcher to examine the thatch as a separate instruction with a separate fee. Level 2 is aimed at a conventional home of simple form. Mentioning the roof in the report is not the same as hiring the specialist. Do not invent the thatcher's price from the fact the covering was discussed.
Money
The house is listed. Has the survey fee paid for a listed-building consent application?
Own page
No. The survey fee has not paid for a listed-building consent application. It paid for the inspection and the report. Historic England list entries record a grade, and the whole building is listed, not only the detail a photograph happens to show. Applying for consent, where works would need it, is a separate process. The surveyor does not file that application as part of an ordinary survey invoice, and the invoice has not prepaid it.
Money
A coal-mining search sits on the solicitor's list. Is its fee part of the Level 3 invoice?
Own page
No. The coal-mining search fee is not part of the Level 3 invoice. The Coal Authority search is a separate conveyancing search. It sits on the solicitor's list and is charged in that conveyancing, not by the survey firm for the home survey. Level 3 is the inspection and the report. Nothing in the home-survey guidance moves a mining-search disbursement onto the surveyor's bill. Do not guess what a clear search would mean. The search result has to speak for itself.
Money
The England long-term flood check is a separate lookup. Why is a printout not something you deduct from the survey fee as if it were the inspection?
Own page
Because the printout is not the inspection. The England long-term flood check does not say this house will flood. It does not cover blocked drains or burst pipes. It is not the map for Scotland or Wales. A printout of that lookup is not the surveyor's visit and it is not the report. Deducting it from the survey fee would pretend the check had already been delivered as the inspection you bought, which it was not.
Money
The seller already holds an EPC. Why is that not a discount off the home-survey fee?
Own page
Because an EPC is not a home survey, so the seller holding one is not a discount off the survey fee. An EPC is required when selling a home in England, and it is valid for 10 years. It rates energy performance. It does not inspect the structure, the damp or the roof, and nothing in the survey guidance lets you subtract the certificate from the inspection invoice. You are buying a visit and a condition report. The certificate does not supply them.
Money
You want both a snagging list and a Level 2 on a new house. Why do those remain two fees?
Own page
Because a snagging list and a Level 2 are different instructions. A snagging list checks a new home's finish. A Level 2 is a home survey that uses condition ratings. Wanting both means two appointments and two fees. A snagging list is not a set of condition ratings, and the consumer guidance does not publish a bundle that merges the two into one invoice. Paying for one leaves the other unbought.
Money
The seller replaces the slipped slates. Is the surveyor's second visit already covered by the first fee?
Own page
No. The second visit is not already covered by the first fee. The seller replacing slipped slates changes what is on the roof. It does not reopen the original invoice. A return visit is a new instruction unless that firm's written terms already included a reinspection, which you should check instead of assuming. There is no national rule that the first fee stays open until the slates have been swapped and looked at again.
Money
The surveyor talks you through the engineer's letter on the phone. Has that call produced the engineer's findings?
Own page
No. The call has not produced the engineer's findings. Those findings are what the engineer wrote. The surveyor is helping you read someone else's letter. A phone explanation does not make the surveyor the author of the investigation, and it does not repeat the tests or the opening-up the engineer did. Whether the call sits inside the survey firm's terms is a question for those terms. It is still not a second original of the engineer's work.
Money
A friend says take ten percent off for every rating 3. Why is that percentage not a published repair cost?
Own page
Because that percentage is not a published repair cost. A friend who says take ten percent off for every rating 3 is offering a private rule of thumb. RICS has not published it. The report has not printed it. It is not the cost of those defects. Do not deduct it. Do not tell the seller the survey requires it. If you need a number, get contractor quotes for the actual work. The percentage is not a stand-in for those quotes.
Money
A builder's quote is about to expire. Does the home survey extend that expiry?
Own page
No. The home survey does not extend a builder's quote that is about to expire. The expiry is the builder's term on the builder's offer. The date of the inspection, or of the PDF, does not renew it. When the quote lapses, ask the builder whether they will hold the figure or reprice the job. The surveyor cannot lengthen the offer, and the guidance contains no rule that a report keeps a contractor's price alive.
Money
A price for replacement tiles alone is not the repair of the roof. What has that price left out, which the rating also does not cost?
Own page
It has left out the work of doing the repair. A price for replacement tiles alone is a materials figure. It leaves out labour, access and making good, and the rating does not cost those either. The rating is a condition comment, not a priced schedule, so it will not fill the hole the tile price left. Ask a roofer for a full quote for the work the paragraph describes. Do not add a guessed labour sum and call the total the survey's figure.
Money
The roof needs scaffold and you are buying one flat. Does the survey split that scaffold cost between the flats?
Own page
No. The survey does not split the scaffold cost between the flats. It may describe the roof and why access is awkward. It does not calculate one flat's share, and it does not amend the lease. Who pays is a question for the lease, the management papers and your solicitor. Do not invent an equal division and present it as the report's arithmetic. The report did not do that sum, and a condition paragraph is not a service-charge account.
Money
The mortgage illustration lists a valuation fee. Can you point at that line and say a Level 3 is included?
Own page
No. You cannot point at the valuation fee on a mortgage illustration and say a Level 3 is included. That line is a charge for the lender's valuation. A Level 3 is a home survey you instruct yourself, about condition, with its own agreement and its own invoice. The illustration has not quietly bundled the detailed survey into the lender's fee. If you want the Level 3, you still appoint a firm and accept that firm's charge.
Money
RICS does not publish a call-out charge for further investigation. Who do you ask for that charge?
Own page
Ask the firm that will carry out the further investigation. RICS does not publish a call-out charge, so there is no official figure to copy into a negotiation or a spreadsheet. The report can say more investigation is needed. It cannot name the specialist's charge. Get the charge, and what it includes, from the firm whose terms will apply on the day. Do not invent a call-out because the report was silent, and do not borrow one from a forum.
Money
One firm quotes a single sum and never names Level 1, 2 or 3. Why can you not compare that sum with a quote that names one level?
Own page
Because the unnamed sum has not said which product it is selling, so it is not the same offer as a quote that names a level. Level 1 is a visual overview for a conventional home. Level 2 fits a conventional home in reasonable condition and of simple form. Level 3 is for older, altered or unusual construction, or where major works are planned. Until the single sum names one of those, and says what is included, you are comparing a label with a mystery.
Property types
A pipe passes through a timber-frame party wall and the lining was not opened. What can the survey not confirm about that hole?
Own page
No, the visit cannot confirm fire stopping, packing or damp around that pipe, because the lining stayed shut. A timber-frame party wall is more than the plasterboard the surveyor walked past. A hole cut for a pipe can leave a gap between the two homes. The report records the pipe and any stain it could see. It does not open the lining, and hidden fabric is not shown to be sound.
Property types
The brochure calls the finish brick slips on a timber frame. Can the survey describe that wall as a traditional cavity?
Own page
No. Brick slips fixed to a timber frame are a thin finish, not a traditional cavity wall of two masonry leaves. A sales brochure does not become the wall the surveyor saw. Slips can hide sheathing, a breather layer and battens, and the visit does not strip them. Call the face a slip finish on a frame. Do not copy cavity-wall repairs onto a skin that is not a structural brick leaf.
Property types
The sole plate of a timber frame sits behind the skirting and was not exposed. What at the base of the wall remains uninspected?
Own page
Only the skirting and the wall face were available. The sole plate, the horizontal timber at the base of a timber frame, stayed behind the boards and was not exposed. Soft paint, a tide mark or a swollen skirting is a clue, not a measurement of that plate. Fitted carpets were not lifted. Timber at floor level that nobody uncovered is not shown to be sound just because the room looked tidy.
Property types
Render on a timber-frame house is cracked and stained. Has the survey seen the sheathing behind that render?
Own page
No. Cracked and stained render on a timber-frame house is a comment on the outside coat. Sheathing, studs and any membrane behind that render were not opened. A stain can mean water reached the coat, or only that dirt has stuck. The surveyor is not an asbestos inspector, and a cement-looking coat is not a sample. Timber behind an unopened render face has not been shown to be dry or rotten.
Property types
One steel column is visible in a bay and the rest of any frame is hidden. What may you not yet call the whole house?
Own page
Not yet a named system. One steel column visible in a bay is a single member, not a label for the whole house. The rest of any frame may sit inside brick, plaster or a lining that stayed shut. The visit can record that column, its rust and how it meets the bay. It does not measure hidden steel, and it must not copy a system name from a brochure the surveyor did not match on site.
Property types
Rust staining shows at skirting level where a steel might sit. Has the survey measured that steel?
Own page
No. Rust staining at skirting level is a mark on the finish, not a measured steel section. The surveyor can note colour, blistered paint and a damp board. They cannot give a thickness, a remaining section or a corrosion depth for metal that stayed inside the wall. Skirtings and fitted carpets were not stripped. A stain is a reason to investigate, not a certificate that a frame has failed or that it is intact.
Property types
A steel lintel over a shopfront is a different finding from a frame carrying the flats above. How should the report keep those apart?
Own page
Keep them as two findings. A steel lintel over a shopfront carries the opening you can see. A frame that carries the flats above is a different structure, often hidden behind plaster and shop linings. Seeing one beam does not describe the other. The flat inspection does not inspect the block's external wall system, and it does not open the shop. Write the lintel where it was seen. Do not promote it into a system name for the storeys overhead.
Property types
The survey thinks the elevation is a Cornish post-and-panel system. Does that sentence prove a repair certificate exists?
Own page
No. Thinking the elevation looks like a Cornish post-and-panel system is an identification comment, not proof a repair certificate exists. The surveyor saw the outside pattern they could reach. They did not open panels, and they did not audit a historic repair file. A system name the visit did not confirm must not be copied from a brochure. Ask for the papers separately. The visual record does not stand in for them.
Property types
A suspected Wimpey no-fines wall is dry-lined. What of the concrete has actually been seen?
Own page
Only the dry lining, unless a patch was already open. A suspected Wimpey no-fines wall that is plasterboarded hides the concrete itself. The surveyor can describe the lining, the openings and any crack that shows through the finish. They cannot describe density, reinforcement or damp inside concrete they did not expose. No-fines is not a cavity. A gap behind the board, if one exists, was not measured and is not itself a defect.
Property types
One page of the report says PRC and the elevation looks like ordinary brick. What should you ask before you tell the lender a system name?
Own page
Ask which faces were actually seen, and which sentence is the conclusion. One page says PRC while the elevation looks like ordinary brick, so the two remarks do not yet agree. PRC means precast reinforced concrete panels, which often sit under a later skin. Ordinary brick can be the real wall or only a cladding. Do not tell a lender a system the visit did not match, and do not copy the name from a brochure.
Property types
Concrete columns and brick infill are described, and no system is named. Why is the missing name not a clean pass?
Own page
Because a missing name is a limit, not a pass. Concrete columns with brick infill are a description of what was seen. They are not a clean bill of health and not a named system. Several post-war forms look similar until a joint, a panel edge or a document is found. The survey must not invent the name from a sales brochure. Metal or concrete inside the columns was not measured, so those hidden parts stay undescribed.
Property types
A house said to have been repaired now has a crack at a panel joint. What does the visual survey still not prove about the old repair?
Own page
It does not prove the old repair still works, and it does not prove the repair has failed. A fresh crack at a panel joint, on a house said to have been repaired, is what the eye could see that day. The surveyor did not open the joint, test the fixings or read a repair file. The crack can be old fill opening again, or something still shifting. Reinforcement behind the panel was not exposed.
Property types
A precast concrete porch is bolted to a brick house. Has the house become system-built?
Own page
No. A precast concrete porch bolted to a brick house is a porch, not a reason to call the whole house system-built. The survey should describe the porch it could see: cracks, rusting bolts, a loose canopy, and how it meets the brick. The main walls stay whatever construction was actually identified there. One precast add-on does not rename the house, and a brochure system must not be pasted on because the porch happens to be concrete.
Property types
A 1950s trussed-rafter roof carries a water tank the trusses may not have been laid out to hold. What should the rating not assume?
Own page
The rating should not assume those trusses were laid out to carry that tank. A 1950s trussed-rafter roof is a set of light timber frames, and a water tank may load a point they were not arranged to hold. The surveyor can see the tank, the boarding and any sag or stain within reach. They do not calculate the truss. The tank and pipes were not pressure-tested. A loft is entered only where the hatch is safe and not more than 3 metres up.
Property types
A cement-sheet garage stands beside a brick post-war house. Does the garage sheet rewrite the house construction?
Own page
No. A cement-sheet garage beside a brick post-war house is a separate outbuilding. Its sheets do not rewrite the house walls. Describe the garage for cracked sheets, rotten timber and a poor junction with the ground. Do not call those sheets asbestos from the look of cement, and do not call the house non-standard because a garage stands next to it. The surveyor is not an asbestos inspector. The house is whatever the house walls themselves showed.
Property types
A pavement light in front of a Victorian house is cracked. What has the survey not established about the vault under the street?
Own page
The survey has not established the strength or the dryness of the vault under the street. A cracked pavement light in front of a Victorian house is a glass or iron panel in the public pavement, often over a coal vault. The surveyor may note the crack from the house side if they could see it. They do not open the street, test the vault slab or decide who must repair the light. Structure under the pavement that stayed closed is simply unexamined.
Property types
Leaded lights in an Edwardian porch are buckled. Are those lights the same rated element as the main roof?
Own page
No. Buckled leaded lights in an Edwardian porch are the porch glazing, not the main roof. Describe bent lead, cracked glass and rotten timber around that porch on their own. The main roof is slates or tiles, flashings and the structure over the house, seen separately. A porch comment does not travel upstairs. The survey does not lift roof coverings, and it does not treat decorative glass as a product that has been safety-tested.
Property types
A crack has been filled along a 1930s picture rail. Has the survey watched that crack move?
Own page
No. A crack filled along a 1930s picture rail was seen as a filled line, not watched over months. One visit cannot say whether it is still moving, has stopped, or was only old plaster. The surveyor notes width, direction and whether doors stick, if those signs were there that day. They do not monitor. An empty cavity in the 1930s walls is not itself a defect, and this filler does not prove anything about the cavity or the foundations.
Property types
The chimney stack sits on the party line of a Victorian terrace. Whose flue has the survey not inspected?
Own page
The neighbour's flue, and often the hidden parts of yours. A stack on the party line of a Victorian terrace can hold more than one flue, and this visit does not inspect the flue next door. The surveyor can see the stack from this side, the pots from a safe viewpoint, and the fireplace in this room. They do not sweep either flue. Flues are looked at visually, not safety-tested, and the neighbour's room was not part of the instruction.
Property types
The joists under an Edwardian balcony are boxed in. What rating can those joists honestly carry?
Own page
Only a comment on the boxing, or not inspected if the joists themselves were hidden. Joists under an Edwardian balcony that are boxed in were not exposed, so they cannot honestly carry rating 1 as if someone had seen sound timber. The surveyor can rate the deck, the rail and any stain on the boxing. Timber inside the box stays unseen. Not inspected means not inspected. Hidden joists are not shown to be sound because the paint on the soffit looked even.
Property types
Original steel windows meet a rotten timber sub-sill. Which of those materials has the rating actually described?
Own page
Both, but only as seen, and they should not be blurred into one material. The steel window and the rotten timber sub-sill are different. The surveyor can describe rust on the metal, failed putty, and rot in the timber under the frame. They have not tested the window as a product and have not opened the wall below the sill. Original steel is not a defect merely for being original. The rotten timber is the piece that needs the repair comment.
Property types
A Victorian slate roof has been covered with a bitumen-like coating. What of the slates can the survey no longer see?
Own page
The slate surfaces, the nail fixings and most of the laps. A Victorian roof coated with a bitumen-like layer hides the slates underneath. The surveyor can describe the coating, cracks in it, and ponding if the slopes were visible. They cannot say each slate is sound, and they do not strip the coat. A coated covering is not certified. Decay under the layer stays unseen, including nail sickness that a bare slate roof might have shown.
Property types
A 1930s garage in the garden is single-skin brick. Does its rating transfer to the cavity walls of the house?
Own page
No. A single-skin brick garage in a 1930s garden is not the cavity wall of the house, so its rating does not transfer. Single-skin means one leaf, often with no cavity at all. The house walls, where they are a true cavity, are a different element. An empty cavity in those house walls is not itself a defect. Describe the garage for cracks, a poor roof and damp at its slab. Do not rename the dwelling because the garage is only a half-brick thick.
Property types
A wood burner has been fitted in a thatched house. Has the home survey proved the flue liner where it passes the thatch?
Own page
No. A wood burner fitted in a thatched house does not prove the flue liner where it passes the thatch. The surveyor sees the stove, the hearth and a liner only where it shows at the fireplace or the pot. They do not camera the flue or sweep it. Flues are looked at visually, not safety-tested. Thatch beside a hot flue needs its own specialist look, not a pass written from the living room.
Property types
The loft under a thatched roof was not entered. Can the survey say whether a non-breathable layer sits under the coat?
Own page
No. If the loft under the thatch was not entered, the survey cannot say whether a non-breathable layer sits under the coat. The outside coat and the ridge may still be described from a safe viewpoint. The underside, the rafters and any felt or board against the thatch stayed unseen. A hatch is entered only if it is no more than 3 metres up and it is safe. An unentered roof space is not a claim that the thatch can breathe.
Property types
A listed house has a barn in the grounds and the surveyor did not enter it. Has the house listing decided the barn's condition?
Own page
No. Listing does not decide the barn's condition. A listed house is listed as a whole building, not only the front, but that legal status is not a survey of a barn the surveyor did not enter. Whether the barn is part of the listed building or a separate structure, its condition still depends on a visit. Grades do not open more fabric. The report should say the barn was not entered, and the survey does not apply for consent.
Property types
The list entry says Grade II*. Does the surveyor open more of the building because the grade is higher?
Own page
No. Grade II* does not make the surveyor open more fabric. The grade records why the building is on the national list. It does not change how much a home survey opens, and it is not a condition score. Listing covers the whole building, inside and out, not the street front alone. A higher grade is not a reason to lift floors or strip linings. The survey still does not apply for listed building consent.
Property types
Iron railings listed with the house are rusty. Does that rust rating apply to the roof covering?
Own page
No. Rust on iron railings listed with the house is a finding about those railings, not about the roof covering. Listing covers the whole building, not the front only, so the railings can matter as part of the listed fabric even when they stand on the boundary. That does not copy their rust onto the slates. Grades do not change how much fabric the survey opens. Describe each element on its own. The survey does not apply for consent to repair either of them.
Property types
You are buying a flat over a shop in a conservation area, and the house itself is not listed. What can the survey not decide about changing the shopfront?
Own page
It cannot decide whether you may change the shopfront. A conservation area is not the same thing as listing. This flat sits over a shop in that area, and the house itself is not listed, so the area name does not put the building on the national list. The survey can describe the shopfront it saw. It does not apply for consent to alter it. Listing, where it exists, covers a whole building, which is a different control from this area designation.
Property types
Internal shutters in a listed room are screwed shut. Why might the window condition behind them be NI?
Own page
Because the shutters were screwed shut, the glass behind them was not seen, so that window can be marked not inspected. A listed room does not let the surveyor force fittings open, and a higher or lower grade would not change how much fabric is opened. Listing covers the whole building, not the front alone, so internal shutters can be part of the listed fabric. The survey does not apply for consent. It should not invent a condition for glass it never saw.
Property types
A shop extractor duct passes through the floor of the flat. What has the flat survey not tested about that duct?
Own page
It has not tested the fan, the duct or the fire separation around it. A shop extractor that passes through the floor of the flat shows, at most, a grille or a boxed duct in the rooms. Grease, smell or a noisy fan can be noted. The motor was not electrically tested, and the duct inside the floor void was not opened. A flat inspection does not take in the shop below. Services are visual only, not safety-tested.
Property types
A roller-shutter box projects under the bay of a flat over a shop. Has the survey decided who must repair that box?
Own page
No. The survey has not decided who must repair the roller-shutter box under the bay. The surveyor can describe where it projects, whether it leaks, and whether the casing looks rotten or rusty. Who pays is a lease question. A home survey does not interpret the flat lease or the shop lease, and it does not allocate repairs between them. Your solicitor reads those documents. Condition of the box and liability for the box are separate.
Property types
The shop below the flat is a takeaway. Can the survey rate late-night noise as condition rating 3?
Own page
No. Late-night noise from a takeaway under the flat is not condition rating 3. Rating 3 is for a building element that is serious or urgent, where you should obtain written quotations before a legal commitment. Noise, smell and opening hours are occupation matters the surveyor may mention so you are not surprised. They are not a failed roof or a cracked wall. Services in the flat were not safety-tested. The survey does not set the shop's hours.
Property types
The only stair to the flat runs beside the shop and is partly boxed in. What of that stair structure stayed unseen?
Own page
The strings, carriage or undersides hidden by the boxing. The only stair to the flat runs beside the shop and is partly boxed, so the visit saw the open parts: going, handrail, any soft nosing. Structure inside the boxing stayed unseen and should not be called sound. A flat inspection does not open the shop to chase the stair from the other side. Carpet on the steps is not lifted. Covered timber is not shown to be sound because the treads looked even.
Legal and neighbours
The inspection was of the flat over the shop. Does the survey read the shop lease as well as the flat lease?
Own page
No. An inspection of the flat over the shop does not read the shop lease, and it does not read the flat lease either. The surveyor reports the condition of the parts they were instructed to see. Repairing duties, use clauses and who may run a shop are legal text. Leasehold paperwork is for your solicitor to collect and explain. Do not treat a condition rating as a decision about either document.
Property types
A skirt panel around a park home stayed clipped on. What of the chassis has the inspection not seen?
Own page
The chassis, the supports and the steel under the floor, wherever that skirt covered them. A panel that stayed clipped on blocks the view underneath. The visit can record the skirt, the steps and the body it could walk through. It does not unclip the skirt unless the scope said so. A house-survey PDF also does not read the pitch agreement. Do not treat the unseen chassis as sound, and do not rename this home as a house system.
Property types
The site papers talk about a pitch agreement. Why can an ordinary house-survey PDF not tell you whether you may sell the home on that pitch?
Own page
Because an ordinary house-survey PDF inspects a building. It does not read a pitch agreement, so it cannot tell you whether you may sell the home on that pitch. Site papers are for a solicitor or the site operator to explain. The survey, if one was agreed, is about condition: the body, the openings, and anything under the skirt only if the skirt was opened. Do not invent a right to sell from condition ratings. This report is not the agreement.
Property types
Someone has described the park home as a PRC semi because it looks prefabricated. What should the report refuse to repeat?
Own page
It should refuse to repeat that the park home is a PRC semi. A factory-made look is not a precast concrete panel house, and a park home is not a PRC, Airey, Cornish, BISF or no-fines house. The report should describe the unit that was there: the body, and the skirt only if it was opened. Copying a house-system name from a casual remark misleads anyone who reads the form. The survey still does not read the pitch agreement.
Property types
Horizontal joints show at each floor of a concrete block of flats. What does seeing the joint not prove about the fixings?
Own page
It does not prove how the floors are fixed, or that the fixings are sound or failed. Horizontal joints at each floor of a concrete block show a line on the elevation. The surveyor of one flat sees that line from the windows they can reach, not the bolts, the bearings or the neighbour's slab. A flat inspection does not inspect the block's external wall system. A joint is a prompt for a block-wide question, not a measurement of every fixing.
Property types
A no-fines wall has plugs that look like an injected damp-proof course. Has the survey proved that injection worked?
Own page
No. Plugs in a no-fines wall that look like an injected damp-proof course show that holes were drilled. They do not prove the injection filled the concrete or that the wall is now dry. No-fines is solid concrete, not a cavity to be treated like a 1930s cavity. The surveyor notes the plugs and any stain. They do not re-inject and they do not certify a damp treatment. This is not an empty cavity, and an empty cavity is not the finding.
Property types
Paint covers a concrete corner that might be an Airey column. What should you not tell the lender until the construction is properly named?
Own page
Do not tell the lender it is an Airey house. Paint over a concrete corner that might be an Airey column is not an identification. Those columns have a particular profile, usually read where the corner is bare, not where paint hides the shape. A painted corner is not an identification. The survey should say the construction is unconfirmed until it can be seen. Do not copy the Airey name from a brochure or from the decade of the street.
Property types
A suspected BISF house already has a room built into the roof. What has the survey not confirmed about the steel and that new floor?
Own page
It has not confirmed the steel frame, or whether that frame can carry the new floor of the roof room. A suspected BISF house has a light steel frame that cladding and linings hide. A room already built into the roof adds load and may cut or box members the surveyor could not see. The loft, if entered, was a visual look only. Do not treat an agent's system name as seen, and do not call the new floor approved.
Property types
The flat sits on a steel frame over a parade of shops. What can the inspection of one flat not say about the frame at shop level?
Own page
It cannot say the steel at shop level is sound, rusty or adequate. The inspection was of one flat sitting on that frame over a parade. The surveyor sees the flat's floors, ceilings and any beam exposed inside those rooms. Stanchions, bases and splices behind shop fittings were not in the flat. A flat inspection does not inspect the parade frame as a whole. One ceiling is not the frame.
Property types
A cupboard has been removed in a 1960s cross-wall flat. Why must the survey not assume which of the remaining walls are load-bearing?
Own page
Because in a 1960s cross-wall flat the walls that carry the floors are not always the ones a brick house would lead you to expect. Taking a cupboard out does not label what remains. Some partitions are only linings. The surveyor can see the recess, the floor and the ceiling line. They cannot see reinforcement or bearings inside intact walls. Do not assume a wall is load-bearing, or that it is not, from an empty cupboard.
Property types
The ground storey is masonry and the upper storey is timber frame. Why is a single rating for walls too coarse?
Own page
Because the two storeys are different construction. Masonry below and timber frame above should not share one wall rating that pretends they are the same element. Cracks, damp and lintels in the brick or block are not the same finding as studs, sheathing and a sole plate upstairs. The survey should separate them. One number hides which part was actually seen. A tidy ground floor does not show that the upstairs frame, behind its linings, is sound.
Property types
A concrete boot lintel sits over a replacement window in a 1950s house. What has the new window not proved about that lintel?
Own page
It has not proved the boot lintel is sound or free of a failed bearing. A concrete boot lintel over a replacement window in a 1950s house can stay in place while the window is swapped. New frames, new glass and neat mastic do not expose the lintel toe or the bearings. The surveyor sees the soffit and any crack or rust stain. They do not remove the window. An empty cavity is not itself a defect, and this window does not prove the lintel.
Property types
A concrete balcony on a system-built block has not been identified as RAAC. Why is the decade of the block not enough to apply that name?
Own page
Because a decade, or the words system-built, does not identify the concrete. RAAC is a particular lightweight panel product. It is not every concrete balcony and not every 1960s or system-built block. The survey should not apply that name unless the panel was actually identified. Do not call woodwool, asbestos cement or dense concrete RAAC. A home survey must not invent a collapse rate or a year when production stopped. Describe the balcony that was seen and say the material is unconfirmed.
Property types
One house in a street of brick houses is described as PRC. Why should you not copy the neighbour's cavity-wall assumptions onto it?
Own page
Because this plot is the odd one. A house described as PRC in a street of brick houses does not inherit the neighbours' cavity-wall assumptions. Their empty cavities are not your walls, and an empty cavity is not itself a defect even next door. Precast panels, often under a cladding, are a different build. The survey should describe this plot only. Do not copy the terrace's construction from either side, or a system name from a street brochure the visit did not match.
Property types
The mortgage valuation is silent on construction and the Level 3 names a steel frame. Which document do you send the lender about that frame?
Own page
Send the Level 3, the document that actually names the steel frame. A mortgage valuation is for the lender. It is not a structural survey, and silence on construction is not a finding that the frame is ordinary. Do not invent a lender policy from that silence. Give them the report that describes the frame, and ask what else they need. The valuation does not replace that description, and it does not become one by being the document the lender ordered.
Property types
The upstand of a concrete balcony on one ex-local flat is cracked. What can that flat's survey not say about the neighbours' balconies?
Own page
It cannot say the neighbours' balconies are cracked or sound. The upstand on this ex-local flat is the concrete lip of this balcony. A crack there is a finding for this flat. The surveyor did not visit the other homes, and a flat inspection does not inspect the block's external wall system. A similar decade does not copy the crack along the estate. Reinforcement in the other slabs was not seen, so their balconies stay outside this report.
Legal and neighbours
One year of service-charge accounts is missing from the pack the solicitor asked for. Does the survey PDF fill that missing year?
Own page
No. A missing year in the service-charge accounts stays missing. The survey PDF is the record of the inspection, not a spare ledger for the year the agent did not send. Photographs of a roof or a hallway cannot reconstruct income, expenditure or a reserve movement for twelve months that never arrived in the solicitor's pack.
Legal and neighbours
A letter from the managing agent disputes a leak the survey described. Has that letter changed the condition rating?
Own page
Not quite, and not at all in the way a letter might suggest. The managing agent's disagreement about a leak is a later document. It leaves the condition rating standing as the surveyor wrote it from the visit. You can pass the letter to the surveyor as new information. You cannot treat it as an edited page already inside the PDF.
Legal and neighbours
The block policy's excess sits in the management pack, not in the survey. Why should you not invent that excess from the roof rating?
Own page
Because an excess is a number printed on the block policy, and a roof rating is a comment on condition. The two do not convert into each other. Guessing the excess from how bad the covering looked invents an insurance figure the surveyor never held. Read the schedule in the management pack, or accept that the figure is still unknown.
Legal and neighbours
A notice of planned roof works arrives in the same week as a rating 3. Does the notice prove the landlord consulted properly?
Own page
No. A notice that roof works are planned, even when it lands in the same week as a condition rating, does not prove the landlord followed the consultation steps. GOV.UK sets consultation triggers where a leaseholder would pay more than £250 for planned work, or more than £100 a year for work and services lasting more than 12 months. Those triggers are not a price for this roof, and a failed consultation has no figure you should invent.
Legal and neighbours
Building-safety papers can include a landlord's certificate. Will you find that certificate printed inside the home survey?
Own page
No. A landlord's certificate, where the building-safety papers include one, belongs in that legal bundle. It is not typeset into the home survey. Searching the PDF for the certificate will not make it appear, and a survey sentence about the outside of the block is not a substitute page with the landlord's signature on it.
Legal and neighbours
The lease plan is unclear whether a terrace is demised to the flat. Can the survey settle that from a photograph?
Own page
No. A photograph can show the terrace, the doors and the paving the surveyor stood on. It cannot decide whether that terrace is demised to the flat. Demise is read from the lease and the lease plan, which you already say are unclear. The survey must not be asked to settle the boundary of the title with a picture.
Legal and neighbours
The pack states a reserve-fund figure. Has the surveyor audited that the money is actually held?
Own page
No. The figure in the pack is a statement from the landlord or the agent. The surveyor has not audited that the money is held, has not reconciled it to a bank account, and has not tested whether it matches the works the report describes. A reserve is set aside for future repairs. You will not usually get it back when you move, and the inspection does not verify the balance.
Legal and neighbours
You might later become a director of the RTM company. Does the home survey appoint you or list those duties?
Own page
No. Becoming a director later would be a company appointment, with duties that come from the RTM company and from company law, not from the inspection. The home survey does not appoint you, does not list those duties, and does not count the flats or sign any membership form. It remains a report on the building the surveyor was able to see.
Legal and neighbours
An RTM company has hired a managing agent. Who does the survey say is collecting the service charge?
Own page
The survey does not name the collector. An RTM company may manage directly or hire an agent, and in either case the company is the body that collects the service charge and looks after communal areas and structure such as the roof. A hired agent is a contractor of that company. The inspection did not read the management agreement or the demands.
Legal and neighbours
GOV.UK describes a two-thirds leasehold test before a block can use the Right to Manage. Has your surveyor counted the flats?
Own page
No. The surveyor inspected a flat. They did not count how many flats are leasehold, did not check that those leases were originally granted for more than 21 years, and did not work out whether two thirds of the flats meet that test. Qualifying for the Right to Manage is a count of the building and the leases. It is not a line in a condition report.
Legal and neighbours
The freeholder lives in one flat of a three-flat conversion. Why can that residence close off Right to Manage when the survey never discusses it?
Own page
Not because the inspection forgot a paragraph. A converted three-flat house with the freeholder in residence can fall outside Right to Manage under a narrow occupation exception the report is not built to investigate. The PDF never asks who treats the building as their main home, so silence in the ratings is not a green light. Ask the solicitor to test that living arrangement before anyone drafts a claim.
Legal and neighbours
Neighbours mention a Section 22 notice. Does a rating 3 on the communal roof start that notice?
Own page
No. Neighbours talking about a Section 22 notice have not started one by pointing at a condition rating. Section 22 is a notice before asking a tribunal to appoint a manager, and the applicant must show bad management. A rating on the communal roof is the surveyor's view of that roof. It is not proof of bad management and it does not serve the notice.
Legal and neighbours
You want to challenge a service charge. Is the surveyor the person who files that challenge?
Own page
No. If you want to challenge a service charge, that challenge is yours to bring, with your solicitor, outside the inspection. The surveyor is not the person who files it. Their report can describe cracked asphalt or a tired roof. It cannot be stapled to a form and sent as the challenge, and a condition rating is not an application.
Legal and neighbours
The pack says the landlord is recovering major-works costs over time. Does the survey calculate what you would still owe?
Own page
No. A line in the pack that says major-works costs are being recovered over time is a payment story. The survey does not calculate the balance you would still owe, does not set the instalments, and does not know what has already been demanded from this flat. Condition comments about the completed works are not an amortisation table.
Legal and neighbours
The lease requires consent before you sublet. Can the condition ratings tell you whether that consent was given?
Own page
No. Consent to sublet is a permission under the lease, usually a letter or a licence from the landlord. Condition ratings describe elements of the building. They do not record whether consent was asked for or given, and they stay silent even if the flat is furnished as if someone else already lives there. Ask the solicitor to see the consent, not the surveyor to infer it.
Legal and neighbours
A shared-ownership staircasing valuation is a separate instruction. Why will this home survey not state the price of the extra share?
Own page
Because pricing the extra share is a staircasing valuation, which is a different instruction from this home survey. The visit does not state that price. On a shared-ownership lease, section 5 keeps a peppercorn on the tenant's share while rent may still be charged on the landlord's share, and extending can be much more expensive once fewer than 80 years remain. The survey prices neither the rent nor the share you might buy later.
Legal and neighbours
The housing association says the window is yours to repair. Does the survey decide that, or does the lease?
Own page
The lease decides, not the survey, and not an email from the housing association on its own. If the association says the window is yours to repair, that sentence still has to match the demise and the repairing covenant. The inspection can describe rotten timber or failed glazing. It cannot award the window to you or to the landlord.
Legal and neighbours
The survey notes cladding and the management pack contains no EWS1. Has either document produced that form?
Own page
No. Neither document has produced an EWS1. A sentence in the survey that notes cladding is an observation from the visit, not that form, and there is no scoring system in a home survey that stands in for one. An empty slot in the management pack means the form was not supplied there. It does not create the form by absence.
Legal and neighbours
Your flat's survey does not walk the second block on the same estate. What of that second block sits outside these ratings?
Own page
Everything the surveyor did not walk. The second block's roof, stairs, cladding, drains and any plant room stay outside these ratings, even though it shares an estate road with your flat. A report on one flat does not silently cover the neighbouring block. If the lender or the solicitor needs that block described, it needs its own inspection or its own papers.
Legal and neighbours
A ground-rent receipt is in the pack. Does it change a condition rating on the communal roof?
Own page
No. A ground-rent receipt shows that a sum was demanded or paid. It does not repaint, re-cover or re-rate the communal roof. The condition rating stays whatever the surveyor recorded from the fabric they saw. Keep the receipt in the solicitor's file as evidence of the rent account, and keep the roof comment in the survey where it already sits.
Legal and neighbours
The store cupboard drawn on the lease plan is on a different landing from the one you were shown. What should the survey not correct in the plan?
Own page
The survey should not redraw the lease plan and should not declare that the cupboard you were shown is the one drawn on another landing. It can say which cupboard was opened, if any was opened, and where that door sits in the common parts. Putting the plan right is conveyancing. A photograph of a store is not a correction to the demise.
Legal and neighbours
The closer is missing from the flat entrance door. Has the survey fire-tested that door?
Own page
No. Noticing that the closer is missing from the flat entrance door is a visual comment. The survey has not fire-tested that door, has not timed how it shuts, and has not certified it against any fire standard. A missing closer can still matter, and you should tell the solicitor and the agent. The gap in the ironmongery is not a laboratory result.
Legal and neighbours
The communal roof is condition rating 3. Does the survey state your percentage share of the eventual cost?
Own page
No. Condition rating 3 on the communal roof records the surveyor's concern about that roof. It does not state your percentage share of the eventual cost, and it does not multiply a quotation you do not yet have. The share, if the lease states one, is a clause for the solicitor. The survey must not invent a percentage because the covering looks poor.
Legal and neighbours
The block is run by an RTM company. Does the survey say you now own the freehold?
Own page
No. An RTM company running the block has not made you the freeholder, and the survey will not say that you now own the freehold. The landlord still owns the building. The flat stays on its lease. Right to Manage does not end the lease or cancel ground rent. It is not a share of freehold. The report you hold is about condition, not about the title.
Property types
The reservation names one warranty provider and a logo on the roof trusses names another. What must you read before you call the policy Buildmark?
Own page
Read the policy schedule for this plot, and read the reservation, before you give either document the name Buildmark. A logo on the roof trusses and a different provider in the reservation cannot both be NHBC's product. Buildmark is NHBC's 10-year warranty and insurance. Another provider is not Buildmark. The home survey does not choose which logo wins.
Property types
A defect shows in year three. What does NHBC say changes after the first two years, and what must you not still treat as the builder's snagging list?
Own page
What changes is the route, not the crack itself. In year three you are past the opening period in which the builder is liable and NHBC guarantees that obligation. You must not keep treating the item as a handover snag for the site team to paint over. The following eight years insure damage from defects in specific parts only, which is narrower than a snagging list. This survey does not admit the claim.
Property types
The warranty in the pack is not NHBC. Why must you not copy Buildmark's two-year and eight-year split onto that other policy?
Own page
Because that split belongs to NHBC Buildmark and not to every new-home policy in a pack. Buildmark is a 10-year warranty and insurance product: the builder is on the hook at the start, with NHBC standing behind that obligation, and later years insure damage from defects in specific parts only. Pasting those periods onto a different insurer invents chapters you have not read. Another provider is not Buildmark.
Property types
The pack contains a warranty that covers foundations only. Which parts of the house does that document not insure?
Own page
On the wording you have been given, it does not insure the roof, the upper walls, the windows, the floors or the finishes. A foundations-only warranty is limited to foundations. The home survey does not widen that wording to the rest of the house, and a condition comment on the roof is not a claim under a policy that never mentioned the roof.
Property types
The show home has a different kitchen from the plot the surveyor walked. Which kitchen was actually inspected?
Own page
The kitchen on the plot the surveyor walked. The show home's kitchen is a different room in a different house, however similar the brochure made them look. A show home is not the plot. Any condition comment in this report is about the units, the worktops and the appliances that were actually there, not about the dressed kitchen you were sold from.
Property types
The estate road is unfinished and not yet adopted. Is that a condition rating of the house itself?
Own page
No. An unfinished estate road that has not been adopted is outside the fabric of the house. It is not a condition rating of the walls, the roof, the floors or the damp-proof course of the plot. The survey may mention what it saw at the kerb. That mention does not turn the road into a house element, and it does not prove who will finish it.
Property types
Temporary drains still serve the new plot. Has the survey proved where the permanent outfall will discharge?
Own page
No. Temporary drains serving the plot show where water is going today, if the surveyor could see them. They do not prove where a permanent outfall will discharge, and the inspection has not traced a pipe that is not yet built. A visual look at a temporary run is not a drainage design and not a completion certificate for the finished connection.
Property types
A glass balustrade on a new balcony was not load-tested. What can its condition rating honestly not claim?
Own page
It cannot claim a load capacity. The glass was not load-tested, so a condition rating can only describe what was visible: the panels, the handrail and the fixings the surveyor could see without dismantling them. It cannot say the balustrade will resist a given force, and it cannot borrow a test certificate that was not in the papers on the day.
Property types
You can hear the next plot through the party wall. Has the new-build survey measured the sound insulation?
Own page
No. Hearing the next plot through the party wall is your ear on the day, not a measured sound-insulation test. The new-build survey has not produced a decibel result, has not set up a speaker in the neighbouring room, and has not certified the wall. The comment, if the surveyor makes one, is that noise was noticeable. It is not a laboratory figure.
Property types
Customer care has sent a ticket number for a cracked tile. Does that ticket number open the insurance section of a 10-year new-build policy?
Own page
No. A customer-care ticket number for a cracked tile is a builder's logging reference. It does not open the insurance section of a 10-year policy. NHBC describes Buildmark as warranty and insurance together: the builder is liable in the first two years and NHBC guarantees that obligation, while the following eight years insure damage from defects in specific parts only. A ticket is not automatically a claim under either part.
Property types
A snag was marked as painted, and the crack has come back. Has that snagging line become a RICS condition rating?
Own page
No. A line on a snagging list that was marked as painted has not turned into a RICS condition rating because the crack came back. A snagging list is not a set of condition ratings. If a later home survey rates the crack, that rating is the surveyor's, made on a new instruction. The old tick-box does not promote itself.
Property types
The building-control completion certificate names the house and not the detached garage. What has the survey not converted into a certificate?
Own page
It has not converted the building-control completion certificate into cover for the detached garage, and it has not added the garage's name to a certificate that names only the house. The survey can describe the garage it entered. Description is not certification. If the garage is missing from that certificate, the gap stays a legal question for the solicitor and building control, not a sentence the surveyor can initial.
Property types
The new house is timber frame, and the buyer assumes a masonry party wall. What should the report say about that assumption?
Own page
It should reject the assumption. If the house is timber frame, the report should say so where the surveyor could tell, and it should not describe the party wall as masonry merely because the buyer expected brick. A timber frame behind a cladding or a lining is not a brick party wall. The survey still does not serve a party-wall notice or make an award.
Property types
A heat interface unit serves the new flat from a district network. Has the survey tested that network?
Own page
No. The heat interface unit in the flat can be looked at. The district network that feeds it has not been tested. Services on a home survey are visual only and are not safety-tested, so a neat casing and a warm pipe are not a commissioning record for the estate energy centre. The survey does not measure the network beyond the flat.
Property types
Trickle vents shown in the brochure are missing from the plot. Has the survey carried out an air test?
Own page
No. Missing trickle vents, against a brochure that showed them, are an observation about the frames on this plot. The survey has not carried out an air test, has not measured permeability, and has not signed a ventilation certificate. You can ask the builder why the vents shown in the brochure are absent. You cannot treat the survey as the test that was never booked.
Property types
Garden soil on a new plot sits above the damp-proof course. What has that observation not priced?
Own page
It has not priced a remedy. Soil sitting above the damp-proof course on a new plot is something the surveyor could see and record. That observation is not a quotation, not a deduction from the price, and not a figure in the warranty. No home survey on this page produces a cost for lowering the beds. Ask a contractor for a price if you want one, and do not invent it from the rating.
Property types
You hold both a snagging list and a Level 2. Why must the snag numbers not be copied into the condition-rating boxes?
Own page
Because the numbers belong to two different documents. A snagging list counts unfinished or damaged items for the builder. Condition-rating boxes belong to the home survey and use the surveyor's scale, not the snagging firm's tally. Copying a snag number into a rating box pretends the lists are the same thing. A snagging list is not a set of condition ratings, and NHBC's warranty sections are a third document again.
Property types
A reservation fee was paid before the survey existed. Does that fee stop you from acting on a rating 3?
Own page
No. Paying a reservation fee before the survey existed does not mute a condition rating 3 and does not erase it from the report. Rating 3 means the matter is serious and/or urgent, and the advice that follows is to obtain written quotations before you enter a legal commitment. The fee is a contract question for the solicitor. It is not a gag on the rating.
Property types
mygov.scot may exempt a new home sold to a first occupier from a Home Report. Why must a buyer in England not copy that exemption?
Own page
Because the exemption is Scottish, and it is about a Home Report, which England does not use. mygov.scot says a new home sold off-plan or to a first occupier may not need a Home Report. An English buyer must not copy that into an English purchase and skip their own survey. If a Scottish sale is exempt, an EPC is still required. That still is not an English rule.
Property types
The builder still owns the estate sewers. Does the home survey prove those sewers have been adopted?
Own page
No. The home survey has not proved that the estate sewers have been adopted, and it cannot turn the builder's ownership into an adoption certificate. Who owns the sewers, and whether a water company has taken them, sits outside the condition ratings. A look down a chamber, if one was opened, is not a transfer of the pipes. Ask the solicitor to follow the adoption, and do not treat silence in the PDF as proof.
Property types
A boundary fence is missing on a new plot. Is that fence one of the specific parts NHBC describes for the insurance years after year two?
Own page
Not automatically. A missing boundary fence on a new plot is a gap you can see. NHBC's later insurance years, the eight after the builder period, cover damage from defects in specific parts only, not every snag and not every missing item. Nothing on this page promotes a fence into that list. Read the policy wording, and do not ask the survey to reclassify the fence as a structural part.
Property types
The specification lists appliances that are not installed. What can a condition rating of the kitchen units not include?
Own page
It cannot include machines that are not on site. A condition rating of the kitchen units describes the units that were fitted and seen. Appliances named in the specification but missing from the plot are a contract gap, not an element the surveyor could rate. Do not write them into the rating as if a boxed oven in a warehouse had been inspected in the kitchen.
Property types
A crack appears in new render during year one. Who does NHBC say is first in line during those first two years?
Own page
The builder. In the first two years NHBC says the builder is liable and NHBC guarantees that obligation. A crack in new render during year one therefore goes first to the builder under that arrangement, not straight into the later insurance section. The survey can describe the crack. It does not file the notification, and it does not decide that every crack is covered.
Property types
Several tiles are chipped where the scaffold stood. Is that automatically an insurance defect for years three to ten?
Own page
No. Chipped tiles where the scaffold stood are not automatically an insurance defect for years three to ten. Those years insure damage from defects in specific parts only, not every snag. Scaffold chips can be finishing damage from the build, which is a different conversation from a later insurance claim. The survey can note the chips. It does not open a claim or name a minimum sum.
Property types
The new flat is sold on a long lease. Does the survey calculate the ground rent, or only describe the fabric it could see?
Own page
Only the fabric it could see. The survey does not read the lease and does not calculate the ground rent reserved in it. For most new long residential leases in England and Wales granted on or after 30 June 2022, the permitted rent is a peppercorn, but that is a legal rule for the solicitor to apply to this lease, not a sum the surveyor works out on site.
After the survey
The only condition rating 3 is a close-boarded fence. Why is that a weak basis for a large cut in the price of the house?
Own page
Because the mark sits on the close-boarded fence, not on the house as a whole. A serious or urgent note on that boundary is a thin reason for a large cut in the price of the entire purchase. The rating does not value the house, it does not tell you to pull out, and it does not bill the seller. Get a written price for the fence before you are legally bound, and ask the solicitor if any change should follow that fence price alone.
After the survey
The builder priced the front roof slope, and the rating 3 is the rear flat roof. What should you not send the seller?
Own page
Do not send the front-slope quotation as if it priced the rear flat roof. Those are different coverings. The rating 3 attaches to the rear flat roof the surveyor described, so a figure for the pitched front slope does not answer it. What to do now advises you. It does not bill the seller, and it does not tell you to abandon the purchase. Hold that front-slope paper back until a written quotation actually describes the rear flat roof.
After the survey
The seller's contribution offer expires on Friday and exchange is planned later. What should the solicitor record before Friday?
Own page
Before Friday the solicitor should record, in writing, what is offered, which defect it is said to meet, whether it changes the price or is a separate contribution, and that the seller says it expires on Friday while exchange is planned later. An agent's deadline is not the contract. What to do now advises you and does not bill the seller. Ask what, if anything, will be written into the contract if you accept.
After the survey
The seller will repair the gutter and wants you to drop a separate demand about the roof covering. How do you avoid paying for the gutter twice?
Own page
Split the gutter from the roof covering in every figure you still pursue. If the seller will repair the gutter, drop only the gutter, and only once a written note says the gutter is their job. Do not withdraw a demand whose quotation still hides the same gutter inside a price for the covering, or you can concede the gutter and still pay for it inside the roof figure. Ask each quotation to say whether gutters are included.
After the survey
There is no mortgage, so there is no lender retention. Does that make a condition rating 3 safer to ignore?
Own page
No. Buying without a mortgage means there is no lender to hold a retention, and that gap does not make a rating 3 safer to set aside. The rating is about the element, not about how you pay. It is still serious and/or urgent. Obtain written quotations before you enter a legal commitment. Nothing in the rating orders you to withdraw. What to do now advises you, cash buyer included, and it does not bill the seller.
After the survey
The seller points at several rating 1 items as a reason to ignore one rating 3. What has a rating 1 not paid for?
Own page
A rating 1 has not paid for, cancelled, or made safe the separate rating 3. Rating 1 means no repair is currently needed on that item, beyond normal maintenance. Those quiet items are not credit against a different element that is serious and/or urgent. Still obtain written quotations for the rating 3 before legal commitment. What to do now advises you and does not bill the seller. Do not run the report as a balance sheet.
After the survey
The agent tells the seller your quote is higher than the figure on the PDF. What should you send instead of relying on that phone call?
Own page
Send the written quotation itself, with the survey paragraph it prices, and do not rely on the agent's phone call. The PDF is the survey, not a contractor's price, so a claim that your quote is higher than a figure on the PDF often compares it with a number the report never contained. What to do now advises you and does not bill the seller. A retold call is not the paper you should obtain before you are legally committed.
After the survey
You already agreed a small reduction, and a later specialist report is worse. What should you ask the solicitor before you reopen the price?
Own page
Before you reopen anything, ask the solicitor whether the price is already fixed, what the small reduction was said to cover, and whether this later specialist report can still be raised before exchange. Do not assume a worse report automatically reopens the deal. The earlier reduction was agreed without this letter. What to do now advises you and does not bill the seller, and it does not rewrite a figure you may already have accepted.
After the survey
You decide to walk away before exchange in England. Which fees does that decision not automatically return?
Own page
It does not automatically return the fee you paid the surveyor you instructed. Choosing not to buy before exchange in England means you are not yet legally committed to that purchase. It is not a refund scheme for the report, and it is not a claim against the seller for your costs. Ask each person you have paid what their own terms say. What to do now advises you. It does not bill the seller for the survey fee.
After the survey
mygov.scot says you can walk away without penalty after reading a Home Report. Does that sentence refund a private Level 3 you also commissioned?
Own page
No. If you do not want to buy, mygov.scot says you can walk away at that stage without penalty. That sentence does not automatically refund a private Level 3 you also commissioned. The Home Report is the seller's pack. Your extra report is a separate instruction you paid for. Where items are urgent or need future attention, consider the cost and get estimates. Leaving without a penalty is about the purchase, not that extra invoice.
After the survey
A Home Report item is marked as needing future attention. What does mygov.scot tell you to obtain before you proceed, and why is that label not an English rating 2?
Own page
Obtain estimates. mygov.scot says that if repairs need future attention you should consider the cost and the inconvenience and get estimates before you proceed. That label is not an English condition rating 2. England's scale says rating 2 work is needed but is not serious or urgent. The single survey does not use that sentence. If you do not want the house, you can walk away without penalty. That exit does not repay a private report.
After the survey
A Scottish single survey says repairs are urgent. Why should you not tell the seller those words are an English condition rating 3?
Own page
Because urgent in a Scottish single survey is not an English condition rating 3, and saying that it is will mis-state the document you both have. Where repairs are marked urgent, consider the cost and the inconvenience and get estimates before you proceed. Do not invent a number the pack does not print. If you do not want to buy, you can walk away without penalty. That choice does not automatically refund a private Level 3.
After the survey
The seller offers an indemnity policy for a missing certificate, and the rating 3 is a crack in the wall. What has that policy not repaired?
Own page
It has not repaired the crack. An indemnity aimed at a missing certificate is a paperwork product your solicitor has to explain. The rating 3 is a crack in the wall, which is a condition problem, not a missing form. The policy does not stitch masonry or stand in for a written quotation. What to do now advises you. It does not bill the seller, and it does not tell you to withdraw. Keep the two questions in separate notes.
After the survey
You agreed a reduction by email, and the engineer's letter that arrives next is worse. Is that email the final contract?
Own page
No. An email agreeing a reduction is not yet the contract. The engineer's letter that arrives next is worse than the news you had when you wrote, so do not treat that message as the last word. Ask the solicitor what has actually been written into the contract, and whether the new letter can still be raised before exchange. What to do now advises you and does not bill the seller. It does not freeze a price that is not yet in the contract.
After the survey
Two contractors' quotes cover different work. What has to be lined up before the agent is given one figure?
Own page
The scope of each quotation has to be lined up, line by line, before the agent is given one figure. Two contractors who priced different work cannot be added, averaged or picked as if they had priced the same repair. What to do now advises you and does not bill the seller. Give the agent a single number only after the solicitor can see which quotation covers which sentence in the report. Until then, send no blended total.
After the survey
The seller says the roofer has been and the rating 3 is finished. What should you ask to see before you treat that element as closed?
Own page
Ask to see, in writing, what was done, which part of the roof was touched, and any invoice or description the roofer left. A sentence from the seller that the rating 3 is finished is not a new inspection and not a new rating. The survey recorded what was seen on the day. What to do now advises you and does not bill the seller. Do not close the element until the solicitor has those papers.
After the survey
You want a repair cost off the price. Why should the survey fee stay out of that demand?
Own page
Because the survey fee is what you paid your surveyor for the report. It is not the cost of the repair, and folding it into a price demand mixes two invoices. Any reduction should follow a written quotation for the defect, obtained before you are legally committed. What to do now advises you. It does not bill the seller for the repair or for your survey. Leave the survey fee in your own column.
After the survey
A snag on a reserved new-build plot is not the same negotiation as a rating 3 on a private sale. Who do you ask first, and why?
Own page
Ask the solicitor first. A snag on a reserved new-build plot is raised with the developer under the reservation and the contract, not as a price chip against a private seller. Do not rename the snag as a rating 3 and demand a cut as if this were an older house on the open market. What to do now, on a private purchase that actually has a rating 3, advises that buyer. It does not invoice a housebuilder.
After the survey
The seller will meet the lender's lower figure, and your survey still has a rating 3. Has one concession solved both problems?
Own page
No. Meeting the lender's lower figure deals with the price the lender is using. It leaves the rating 3 where it was. Those are two problems, and one concession closes only the price point. The rated element is still serious and/or urgent. Obtain written quotations before you enter a legal commitment. What to do now advises you and does not bill the seller. A lender's figure is not a repair quotation, and agreeing it does not make the element sound.
After the survey
The agent says the seller will sort the defect the night before exchange. What is missing from that promise?
Own page
What is missing is a written description of the work, who will do it, and proof it has been done before you are legally committed. A promise to sort the defect the night before exchange is not a quotation and not a finished repair. You would be exchanging on a sentence. What to do now advises you and does not bill the seller. Ask the solicitor not to exchange on that promise while there is still time to refuse.
Selling
A Scottish seller still has a Home Report from last year. Why must they not invent an expiry in a number of days, and who should they ask what is required now?
Own page
They must not invent an expiry because the cited mygov.scot page does not state one in a number of days. Announcing that last year's Home Report died after 90 days, or lives for a year, makes up a clock. Ask the solicitor what this sale requires now. Where a pack is required, provide it within nine days of being asked, or the buyer can go to the council's trading standards. Do not print a homemade life span on it.
Selling
A seller in England emails the EPC and calls it the buyer's survey. What is the buyer still missing?
Own page
The buyer is still missing a home survey. An emailed EPC is the energy performance certificate, not an inspection of condition. In England an EPC is required when you sell, and it is valid for 10 years. It is not a survey and it does not award condition ratings. The buyer should still decide whether they need their own report. A seller who renames the certificate has not supplied that report.
Selling
The seller paints over a tide mark the weekend before the inspection. What can the surveyor no longer see, and what should the seller not claim afterwards?
Own page
The surveyor can no longer see the tide mark that was painted out. They can report only what is visible on the day, so the fresh paint is what the wall shows. The seller should not claim afterwards that the surveyor found the wall had never been marked, or that a clean rating proves the stain was imaginary. A home survey does not guarantee concealed parts. Tell your solicitor what you covered, instead of arguing with a limitation you created the weekend before the visit.
Selling
The seller locked the loft, and later says the roof passed. What condition mark was actually available for that roof space?
Own page
Not inspected. With the loft locked, the surveyor could not enter that roof space, so the mark available for it is NI, meaning not inspected, or a limitation saying it was not seen. It is not a pass and it is not a rating 1. The seller should not later say the roof passed. A hatch is entered with a ladder only if it is no more than 3 metres up and it is safe. A locked hatch is not that inspection.
Selling
The buyer wants a drain camera because the survey suggested one. Must a seller in England fund that camera?
Own page
No. A suggestion that a drain camera would help is advice in the buyer's report. It does not create a duty on a seller in England to pay for the camera. What to do now advises the buyer. It does not invoice the seller. Drains in a standard home survey are not fully tested. The buyer may commission a camera. You may choose to contribute. The report does not order you to.
Selling
Two buyers each want an inspection on the same morning. What is the seller in England entitled to decide about access?
Own page
The seller decides whether anyone comes in, at what time, and whether two inspections on one morning are acceptable. A home survey happens only if you allow the visit. Nothing in the RICS guidance requires a seller in England to host two surveyors at once. You can offer separate appointments, accept both, or refuse a particular morning. Each buyer instructs their own surveyor. You need not pretend that one visit serves both.
Selling
The seller's own roofer says the roof is fine. Does that opinion delete the buyer's condition rating?
Own page
No. Your roofer's opinion does not delete the buyer's condition rating. The rating is the surveyor's judgement on what they saw, written for the buyer who instructed them. A later note can be passed on as further information. It does not edit the PDF. If the element is rating 3, the buyer is still advised to obtain written quotations before legal commitment. What to do now advises that buyer. It does not let you strike the rating out.
Selling
The buyer asks the seller to warrant that every condition rating is correct. What should the seller not sign?
Own page
Do not sign a warranty, a side letter, or a contract sentence that says every condition rating is correct. Those ratings are the surveyor's opinions in a report written for the buyer. You did not inspect the house as their surveyor. What to do now advises the buyer. It does not make you the author of the ratings. Point them back to their surveyor if they dispute a mark. Signing would make you answer for sentences you did not write.
Selling
The buyer demands an EICR because the wiring is rating 3. What does the English guidance for rented homes not require of an owner-occupier seller?
Own page
It does not require an owner-occupier seller to commission an EICR. The GOV.UK duty is for private and social rented homes in England, and it expects inspection at least every five years. That is a landlord duty, not a duty on someone who lives in the home and is selling it. A rating 3 on the wiring is a condition mark, not an electrical code. The buyer can still ask for a test. The rented guidance does not make you buy one.
Selling
A seller in Wales is asked to produce a Scottish Home Report. Which country's marketing rule is being misapplied?
Own page
Scotland's rule is being misapplied. A Home Report belongs to sales in Scotland. It has three parts: a single survey and valuation, a property questionnaire of 16 categories, and an energy report. A seller in Wales is not marketing under that Scottish rule. Do not retitle another survey as a Home Report to satisfy a buyer who has mixed the countries. Say you are selling in Wales, and ask your solicitor what this sale actually requires.
Selling
The seller already knows the drain blocks in heavy rain. What should they not do to that evidence before the buyer's survey?
Own page
They should not hide it, flush the signs away for the morning of the visit, or stay silent hoping the surveyor never asks. A home survey does not guarantee concealed drains, and a standard Level 1 or Level 2 inspection does not lift chamber covers. Hiding a blockage you already know about does not make the drain sound. Tell your solicitor the history so it can be disclosed. Do not dress the visit up as a test the surveyor did not do.
Selling
The buyer's lender is holding a retention. Can the seller cancel that retention by offering their own builder?
Own page
No. The seller cannot cancel the buyer's lender retention by offering their own builder. The retention is the lender's arrangement, not yours to lift. A retention is not cash the buyer can spend, and it is not a down-valuation. Your builder's quotation may be information the buyer passes on. It does not instruct the lender. What to do now advises the buyer and does not let you promise that the hold has been cleared.
Selling
You are selling in England and a buyer's Level 3 has arrived. Why must you not relabel that PDF as a Home Report for the next viewer?
Own page
Because that Level 3 is the buyer's report, and a Home Report is the Scottish pack. Relabelling the PDF would tell the next viewer this English sale has a product it does not have. A Home Report has three parts: a single survey and valuation, a property questionnaire of 16 categories, and an energy report. The Level 3 is none of those headings. If the next person wants a survey, they commission their own. Do not stick a Scottish name on an English instruction.
Selling
Furniture with old flight holes is taken away before the survey. What has that removal not changed about the house timbers?
Own page
It has not changed the house timbers. Taking the furniture away removes those pieces from the room. It does not treat, replace or prove the joists, rafters, or any other timber that stays. A survey records what is there on the day. If the marked pieces have gone, the surveyor cannot describe holes they cannot see, and cannot award the remaining timber a clean bill. No survey level guarantees concealed parts. Do not say the house is clear because the furniture left.
Structure
A Coal Authority search is in the conveyancing bundle. Does a search with no entry force a crack to condition rating 1?
Own page
No. A Coal Authority search is a conveyancing search, not a condition rating. A result with no entry does not force a crack to rating 1. Rating 1 means no repair is currently needed, which is a judgement about the element the surveyor saw. The search does not re-rate the wall. Do not tell the buyer a clear mining search has made the crack harmless. The two papers answer different questions.
Structure
The mining search is older than the survey, which describes a crack seen this month. Which document describes that crack?
Own page
The survey describes the crack seen this month. The older mining search does not. A Coal Authority search is a conveyancing search, not a condition rating, and an older search cannot describe a crack the surveyor has only just recorded. Answer questions about that crack from the survey paragraph. Keep the search for the conveyancer's mining question. A quiet or busy older entry is not a description of the plaster.
Environment
Rust on steel lintels is noted on a sea-facing terrace. Has the survey measured how fast the coast is eroding?
Own page
No. Rust on steel lintels is a note about the lintels the surveyor could see on a sea-facing terrace. The survey has not measured how fast the coast is eroding, and it has not produced a rate of land loss. A home survey is not a coastal study. Do not tell a buyer the inspection quantified shoreline retreat because the metal is rusty. If the coast itself is the question, that is a different instruction. The lintel note stays a lintel note.
Structure
The house stands near a cliff and the crack is described as historic. What has the survey not modelled about the cliff itself?
Own page
It has not modelled the cliff. Calling a crack historic describes how that crack presents, not the stability of the edge, not whether the slope might move, and not whether the crack and the cliff are linked. A condition rating, if one was given, is about the element that was seen. It is not a forecast for the ground beyond the house. Do not read historic as a clearance of the cliff.
Environment
A sea-facing cavity wall is only suspected of wall-tie failure. Has salt air, by itself, proved the ties have failed?
Own page
No. Salt air has not proved the ties have failed. The report only suspects wall-tie failure, and suspicion is not proof. The cavity was not opened, so the ties were not seen, and salt air is not a test result. A sea-facing elevation does not, by itself, demonstrate that the ties are corroded or broken. Repeat the suspicion as a suspicion, and leave any opening of the wall to a further instruction.
Environment
You take an England long-term flood printout to a house in Wales. Why is that the wrong map for this purchase?
Own page
Because that printout is the GOV.UK long-term flood check for areas in England, and the house is in Wales. The check is not the map for Wales or for Scotland. Carrying the sheet across the border does not localise it. The service also does not say an individual property will flood, and it does not cover blocked drains or burst pipes. Ask the solicitor which flood information belongs to a Welsh purchase. Do not negotiate from the English printout.
Environment
The England flood check mentions surface water, and the cellar floor was dry on the day. What has that dry visit not cancelled?
Own page
It has not cancelled the flood check. A dry cellar floor is what the surveyor saw that day. The England long-term flood check, where it mentions surface water, is a separate map. A dry day does not cancel it. The check does not say this property will flood, and it does not cover blocked drains or burst pipes. Do not say a dry cellar has cleared the surface-water note. Keep the map and the survey as two documents.
Environment
A radon map colour worries you, and the surveyor did enter the cellar. Has anyone measured the radon in that house?
Own page
No. Nobody has measured the radon in that house on these facts. A map colour is not a measurement of this building, and a surveyor walking into the cellar is not a radon test. The survey records condition that was seen. It does not become a gas result because the cellar door opened. Do not treat the colour as a reading taken in the rooms. If you need a measurement, that is a separate test.
Environment
The ground floor is condition rating 1 and a flood map looks unfavourable. Why are those two statements about different questions?
Own page
Because one is about the floor that was seen, and the other is about a flood map. Rating 1 means no repair is currently needed to that floor, beyond normal maintenance. It says nothing about whether the area is likely to flood. On the England check, the service does not say an individual property will flood, and a sound floor does not cancel the map. Do not trade a rating 1 for a happier flood storey.
Selling
A Scottish single survey comments on a tenement roof. What has it not decided about how a common repair bill is split between the flats?
Own page
It has not decided the split. A comment on a tenement roof, which a single survey may make when that roof was visible, does not divide a common repair bill between the flats. The paragraph is not an invoice and not a title. Do not invent a statutory share from it. Where the roof is urgent, or needs future attention, consider the cost and get estimates. Those phrases are not English ratings 3 and 2, and they still do not allocate the bill.
Choosing a survey
The quote for a house in Belfast names an English-style Level 2. Why should you not relabel that instruction as a Scottish Home Report?
Own page
Because the quote is for an English-style Level 2 on a house in Belfast, and a Scottish Home Report is a different product for sales in Scotland. Relabelling the instruction pretends you are buying a pack the firm has not offered. A Home Report has a single survey and valuation, a property questionnaire, and an energy report. Do not invent a Northern Ireland form and call this Level 2 that form. A buyer in Belfast is not automatically buying a Scottish pack.
Selling
mygov.scot's exemption for a seasonal holiday home does not cover a second home you can use all year. What should the seller still confirm?
Own page
The seller should still confirm with their solicitor whether this property is exempt at all. A second home you can use all year is not the seasonal holiday exemption. That exemption is for a home that can only be used at certain times of year. Do not widen it because the house is sometimes empty. If the sale is exempt, an EPC is still required. If a Home Report is required, provide it within nine days of being asked.
Selling
A Scottish property is used as both a shop and a home. What may differ about the need for a Home Report, and what must you not assume about the building's condition?
Own page
What may differ is the paperwork. Dual use is one Home Report exemption, so a property used as both a shop and a home may not need that pack. The solicitor should confirm it. You must not assume the shopfront says anything about condition. An exemption is not a sound roof. If the sale is exempt, an EPC is still required. If a Home Report is required after all, read urgent items and future-attention items, and get estimates before you proceed.
Selling
A Scottish house has been marketed since before 1 December 2008. What Home Report exemption might apply, and which energy document is still required?
Own page
An exemption might apply because the house has been marketed since before 1 December 2008, which is one of the cases mygov.scot lists. Confirm with your solicitor that the history matches that case, and do not add conditions the page does not state. The energy document still required is an EPC. Being outside the Home Report is not a statement that the house is in good condition, and it is not an invented expiry date.
Choosing a survey
RICS says a purchaser can rely on a Scottish Home Report. Does that sentence guarantee parts the single survey could not see?
Own page
No. RICS says a purchaser can rely on a Home Report. That sentence does not guarantee parts the single survey could not see. Reliance is not a certificate that concealed fabric is sound. The single survey is a visual inspection, and it does not open every void. If something was not opened, reliance does not invent the missing look. You can still get estimates for urgent items or future attention, and you can walk away without penalty if you do not want to buy.
Legal and neighbours
The cottage is on the Scottish coast and the survey mentions the neighbour's wall. Why is the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 the wrong statute to quote there?
Own page
Because the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 is the statute for England and Wales, not for Scotland. The cottage is on the Scottish coast, so quoting that Act at the neighbour's wall uses the wrong law. The survey can still describe the wall it saw. That description is not a notice and not an award, and the surveyor does not serve those notices. Do not invent the Scottish procedure or any distances. Ask a Scottish solicitor which rules apply.
Services
The survey photographs an oil tank against the kitchen wall. Has that photograph measured a bund, or decided the tank is lawful?
Own page
No. The photograph of the oil tank against the kitchen wall has not measured a bund and has not decided the tank is lawful. The survey records what could be seen: the tank, where it sits, and whether any catch wall appeared in the frame. It does not dip the oil, test the pipe, or apply a legal test to the installation. A bund is a physical catchment. A picture of a lip is not a measured volume and not a ruling that the setup is allowed. Ask an oil technician to inspect the tank, the base and the visible pipe before you treat the heating as settled.
Services
Two LPG cylinders stand across an air brick. Does the home survey include a gas-safety inspection of that bottled supply?
Own page
No. Two LPG cylinders standing across an air brick are a visual note, not a gas-safety inspection of that bottled supply. The survey can record that the cylinders were there and that they crossed the air brick. It does not test the regulator, the hose, the valves or the way the gas enters the house. Gas work belongs with a Gas Safe engineer, and the Health and Safety Executive regulates gas safety. Ask that engineer to look at the bottles, the air brick and the connection before you rely on the supply.
Services
A Rayburn and the boiler appear to share one stack. What has a visual survey not proved about either flue?
Own page
Not that either flue is sound. A Rayburn and a boiler that appear to share one stack have not had their flues proved by a visual survey. The survey can record two appliances and one chimney stack. It cannot see the liners inside the brick, prove the passages are separate, or show that fumes from one appliance stay out of the other. It has not swept either flue and it has not certified either appliance. Ask a competent person for each fuel to inspect the flues before you rely on both of them together.
Hazardous materials
The house is heated by warm air, and the heater cupboard is lined with a board the survey would not name. Why is that lining a separate question from whether the heater ran?
Own page
Because the unnamed board in the warm-air cupboard is a materials question, not a test of whether the heater ran. The survey can say the house is heated by warm air and that a lining was there which it would not name. Running, or not running, the heater does not identify that board. A home survey is not an asbestos survey. Do not break, sand or scrape the lining to see what it is, and do not take a sample on a viewing. Ask for a proper asbestos check of the unnamed board before anyone works on the cupboard.
Services
Night-storage heaters are still fixed in the rooms. Does the survey switch them on, or price a replacement heating system?
Own page
No. The survey does not switch the night-storage heaters on, and it does not price a replacement heating system. It records that the heaters are still fixed in the rooms, if they could be seen. A home survey does not run the storage cores, test the off-peak wiring, or design what should replace them. One row of heaters is not a quotation and not an order to rip them out. If you need to know whether they heat, ask an electrician to test the circuits. Any decision to change the system comes after that, not from the survey sentence.
Services
The only hot water is an immersion in a cupboard cylinder. Has the survey switched that immersion on?
Own page
No. The survey has not switched on the immersion that is the only hot water, in the cupboard cylinder. It can record the cylinder and the heater head if the cupboard was opened. It does not turn the element on, time how the water heats, or prove the thermostat. A warm tap, if one was run, is not that test. There is no boiler paragraph hiding behind this setup unless a boiler was actually there. Ask an electrician to test the immersion if you need to know it works, and do not treat the survey as that test.
Services
The only sign of underfloor heating is a manifold behind the bath panel. What can the survey honestly claim from that?
Own page
Only that a manifold was visible behind the bath panel. That is the honest claim. The survey can say this fitting was the sign of underfloor heating it could see. It cannot say the loops are intact, which rooms they heat, or that the system works. It has not opened the floors, measured temperatures, or run the pump as a test. A manifold is a distribution point, not a plan of the loops. If you need more, ask a heating engineer to inspect it with the panel off, and keep their note separate from the survey sentence.
Services
An air-source heat pump is bolted to the flank wall. Does the survey decide permitted development, or that every room is on that system?
Own page
No. The survey does not decide permitted development for the air-source heat pump bolted to the flank wall, and it does not decide that every room is on that system. It records the unit it could see: the outdoor box, its position, and the pipes in view. Permitted development is a planning question, not a finding from a visual inspection. Which rooms the system heats is inside the house, at emitters and controls the survey has not proved. Ask the solicitor about planning, and a heat-pump engineer about what the unit actually serves.
Electrics
A storage battery sits in the garage and the roof has no panels. What has the survey not operated?
Own page
Not the storage battery. The survey has not operated the battery sitting in the garage, and a bare roof means it has not found panels there to run either. It can record the cabinet it saw and that the roof covering had no panels in view. It does not switch the battery on, measure a charge, or prove what the unit feeds. A home survey is not an electrical installation condition report. Ask an electrician what the battery does, and do not invent a solar array the roof did not show.
Services
The unvented cylinder's discharge pipe ends in an open hopper. Why is that a note for an engineer and not a certificate that the cylinder is safe?
Own page
Because the discharge pipe from the unvented cylinder ends in an open hopper, and that sighting is a note for an engineer, not a certificate that the cylinder is safe. The survey can record where the pipe went. It does not test the valves, the tundish, the temperature or the pressure, and it does not sign the cylinder off. An open hopper is simply where the pipe was seen to finish. Ask an engineer who works on unvented cylinders to comment on that termination before you treat the installation as cleared.
Services
The cold-water header tank in the loft has no lid. Does the missing lid, by itself, mean the drinking water fails a standard?
Own page
No. A missing lid on the cold-water header tank does not, by itself, mean the drinking water fails a standard. The survey has recorded what it saw in the loft: a tank with no cover. That is an observation about the cistern, not a water-quality prosecution and not a rating of the whole cold-water system. The survey did not sample the water and it does not set a drinking-water limit. Ask a plumber about a proper cover. Do not treat the open top as a failed laboratory result.
Services
The stopcock under the sink would not turn. Is that a failed plumbing test, or a record that the supply could not be isolated?
Own page
Not a failed plumbing test. The stopcock under the sink would not turn, so the record is that the supply could not be isolated from there. A home survey does not pressure-test the plumbing. Finding this valve seized is an observation about that stopcock, not a verdict on every pipe in the house. It does not prove a leak and it does not prove the main is sound. Ask a plumber to free or replace the valve with the seller's agreement. Do not force the handle yourself on a viewing.
Electrics
The loft lights are still on rubber-sheathed cable. Why is that a different sentence from the new consumer unit in the hall?
Own page
Because rubber-sheathed cable on the loft lights is one old length, not the same fact as the new consumer unit in the hall. The survey can record both: old cable where those lights were seen, and a new unit downstairs. It has not tested either, and it has not produced an electrical installation condition report. One rubber length is not a whole-house rewire, and it is not automatically condition rating 3 on every circuit. Ask an electrician to inspect the loft lighting and to say which circuits the new unit actually covers.
Electrics
The cable tail at the meter looks lead-sheathed. Can the surveyor replace it, or only record it?
Own page
Only record it. The surveyor cannot replace the lead-sheathed tail at the meter. A home survey notes what the tail looked like where it could be seen. It does not cut the supply, fit a new tail, or issue an electrical installation condition report. Work on the incoming cable is for the network operator or an electrician they allow on that equipment, not for the person writing the survey. Do not pull or bare the tail on a viewing. Ask an electrician to inspect it and to say who may change it.
Electrics
One carrier in the consumer unit still uses fuse wire. Does that carrier, on its own, force condition rating 3 on every circuit?
Own page
No. One carrier that still uses fuse wire does not, on its own, force condition rating 3 on every circuit. The survey can record that this carrier is a rewireable fuse. Condition rating 3 means that element is serious and/or urgent. It is not a label stuck automatically on circuits the surveyor did not describe that way, and it is not a price or an order to withdraw. The survey has not tested the wiring and it is not an electrical installation condition report. Ask an electrician what that carrier feeds.
Electrics
No RCD was visible for the socket circuits the surveyor could see. Is that sentence already an electrical installation condition report?
Own page
No. The sentence that no RCD was visible for the socket circuits the surveyor could see is not an electrical installation condition report. It records a limit of the visual inspection: in the equipment on view, no RCD for those sockets was apparent. The separate electrical report is its own inspection and test. The home survey did not test the sockets, trip a device, or certify the installation. Ask an electrician for an electrical installation condition report if you need those circuits tested properly.
Electrics
No earth clamp was visible where the water pipe enters. Has the earthing been tested, or only noted as unseen?
Own page
Only noted as unseen. No earth clamp was visible where the water pipe enters, and the earthing has not been tested. The survey records that the clamp was not in sight at that point. It does not measure continuity, prove main bonding, or produce an electrical installation condition report. A clamp can be painted, boxed, or fitted further along a pipe that could not be followed. Ask an electrician to test the bonding. Do not scrape the pipe on a viewing to hunt for metal that was not showing.
Electrics
The bonding conductor to the gas pipe disappears under paint on the skirting. Why should you not scrape that paint off on a viewing?
Own page
Because scraping the paint off the skirting can nick the bonding conductor and still will not test it. The survey has recorded that the conductor to the gas pipe disappears under the paint. That is a visual note. Scraping is not an earth test, and it is not how a home survey proves bonding. You would damage the seller's decoration, and you might damage the cable, without learning whether the bond is continuous. Leave the paint alone. Ask an electrician to test the gas bonding instead of revealing it with a blade.
Services
The seller offers last year's landlord gas safety record in place of the boiler paragraph. What does that record not do?
Own page
Not the work of the boiler paragraph. Last year's landlord gas safety record does not replace what the survey says about the boiler, and it does not inspect the boiler on the survey day. The record is someone else's check, at another time, written for a landlord's duty. It is not the surveyor's sentence, and it is not a fresh look at the flue, the controls or the ventilation. Gas work belongs with a Gas Safe engineer. Keep the survey paragraph. If you need today's condition, ask an engineer to see the boiler now.
Services
The combi condensate runs unprotected across the yard. Is a freezing risk the same finding as a boiler that failed on the day?
Own page
No. A freezing risk on the combi condensate that runs unprotected across the yard is not the same finding as a boiler that failed on the day. The survey can record an exposed condensate pipe. It has not failed the boiler, because it has not serviced the appliance or run it as a test. Condensate is the water the boiler produces as it works. An open run can freeze later and stop the boiler. That is a different sentence from a fault found in the case itself. Ask a Gas Safe engineer to look at the pipe route.
Services
The sitting-room gas fire is also described as the back boiler. Can the survey confirm both appliances by looking at the case?
Own page
No. Looking at the case cannot confirm both the sitting-room gas fire and the back boiler. The survey can record a fire in the opening and the claim that a boiler sits behind it. It cannot see through the case, prove the flue, or show that both parts work. A back boiler, if there is one, is hidden behind the fire. Gas confirmation belongs with a Gas Safe engineer. Ask that engineer to identify what is actually installed before you treat two names as two appliances the survey has proved.
Drainage
The loft WC discharges through a macerator. If the surveyor did not run it, what is still unknown?
Own page
Not whether the macerator runs, where it discharges, or whether the loft WC actually clears. If the surveyor did not run it, those points stay unknown. The survey can record that a macerator serves the loft WC, where the unit was visible. It has not switched the motor on, proved the small-bore pipe, or shown that the waste reaches a stack. A macerator is a machine, not a gravity fall you can approve by eye. Ask a plumber to run it once the seller agrees, before you rely on that closet.
Drainage
A plastic soil stack is strapped to a short cast-iron stub at the foot of the wall. Which joint has actually been seen?
Own page
Only the joint exposed at the foot of the wall, where the plastic soil stack is strapped to the short cast-iron stub, and only to the extent that junction was actually in view. Joints higher up the plastic, joints buried in the wall, and the iron below ground were not seen. A strap shows two materials are held together. It does not prove the seal, and the survey has not tested the drain. Ask a drainage contractor if you need the unseen joints or the buried run investigated. Do not cut the strap off to look.
Drainage
The boxed stack ends at an air-admittance valve in the airing cupboard. Why is that not the same as a vent opening above the roof?
Own page
Because an air-admittance valve in the airing cupboard is a local valve on the end of the boxed stack, not a vent pipe opening above the roof. The survey can record the valve it saw. It cannot rename that valve as an open terminal in free air, and it has not proved how the rest of the stack is ventilated. A valve admits air at the fitting. An open vent is a pipe that finishes above the roof. They are different things. Ask a plumber to confirm the ventilation, rather than calling the cupboard valve a roof vent.
Drainage
The basement WC uses a pumped waste, and the survey did not switch the pump on. What remains unknown?
Own page
Not whether the pump runs, whether it lifts the waste, or where that waste discharges. The basement WC uses a pumped waste, and the survey did not switch the pump on, so those points remain unknown. The survey can record the unit it could see. It has not proved the float, any alarm, or the rising pipe. A pump is a machine. Looking at the box is not operating it. Ask a plumber to run the pump with the seller's agreement before you rely on the basement WC as a working closet.
Drainage
Water remained in the shower gully after a short run of the tap. Is that, by itself, failed wet-room tanking?
Own page
No. Water that remained in the shower gully after a short run of the tap is not, by itself, failed wet-room tanking. The survey saw a gully that did not clear quickly. That can be a slow outlet, a flat trap or debris. Tanking is the hidden layer under the finishes, and a visual survey cannot see it through the tray. Standing water in the gully is not a test of that layer. Ask a plumber about the outlet. Do not treat one slow gully as a failed wet room.
Damp
The seller calls the bathroom a wet room. Once the tiles are fixed, what of any tanking can a visual survey still see?
Own page
Not the tanking. Once the tiles are fixed, a visual survey cannot see any membrane the seller's wet-room claim depends on. The survey can record the tiles, the gully and the name the seller uses. It cannot see a waterproof layer under sound finishes, and it has not lifted them. Calling the bathroom a wet room does not prove a membrane was used, that it is complete, or that it turns up the walls. Do not take the tile face as a view of the tanking. Ask what papers describe it.
Damp
The header-tank overflow drips into the eaves void instead of through an outside wall. What might that wet that has not been opened up?
Own page
Because the header-tank overflow drips into the eaves void, it might be wetting timber or insulation that has not been opened up. The survey can record the drip going into that closed space instead of through an outside wall. It has not lifted the ceiling, opened the void, or diagnosed rot. What might be wet is the eaves timber, the wall plate and any insulation lying there, none of which was exposed. Ask a builder or plumber to trace the drip once access is agreed. Do not treat an unopened void as a proved outbreak of decay.
Services
The ball valve whistled throughout the inspection. Does that noise, by itself, rate the whole cold-water installation?
Own page
No. A ball valve that whistled throughout the inspection does not, by that noise alone, rate the whole cold-water installation. The survey has recorded a noisy valve, usually on a cistern or header tank it could see. Whistling is an observation about that fitting while water was passing. It is not a test of every pipe, not a drinking-water result, and not a condition rating of the entire cold supply. Ask a plumber to look at the valve. Do not let one sound stand in for the rest of the plumbing.
Hazardous materials
The loft cistern looks like old cement sheet and it is still on the feed. Why must you not break it up to remove it before completion?
Own page
Because the loft cistern looks like old cement sheet and is still on the feed, you must not break it up to remove it before completion. Old cement cisterns of that kind may contain asbestos. A home survey is not an asbestos survey, and it has not sampled the sheet. Breaking, sanding or scraping it can release dust, and doing that in the seller's loft before completion is not your job. Leave the cistern in place. Ask for proper advice on the material before anyone cuts it out, and do not treat a visual likeness as a licence to smash it.
Services
The rising main inside is copper, with a short pale tail at the stopcock. Why does the copper not prove the buried supply is plastic?
Own page
Because the copper rising main only describes the indoor pipe you can see. It does not prove the buried supply is plastic, and the short pale tail at the stopcock is a separate length. The survey records copper above the valve and a pale piece at the valve. That pale tail can be an older metal. Neither sight shows the pipe under the floor or in the ground. A home survey does not excavate the supply and it does not sample the drinking water. Ask the water company what the incoming pipe is, rather than reading the copper as the whole story.
Services
Blue plastic pipe is clipped under the cellar ceiling. Has the survey followed it to the main, or only described the length in view?
Own page
Only the length in view. Blue plastic pipe clipped under the cellar ceiling has been described where it could be seen. The survey has not followed it to the main. A blue pipe is often used for water, but a clipped run across a cellar is not a trace to the street, and it does not prove what is buried beyond the wall. The survey did not excavate and did not test the supply. Ask a plumber or the water company where that pipe actually goes. Do not read the visible clips as a map of the main.
Services
The water meter is in the pavement and no indoor stopcock was found. What should you ask before you treat the supply as easy to isolate?
Own page
No. Do not treat the supply as easy to isolate. The water meter is in the pavement and no indoor stopcock was found, so you should ask where the water can actually be shut off, who can open that chamber, and whether a key or the water company is needed. The survey records the meter position and the missing indoor stop. It did not prove the pavement valve works, and it did not pressure-test the house. Isolation that lives in the street is not the same as a valve under the sink. Ask those questions before you call the supply easy to control.
Electrics
An electric-vehicle charger is fed from a small consumer unit in the garage. Does the home survey include a certificate for that charger?
Own page
No. The home survey does not include a certificate for the electric-vehicle charger fed from the small consumer unit in the garage. It can record the charger and the board it could see. It does not test the circuit, check the trip devices, or produce an electrical installation condition report, and it does not issue a charger certificate either. One small garage unit is not a whole-house rewire and not a pass for every circuit. Ask an electrician for the right paperwork if you need the charger certified. Do not treat the survey sentence as that certificate.
Electrics
A solar inverter sits on the loft deck beside the hatch. What has not been done when the survey names the box and does not run the array?
Own page
Not a test of the array. When the survey names the solar inverter beside the hatch and does not run the array, it has not operated the system, measured an output, or proved the panels are connected and generating. Naming the box is a visual record of equipment on the loft deck. It is not an electrical installation condition report and not a performance test. The survey has not switched the inverter through a generation cycle. Ask an electrician or a solar installer what the array actually does. Do not press the buttons yourself.
Services
A heat-pump cylinder and an old vented tank are both still plumbed in the cupboard. Which one has the survey not proved is in use?
Own page
Not which of them is actually in use. A heat-pump cylinder and an old vented tank are both still plumbed in the cupboard, and the survey has not proved which one supplies the taps. It can record two vessels and the pipes it could see. It has not followed every valve, run the system as a test, or shown that one is redundant. Both being connected is not the same as both being live, or as one having been isolated. Ask a heating engineer which cylinder is in service before you assume the old tank is only a spare.
Services
An oil fire valve is fixed by the back door and the tank is at the far fence. Does seeing the valve mean the oil line was tested?
Own page
No. Seeing the oil fire valve by the back door does not mean the oil line to the tank at the far fence was tested. The survey can record the valve where it was fixed and the tank at the fence, if both were in sight. It has not pressure-tested the pipe between them, proved the valve shuts, or traced a buried run. A fire valve is a fitting you can see. The line is the part that may be hidden for the whole distance. Ask an oil technician to test that line rather than trusting the sight of the valve.
Services
A bulk LPG tank stands behind the garage. Can the surveyor certify its distance from the house, or only record that a tank is there?
Own page
Only record that a bulk LPG tank is there. The surveyor cannot certify its distance from the house. The survey can note the tank behind the garage and describe the position in ordinary words. It does not measure a legal clearance, sign the installation off, or inspect the regulator and the buried pipe as a gas-safety check. Gas work belongs with a Gas Safe engineer. Ask that engineer to look at the tank and its position. Do not treat a paced gap in the report as a certified distance.
Services
The oil-fired Rayburn has no service label. Is the missing label a gas-safety failure?
Own page
No. A missing service label on the oil-fired Rayburn is not a gas-safety failure. The appliance burns oil, so a landlord gas record and a Gas Safe inspection are the wrong certificates to demand for this label. The survey can record that no service label was seen. It has not serviced the Rayburn, tested the oil line, or proved when it was last maintained. Absence of a sticker is an observation about paperwork on the case, not a gas fail and not a test. Ask an oil technician to service it and to say what they found.
Electrics
The hall consumer unit is new, and a second board still feeds the storage heaters. Why is that second board not covered by the word rewired?
Own page
Because the second board that still feeds the storage heaters is a separate installation. A new consumer unit in the hall does not make that board part of a whole-house rewire. Rewired, if someone uses the word, is a claim about the cables, not a description of one new enclosure. The survey can record a new hall unit and an older board on the heaters. It has not tested either, and it has not produced an electrical installation condition report. One new board is not automatically condition rating 3 on every circuit, and it is not a certificate that the heater wiring was renewed.
Services
The immersion timer is behind a door the surveyor could not unlock. Why is not inspected more honest than a pass?
Own page
Because the immersion timer stayed behind a door the surveyor could not unlock, so not inspected is the honest record. A pass would claim a look or a test that did not happen. The survey cannot say the timer works, that it is wired safely, or that the immersion it controls was seen. Locked means unseen. Writing a clear bill of health would invent an inspection of a cupboard that stayed shut. Ask for the door to be opened and then, if you need it, ask an electrician to look at the timer. Do not call a locked door a pass.
Services
The seller says heating pipes are cast into the conservatory slab. Can the survey confirm them without opening the floor?
Own page
No. The survey cannot confirm heating pipes cast into the conservatory slab without opening the floor. The seller's sentence is a claim. The survey can record the conservatory and that no pipes were visible. It cannot see through concrete, prove the loops are there, or show that they heat. A home survey does not break a slab open. Until the floor is opened, or other real evidence is produced, the pipes remain what the seller says, not what the inspection proved. Do not core the slab on a viewing to settle it.
Services
The combi flue ends under the carport roof. Why should that be described as a flue position, not priced as a repair inside the survey?
Own page
Because the combi flue ending under the carport roof is a position to describe, not a repair for the survey to price. The survey can record where the terminal sits, under that roof. It does not design a new route, write a quotation, or certify the flue. Pricing a repair inside the report would invent a figure and a scheme the inspection did not produce. Gas work belongs with a Gas Safe engineer. Ask them to comment on this terminal position. Keep the survey sentence as a description of where the flue ends.
Services
The back boiler has been removed and the old flow pipes remain in boxing beside the chimney breast. What might still be open inside that boxing?
Own page
Because the boxing was not opened, the old flow pipes beside the chimney breast might still be open inside it. The back boiler has been removed, and the survey can record the pipes left in that boxing. It cannot see the cut ends, prove they are capped, or show whether a gas way or a water way is still live. Open, here, means not shown to be sealed. A Gas Safe engineer should confirm the gas side. Do not pull the boxing off on a viewing and do not assume removal of the boiler closed every pipe.
Drainage
The soil stack runs inside the house and there is no access panel. What can a visual survey not say about those joints?
Own page
Not that the joints are sound. The soil stack runs inside the house and there is no access panel, so a visual survey cannot see those joints and cannot say they are tight, leaking or properly made. It can record an internal stack and the absence of a panel. The collars stay behind plaster, boxing or a wall. No test was done. Do not take silence, or a lack of stain on the decoration, as a certificate of the hidden joints. If you need them seen, ask a plumber about opening access, with the seller's agreement.
Legal and neighbours
One loft tank appears to feed this flat and the neighbour's. Why is that a title and plumbing question, not a roof rating?
Own page
Because one loft tank that appears to feed this flat and the neighbour's is a shared-supply and title question, not a rating of the roof. The survey can note a tank and pipes that seem to serve two homes. It cannot say who owns the tank, who must maintain it, or whether the neighbour has a right to it. Those points sit with the lease and the solicitor. The roof covering is a different element. Do not turn a shared cistern into a roof defect. Ask the solicitor about the tank, and a plumber about the pipework, as separate questions.
Roof and rainwater
Mortar torching has dropped onto the loft insulation under a slate roof. Does that debris mean the slates have failed, or that old bedding is loose?
Own page
Not that the slates have failed. Mortar torching dropped onto the loft insulation means old bedding is loose, which is a different sentence from a failed slate covering. Torching is the mortar that used to be buttered under the slates from the loft side. Lumps on the insulation show that bedding has come away. They do not, by themselves, show that the slates are cracked, slipped or letting rain in. The survey records the debris it could see. Ask a roofer to look at the slates if you need the covering judged. Do not read fallen mortar as a stripped roof.
Roof and rainwater
Sarking felt sags between the rafters and holds a dark line of dust. Is that sag, by itself, a roof that needs stripping?
Own page
No. Sarking felt that sags between the rafters and holds a dark line of dust is not, by that sag alone, a roof that needs stripping. The survey can record tired underfelt and a dust mark in the belly of the sag. A sag is the felt stretching between the rafters. A dust line can be dirt, old moisture tracking, or both. Neither sight is a decision to strip the covering. The tiles or slates above were not proved failed by the drape of the felt. Ask a roofer if you need the covering and the underlay judged. Do not order a strip from the sag.
Roof and rainwater
The tiles look recent and no membrane is visible from the loft. What can the survey not conclude from that empty view?
Own page
Not that the roof has no underlay. Recent-looking tiles with no membrane visible from the loft only mean none was seen from that vantage. The survey cannot conclude the covering was laid with no membrane, that a membrane is hidden above the battens, or that every bay matches the empty view. Felt can be tight to the tiles, blocked by stored goods, or simply out of the line of sight. An empty look is not proof of absence. Ask a roofer before you treat the roof as unfelted. Do not write no membrane as a fact the loft did not establish.
Roof and rainwater
A purlin is propped mid-span by a rough timber stud. Has the survey designed a repair, or recorded a prop that is already there?
Own page
Only recorded the prop that is already there. The survey has not designed a repair for the purlin propped mid-span by a rough timber stud. It can describe the purlin, the stud under it, and that the stud looks rough and informal. Designing a repair would mean specifying a new member, a connection and a route for the load. A home survey does not do that design. The prop is evidence someone already tried to support the purlin. Ask a structural engineer or a competent roofer if you need a proper scheme. Do not treat the stud as a designed repair the survey has approved.
Roof and rainwater
One pair of rafters has no collar where the neighbouring pairs do. Does that missing collar rate the whole roof structure?
Own page
No missing collar on one rafter pair rates the whole roof structure. The pairs on either side still have collars, so the note is a bare bay rather than a failed frame. A visual survey records that this collar is absent and that the neighbours are present. It does not design a new tie, and it does not calculate the load those two rafters now put on the ceiling or the walls. Price any work against that pair, not against a wholesale rebuild of the roof.
Roof and rainwater
A ceiling binder has been cut so a water tank could be dropped into the loft. What load path has a visual survey not recalculated?
Own page
Because the ceiling binder was cut so a tank could be dropped into the loft, the visual survey has not recalculated that load path. The cut timber is what the note records. It does not show what now carries the ceiling, the cistern and the water, and it does not design a trimmer, a hanger or a new binder. The opening is an unanswered structural question. It is not a finished alteration, and it is not a reason to condemn roof timbers that were not cut.
Roof and rainwater
A smear of mortar sits where lead soakers should meet the chimney, and no soakers were seen. Why is that mortar not a soaker?
Own page
Not a smear of mortar where lead soakers should meet the chimney is a soaker. Soakers are separate pieces of metal, usually lead, woven with each course and covered by a flashing. Mortar smeared into that junction is a fillet, and no soakers were seen. The visit records the smear and the absence. It does not turn the mortar into metal, and it does not prove every other abutment on the house is detailed in the same way.
Roof and rainwater
The lead valley is split along one welt. Does that split condemn the tiles on both adjoining slopes?
Own page
Only the split along one welt is the lead-valley defect, not a verdict on the tiles of both adjoining slopes. A welt is a folded joint in the lead. A split there is a failure in that sheet, on that line. The tiles or slates that shed into the valley are a different material, and this visit does not condemn them because the metal has opened. Read the note against the valley lead. Keep each slope's covering as its own question.
Roof and rainwater
Interlocking tiles at one verge show no clips the surveyor could see. Is the whole covering therefore unfixed?
Own page
Not one verge where no clips were seen leaves the whole covering unfixed. Interlocking tiles at a verge are often clipped, but a clip can sit under the tile edge, out of sight from the ground or from a ladder. This note is that none were seen on that verge. It is not a finding that every tile on both slopes is loose. Do not let one unseen fixing line condemn the covering or force a re-roof into the quotation.
Roof and rainwater
Nail sickness is named on the north slope only. Why should a quotation for the south slope not be treated as the answer to that note?
Own page
Only the north slope is named in the nail-sickness note, so a quotation for the south slope does not answer it. Nail sickness is the failure of the nails holding the slates or tiles on the slope the surveyor named. The south slope was not given that name. Pricing the wrong pitch leaves the noted slope without a figure and dresses a different covering up as the repair. Read the note and the quotation onto the same side of the ridge.
Roof and rainwater
One concrete tile lying in the gutter has split into layers. Does that single tile mean the covering has reached the end of its life?
Own page
No single concrete tile that has split into layers in the gutter means the covering has reached the end of its life. Delamination of one tile is that tile. A unit can part in layers while the rest of the slope stays intact. The visit does not give the covering a lifespan, and it does not condemn every course because one failed tile is lying in the gutter. Deal with the tile in front of you. Do not invent a remainder of life the report never stated.
Roof and rainwater
The flaunching is cracked around one pot, and the brick stack below looks fair. Which part should the rating be read against?
Own page
Because the flaunching is cracked around one pot while the brick stack below looks fair, read the rating against the flaunching. Flaunching is the mortar that weathers the top of the stack around the pots. A crack there is not a cracked stack, and a fair stack is not sound flaunching. The pot, the mortar crown and the brickwork are separate parts. This visit describes the crack it could see. It does not retire the stack, and it does not certify the flue.
Roof and rainwater
A disused pot has no cap, and the flue is described as sealed in the room below. What can still enter from the top?
Own page
Not a seal in the room below stops what an uncapped pot can still admit from the top. Rain, birds, nesting material and wind-blown debris can drop into a flue whose fireplace has been closed downstairs. The seal and the open pot are at opposite ends. A visual survey describes the pot without a cap and the closure it could see in the room. It does not certify the flue, and it does not show the flue is empty or weatherproof between those two points.
Roof and rainwater
A flexible liner hangs loose in the loft beside the stack. Has the survey proved the stove below is connected to it?
Own page
No loose flexible liner hanging in the loft beside the stack proves the stove below is connected to it. A liner that is not fixed into the flue and not seen entering the appliance is a liner out of place. The survey records that position. It does not trace a continuous flue from the stove to a terminal, and it does not certify the installation. Connection and jointing belong to a competent installer or gas engineer, which is a different appointment from this visual report.
Roof and rainwater
The hearth is smaller than the stove standing on it. Does the survey certify that installation, or only record the mismatch it could see?
Own page
Only the mismatch the surveyor could see is on record: the hearth is smaller than the stove standing on it. That sentence does not certify the installation. Hearth size, distance to combustible material and the joint to a flue are checks for a competent installer or gas engineer. A visual survey can compare the slab it saw with the appliance on it. It cannot sign the stove off, and it does not design a new hearth. Clearances the eye did not measure are not a specification this visit has written.
Roof and rainwater
The eaves have spread on one side and the ceiling on that side is cracked. Why is that pattern not automatically subsidence of the flank wall?
Own page
Not eaves that have spread on one side, with ceiling cracks on that side, are automatically subsidence of the flank wall. The pattern is roof spread: the eaves have pushed out where the ceiling on that side has cracked. Subsidence would be downward movement in the ground, which this note has not established. A visual survey can describe the eaves and the cracks. It does not calculate the load path, it does not monitor the wall, and it does not turn a roof pattern into a foundation failure.
Roof and rainwater
A hip has been built up into a gable and no engineer's paper was in the pack. What has the visual survey not certified about that new gable?
Own page
Because a hip has been built up into a gable and no engineer's paper was in the pack, the visual survey has not certified that new gable. The visit can record the shape, the masonry and the way the slopes now meet it. It cannot confirm a beam, a padstone, a foundation or a calculation it did not see. It has not issued building-regulations approval. Treat the gable as described, not certified. The missing paper is still missing, and the inspection does not design the structure the paper should have shown.
Roof and rainwater
A parapet coping shows no damp-proof layer the surveyor could see, and the ceiling below is stained. What is that stain evidence of, and what is it not?
Own page
Only a moisture mark is what that ceiling stain proves, not a missing damp-proof layer in the parapet coping. No barrier was seen, which means none was visible. It does not mean the joint was opened and found empty. The stain shows the ceiling has been marked by moisture. It does not map the path, date the water or condemn the whole parapet. A visual survey holds those limits. It does not design a new coping from one mark and one unseen joint.
Roof and rainwater
Moss is sitting in the valley and holding water. Is the moss itself a structural defect, or a maintenance note kept apart from the valley metal?
Own page
Not moss sitting in the valley and holding water is a structural defect. Moss is a maintenance note. It can slow the flow and keep the channel wetter, which matters to the metal or the tiles that form it, but the plant is not a failed rafter, truss or wall. Keep the moss apart from any comment on the valley metal. Clearing growth is not a structural repair, and the survey has not redesigned the valley because vegetation was sitting in it on the day.
Roof and rainwater
Ridge tiles are bedded in mortar and no mechanical fixing was seen. Does that observation retire the ridge?
Own page
No ridge bedded only in mortar, with no mechanical fixing seen, retires that ridge. The observation records how the ridge tiles are held, as far as the visit could tell. It does not take the ridge out of service, it does not prove every tile will slip, and it does not prove the ridge is secure. A fixing can be hidden in the bed. Absent from view is not the same as absent from the roof. The ridge stays an open fixing question, not a whole-roof condemnation.
Roof and rainwater
Sprockets at the eaves hide the rafter feet from inside the loft. What can the survey not say about decay in those feet?
Own page
Because sprockets at the eaves hide the rafter feet, the survey cannot say whether those feet are decayed. A sprocket is the short timber that eases the pitch over the end of the rafter. What was not seen is the foot itself: the end grain, the bearing on the wall plate, and any softness where the roof meets the gutter. The visit records the obstruction. It does not declare the feet sound, and it does not declare them rotten. Hidden timber stays undescribed.
Timber
Ceiling joists have been boarded and stacked with boxes. Has the survey calculated that those joists can act as a floor?
Own page
No ceiling joists that have been boarded and stacked with boxes have been calculated as a floor. The survey can see a boarded surface and a pile of storage. It cannot see much of the joist, and it has not worked out span, size or the extra weight. Ceiling joists and floor joists are asked to do different work. This visit does not convert one into the other, and it does not design strengthening. The boxes are also why long stretches of the timber were not seen.
Timber
Joist ends disappear into a wall the survey calls damp. Why is that a timber question even when no rot was visible on the day?
Own page
Because the joist ends disappear into a wall the survey calls damp, this remains a timber question even though no rot was visible on the day. The ends, the part sitting in the masonry, were not seen. Moisture at a bearing is where joist ends fail, and a fair span in the room does not speak for timber inside the wall. The visit records damp masonry and a hidden bearing. It does not declare the ends rotten, and it does not declare them sound.
Timber
The wall plate sits on the outer leaf and the felt beside it is wet. What has not been proved about the plate itself?
Own page
Not wet felt beside the wall plate proves the plate itself either rotten or sound. The plate is the timber on the outer leaf that takes the rafter feet. The felt next to it was wet, which is moisture beside the wood, not a probe through the wood. What has not been proved is the plate: its top, its seating on the leaf, and the face against the masonry. The survey records the wet felt beside it. It leaves the timber itself unproved.
Timber
The ground floor is suspended and the surveyor did not enter the void where sleeper walls would stand. What remains unknown underneath?
Own page
Because the surveyor did not enter the void under this suspended floor, the sleeper walls remain unknown. So do the joist ends, the oversite and the ventilation that a view under the boards would have recorded. Sleeper walls are the low walls that carry the joists between the main walls. None of that fabric was walked. A look from the rooms above cannot invent their condition. What stays unknown underneath is the support the floor is actually standing on.
Damp
One room has a solid floor that read damp, beside a timber floor that did not. Why should those two floors not share one rating?
Own page
Not a damp reading on a solid floor and a dry reading on the timber floor beside it should share one rating. They are different constructions meeting at a doorway. The solid floor that read damp carries that reading. The timber floor that did not is not pulled into the same verdict by standing next door. A visual survey records each surface it actually tested. It does not average the two floors, and it does not design one damp treatment for both of them.
Timber
A fruiting body is on a skirting that has already been taken off. Does removing that skirting remove decay that may still be in the wall?
Own page
No skirting that has already been taken off, fruiting body and all, removes decay that may still be in the wall. The body was the part there to see, and it has gone with the timber it grew on. What may remain is growth in the masonry, in the ends of the boards, or behind the plaster, and none of that is lifted by removing a skirting. The survey records the body that was found. It does not map a cleared wall, and it does not certify the faces still hidden.
Timber
Flight holes of a deathwatch type are in one oak beam, and the sapwood there is gone. Why has the survey not ordered a house-wide spray?
Own page
Not flight holes of a deathwatch type in one oak beam, where the sapwood has already gone, are an order for a house-wide spray. The holes are exits in that beam. Spent sapwood on one member is not a live attack mapped through the house, and the survey has not ordered a chemical treatment of every timber. Flight holes are not dust falling today. A visual survey records the beam it saw. It does not name a pesticide, and it does not send a spray through rooms with no such holes.
Timber
Fine dust sits on the plywood fixed under the ceiling, near old flight holes. Has the survey declared an active attack, or dust that still needs telling apart from fallen debris?
Own page
No fine dust on the plywood fixed under the ceiling, near old flight holes, is a declared active attack. The survey has not separated that dust from fallen debris, so it has not called the attack live. Pale grit can be old torching, which is mortar bedding once used under slates. That debris is not automatically woodworm frass, and it is not automatically a slate failure. Dust that still needs telling apart should stay undecided. The visit has not sent the house to be sprayed.
Timber
The foot of a porch post is soft with wet rot, and the hall floor is also timber. Why does the porch post not prove the hall joists are decaying?
Own page
Not a porch post with wet rot at the foot proves the hall joists are decaying. The post foot is an exposed end in the weather, soft where rain reaches it. The hall floor is different timber in a different place, and this note does not probe it. Wet rot in the porch stays local to that post until something in the hall is actually found to be soft. A visual survey records the post. It does not carry the diagnosis indoors, and it does not design a new hall floor from a porch foot.
Timber
The report describes fungal strands stopping at a masonry pier. Has it mapped every strand in the house, or the ones in view?
Own page
Only the fungal strands that were in view, stopping at a masonry pier, have been described. The report has not mapped every strand in the house. A pier is where the visible growth ended on the day, not a proved barrier through the building. What was not seen beyond that masonry, under floors and behind plaster, stays unseen. A visual survey records the limit of the growth it could follow. It does not certify the rest of the timber, and it does not draw a treatment zone.
Timber
Old treatment holes pepper a beam that is soft under a probe. Why do those holes not mean the timber is now sound?
Own page
Because old treatment holes pepper a beam that is soft under a probe, those holes do not mean the timber is now sound. The holes show that someone drilled the beam in the past. The probe shows the timber is soft today. Whatever was used then is not a present pass. The survey does not name a pesticide and does not call for another spray. Soft timber is the condition that matters. The holes are history beside it, not a certificate that lets you ignore the probe.
Roof and rainwater
Lead is dressed into a joint filled with hard grey mortar. Why might that pointing fail while the lead itself is still present?
Own page
Because hard grey mortar fills the joint the lead is dressed into, that pointing can fail while the lead itself is still present. Lead needs a joint it can move in. A hard band over the dressing can crack, pinch the metal or hold water against it without the sheet having gone. The survey sees the lead and sees the mortar. It does not say the flashing has vanished, and it does not design a new one. The risk in the note is the pointing, kept separate from metal that is still there.
Roof and rainwater
A secret gutter runs behind a parapet and was seen only from a bedroom window. What has that view not confirmed about the outlet?
Own page
Only a view from a bedroom window was had of the secret gutter, so the outlet has not been confirmed. A secret gutter is the channel behind a parapet. From a window you may see the trough and still miss the mouth that empties it. What that view has not confirmed is the outlet, the fall and the sole under any debris. The survey describes a limited sight of the channel. It does not certify the gutter as running or blocked, and it does not design a new outlet.
Roof and rainwater
Lean-to glass sits on a tilted fillet against the house wall. Is that fillet a substitute for an abutment flashing?
Own page
Not a tilted fillet under the lean-to glass is a substitute for an abutment flashing. The fillet is the strip the glass sits on where it meets the house wall. A flashing is metal dressed into that wall so water cannot run behind the junction. The survey can see the fillet. It cannot rename the fillet as lead, and it cannot certify the abutment. If no flashing was in view, the fillet remains a fillet, which is exactly the detail this note is questioning.
Roof and rainwater
The valley board is soft and the lead above it was still holding water on the day. Which material is the defect?
Own page
Only the soft valley board is the defect in that note, not the lead that was still holding water on the day. The board is the timber under the metal, and softness under a probe is a timber finding. Lead that held water has not been described as split, holed or short. The two materials touch, and they are not the same failure. A visual survey records which one gave way. It does not condemn the lead for a fault in the board, and it does not design a new valley from that probe.
Roof and rainwater
A chimney breast has been removed and a gallows bracket is the only support in view. What has not been seen on the neighbour's side of that breast?
Own page
Because the only support in view is a gallows bracket where the chimney breast was removed, nothing has been seen on the neighbour's side of that breast. A bracket here does not describe their chimney, their breast or any beam in their floor. The survey records the opening and the bracket it could see. It does not calculate the load path, it does not design the bearing, and it does not certify that the stack above is carried. Their half of the work remains unseen.
Roof and rainwater
A new pot sits in old flaunching that is still cracked. Does the new pot retire the flaunching note?
Own page
No new pot sitting in old flaunching that is still cracked retires the flaunching note. The pot and the crown are separate parts. A fresh pot can stand in mortar that is already cracked or parted from the stack, and the crack remains the defect. A new pot does not re-form the flaunching, and a neat rim does not make failed mortar sound. The survey reads the crack that is still there. It does not certify the flue, and it does not treat the new pot as a finished chimney repair.
Roof and rainwater
The stack is corbelled and leans over the slope, while the pots remain upright. Which movement is the report actually describing?
Own page
Only the corbelled stack leaning over the slope is the movement described, not a tilt of the pots. The pots remain upright, so the note is the brick corbelling and the shaft, which have leaned, while the pots have not been described as cocked or slipped. Corbelling is the oversailing courses. Movement there is movement in the masonry. A visual survey names that lean. It does not calculate whether the stack is safe, and it does not design a rebuild because the pots still look vertical.
Roof and rainwater
No mid-feather was seen in the party stack from this loft. What does that gap not prove about the neighbour's flue?
Own page
Not the lack of a mid-feather, unseen from this loft, proves anything about the neighbour's flue. A mid-feather is the division between flues in the party stack. Not seeing it from this side means that division was not in the view. It does not prove the flues are joined. It does not prove the neighbour's flue is blocked, leaking or sound, and it does not describe their appliance. The survey records a limit of what this loft showed. Their flue stays undescribed.
Roof and rainwater
A liner stops in the loft void, short of the pot. Why is the appliance in the room below not signed off by that sighting?
Own page
Because the liner stops in the loft void, short of the pot, that sighting does not sign off the appliance in the room below. A liner ending in the roof space is not a flue carried through to a terminal. The survey describes where the liner stops. It does not certify the joint at the appliance or the pot. Those checks belong to a competent installer or gas engineer. Position is what this visit has established. An incomplete liner is not a completed installation.
Hazardous materials
A white rope at a flue collar in the loft may be asbestos. Why is that a warning not to pull the rope out, rather than a repair the survey has priced?
Own page
Not a white rope at a flue collar, which may be asbestos, is a repair the survey has priced, and it is not something to pull out. The warning is to leave the rope alone. A home survey is not an asbestos survey. It does not sample, test or remove materials, and it has not proved the fibre. The rope may be asbestos or it may not. Disturbing it to find out, including a tug to see how it is fixed, is what the note is telling you not to do.
Property types
The wire that held a thatch ridge has been cut, and the straw under it looked sound. Does the cut wire rate the whole coat?
Own page
No cut wire that once held the thatch ridge rates the whole coat. The wire is a fastening at the ridge, and it has been cut. The straw under it looked sound, which is a separate comment on the coat in view. One failed fastening is not a verdict on the depth or the condition of the rest of the thatch. The visit does not lay down a fire standard for the roof. It does not condemn a coat it has described as sound beneath that cut wire.
Property types
In a timber-frame loft the party line is open above the plasterboard. What has the survey not confirmed about fire stopping in that gap?
Own page
Because the party line in this timber-frame loft stands open above the plasterboard, the survey has not confirmed fire stopping in that gap. It has not issued building-regulations approval either. An open line between the roofs is a gap the visit could see, not a tested barrier and not a certificate. What was not confirmed is the stopping and any barrier that should separate one home from the next above the ceiling. The report records the opening. It does not pass the party line.
Roof and rainwater
Gang-nail plates on one truss are rusted and the plates on the other trusses are bright. Why is that one truss not a verdict on the whole roof?
Own page
No rust on the gang-nail plates of one truss is a verdict on the whole roof. The plates on the other trusses are described as bright, so the corrosion sits on the truss that was named. A gang-nail plate is the metal connector at the joint. Rust on one truss does not regrade every connector in the loft. A visual survey records that contrast. It does not calculate what the rusty plate can still carry, and it does not design repairs to trusses whose plates were bright.
Damp
A new patio has been laid above the damp-proof course line the surveyor pointed out. Why is that bridging a cause to investigate, not proof of rising damp?
Own page
Because a new patio has been laid above the damp-proof course the surveyor pointed out, the bridging is a cause to investigate and not proof of rising damp. A path that lets moisture cross the course can matter. It does not, by itself, show that moisture is rising inside the wall, or that an injected treatment is required. The survey records the patio against the line indicated. It does not diagnose rising damp from the paving, and it does not design a damp-proof treatment.
Damp
White salts sit on a chimney breast in a room that was dry in summer. Why might those salts be hygroscopic rather than a leak that is active today?
Own page
Not white salts on a chimney breast, in a room that was dry in summer, are automatically a leak active today. The salts may be hygroscopic, taking moisture from the air and marking the plaster when no rain is entering. A dry summer visit does not date the salts and does not prove a current roof leak. The survey records the salts and the conditions on the day. It does not certify the flue. It does not decide that the breast must be tanked because the surface looks dusty.
Property types
Hard cement strap pointing has been run over soft lime joints on a Victorian front. Why can that pointing damage the brick even when the wall looks tidy?
Own page
Because hard cement strap pointing has been run over soft lime joints, it can damage the brick even while this Victorian front looks tidy. Strap pointing is a raised ribbon of mortar on the joint. Cement is harder and tighter than the lime and the soft brick it covers, so water can be held at the face and the brick can shell behind a neat line. The survey records that combination. It does not say every brick has already failed, and it does not design a new front.
Property types
Roughcast sounds hollow over a stone wall when tapped at one patch. Has the survey diagnosed the whole elevation, or one area it could reach?
Own page
Only the patch of roughcast that sounded hollow was tested, not the whole elevation. A hollow note means that patch has parted from the stone behind it. The surveyor reached one area. The rest of the wall was not given the same tap, or could not be reached, and it has not been diagnosed. A visual survey records the hollow it found. It does not stretch one sound into a failed coat across the facade, and it does not specify a new roughcast.
Walls
Bricks are spalling at the weather strike on one gable and the other gable is fair. Why should a quote to replace every brick not be assumed from that note?
Own page
No spalling at the weather strike on one gable, with the other gable fair, means every brick should be replaced. The note is the bricks shelling where the rain hits that face. A fair gable shows the house has not been described as decayed on every elevation. A quotation to replace every brick goes beyond the strike and beyond the wording. A visual survey records the damaged bricks it could see. It does not design a new skin for walls it has called fair.
Property types
One sealed unit in a north bedroom is misty between the panes, and the other windows are clear. Does that one unit fail the glazing of the house?
Own page
Only the misty sealed unit in the north bedroom has failed, not the glazing of the house. Mist between the panes means that unit has lost its seal. The other windows are clear, so they have not been given the same failure. One bedroom window is not a verdict on every light in the building. A visual survey records the mist it could see. It does not give the clear units a life, and it does not say they must be replaced because one pane has fogged.
Property types
The landing sash will not stay up because a cord is broken. Is that a decoration item, or a window the survey has marked for a joiner rather than a painter?
Own page
Not a landing sash that will not stay up, because a cord is broken, is a decoration item. It is a window the survey has marked for a joiner rather than a painter. The sash needs a cord, and the weights set again, and a falling sash on a landing is a safety matter, not a scuffed finish. Paint will not hold it open. The visit records the broken cord. It does not choose a colour scheme, and it does not convert the repair into a decorating allowance.
Property types
The window board is soft and the sealed unit above it is clear. Which material is damp, and which has not failed?
Own page
Only the soft window board is the damp material in that note. The sealed unit above it is clear, so the glazing has not failed. Soft timber has been wet enough to lose its firmness. A clear unit has no mist between the panes, and the seal is not the failure being reported. Do not swap the two. The board can be wetted by moisture running off sound glass, or by the sill, without the unit having failed. The visit identifies the board. It does not condemn a pane that is still clear.
Property types
A timber sub-sill was left in place when the frame above it was replaced in plastic. What can still decay out of sight under the new sill?
Own page
The timber sub-sill left under the new plastic frame can still decay out of sight. Replacing the window does not lift out that old timber, so wet end grain or a soft patch can continue under the sill while the plastic looks sound. The survey can record that the sub-sill was left in place. It cannot certify timber it could not reach. A moisture meter, if one was used, is only an aid. The hidden strip is a reason to investigate the junction, not proof of rising damp.
Damp
Air bricks that should vent the floor void are buried by new gravel. What has the survey not been able to say about the timbers those bricks were meant to vent?
Own page
The buried air bricks leave the survey unable to say whether the floor timbers they were meant to vent are dry or decayed. New gravel over those openings blocks the path into the void, so the visit cannot describe the joists it could not see. Buried vents are a reason to investigate. They are not proof of rising damp, and they are not proof the timbers have failed. A moisture meter is only an aid and was not a look inside the floor.
Walls
A new opening has been cut in a cavity wall and no cavity tray was seen over the head. Is the missing tray the same finding as failed wall ties?
Own page
The missing cavity tray over the new opening is not the same finding as failed wall ties. A tray at the head of an opening should catch water in the cavity and lead it outside. Wall ties are the links between the two leaves. Not seeing a tray is a comment on that opening. It does not show that the ties have corroded, snapped or lost their grip, and the two remarks must stay apart.
Walls
Foam beads have spilled into the meter cupboard from the cavity. Does that spill prove the wall ties have failed?
Own page
The foam beads spilled into the meter cupboard do not prove the wall ties have failed. Beads on the floor show that cavity fill has found a way out through an opening or a gap in the inner leaf. That is a finding about the fill and the hole it used. It is not a test of the ties between the two leaves, and it must not be written up as if it were.
Walls
The report names urea-formaldehyde foam in a 1930s cavity. Why is that fill not the same product as a modern bead, and not a pass for the ties?
Own page
The urea-formaldehyde foam named in this 1930s cavity is not a modern bead, and it is not a pass for the wall ties. The report is naming a fill, not testing the links between the leaves. An older foam and a later bead are different products. Neither one tells you the ties are sound. Do not invent a ban, or a year of a ban, from the name. The ties remain a separate question.
Damp
Render is hollow at the base of one wall and sound at the top. Why should the hollow band not be read as subsidence?
Own page
The hollow render at the base of this one wall should not be read as subsidence. A hollow coat is a comment on the render, not on the foundations. The top of the same wall was sound, so the hollow band is local. One patch is not the whole elevation, and it is not movement of the house. Do not invent a price or a lifespan for the masonry behind it. Treat the band as render to investigate.
Property types
One bay of a lath-and-plaster ceiling sags, and the next bay is flat. Does the sagging bay mean the whole floor structure above has failed?
Own page
The sagging bay of lath-and-plaster does not mean the whole floor above has failed. One bay has dropped and the next bay is flat, so the defect is local to that ceiling. Lath can lose its key, and plaster can sag, without the joists having failed as a floor. The survey can record the bay it saw. One patch is not the whole ceiling, and it is not a verdict on the floor structure.
Damp
Black spot mould is only behind a wardrobe on an outside wall. Why is that often a cold-surface and air problem before it is rising damp?
Own page
The black spot mould behind the wardrobe is first a cold-surface and still-air problem, not a diagnosis of rising damp. The wardrobe keeps air off a cold outside wall, so moisture from the room can settle there. That pattern is on the surface. It is not a tide mark and it is not salts, and it does not show a failed damp-proof course. A moisture meter is only an aid and does not name where the water came from.
Damp
The bathroom extractor duct stops in the loft instead of leaving the building. What moisture has that arrangement not removed from the house?
Own page
The bathroom extractor duct that stops in the loft has not taken that moisture out of the house. The fan may clear the room, but the damp air is released into the roof space instead of to the outside. What leaves the bathroom then stays in the building, where it can wet timbers and insulation. The survey can record where the duct ends. It has not proved the loft dry, and this is not rising damp.
Damp
Dot-and-dab plasterboard lines a solid wall the survey thinks is wet. Why can the room look newly decorated while the masonry behind stays damp?
Own page
The dot-and-dab lining can leave the room looking newly decorated while the solid wall behind stays damp. The board is a new face on dabs, so the masonry the survey thinks is wet is hidden behind it. Paint on the board is not the condition of that wall. The lining is a reason to be careful, not proof of rising damp. A meter on the board is only an aid, and foil-backed board can mislead a pinless meter.
Damp
A pinless meter read high on foil-backed board. Why should that reading not be written up as rising damp in the wall behind?
Own page
The pinless reading on foil-backed board should not be written up as rising damp in the wall behind. A pinless meter is an aid that reacts to whatever sits near the surface, and foil behind a board can lift that reading without the masonry being wet. The high figure belongs to the lining the meter was held on. It is not a diagnosis of the wall, and it is not proof that moisture is rising from the ground.
Damp
A grid of injection plugs is in a wall that is still salting. Does the grid prove the injection worked?
Own page
The grid of injection plugs does not prove the injection worked. The plugs show that someone drilled the wall and attempted a treatment. The wall is still salting, and salts are a reason to investigate, not proof of rising damp and not proof the treatment succeeded. A moisture meter is only an aid. Until the salts are understood, the grid is the history of a job, not a clearance of the wall.
Damp
A damp-proof membrane on a refurbished wall stops above the solid floor. What path does that gap leave for moisture at the junction?
Own page
The damp-proof membrane that stops above the solid floor leaves a gap at the junction, and that gap is a path for moisture past the edge of the lining. The refurbished wall may look covered over most of its height while the strip down at the floor is not. The gap is a reason to investigate. It is not, on its own, proof of rising damp, and a meter on the new finish above it is only an aid.
Damp
A tide mark shows only where a skirting was removed, and the plaster above is dry. Why is that line not, on its own, a diagnosis of rising damp?
Own page
The tide mark behind the removed skirting is not, on its own, a diagnosis of rising damp. It is a line that appeared where the skirting came off, and the plaster above that line is dry. A line at the skirting is a reason to investigate. It does not prove moisture is rising from the ground. A moisture meter is only an aid, and foil-backed board can mislead a pinless meter if that was the surface read. Keep the mark as an observation.
Damp
A stain on the inner reveal sits under a cracked outside sill, and the base of the wall is dry. Why does that pattern point away from rising damp?
Own page
The stain on the inner reveal, under a cracked outside sill, with a dry base to the wall, points away from rising damp. The pattern fits rain getting past the sill, not moisture climbing from the ground. The dry base is part of that reading. The crack and the stain are reasons to investigate this opening. They are not a diagnosis of the whole wall, and a meter on the reveal is only an aid.
Damp
Condensation beads on a concrete lintel and nowhere else in the room. Why is the lintel a cold bridge rather than a failed damp-proof course?
Own page
The condensation on the concrete lintel, and nowhere else in the room, marks that lintel as a cold bridge rather than a failed damp-proof course. Concrete loses heat faster than the wall around it, so moisture from the room air beads on the lintel. A damp-proof course is a barrier at the base of the wall. Droplets on the lintel do not test that barrier. A moisture meter used on the beads is only an aid.
Roof and rainwater
A higher gutter discharges straight onto a lower roof slope instead of into a downpipe. What can that water do that a clear gutter on the main eaves will not show?
Own page
The higher gutter that discharges onto the lower roof is throwing water where a clear gutter at the main eaves will not show it. Instead of entering a downpipe, that water lands on the lower covering and the details under it. A tidy eaves gutter can still leave this slope taking a concentrated flow. The survey can see the discharge. It has not measured the flow, and it has not proved that the lower roof is already leaking.
Drainage
The downpipe disappears into the ground and no soakaway was found. What has the survey not tested about where that water goes?
Own page
The downpipe that disappears into the ground, with no soakaway found, leaves the survey unable to say where that water goes. The visit saw the pipe enter the ground. It did not find a soakaway, test one, or trace the buried run. The drain was not shown to be clear, blocked or absent. No distance from the house should be invented, and the survey does not grant any consent for the discharge.
Drainage
The gully grate sits proud of the new paving, so water runs past it. Is that a failed underground drain, or a level the paving has left wrong?
Own page
The gully grate sitting proud of the new paving is a level the paving has left wrong, not proof that the underground drain has failed. Water runs past the grate because the surround is lower than the grating. That fault is visible at the surface. It does not describe the buried pipe, a collapse or a blockage further along. Noticing a proud grate is not a survey of the drain beneath it.
Drainage
An inspection chamber is half full of silt and the WC flushed clear on the day. Why does a clear flush not empty the silt question?
Own page
A clear WC flush does not empty the question raised by an inspection chamber half full of silt. The flush shows that water left the pan while someone watched. It does not remove the silt, and it does not show that the chamber or the buried run is clear. Silt in the chamber is its own finding. The flush and the silt both have to stay in the report, side by side.
Drainage
The pipe entering the chamber looks like pitch fibre and feels soft at the collar. Has the survey surveyed the run, or only the end it could touch?
Own page
The pitch-fibre pipe that feels soft at the collar has been examined only at the end the survey could touch, not along the buried run. A soft collar at the chamber is a reason to investigate that pipe. It is not a survey of the length still underground, and it is not a camera inspection. The visit can describe the material and the feel at the chamber. It cannot say the rest of the run is sound, deformed, or intact.
Drainage
One clay joint at the chamber is displaced, and the rest of the run is buried. What would a camera see that this visit could not?
Own page
The displaced clay joint at the chamber is the joint this visit could see, not a survey of the buried run. One joint out of line at the open chamber says nothing reliable about the next joint under the ground. A camera, if it is later instructed, could see the bore, the joints and any gap along that run. The camera is not included unless it was agreed. This visit stopped at the joint in view.
Drainage
Fine roots hang at the invert of the chamber. Does that sighting prove a collapse further along the pipe?
Own page
The fine roots hanging at the invert do not prove a collapse further along the pipe. They show that roots are in the chamber at the invert the surveyor could see. That is a reason to investigate how the roots are getting in. It is not a survey of the buried run, and it is not a photograph of a broken pipe you have not seen. A camera would be a further instruction, not something this visit included unless it was agreed.
Drainage
The seller said septic tank and the cover the surveyor lifted looks like a cesspit with no outlet. Why must those two words not be swapped in the legal pack?
Own page
The seller's word septic tank and the cover that looks like a cesspit with no outlet must not be swapped in the legal pack. They are different descriptions. What the surveyor lifted looked like a holding tank with no outlet, which is not the same as a septic tank. The visit has not proved the installation beyond that look, and it does not grant a discharge consent. Do not invent a distance from any binding rule, and do not let one word overwrite the other.
Drainage
A small treatment plant has an alarm box and no power was on. What can the survey not say about how that plant treats sewage?
Own page
The treatment plant with an alarm box and no power on is a plant the survey cannot describe as treating sewage. The box was seen. The power was off, so no cycle was watched and no treatment was shown. The survey does not grant a discharge consent, and it does not swap this plant for a cesspit or a septic tank. What it can say is limited to the unit that was there and the fact it was not running.
Structure and movement
A large tree has been removed and the survey mentions possible heave. Why is that not the same mechanism as the clay shrinking while the tree was still there?
Own page
The possible heave after the large tree came out is not the same mechanism as the clay shrinking while the tree was still there. Shrinkage is the ground drying and contracting under a living tree. Heave, as the survey is flagging it, is the opposite suspicion: clay swelling again once that demand for water has gone. Naming possible heave does not measure a rate, and it does not prove the foundations have moved. The tree's removal and the shrinkage that went before it stay different questions.
Structure and movement
A crack sits at the end of a lintel installed last year. Why might that be settlement of new work rather than foundation movement of the whole house?
Own page
The crack at the end of the lintel installed last year may be settlement of that new work, rather than foundation movement of the whole house. A new lintel changes the bearing at its ends, and a crack there can be local to the opening. The survey can record the crack and its position. It has not shown that the foundations under the whole building are moving, and a local crack is not a label for every wall.
Grounds
A retaining wall leans into the garden and the house wall behind it is plumb. Why should the house not inherit the wall's rating?
Own page
The retaining wall that leans into the garden should keep its own rating, and the house should not inherit it. The house wall behind was plumb. A lean in a garden wall that holds ground back is a comment on that wall, its drainage and its foundations, not on the house. The survey can record the lean it saw. It does not transfer a condition mark from the garden structure onto the plumb wall of the house.
Legal and neighbours
The neighbour's extension drawings mention piling, and this house has a new crack. Has the survey decided the piling caused it?
Own page
The neighbour's extension drawings that mention piling have not led the survey to decide that the piling caused this house's new crack. Drawings are a design note about next door. A new crack is a condition note about this house. The visit did not watch the piling, did not measure a vibration, and did not attribute a cause. Party-wall papers, if they exist, are for the solicitor. The survey cannot turn a mention of piling into a finding of damage.
Structure and movement
An underpinning letter in the drawer names the house two doors down. Why must you not attach that letter to this foundation?
Own page
The underpinning letter that names the house two doors down must not be attached to this foundation. It is a document about a different address. This house's ground, cracks and foundations are a separate question, answered only by what was seen here and by papers that actually name this property. A neighbour's letter does not travel along the terrace and become evidence that these foundations were underpinned or need to be.
Legal and neighbours
A worn path runs along the side of the house to a rear gate. Can the survey turn that path into a right of way?
Own page
The worn path along the side of the house does not become a right of way because the survey saw it. Wear shows that people have walked there. It does not create a legal right, and the survey cannot turn a trodden line into one. Whether a right exists is a question for the title and for the solicitor, not for the condition of the paving. The report can describe the path. It cannot grant, deny or invent the right.
Legal and neighbours
The solicitor has ordered a chancel repair search. Why does that search not belong in the crack section of the survey?
Own page
The chancel repair search the solicitor has ordered does not belong in the crack section of the survey. A chancel search is a legal enquiry. A crack is something seen in the building. The two do not describe each other, and putting the search beside a crack implies a link the inspection did not make. The survey records the condition of the building. It does not carry out, interpret or replace that search.
Structure and movement
A Coal Authority search mentions past workings, and the walls the surveyor saw have no cracks. Why are those two findings about different questions?
Own page
The Coal Authority note of past workings and the crack-free walls are about different questions. The search is a record of mining history for the area or the site. The walls the surveyor saw had no cracks, which is a visual comment on those walls on that day. One does not cancel the other. No mining depth should be invented from either paper, and a quiet wall is not a clearance of the ground.
Structure and movement
The house sits in an area associated with brine extraction, and the floors were level on the day. Has the survey cleared that ground instability?
Own page
A level floor on the day of the survey has not cleared ground instability in an area associated with brine extraction. Level boards, or a level screed, say what the surfaces did during the visit. They do not speak for the ground over time, and they do not cancel the association the location carries. The survey has not investigated brine workings, and it should not invent a depth or a history for them.
Structure and movement
A glass tell-tale fixed over a crack is itself cracked across. What does that broken tell-tale not measure?
Own page
The glass tell-tale that is already cracked across has not measured a rate of movement. It has broken. A broken tell-tale shows that something opened enough to snap the glass, or that the glass failed, but it does not say how fast the crack is moving or when the movement happened. There is no rate in a single broken pane, and the survey should not invent one from the glass.
Structure and movement
A stepped crack in the flank wall follows the line where the seller thinks a drain runs. Why is coincidence not a diagnosis?
Own page
The stepped crack that follows the line where the seller thinks a drain runs is a coincidence until it is investigated, not a diagnosis. A crack and a supposed drain can share a direction without one causing the other. The survey did not see the buried pipe, and the seller's belief is not a plan. A camera is a further instruction, not part of this visit unless it was agreed. Cause has not been decided.
Structure and movement
The bay window has dropped slightly away from the main wall, and the rest of the front is even. Why should the whole facade not be labelled subsidence from that bay alone?
Own page
The bay that has dropped slightly away from the main wall does not justify labelling the whole facade as subsidence. The rest of the front is even. A bay is a projection with its own opening, its own roof and often its own support, and it can move a little without the wall behind it doing the same. The survey can record the gap at the bay. It should not spread that movement across a front that was seen to be even.
Structure and movement
The survey mentions shrinkable clay and a gutter that has been leaking onto that corner. Which mechanism should be investigated first?
Own page
The leaking gutter on shrinkable clay is the mechanism to investigate first at this corner. The survey names both the clay and a gutter that has been wetting that spot. Water poured onto shrinkable clay, then drying, is a local ground question you can see the source of. It is not the same as heave after a tree is removed, and it is not yet a diagnosis that the house foundations are moving. Stop the water, and see what the corner is actually doing.
Property types
You are buying a park home and the survey, if instructed, can see the chassis and the shell. Why does that visit not set the pitch fee or replace the written agreement?
Own page
The visit that can see the chassis and the shell of this park home does not set the pitch fee and does not replace the written agreement. GOV.UK's how-to-buy guidance treats park homes as a special case and says to take specific advice. Condition of the parts that were reached is the survey's limit. The fee, the agreement and the site rules are not condition ratings, and this page does not summarise the legislation or invent a figure for the pitch.
Property types
The brochure calls a static caravan a bungalow. What should a survey refuse to do with that word?
Own page
The survey should refuse to adopt the word bungalow for this static caravan. A brochure that uses the word does not change what is being sold, and the report must not tidy the brochure up by copying it. GOV.UK's how-to-buy guidance treats park homes and mobile homes as a special case and tells you to take specific advice. The survey can describe the unit it was asked to see. It cannot rename a static caravan as a bungalow.
Property types
The unit stands on a holiday park. Why might a residential home survey be the wrong product until a solicitor has said what you are actually buying?
Own page
The holiday-park unit may make a residential home survey the wrong product until a solicitor has said what you are actually buying. GOV.UK's how-to-buy guidance treats park homes and mobile homes as a special case and says to take specific advice. A residential survey assumes a home. A holiday-park unit can be a different contract. The survey does not replace the written agreement or the site licence, does not set a pitch fee, and must not call the unit a bungalow.
Property types
The seller has put the site licence in the survey envelope. Why is that licence not a condition rating of the home?
Own page
The site licence in the survey envelope is not a condition rating of the home. A licence is a site document the seller has supplied. It is not a mark on the shell, the chassis or the damp, and the survey does not issue licences or replace them. GOV.UK's how-to-buy guidance treats park homes as a special case and says to take specific advice. The licence stays with the solicitor. It does not set a pitch fee, and the unit must not be called a bungalow because the papers arrived together.
Property types
The survey suspects mundic-type concrete in a Cornish block wall and does not give it a class. Why must you not invent the class from this page?
Own page
The survey's suspicion of mundic-type concrete in this Cornish block wall is not a class, and you must not invent one. The report suspected a concrete type. It did not classify it. No class letter and no figure for the affected concrete belong on this page, because none was given. A suspicion is a reason to investigate with a proper test, if you need classification. It is not itself the result of that test, and the survey has not supplied the missing label.
Property types
A cob wall has been patched in hard cement. Why can that patch trap moisture the cob was built to breathe?
Own page
The hard cement patch on this cob wall can trap moisture the cob was built to breathe. Cob works by letting water vapour leave the wall. A dense cement coat does the opposite on the patch where it was used, so moisture can be held in the cob behind it. That is a reason to investigate the patch. It is not a verdict on the whole wall, and it is not proof of rising damp. Do not invent a price or a lifespan for the repair.
Property types
Flint facing is shelling off a rubble backing on one pier. Has the survey condemned the whole elevation?
Own page
The flint face shelling off a rubble backing on one pier has not led the survey to condemn the whole elevation. Shelling is a local parting of the flint from the backing on that pier. One patch is not the whole wall. The survey can record the pier that is losing its face. It cannot, from that pier, write off every bay of flint on the house, and it should not invent a price or a lifespan for the flints that remain.
Property types
One sentence says the house may be Orlit and the next says the type is uncertain. What should you not tell the lender while both sentences stand?
Own page
While one sentence says the house may be Orlit and the next says the type is uncertain, you should not tell the lender it is Orlit. Both sentences stand, so the system name is not established. Passing a hedged name to a lender as a fact asks the lender the wrong question. The survey has not identified the construction. You must not tidy the hedge by picking the name, or by substituting a different system the report did not use.
Legal and neighbours
The kitchen sits over a neighbour's alley. The survey can see the floor. Why can it not create the right of support?
Own page
The kitchen floor over the neighbour's alley can be seen by the survey, and that is all the visit can do with the right of support. Seeing joists, a crack or a sound ceiling from this side does not create a right of support, and it does not prove one exists. Title is for the solicitor and HM Land Registry. The survey describes the floor it could inspect. It cannot write a legal right into the alley or into the deeds.
Legal and neighbours
The stairs you use are outside the area coloured on the lease plan the agent showed. Can the survey correct that plan?
Own page
The survey cannot correct the lease plan that leaves these stairs outside the coloured area. The plan is a title document the agent showed. The stairs are something you use. Seeing them, and even commenting on their condition, does not redraw the colour, does not enlarge the demise, and does not grant a right to use what the plan leaves out. That correction, if it is needed, is for the solicitor and the title, not for the inspection.
Property types
Rooms have been formed in the roof of a chalet bungalow, between trusses. What has the survey not confirmed about those trusses carrying a floor?
Own page
The rooms formed in this chalet bungalow roof, between the trusses, are rooms the survey has not confirmed the trusses can carry as a floor. Seeing a bedroom in the roof is not a design check. The visit can describe the space, the lining and any obvious notch or alteration it could see. It cannot confirm that those trusses were designed, or later adapted, to carry a floor. No span and no load should be invented from the fact the rooms exist.
Property types
In an integral garage the sleeper wall under the former hall floor has been removed. What span has the survey not redesigned?
Own page
The removed sleeper wall under the former hall floor is a span the survey has not redesigned. In this integral garage the wall that used to support that floor has gone, so the floor now crosses a wider opening. The visit can record the absence. It cannot calculate a replacement, specify a beam, or sign off whatever is spanning the gap now. No length of span should be invented. The structural question is still open because the support was taken away.
Property types
A granny annex has its own electricity meter and a doorway into the kitchen. Does the second meter make it a separate dwelling in the survey?
Own page
No. A second electricity meter, and a doorway from the annex into the kitchen, do not make the granny annex a separate dwelling in the survey. The report describes the buildings that were inspected and the condition they were in. A meter records a supply. It does not create a planning unit, a separate title, or an extra dwelling the survey must declare. Whether the annex counts as its own dwelling for the council, a lender or a sale is a question for those records and for your solicitor, not a status the meter has settled.
Property types
The agent counts an orangery as a reception room. Can the survey adopt that count because the glass roof is double-glazed?
Own page
No. Double glazing on the glass roof does not make the orangery a reception room the survey must count. The agent's room count is a selling description. The survey records how the orangery is built and what condition it is in. A second layer of glass changes the glazing, not the status of the space. It does not oblige the surveyor to copy the brochure's tally of reception rooms. If you need a room count, use the plan and the particulars. Use the survey for the frame, the roof and the junctions with the house.
Property types
The brochure says the walls are structural insulated panels, and the outside is brick slips. What of that panel has the survey actually seen?
Own page
Very little of the panel itself. A visual inspection sees the brick slips on the outside, and whatever edge is visible at an opening, not the structural insulated panel the brochure names. The brochure specification is not an observation. The survey should not be read as confirmation that those panels are present, continuous or built as drawn. Do not add a fire performance the inspection never gave. Ask what was actually in view, and keep the sales wording in the sales pack.
Property types
A new block is said to use cross-laminated timber floors. Can a visual inspection of one flat confirm that specification?
Own page
No. A visual inspection of one flat cannot confirm that the block's floors are cross-laminated timber. You see finishes: a ceiling, a floor covering, perhaps a boxed service zone. The brochure's specification is not what that visit has seen. The survey should not be read as proof of the structural timber, its extent, or how the floors were built. Do not invent a fire performance for a material the inspection did not expose. Keep the sales claim in the sales pack.
Property types
A later plasterboard lining may hide wattle and daub. Why should you not rip the lining off to see, on a listed house?
Own page
Do not rip the lining off. A later plasterboard lining may hide wattle and daub, and stripping it to satisfy curiosity can damage historic fabric you do not yet own. On a listed house, Historic England's account of listing is that the whole building is listed, not only the front. Opening that lining is not a casual look. The survey can record the limitation. It does not grant listed building consent, and it does not invite you to take the lining down before completion.
Property types
Limewash on a listed cottage has been overcoated with plastic masonry paint. Why is that a breathability problem the survey can describe and not a consent the survey can grant?
Own page
Because plastic masonry paint can stop a limewashed wall from breathing, and the survey can describe that risk. Limewash lets moisture move. A plastic coating over it can hold water in the wall, which is a condition comment about breathability. It is not a consent the survey can grant. The report does not approve the coating, and it does not permit you to strip it. On a listed house, whether the paint should come off, and how, is a conservation question beyond the rating.
Property types
An Article 4 direction is mentioned and the front windows are already plastic. Does the survey decide whether consent was required for that swap?
Own page
No. The survey does not decide whether consent was required for the swap to plastic windows. An Article 4 direction is a planning control. The surveyor can record that the front windows are plastic, and can comment on their condition, their fit and any damp at the openings. Whether that replacement needed consent, and whether any consent exists, is for the planning record and your solicitor. Do not ask the condition rating to sit as a planning decision.
Property types
The house is in Wales and the buyer is used to Historic England list entries. Who actually explains listing there, and does the survey replace them?
Own page
Cadw explains listing in Wales. Historic England explains list entries in England, which is the habit you are bringing with you, and it is not the Welsh explanation. A home survey replaces neither. It does not list the house, it does not regrade it, and it does not grant consent. Read the Welsh position through Cadw, and ask your solicitor to check the actual entry. Use the survey for damp, structure and roofs, not as a substitute list.
Legal and neighbours
A door onto the common stair is wedged open, and it looks like a fire door. Has the survey tested its closer, or only seen the wedge?
Own page
The survey has only seen the wedge. It has not tested the closer. A door onto the common stair that looks like a fire door, held open on the day, is a visual note. Nobody timed a close, checked the latch, or confirmed a certificate. Do not read the photograph as a fire-door test that passed or failed. The wedge tells you the door was open. It does not tell you the closer works, or that the stair is protected.
Legal and neighbours
The managing agent asks who the accountable person is. Why is that not a question the home survey answers?
Own page
Because the home survey does not appoint, identify or become the accountable person. The managing agent is asking about a role in the building's safety arrangements. The surveyor is the person you instructed to report on condition. Those are different jobs. The PDF does not answer the agent's question, and you should not volunteer the surveyor as that person. Take the question back to the management papers. Do not invent a set of duties for the survey to discharge.
Legal and neighbours
A waking-watch log sits on the concierge desk. Does that log mean the external wall has failed a survey?
Own page
No. A waking-watch log on the concierge desk does not mean the external wall has failed a survey. The log is a record that sits at the desk. It is not a report on the wall, and it is not a failed wall survey. Your home survey, if it comments on the outside at all, comments on what that inspection could see. Do not paste the log into the condition rating and call the wall failed. Keep the log with the management papers, where you found it.
Legal and neighbours
The landlord is said to be absent and the roof leaks into the top flat. Can the survey compel the landlord to repair?
Own page
No. The survey cannot compel the landlord to repair the roof, absent or not. It can describe the leak into the top flat, the staining, and what it could not see of the covering. Compelling a landlord is a legal step under the lease, handled by your solicitor, not a power the inspection has. An absent landlord makes the practical chase harder. It does not turn the condition report into an order the landlord must obey.
Legal and neighbours
A letter threatens forfeiture over unpaid service charge. Why must that letter stay with the solicitor and not be answered by a condition rating?
Own page
Because a forfeiture threat is a legal letter about unpaid service charge, and a condition rating is not an answer to it. The letter stays with the solicitor. The survey can tell you about damp, roofs and doors. It cannot say whether the threat is valid, whether the sum is owed, or what you should reply. Do not send the rating back as if it were a defence. Do not ask the surveyor to draft the response.
Legal and neighbours
The store you were shown does not appear on the lease plan. Can the survey add it to the demise because the key worked?
Own page
No. A key that opened the store does not add the store to the demise, and the survey cannot draw it onto the lease plan. The plan is a legal document. The inspection can note that you were shown a store and can comment on its condition if it was seen. Working keys are access, not title. Ask the solicitor whether the store is in the lease, on the plan, or merely a space someone is using. Do not negotiate as if the survey had already awarded it.
Legal and neighbours
You may staircase later. Why is today's home survey not the valuation that prices the extra share?
Own page
Because today's home survey is a condition report, not the valuation that prices an extra share. Staircasing, if you do it later, needs a valuation instructed for that purpose. This visit does not produce that price. It tells you about the flat you are buying now: damp, structure, services and the limits of what was seen. Do not lift a figure out of it, because there is no staircasing price in it. Do not ask the surveyor to invent one in the margin.
Legal and neighbours
Someone has written marriage value in the margin of the survey. Why does that phrase not belong to the inspection?
Own page
Because marriage value is not something the inspection finds in a wall, a roof or a floor. Words written in the margin are a note someone added. They are not a finding, and they do not belong in the report as if the surveyor had measured them. The survey describes condition. It does not perform a leasehold calculation, and you should not treat the handwriting as one. Ask the solicitor about the lease papers. Leave the margin note out of the condition discussion.
Legal and neighbours
The reserve fund looks large and the roof over your flat is rated 3. Why does the size of the fund not cancel the rating?
Own page
Because a large reserve fund is an account balance, not a repair that has been done. The roof over your flat is still condition rating 3. Money set aside does not cancel that rating, does not make the covering sound, and does not mean the work is already instructed. The rating describes the roof the surveyor saw. The fund, if the accounts are right, describes cash the block may hold. One does not delete the other.
Legal and neighbours
A Section 20 notice in the pack names a different block on the same estate. Why should you not treat it as consultation for this roof?
Own page
Because the notice names a different block. Consultation about that block is not consultation about this roof. A Section 20 notice in the pack has to be read for the building it actually names. Same estate is not the same building. Do not borrow the notice, the works or the stage of consultation and apply them to the roof over your flat. Ask the solicitor whether any consultation exists for this block. Leave the other block's paper where it belongs.
Legal and neighbours
The seller of a house says an RTM company runs the road. Why is right to manage a flats regime, not a label for a private road?
Own page
Because GOV.UK says the right to manage is for qualifying buildings of flats, not houses. A seller who says an RTM company runs the road is using a flats regime as a label for something else. A private road is not an RTM company. The home survey does not incorporate a road, and it does not convert a residents' arrangement into right to manage. Ask the solicitor who actually maintains the road and on what document. Do not adopt the seller's label.
Legal and neighbours
The agent offers an EWS1 form for a two-storey house with no cladding. What question is that form not answering here?
Own page
It is not answering the condition of this two-storey house. An EWS1 form is not a RICS home survey. Offered for a house with no cladding, it does not describe the roof, the walls, the damp or the services, and it does not stand in for the inspection you need. Do not file it as the report. The form is a different product. It does not tell you whether this unclad house is sound, and the survey does not become an EWS1 by sitting beside it.
Legal and neighbours
Your deck is the roof of the flat below, and water stains their ceiling. Which flat's survey has not seen the other ceiling?
Own page
The survey of your flat has not seen the ceiling of the flat below. Your deck is the roof over that ceiling, and the water stains are in the other home. Unless the same inspection recorded both, each survey stays inside the flat it was instructed to enter. A stain you are told about is not a ceiling your surveyor inspected. A deck your surveyor walked is not their ceiling. Do not write as if one visit had seen the whole leak path.
Legal and neighbours
A soil pipe passes through a ceiling that should separate flats, and the hole around it is open. What has the survey not fire-stopped?
Own page
It has not fire-stopped the hole. The survey can record that a soil pipe passes through a ceiling between flats and that the gap around it is open. Recording the opening is not the same as filling it, testing it, or stating a fire performance. The inspection does not carry fire-stopping, and it has not certified the separation. Do not invent a rating in minutes, or a product, for a gap the report has only described as open.
Money
The annual service charge is higher than the survey fee. Why is that comparison not a reason to skip the survey?
Own page
Because the two payments buy different things. A service-charge demand, however it compares with the survey fee, is a demand for the block. The survey fee is for an inspection of condition for you. One being higher is not a reason to skip the survey. Skipping it leaves you without the report. The charge does not walk the flat, rate the roof, or describe what could not be seen. Do not let the comparison talk you out of the inspection.
After the survey
The developer says the defect-liability period is still running. Does that period turn the home survey into a snagging list they must obey?
Own page
No. A defect-liability period that the developer says is still running does not turn the home survey into a snagging list they must obey. The survey is your report of condition. Their period, if the contract has one, is their clause. The survey does not become a punch list, and the developer is not bound to complete every sentence in it merely because that period is open. Do not merge the two into one obligation the inspection enforces.
After the survey
The warranty booklet says Premier Guarantee. Why should you not describe it to the lender as NHBC Buildmark?
Own page
Because the booklet says Premier Guarantee, and that name is not NHBC Buildmark. Tell the lender the name on the booklet. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. This booklet is a different title, and it must not be redescribed as Buildmark to make a form easier. Do not invent what Premier Guarantee covers, excludes or lasts. Read that policy for what it says. The survey does not rename it.
After the survey
A structural warranty is in place. Why is that policy not a Level 3 description of the roof you can see ponding?
Own page
Because a structural warranty is a policy, not a Level 3 description of the roof you can see ponding. The policy may matter to a claim later. It does not walk the roof, record the ponding, or give you the condition advice a Level 3 inspection gives. NHBC describes Buildmark, where that is the product, as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. That description is still not a Level 3 survey. The ponding needs the survey's words.
After the survey
The developer talks about two years of snagging and NHBC describes a ten-year product. Why must you not collapse those into one promise the survey enforces?
Own page
Because they are two different sentences, and the survey enforces neither. The developer is talking about two years of snagging. That is the developer's sentence. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. Do not collapse the two years and the ten-year product into one promise. Do not tell a buyer the survey will make the developer honour a blend of both. Read each source for what it actually says.
After the survey
The plot is unfinished and the surveyor was shown the show home. What of your plot has that visit not described?
Own page
It has not described your plot. The surveyor was shown the show home, and a show home is a finished example, not the unfinished plot you are buying. The visit has not described your plot's structure, its incomplete work, its services, its drainage or its boundaries. Do not read comments about the show house as comments about the shell you will actually own. Until someone inspects the plot, the plot is what the visit has not described.
After the survey
The agent has written the snagging list. Why is that list not the survey, and not the warranty claim?
Own page
Because the agent wrote it. An agent's snagging list is not the survey you instructed, and it is not a claim on the warranty. It is the agent's own list. It may be useful as a set of notes. It does not carry the surveyor's opinion, and sending it to the developer does not, by itself, start a warranty claim. NHBC describes Buildmark, if that is even the policy, as a 10-year warranty and insurance product, not as the agent's page.
Money
The lender's valuation is below the price and your Level 2 found little wrong. Why can both of those outcomes stand together?
Own page
Because they answer different questions, so both can stand. The lender's valuation is below the price you agreed. Your Level 2 found little wrong. MoneyHelper says a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. The valuation is the lender's view for its security. The Level 2 is your condition report. A quiet survey does not oblige the lender to match the asking price. A lower valuation does not invent defects the Level 2 did not find.
Money
The lender wants a retention and the only roof note is condition rating 2. Why is the retention the lender's choice and not a translation of the rating?
Own page
Because the retention is the lender's choice, not a translation of condition rating 2. Rating 2 means defects that need repairing or replacing but are not serious or urgent. That definition does not set a sum to be held back, and it does not require the lender to hold one. MoneyHelper says a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. The retention sits with the lender's valuation process. Do not recode the rating as the retention, or the retention as the rating.
After the survey
You are buying with cash and the seller quotes the lender's valuation figure you do not have. Why is that figure not your survey?
Own page
Because that figure is not your survey. You are buying with cash, and the seller is quoting a lender's valuation you do not have. Someone else's number is not an inspection you commissioned, and you may not even have seen the report it came from. MoneyHelper says a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. Quoted at you second hand, it is further still from your own advice. Do not let it stand in for a survey you have not had, or replace one you have.
The survey
The house is unoccupied and the services were off. What could the survey not observe that a lived-in house would have shown on the day?
Own page
It could not see the services operating. With the house empty and the supplies off, the survey could not watch the boiler fire, the heating warm, the hot water run, the taps and WCs discharge, or the lights and fans work. A lived-in house with services on could have shown, on the day, whether those parts ran or failed in ordinary use. That operating check did not happen. The report should say so. Silence is not a demonstration that the services work.
Choosing a survey
You want a second surveyor to look only at one crack. Is that a new Level 3 of the whole house, or a different instruction?
Own page
It is a different instruction, not automatically a Level 3 of the whole house. Asking a second surveyor to look only at one crack limits the job to that crack, unless you agree a wider survey. A Level 3 is a Level 3 only when that is the service you instruct. Do not assume the second visit reinspects the roofs, the services and the rest of the structure. Say what you want. A single crack is a single instruction.
Money
The seller repaints the stained wall and asks the surveyor back. Why is a reinspection a new visit, not a free edit of the rating?
Own page
Because the rating was given on the earlier visit, and paint does not edit it. A reinspection is a new visit, not a free correction of the PDF. The seller has repainted a stained wall. That may hide the stain. It does not, by itself, show the cause has gone, and it does not oblige the surveyor to change the number without looking again. If they come back, that return is a further instruction. It is not a courtesy rewrite.
Choosing a survey
A firm offers a desktop comment from the estate agent's photographs. Why is that not a Level 2?
Own page
Because a Level 2 is an inspection of the property, and a comment written from the estate agent's photographs is not that inspection. The firm has not walked the house. It has looked at pictures someone else took to sell it. Those pictures omit what the photographer did not like, and they cannot be opened, tapped or compared with a loft. Call the product a desktop remark if you want. Do not call it a Level 2.
The survey
A drone still shows the front slope, and the valley is in shadow. What has that still not inspected?
Own page
It has not inspected the valley. The still shows the front slope, and the valley is in shadow. A photograph of one face, with the valley hidden, is not an inspection of that valley. It has not shown the gutter, the flashings or the debris a shadow can cover, and it has not put anyone at the valley to look. Do not rate the valley from a dark wedge in the corner of a picture of the front slope. The still is the front slope, and only that.
The survey
The surveyor used binoculars from the pavement because the garden was locked. Which parts of the roof does that limit?
Own page
It limits you to the slopes, junctions and gutters that can be seen from the pavement, and it leaves out the rest. The garden was locked, so the surveyor did not get closer and did not walk round the house. Binoculars magnify the street view. They do not reveal a rear slope hidden by the ridge, a valley, a flat roof behind a parapet, or the far side of a chimney. Those parts were not inspected from the locked garden. Distance is not a pass.
The survey
A ladder reached one eaves hatch and the other roof slope has no hatch. What of the second slope was not walked?
Own page
The roof space under the second slope was not walked. The ladder reached one eaves hatch, and the other slope has no hatch, so the surveyor did not enter that void. The timbers, the felt and the underside of the second slope were not seen from inside, and they were not walked. Do not describe that slope's loft as inspected because the first hatch was opened. Two slopes are not one void. No hatch means that side was not entered.
Reading the report
Someone has stuck a traffic-light dot on the PDF beside a condition rating. Why is the dot not a new scale?
Own page
Because the dot is not a new scale. The report already uses condition ratings, and a sticker someone has pressed beside a number does not add a colour code, a grade or a meaning the surveyor did not write. People call the existing ratings a traffic-light summary. That habit does not let a blob of ink become part of the report. Read the number and the paragraph. Ignore the sticker. It does not regrade the element, and it does not create a rating the page did not contain.
Reading the report
The report says further investigation against a rating 3 roof. Is further investigation a fourth condition rating?
Own page
No. Further investigation is not a fourth condition rating. The report already has ratings 1, 2 and 3, and not inspected where a part was not seen. Further investigation is an action written against the rating 3 roof: find out more before you commit. It does not sit beside those numbers as rating 4, and it does not soften the 3 into something milder. Read it as advice on what to do about the roof that was rated, not as a new mark on a longer scale.
Reading the report
The gutter is condition rating 1 and the parapet gutter is rating 3. Why must those not be averaged?
Own page
Because they are different elements, and ratings are not averaged. The gutter at condition rating 1 needs no repair now, beyond normal maintenance. The parapet gutter at rating 3 is serious or needs urgent repair or investigation. A sound length does not dilute a failed one, and the pair does not become a rating 2 by arithmetic. Keep each sentence with its own number. When you ask for quotations, describe the parapet gutter that was rated 3, not a blended roof.
Reading the report
The loft is marked not inspected because it was stacked with the seller's possessions. Is that a pass?
Own page
No. Not inspected is not a pass. The loft is marked that way because it was stacked with the seller's possessions, so the surveyor could not see it. A blocked loft is a gap, not a rating 1 and not a clean bill. You do not know the timbers, the felt, the party wall in the roof space or the insulation that the boxes covered. Do not tell the lender the loft passed. Say it was not inspected, and say why.
Reading the report
The boiler is condition rating 2 because of its age, and it was not tested. What has the age comment not established about whether it works?
Own page
It has not established whether the boiler works. The condition rating 2 is there because of age, and the boiler was not tested. Age is not a firing, a flue check or a demonstration of hot water. The comment tells you the appliance is old enough to be rated for repair or replacement that is not, on that ground, serious or urgent. It does not tell you the boiler ran on the day, or that it failed. Do not promote the age note into a test result.
Reading the report
The garage is not inspected and the house roof is rating 2. Can you borrow the house rating for the garage?
Own page
No. You cannot borrow the house roof's condition rating 2 and give it to the garage. The garage is not inspected. The house roof is a different element, seen and rated on its own. Not inspected is a blank, not a twin of the nearest number. The garage roof, walls and door were not given the house's rating, and you should not give it to them in the email to the agent. Say the garage was not inspected. Say the house roof is rating 2.
Reading the report
The report has three condition rating 2s and no rating 3. Why is that not the same urgency as a rating 3?
Own page
Because three condition rating 2s are still rating 2s. Each one means defects that need repairing or replacing but are not serious or urgent. Adding them does not produce the urgency of a rating 3, and the report has no rating 3 to promote. Do not tell the agent the house is really a 3 because you counted. Do not ignore the three repairs either. They remain repairs. They are not the same as a serious or urgent defect the surveyor marked 3.
After the survey
The only rating 3 is a garden boundary wall, not the house. Why is a price cut for the whole purchase hard to hang on that wall alone?
Own page
Because the only rating 3 is the garden boundary wall, not the house. A serious or urgent note on that wall is a weak basis for cutting the price of the whole purchase. The rating does not value the house, it does not tell you to withdraw, and it does not spread itself onto roofs and floors that were not marked 3. Get a written quotation for the wall before you are legally committed. Hang any price talk on that wall, not on the entire house.
After the survey
A damp specialist's quotation arrives with a treatment the survey did not ask for. Why should you not send that figure to the seller as if the survey had specified it?
Own page
Because the quotation specifies a treatment the survey did not ask for. Sending that figure to the seller presents the specialist's proposal as if it were the survey's specification. It is not. The survey said what it said about damp. The specialist has offered a treatment of their own. Those are different documents. Use the survey for the finding. Use the quotation only if you and the surveyor agree it answers the finding. Do not forward it as the report's instruction.
After the survey
One roofer prices a patch and another prices a full strip. Why should you not average them into a single demand?
Own page
Because a patch and a full strip are different jobs, and the average is a price nobody gave. One roofer has priced a local repair. The other has priced taking the covering off. Adding them and dividing invents a third scope that repairs neither what the first described nor what the second described. Do not send that invented figure to the seller as the demand. Present the quotes as alternatives, tied to what each one says it will do, and to what the survey actually marked.
After the survey
The seller offers to repaint a wall the survey marked rating 3 for a crack. Why is paint not the quotation the note was pointing at?
Own page
Because the rating 3 was for a crack, and paint is not the repair that note was pointing at. A coat of paint covers appearance. It does not investigate a crack, stitch it, or rebuild the wall the surveyor marked as serious or urgent. Accepting the offer as if it closed the rating mistakes decoration for the work. Ask for a quotation that addresses the crack. Thank them for paint if you like. Do not enter it as the answer.
After the survey
If you leave the purchase before you are bound, which money has gone, and which money has the survey not fined you?
Own page
Only the survey fee has gone if you leave the purchase before you are legally bound. The survey does not fine you for stopping, and it does not invent a charge because you changed your mind at that stage. What you have spent is the fee for the inspection you instructed. Money you have not yet paid under a contract that binds you is not collected by the report. Ask your solicitor which stage the purchase has reached before you treat it as finished, and keep the survey as the reason you looked rather than as a bill for leaving.
After the survey
You have a quotation that matches the element. Why should the solicitor send any price proposal, rather than the surveyor?
Own page
Because the quotation matches the element, any price proposal should go out from the solicitor, not from the surveyor. The surveyor reported condition. They were not instructed to negotiate the purchase price, and a proposal is a contract point. The figure you hold is useful only if it describes the same element the report marked. Your solicitor can attach that figure to a clear proposal. The surveyor should not be asked to turn their wording into an offer the seller is pressed to accept.
After the survey
The agent rounds your quotation up to a tidier thousand. Why is the tidy number no longer the quotation?
Own page
Not the quotation: once the agent rounds your figure up to a tidier thousand, that tidy number is a different sum. The quotation is the figure the contractor wrote for the element they described. Changing it to a rounder total, even by a modest amount, means you are no longer holding the quotation. You are holding the agent's rewrite. Send the original paper, or do not send a number. A tidier thousand is not what the contractor offered, and it should not be described as if it were.
Selling
The buyer says the rating binds you, the seller, to pay. Where does a private English survey actually sit?
Own page
No private English survey binds you, the seller, to pay because a rating says so. The report was instructed for the buyer. It gives that client an opinion of condition. It does not impose a debt on you, and it does not rewrite the price by itself. A rating is not an invoice and not a contract term. You may agree a change if you choose to, through the solicitors. The existence of the buyer's private report does not, on its own, make you liable to fund the repairs.
Selling
You are the seller and you want the buyer's surveyor to soften a rating 3. What can you properly ask them to correct, and what can you not?
Own page
Not a softer rating. You may ask the buyer's surveyor to correct a factual error. You may not ask them to soften a rating 3 because the mark is inconvenient. The rating is their opinion for the client who instructed them. A wrong room, a wrong material, or a defect that is not there is a fact they can check. Whether the element is serious or urgent is the judgement. Asking them to make a rating 3 into something milder is asking them to change that judgement, not to fix a mistake.
Selling
The buyer asks you, the seller, to pay for their Level 3. Is that a RICS rule?
Own page
No. A buyer asking you, the seller, to pay for their Level 3 is not a RICS rule. RICS describes survey levels so a client can choose one. It does not require the seller to fund the buyer's inspection, and it does not make Level 3 a cost that automatically crosses the table. You may agree to contribute, or you may refuse. Either choice is a negotiation between the parties. It is not compliance with a rule, and a refusal is not a breach of the home survey standard.
Choosing a survey
The Scottish single survey looks thorough. Why is it still not the same product as an English Level 3 you might add?
Own page
Not the same product. A Scottish single survey can look thorough and still not be the English Level 3 you might add. The single survey is one part of the Home Report pack that mygov.scot describes, and a purchaser can rely on that Home Report. An English Level 3 is a separate instruction, with its own scope, chosen for an older, altered or unusual building or for major work. Looking detailed is not the same contract. If you want that extra product, you are adding it. You are not renaming the single survey.
Selling
The energy report in a Home Report gives a rating band. Why is that band not the repair advice in the single survey?
Own page
Not the repair advice. The rating band in the energy report is not the single survey's advice about repairs. The Home Report, as mygov.scot sets it out, holds more than one document. The energy report rates energy performance. The single survey is the place that speaks about condition, including repairs that are urgent or needing future attention. A band, however poor or strong, does not list those repairs and does not replace them. Read the band as energy. Read the single survey when you want the repair advice.
Selling
A purchaser can rely on a Scottish Home Report. Why does forwarding an English buyer's PDF not create the same reliance?
Own page
Only a Scottish Home Report carries that reliance. A purchaser can rely on a Home Report. Forwarding an English buyer's PDF does not create the same thing. The PDF is a private instruction for whoever commissioned it in England. Emailing it to a Scottish purchaser, or attaching it to a schedule, does not turn it into the pack mygov.scot describes, and it does not borrow the reliance that belongs to the Home Report. The file may be interesting. It is not the document the purchaser is entitled to rely on in that way.
Environment
A radon sump fan is fitted and it was switched off on the day. What has the survey not measured about the radon in the house?
Own page
Not the radon. A sump fan that was switched off on the day means the survey has not measured the radon in the house. The fan is a piece of equipment. Off, on, or missing a test, it is not a concentration. A home survey looks at what is there. It does not run a radon measurement, and a silent fan does not stand in for one. You know a system was fitted and that it was not running during the visit. You do not know the radon level with the fan off, or what it would be if the fan were running.
Environment
The radon map is coloured for the postcode and no detector has been in this cellar. What has nobody measured?
Own page
Not this cellar. The map colour for the postcode, with no detector in the room, means nobody has measured the radon here. UKradon maps describe areas. They are not a reading taken under this floor. A home survey can note the map and can note that the cellar was seen. It cannot turn a colour into the concentration in that space. Until a detector has been placed in the cellar, the number you do not have is the radon in the cellar itself.
Environment
The flood check talks about surface water, and the side gate is the low point into the garden. Why is the gate a levels question the survey can describe and the map cannot photograph for you?
Own page
Because the side gate is the low point, it is a levels question on the ground, and the flood map cannot photograph it for you. The long-term flood check for England can talk about surface water across an area. It does not stand in the side passage, see the fall of the path, or show how water would enter this garden at the gate. The survey can describe that gate, the relative levels, and where the path runs. The map cannot take that photograph. Use the check for the area category, and use the survey for the gate you can actually see.
Environment
You printed an England flood check for a house in Wales. Why is that the wrong map to wave at the surveyor?
Own page
Not the map for this house. An England flood check is the wrong document to wave at the surveyor for a house in Wales. The GOV.UK long-term flood check is for an area in England. A printout from that service, however official it looks, is not the flood mapping for a Welsh address. Handing it over asks the surveyor to comment on the wrong geography. The survey can still describe what it sees on the plot. It should not be asked to treat an England PDF as the flood information for Wales.
Grounds
Japanese knotweed is growing on the far bank, beyond the garden fence. Why does the survey of this plot not become a management plan for the bank?
Own page
Not a management plan. Knotweed on the far bank, beyond the garden fence, does not turn the survey of this plot into a plan for that bank. The inspection is of the property you are buying. The surveyor may say what they could see past the fence. Seeing it is not a scheme for land that is not this garden. A management plan sets out treatment of the stand. The home survey does not take on the bank, does not instruct the works, and does not become that plan because the plant was visible from the boundary.
Grounds
A new patio has been laid where knotweed was treated. Can the survey see rhizome through the slabs?
Own page
No. The survey cannot see rhizome through the new patio slabs. Rhizome is the underground growth. Slabs, bedding and a new surface hide it. A clear patio on the day of inspection shows the surface, not the ground beneath. Treatment beforehand does not make the buried plant visible, and it does not let the surveyor confirm that treatment worked. The report can say a patio is there, where you were told knotweed was treated. It cannot see through the slabs, and it should not be read as a clear test of what remains underneath.
Grounds
A treatment letter names the house next door. Why must you not file it as treatment of this garden?
Own page
Not this garden. A treatment letter that names the house next door must not be filed as treatment of this garden. The address on the letter is the job. A neighbouring house, even one that shares a fence, is a different plot. Filing the letter in this purchase makes it look as if this soil was treated, when the paper says otherwise. The survey of this garden does not borrow next door's contractor. Keep the letter in the file for the house it names, and say plainly that this garden is not that address.
Grounds
Dead canes are in the compost bin and the beds look clear. Why should those canes not be carried off the site as ordinary garden waste?
Own page
Not ordinary garden waste. Dead canes in the compost bin should not be carried off the site as normal green waste, even if the beds look clear. Japanese knotweed must not be caused to spread, and it must not be put out with ordinary garden waste or composted as if it were hedge trimmings. Dead material can still be knotweed. Clear beds do not reclassify the canes. Leave them, and get advice on lawful disposal. Do not load them into a boot, a tip run, or a council green bin as a tidy-up.
Grounds
The lender asks a knotweed question and the beds were bare on a winter visit. What has winter bareness not proved?
Own page
Not the absence of knotweed. Bare beds on a winter visit have not proved the lender's question one way or the other. Japanese knotweed dies back in winter, so a bed with no canes that day can still hold rhizome. The survey saw the season it was given. It did not see a summer's growth, and it did not excavate the beds. Winter bareness is a description of the surface. It is not a clearance certificate, and it should not be typed into a lender form as proof the ground is clean.
Roof and rainwater
Spray foam fills the roof void above a top-floor flat, and the hatch is in the common stair. What of the rafters has the flat inspection not seen?
Own page
Not the rafters. Spray foam in the void above a top-floor flat, reached by a hatch in the common stair, means the flat inspection has not seen the rafters. The foam covers the timber, and the hatch is outside the flat. A survey of the flat does not become a view of a common roof void the surveyor did not enter, and entering would still meet foam rather than bare rafters. What you do not have is the condition of those rafters. The ceiling of the flat is not a substitute for that look.
Roof and rainwater
Open-cell foam has been sprayed only over one bedroom. Why can the survey still not see the rafters in that bay?
Own page
Not visible in that bay. Open-cell foam sprayed only over one bedroom still covers the rafters there, so the survey cannot see them. The limit is the coated bay, not the whole roof. Open-cell is still a layer on the timber. Calling it open-cell does not make the rafter visible, and limiting it to one bedroom does not let the surveyor inspect the timber under the spray. The other bays may be clear. This bay is not. The report should say the rafters in the foamed bedroom were hidden.
Roof and rainwater
The certificate in the drawer is for a board insulation, and the loft has spray foam. Why is that certificate about a product that is not there?
Own page
Not the product in the loft. The certificate in the drawer is about board insulation, and the loft has spray foam, so the certificate describes a product that is not there. A certificate follows the system it names. Boards fixed between joists, or on a slope, are not sprayed foam. The paper does not become evidence for the foam because both products are called insulation. Show the surveyor the foam that is there, and keep the board certificate for a job it might once have described. Do not staple it to the foam as if it approved the spray.
Roof and rainwater
The lender's form asks if foam is present and the survey says the loft was not opened. What should you not answer on the form from memory?
Own page
Not whether foam is present. You should not answer that question on the lender's form from memory when the survey says the loft was not opened. Memory of a viewing, a photograph in the listing, or a seller's aside is not the inspection. The survey's limit is the fact you have: the loft was not opened, so the report does not know the roof void. Ticking yes, or ticking no, invents a look that did not happen. Tell the lender the loft was not opened. Do not upgrade a gap into an answer.
Roof and rainwater
A firm quotes to strip the foam and does not mention the tiles. Why should you ask what the removal does to the covering before you send the figure anywhere?
Own page
Not ready to send. A figure for stripping the foam that never mentions the tiles has not said what removal does to the covering. RICS warns that taking foam off can damage tiles. A quotation silent on the covering may be pricing only the spray, and leaving you with broken or lifted tiles nobody has included. Ask, before the number is forwarded, whether the tiles stay, who makes good, and what the total becomes if the covering is harmed. Until that is written, the figure is not a complete account of the job.
Structure
The garage roof looks like concrete planks and the house roof is timber. Why must the garage suspicion not be copied onto the house as a RAAC finding?
Own page
Not a finding about the house. A garage roof that looks like concrete planks must not be copied onto the timber house roof as a RAAC finding. The suspicion, if it is even fair, belongs to the garage. The house roof is timber, which is a different construction. RAAC is a particular concrete panel, identified by investigation, not a label you transfer between roofs because they share a postcode. Write the garage as the thing that looked like planks. Do not write the house as RAAC when its roof is timber and was not that suspicion.
Structure
A letter about RAAC is from a school trust, and you are buying a house on the same street. Why does that letter not inspect your loft?
Own page
Not an inspection of your loft. A school trust's letter about RAAC does not inspect the house you are buying, even on the same street. The letter is about the trust's buildings. Your loft is a different structure, in a different ownership, which that letter never entered. Same street is not same roof. The home survey of the house is the inspection you instructed, and even that survey is not, by itself, the specialist RAAC assessment IStructE describes. A school letter is further away still. It has not looked at your loft.
Structure
A concrete soffit is stained and the survey will not name the panel. What investigation has the home survey not done?
Own page
Not a named panel, and not a RAAC investigation. A stained concrete soffit, which the survey will not name, has not been identified. The home survey has not carried out the investigation and assessment IStructE describes for RAAC panels. Staining is something seen on the surface. It is not a product name. Refusing to name the panel is the honest limit of a visual home survey, not a hint you should upgrade into a diagnosis. What has not been done is the specialist work of establishing whether the panel is RAAC at all.
Property types
Horizontal cladding boards sit on a 1970s timber frame, and one board is sprung. Does the sprung board mean the frame has failed?
Own page
No. One sprung cladding board does not mean the 1970s timber frame has failed. The board is the outer skin you can see. Sprung means that piece is loose, split, or no longer tight to its fixings. The frame is the structure behind the cladding, and a single sprung board is not a test of it. The survey can rate the board. It cannot, from that board alone, say the frame has rotted, racked, or lost its strength. Ask for the board to be described as a board, and for the frame to be described only from evidence about the frame.
Property types
A brick slip is detaching beside a window on a framed building. Why is that a slip, not evidence the whole brick wall is solid?
Own page
Not a solid brick wall. A brick slip detaching beside a window on a framed building is a slip, not evidence that the whole wall is solid brick. A slip is a thin facing, fixed to a frame or panel. It is not a full brick in a solid wall. One slip letting go tells you about that facing and its fixing at that window. It does not prove there is a thick brick wall behind it, and it does not prove the frame has failed. Call it a slip. Do not redraw the building as solid brick because the face looks like brick.
Property types
A no-fines wall has been coated with external insulated render. What of the concrete has that coat stopped the survey seeing?
Own page
Not the concrete surface. External insulated render on a no-fines wall has stopped the survey seeing the concrete underneath. The coat covers the face of the wall, so cracks, patches, previous repairs and the concrete itself are hidden. The survey can see the render: its finish, its joints, and any crack in the coat. It cannot see the no-fines concrete through that build-up. Do not read a tidy render face as a clean bill for the concrete, and do not read a render crack as a measured defect in the wall behind.
Property types
One corner column of a suspected Airey house is exposed where render has fallen. What does that single column not prove about every other column?
Own page
Not the other columns. One exposed corner column, where render has fallen on a suspected Airey house, does not prove the condition of every other column. You can talk about the column you can see. The columns that remain covered were not that column. Their concrete, their reinforcement, and their cracks were not in view. A single opening is not a sample you may multiply around the house. Say what the exposed corner showed. Do not write the same sentence against every column the render still hides.
Walls
Beads from cavity fill have appeared in the party wall of a semi. Why is a party wall not always a cavity you can fill?
Own page
Not always a cavity you can fill. Beads from cavity fill in the party wall of a semi show that material has turned up in the wall you share. They do not prove that shared wall was a suitable cavity, and they do not invite more fill. A party wall is not the same decision as an outer wall. The Energy Saving Trust treats suitability, including the wall in front of you, as part of whether cavity fill should be used at all. Escaped beads are a location problem. They are not permission to fill the party wall.
Walls
The weep holes over a window have been pointed up solid. Why is that a cavity-tray question and not a wall-tie failure?
Own page
Not a wall-tie failure by itself. Weep holes over a window that have been pointed solid are a cavity-tray and drainage question. Those holes are the outlet for water that a tray should bring out of the wall above the opening. Filling them with mortar closes the outlet. The survey can record the blocked holes. It cannot turn that pointing into proof that the ties have corroded or snapped. Ties are a different mechanism. Treat the solid pointing as drainage until a proper look at the ties says something about the ties.
Walls
Rust stains appear at regular brick courses on a coastal elevation. What mechanism is that pattern suggesting, and what has it not measured?
Own page
Because the stains sit at regular courses, the pattern suggests tie corrosion, and it has not measured the ties. Rust at a repeated brick course is what you can see when corroding ties sit on that spacing and stain the mortar or the face. Coastal exposure makes that suggestion easier to understand. It does not weigh the steel, count the ties, or say how much section is left. The survey can record the pattern and the elevation. It has not measured corrosion. Suggestion is not a caliper reading, and a regular stain is not a completed tie survey.
Walls
A single core hole shows a butterfly tie. Why is that one tie not a survey of every tie in the wall?
Own page
Not every tie. One butterfly tie in one core hole is that tie, at that hole, and nothing wider. A core is a small opening. It can show the type of the tie you happened to meet, and perhaps the state of that one piece of metal. It cannot map the spacing, the condition, or even the presence of the ties you did not core. The rest of the wall is unopened. Do not write a sentence that turns one butterfly into a survey of every tie. Say what the hole showed, and stop there.
Walls
Cavity insulation is visible at the eaves with the cap missing, and the loft quilt is dry. What path for rain does that open cap still leave?
Own page
Not closed by a dry quilt. Cavity insulation visible at the eaves, with the cap missing, still leaves a path for rain at the top of the cavity. The open cap is an entry. Water can reach the insulation and the head of the wall there even though the loft quilt felt dry on the day. Dry quilt means the quilt was dry. It does not seal the cap, and it does not prove rain never uses that route. The survey should describe the missing cap as a rain path. It should not cancel that path because the quilt was dry.
Walls
The elevation facing the weather has been cavity-filled and the sheltered elevation has not. Why does the Energy Saving Trust treat exposure as part of the decision, not an afterthought?
Own page
Because that elevation faces the weather, exposure to driving rain is part of whether cavity fill is suitable, not a note you add afterwards. The Energy Saving Trust treats exposure as part of the decision. The weather face has been filled and the sheltered face has not, which is a difference you can see, not a verdict that the filled wall has failed or that the empty wall is defective. Suitability is decided before fill goes in, using the wall and the weather it actually meets. Do not read the filled elevation as condemned, and do not read the unfilled one as forgotten by accident, unless the survey says that from evidence.
Walls
A render coat may be hiding horizontal cracks in the brick. What can a visual survey not claim about the ties under that coat?
Own page
Not the ties under the render. A visual survey cannot claim what the ties are doing beneath a coat that may be hiding horizontal cracks in the brick. Horizontal cracks in courses can be a sign associated with corroding ties, but only if the brick is seen. Render covers that evidence. The survey can describe the render. It cannot say the ties under it are sound, and it cannot say they have failed, unless some other opening actually showed them. Hidden brick is hidden ties. Do not let a smooth coat become a tie report.
Choosing a survey
The firm offers a Level 1 on a thatched cottage. Why do RICS limits on Level 1 make that a poor match for this roof?
Own page
Not a good match. Level 1 is the limited product, and thatch is unusual construction, so RICS points you toward a more detailed survey. Level 1 is a basic visual overview for a conventional home. It is not built to advise how an unusual roof should be managed, and thatch is not a conventional covering you shrug onto the shortest report. Offering Level 1 is not illegal. It is a poor match. Ask the firm why that level was proposed for this roof, and what a more detailed survey would add before you accept the limited one.
Choosing a survey
You have been offered a Level 2 on a house the agent already calls PRC. What should you ask the firm before you accept that level?
Own page
Not the level to accept on the label alone. Before you take a Level 2 on a house the agent already calls PRC, ask the firm whether they will actually report that construction. PRC is non-standard. Unusual and non-standard construction is a Level 3 conversation, because you need the building described, not passed over as if it were an ordinary cavity house. The question is not whether a firm may mention Level 2. The question is whether this instruction will say what the concrete construction is, and what they could and could not see of it.
Choosing a survey
The firm will only offer a Level 2 on a flat. Does that refusal mean flats cannot have a Level 3?
Own page
No. A firm that will only offer Level 2 on this flat does not mean flats can never have a Level 3. That refusal is the firm's own limit on this instruction. It is not a RICS rule that flats are barred from the detailed survey. Level 3 exists for older, altered or unusual buildings, and for major work, and a flat can be any of those. Another firm may offer Level 3 on a flat. This firm's choice does not close the level for every flat, and it does not tell you the building is too simple to deserve one.
Choosing a survey
The broker has booked the mortgage valuation and called it the survey. What will that valuation not describe?
Own page
Not the survey. A mortgage valuation the broker has booked is for the lender, and MoneyHelper is plain that a valuation is not a structural survey. Calling it the survey does not make it one. It will not describe the home the way a RICS home survey does: it is not a Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3 bought for you, and it will not give you that report's account of condition, repairs and maintenance. The lender wants a valuation for the loan. You, if you want a survey, still need to instruct one. The booking name does not do it.
Money
The quotation separates the inspection fee from any later revisit. Why should you not assume the first fee includes going back?
Own page
Not included by assumption. The quotation separates the inspection fee from any later revisit, so you should not assume the first fee includes going back. A revisit fee, if one is quoted, is that firm's quotation. It is not a RICS tariff, and RICS does not publish a national price for returning. The first fee is the inspection you are booking now. Going back is another visit, another arrangement, and another figure unless the firm's own terms fold it in, which this quotation says they have not. Read the split as the split.
Money
The survey invoice lists disbursements. Why is that word not a repair cost for the house?
Own page
Not a repair cost. Disbursements on the survey invoice are the firm's outlaid costs of doing the inspection, not a price for repairing the house. The word sits on the surveyor's bill. It does not describe a builder's job, and it does not become the cost of a rated defect because it appears under a serious heading. Ask the firm what the disbursements were for. Do not send that line to the seller as if it were a quotation for works. Repairs, if you need them priced, are a separate quotation from someone who does the repair.
Money
You cancel after the surveyor has travelled. Why is any charge for that a term of the firm's engagement, not a RICS fine?
Own page
Not a RICS fine. If you cancel after the surveyor has travelled, any charge is a term of that firm's engagement, not a sanction levied by RICS. RICS does not fine a buyer for calling the visit off. The firm may have set out, in the terms you accepted, what happens when time and travel have already been spent. That clause is their commercial term. Read it. Pay what you agreed, or dispute it with them if the terms do not say it. Do not describe the sum as a professional-body fine, and do not invent a figure the terms do not contain.
Money
In Scotland the Home Report is already in the pack. When would you still pay for a further inspection, and what is that further visit not a replacement for?
Own page
Only as an extra you choose. In Scotland the Home Report is already in the pack, and a purchaser can rely on it. You might still pay for a further inspection when you want more detail than that pack gives you. That further visit is not a replacement for the Home Report. It does not become the pack, it does not retire the single survey, and it does not stand in for the energy report or the property questionnaire. You are buying an additional look. The pack remains the pack mygov.scot describes, and the extra remains extra.
Property types
A listed house has a rating 2 window you would like to replace. Why is the rating not listed building consent?
Own page
Not listed building consent. A rating 2 on a window is a condition comment in the survey, not consent to replace that window in a listed house. Listing is a heritage status of the building. Consent is a separate permission for works that affect it. The survey can say the window needs repair or replacement as a matter of condition. It cannot grant the consent, and it cannot tell you the work is accepted because the number on the element was 2. Ask the planning authority about consent. Do not ask the rating to do that job.
Property types
A porch has already been built on a house in a conservation area. Can the survey say whether it was permitted development?
Own page
No. The survey cannot say whether the porch was permitted development. Permitted development is a planning question about whether a project could proceed without a planning application. A conservation area often changes that picture, and the survey is not the decision-maker. The inspection can describe the porch: how it is built, whether it leaks, how it meets the house. It cannot look at the porch and declare that it was permitted development, or that it was not. Ask your solicitor to raise the planning history. Do not ask the condition report to certify it.
Legal and neighbours
You might build a loft later. Has this purchase survey served, or refused, a party wall notice for works that are not designed?
Own page
Not served, and not refused. This purchase survey has not served a party wall notice for a loft you have not designed, and it has not refused one either. There is no scheme to notice. The inspection describes the home you are buying. Serving notice is a later step by a building owner when notifiable work is actually proposed, under the party wall rules that apply in England and Wales. A surveyor walking round on a purchase does not fire that process, and they do not veto it. The loft remains an idea. The notice remains unserved.
Legal and neighbours
The neighbour's scaffold is standing in your gutter. Can the survey order it to be removed?
Own page
No. The survey cannot order the neighbour's scaffold to be removed from your gutter. The surveyor can describe what they see: tubes in the gutter, a disturbed bracket, a blocked outlet, a risk to the covering. Description is not an order. Removal is a matter between the owners, handled by solicitors or by whatever right actually applies. A purchase inspection does not direct the neighbour, does not award compensation, and does not take the scaffold down. Ask the surveyor for the description. Ask the solicitor what, if anything, can be required of the neighbour.
Grounds
A shed sits on the line of the title plan the agent sketched. Can the survey decide which title it belongs to?
Own page
No, the shed on the line of the title plan the agent sketched is not awarded to either title by the survey. A sketched line is not the register, and the inspection does not decide which title the shed belongs to. The surveyor can record the shed, the fence and where the building seemed to sit on the day. HM Land Registry holds the title information. The solicitor compares the official plans with the ground. The home survey does not redraw that line, and it does not choose an owner for the outbuilding.
Property types
The conservatory gutter discharges into the cavity at the house wall. What damp mechanism is that, as against a failed wall tie?
Own page
Not a wall-tie failure: the conservatory gutter discharging into the cavity is a damp path into the house wall. Rain from that gutter is being put into the cavity rather than carried away from it. That wetting can show inside as damp. It is a rainwater detail at the junction, not a diagnosis that the wall ties have failed. The survey can describe the discharge it could see. It should not be rewritten as cavity-tie corrosion because water is entering at that point.
Grounds
The inspection pit in the garage is full of water. Has the survey found a drain defect, or a pit it could not empty?
Own page
Not a proved drain defect: the inspection pit in the garage was full of water, and that is a pit the survey could not empty. The visit records the water it found. It does not, from a pit whose bottom stayed hidden, declare that a drain has failed. Nobody traced a broken pipe from that standing water. A later camera, if one is instructed, is a different visit. This finding is the flooded pit, not an automatic defect in the drainage.
Grounds
A workshop stove flue passes through a felt roof. Does the home survey certify that flue, or only note the hole it could see?
Own page
Only the hole the survey could see is noted: the home survey does not certify the workshop stove flue through the felt roof. It can record that a pipe passes through the covering and what the junction looked like from the available view. It does not certify the flue, the stove, the terminal or the clearance. Approved Document J is England guidance for combustion appliances. It is not a certificate this inspection has issued for that workshop flue.
Grounds
The pool cover pit was not lifted. Why is the pool not given a clean bill because the water looked clear?
Own page
Not a clean bill: the pool cover pit was not lifted, so clear water is not a pass for the pool. What sits under that cover was not seen. Clarity in the water you could look at does not inspect the pit, the mechanism or the drainage under the cover. A home survey reports the limit of the inspection. An unlifted cover is that limit. It is not converted into a satisfactory pool because the surface looked clear on the day.
Services
Lead pipe is visible before the internal stopcock and copper after it. Which length has not been replaced, and who should advise on the drinking water?
Own page
Not the copper: the visible lead length before the internal stopcock has not been replaced. Copper after the stopcock is a later piece of pipe. It does not erase the lead that is still in view on the incoming side. The survey can record those two lengths. It does not replace either of them, and it does not sample the water. If you suspect lead, the Drinking Water Inspectorate says you can ask the water company to test at the kitchen tap and to advise.
Services
The kitchen tap is fed from the loft header tank, not from the rising main. Why does that arrangement change what a lead-pipe worry even refers to?
Own page
Because the kitchen tap is fed from the loft header tank, a lead-pipe worry about that tap is not a worry about the rising main. The water you draw there has come from stored water, not straight off the main at the sink. Any lead question has to name the pipe that actually feeds the tank, the tank itself, and the pipe down to the tap. The rising main is a different pipe. The survey must not treat them as one length.
Services
A garden standpipe is on a soft grey pipe, and the kitchen rising main is plastic. Why should the standpipe be written separately?
Own page
Because the garden standpipe is on its own soft grey pipe, it has to be written separately from the plastic kitchen rising main. A plastic main at the sink does not describe the pipe in the garden. The standpipe is another outlet, on another length, and the survey should say so. Soft grey pipe is an observation. It is not, by itself, a laboratory result. The kitchen plastic must not be allowed to wipe the garden pipe off the page.
Hazardous materials
A bitumen pad is still under a stainless sink in a pre-2000 kitchen. Why should you not scrape it off while you measure up?
Own page
No, you should not scrape the bitumen pad from under the stainless sink while you measure up. The pad is still in place in a pre-2000 kitchen. HSE says asbestos can be found in buildings built or refurbished before 2000. Scraping the pad to get a tape under the bowl disturbs a material nobody has identified. The home survey has not sampled it. Leave it alone until someone competent has said what it is. Do not treat measuring-up as a reason to break it off.
Hazardous materials
Textured coating remains only inside a cupboard, and the ceilings have been overboarded. What has overboarding not tested?
Own page
Not a test of the coating: overboarding the ceilings has not tested the textured coating left inside the cupboard, or whatever the new boards now hide. A board fixed over a ceiling covers a surface. It does not sample it, and it does not sample the coating that remains in the cupboard. HSE says asbestos can occur in buildings built or refurbished before 2000, including textured coatings. The home survey records what it could see. Overboarding is not an analysis.
Hazardous materials
A cement flue pipe runs through the roof space from an old boiler that has gone. Why should that pipe be left in place until someone competent has said what it is?
Own page
Because that cement flue pipe has not been identified, it should be left in place until someone competent has said what it is. The old boiler has gone, which removes the appliance and does not name the pipe. HSE includes cement goods, such as flues, among materials that can contain asbestos in pre-2000 buildings. The home survey can note a cement pipe in the roof space. It has not sampled it. Breaking it out because the boiler is missing is not identification.
Hazardous materials
Textured coating is on the garage ceiling and nowhere the surveyor saw in the house. Why does the garage not answer the house, or the house the garage?
Own page
No, textured coating on the garage ceiling does not answer the house, and a house where none was seen does not answer the garage. Each place is its own observation. HSE says asbestos, including textured coatings, can be in buildings built or refurbished before 2000. The surveyor saw coating in the garage and did not see it in the house. That split is the finding. The garage does not clear the rooms that were not coated in view, and the house does not clear the garage ceiling.
Hazardous materials
Black spots of old adhesive remain where vinyl tiles were lifted. Why is that residue still a materials question?
Own page
Because those black spots of old adhesive are still on the floor, the residue remains a materials question after the vinyl tiles were lifted. Lifting the tiles did not identify what was left behind. HSE says asbestos can be present in buildings built or refurbished before 2000, and floor finishes are among the places materials vary. The home survey can note black spots. It has not analysed them. The spots are not cleared because the tiles themselves have gone.
Legal and neighbours
A valley gutter serves two roofs on two titles. Can the survey of one house decide the neighbour's duty to clear it?
Own page
No, the survey of one house cannot decide the neighbour's duty to clear a valley gutter that serves two roofs on two titles. The surveyor can describe the valley as seen from this side: debris, staining, or a view that stopped at the party line. Duty, access and who must clear it are not decided by that description. One inspection does not bind the neighbour and does not split the job. The solicitor is the person who takes the title and the duty. The survey does not.
Property types
A lime fillet has been used instead of lead where a lean-to meets a stone wall. Why is that fillet a maintenance item the survey can describe, not a modern flashing it has approved?
Own page
Not an approved modern flashing: the lime fillet where the lean-to meets the stone wall is a maintenance item the survey can describe. It is mortar used instead of lead at that junction. The survey can say it is there, whether it is cracked, and whether water has a path at the joint. It has not approved the fillet as a modern flashing. Lime at a wall abutment is not the same detail as a lead flashing, and describing it does not upgrade it.
Property types
A roof window has been cut into the slates of a listed house. Can the survey grant, or refuse, listed building consent for that opening?
Own page
No, the survey cannot grant or refuse listed building consent for the roof window cut into the slates of this listed house. Listing covers the building. Consent is a decision for the authority that deals with listed building applications, not a line a surveyor can write. The inspection can describe the opening, the slates around it and the condition it could see. It cannot allow the window and it cannot refuse it. Those are not survey powers.
Property types
The house is in a conservation area and it is not listed. Does the survey treat a new rooflight as if listed building consent applied?
Own page
No, the survey does not treat a new rooflight as if listed building consent applied, because this house is in a conservation area and it is not listed. A conservation area is an area designation. It is not the same thing as listing this building. Listed building consent belongs to listed buildings. The survey must not move it across to an unlisted house. The rooflight can still be described. The description is not a listed-building decision.
Legal and neighbours
Damp-proof injection plugs run along a wall you share with the neighbour. Has the survey decided you may inject the neighbour's side?
Own page
No, the survey has not decided that you may inject the neighbour's side of the wall where the damp-proof plugs run. The plugs are a condition observation on a wall you share. They are not permission. GOV.UK's party wall guidance is about works that affect a shared wall, and about notice between owners. The survey does not serve that notice and does not authorise drilling the neighbour's half. Seeing plugs on your face of the wall does not decide their side.
After the survey
An NHBC claim is already open on the roof. Why does the home survey not run that claim, and not close it?
Own page
Because an NHBC claim is already open on the roof, the home survey neither runs that claim nor closes it. The claim sits with the warranty process. The inspection records the roof it could see. NHBC describes Buildmark as 10-year cover. That description does not make the survey the claims handler, and it does not mean an open file has been finished because a surveyor visited. Opening, running and closing the claim are outside the report. The roof note is not a decision on the file.
After the survey
The snagging photographs in the pack show a plot number that is not yours. What should you not negotiate from those pictures?
Own page
Not those pictures: you should not negotiate from snagging photographs that show a plot number that is not yours. They may record another home's cracks, unfinished joints or decoration. Using them as if they were your plot invents defects, or misses yours. A home survey, where you have one, is about the property that was inspected. Photographs of a different plot number are the wrong evidence. Do not put them in front of the developer as your snagging list.
After the survey
The lender asks for a specialist report on the drains. Why is that request not satisfied by rereading the home survey?
Own page
Because the lender has asked for a specialist report on the drains, rereading the home survey does not satisfy that request. The home survey is the inspection you already have. The lender has asked for a different report, from a specialist. Reading the same PDF again does not appoint that person and does not produce their findings. A sentence in the survey that says further investigation is needed does not name the specialist, and it does not stand in for the report the lender wants.
After the survey
The quotation excludes VAT and scaffolding. Why is the figure on the front not yet the figure to discuss?
Own page
Because the quotation excludes VAT and scaffolding, the figure on the front is not yet the figure to discuss. Two items the contractor has named as outside that number are still missing from it. Until they are written in, or a revised quotation says what is included, the front figure is an incomplete sum. Do not invent how VAT is charged, and do not invent a scaffolding price. The discussion waits on a figure that actually contains the excluded items, or states them.
Selling
The seller has signed the terms of the survey you are paying for. Does that signature make them a second client?
Own page
No, the seller's signature on the terms of the survey you are paying for does not make them a second client. A second client exists only if the firm agrees that both of you are clients. Signing a page, or being invited to sign, does not by itself add the seller to the instruction. The report is for the client named in the terms. Unless the firm has named both, the buyer who paid remains the client the report was written for.
Selling
A buyer asks for the survey you commissioned in 2019 when you bought. What reliance does handing over that old PDF not create?
Own page
Not reliance for the new buyer: handing over the 2019 PDF you commissioned when you bought does not create it. That report was for the client named in the terms of that instruction. A later handover does not make today's buyer that client, and it does not make the old inspection a report they can rely on as if it had been prepared for them. The PDF can be a piece of history you choose to pass on. It is not a new instruction.
After the survey
A forum says you can walk away from an English purchase without penalty because Scotland's Home Report page says so. Why is that the wrong page for this contract?
Own page
Because the forum has pasted Scotland's Home Report page onto an English purchase, that is the wrong page for this contract. The Home Report page is about buying in Scotland. It does not decide when a buyer in England is bound, and it does not set the penalty for this contract. The English buyer asks their solicitor when they are bound. Do not treat a Scottish selling document as the rule for an English exchange. The forum has used the wrong page.
Structure and movement
The mining search is clear and a floor slopes. Why does a clear search not explain the slope?
Own page
Because a clear mining search does not explain a sloping floor, the slope stays a separate finding. The search says what it says about mining. It does not account for the floor the surveyor saw. A clear result is not a diagnosis, and it is not a statement that the floor is level. The Coal Authority search and the inspection answer different questions. Writing the word 'clear' across the slope pretends the search measured the floor. It did not.
Environment
A short radon reading was taken in summer with one detector. Why is that not the three-month test UKradon describes?
Own page
Because a short summer reading used one detector, it is not the three-month test UKradon describes. UKradon describes two detectors, one in a bedroom and one in a living room, left for three months. A brief summer test with a single detector is a different exercise. It does not average the period that longer test is built around. The home survey does not carry that test out by looking at a printout, and a short sheet does not become the three-month result because it mentions radon.
Environment
The survey mentions flood risk and does not state an insurance excess. Why is the excess not something the surveyor owes you?
Own page
Because the survey mentions flood risk and states no insurance excess, that excess is not a figure the surveyor owes you. An excess is a term of an insurance policy. It is not a condition rating and not a measurement the inspection took. GOV.UK's long-term flood check for England is an official check for an area. It is not an excess, and it is not a quote. The survey can mention flood risk. It does not owe you the deductible a future insurer might set.
Grounds
A knotweed management plan has no signature the surveyor recognises. Why is the plan not part of the home survey just because it was in the kitchen drawer?
Own page
Because the knotweed plan in the kitchen drawer has no signature the surveyor recognises, it is not part of the home survey. A plan in a drawer is a separate paper. Being near the kettle does not bind it into the report. The survey is the inspection the surveyor signed. An unsigned management plan is not a section of that inspection. GOV.UK's knotweed guidance is about not spreading the plant. It does not turn a loose plan into the survey.
Roof and rainwater
Spray foam crosses the party line into the neighbour's roof. What has your survey not been able to inspect next door?
Own page
Not next door: spray foam that crosses the party line sits in a neighbour's roof your survey has not been able to inspect. The visit was to your side. Foam continuing past the party line is outside that inspection. You cannot say the neighbour's timbers are sound, or unsound, from a loft you did not enter. RICS says lenders have their own questions about spray foam. The survey does not set lender policy, and it does not inspect the house next door.
Structure
The fascia is timber and the flat roof deck is concrete. Why does a timber fascia not clear the deck of a RAAC question?
Own page
Because the fascia is timber and the deck is concrete, the timber fascia does not clear that deck of a RAAC question. The fascia is an edge board. The question, if there is one, is about the concrete deck, and the survey would not name the panel from the timber. A visual look at a fascia does not confirm what the deck is made of. IStructE guidance is the specialist source where RAAC has to be investigated. The home survey's view of timber does not finish that question.
Structure and movement
An insurer's letter says a subsidence claim was closed, and the crack is still open. Why does the closed file not close the crack?
Own page
Because the crack is still open, a closed subsidence file does not close the crack. The insurer's letter records what happened to the claim file. The survey records the crack it could see, and that crack has not shut because a file was marked closed. Closing a claim is not the same as repairing the wall, and it is not the same as the movement having stopped. The letter and the crack are two records. Only one of them is the wall.
Property types
You want to move a boiler cupboard in a listed house. Can the survey tell you that listed building consent will be granted?
Own page
No, the survey cannot tell you that listed building consent will be granted to move the boiler cupboard in this listed house. Wanting to move the cupboard is a plan. Consent, if it is required, is an application to the authority, and the outcome is not something the inspection predicts. Listing relates to the whole building, which is why a cupboard is not automatically 'only a fitting' in a survey sentence. The report can describe the cupboard. It cannot promise the consent.
After the survey
The new-build garden holds water against the air bricks. Is that a warranty claim the survey has already won for you?
Own page
No, water held against the new-build air bricks is not a warranty claim the survey has already won. The survey can record that the garden level holds water at the air bricks. Winning a claim is a warranty step that has not been taken by writing that sentence. NHBC describes Buildmark as 10-year cover where that is the policy. The description does not mean this puddle has been accepted, paid or closed. The inspection has not won anything.
Selling
You are selling and you would rather the loft hatch stayed shut. What does a not-inspected loft become in the buyer's report?
Own page
Not a sound loft: a hatch you keep shut becomes a not-inspected loft in the buyer's report. The surveyor records the limit. They do not record a clean roof space they were not allowed to see. Not inspected is the absence of an inspection, not a pass, and not a quiet compliment. The report is for the client named in the terms, which on a buyer's survey is the buyer. Your preference to keep the hatch shut does not rewrite that note into something kinder.
After the survey
The only notes are condition rating 1. Why is there no RICS basis for a price reduction from those notes?
Own page
Because the only notes are condition rating 1, there is no RICS basis for a price reduction from those notes. Condition rating 1 means no repair is currently needed, only normal maintenance. That is not a defect list to convert into a chip. What to do now advises you, the buyer. It does not turn routine upkeep into a sum to deduct from the price. If every marked element is rating 1, the report has not handed you a RICS reason to reduce the price from those notes.
Money
An agent says the survey fee should be a percentage of the purchase price. Does RICS publish that percentage?
Own page
No, RICS does not publish the survey fee as a percentage of the purchase price. An agent who names a percentage is not quoting a RICS tariff. The fee is a matter for the firm you instruct, on the property and the level you want. A friend's fee is not your quotation. MoneyHelper's point on a mortgage valuation is different again: that valuation is for the lender, and it is not a structural survey. None of those documents prints a percentage to multiply by the price.
Selling
A Scottish seller is told to refresh a Home Report after the house sat unsold. Why is that not an instruction you can copy when you sell in England?
Own page
Because refreshing a Scottish Home Report is a Scottish step, it is not an instruction you can copy when you sell in England. A Home Report belongs to the Scottish buying system. Being told, in Scotland, to refresh one after a house sat unsold does not tell an English seller to produce, update or replace a Home Report. England does not sell on that pack. Ask your own selling agent and your solicitor what this English sale actually requires. Do not copy the Scottish instruction across.
Grounds
Plant material the surveyor thinks may be knotweed is in the inspection chamber. Why is that a specialist identification, not a drain rating?
Own page
Because the plant material in the inspection chamber still needs identification, it is a specialist question and not a drain rating. The surveyor thinks it may be knotweed. 'May be' is not a confirmed name, and it is not a grade for the drain. A drain rating, if the survey uses one, describes the drainage that was seen. It does not identify a plant. GOV.UK's knotweed guidance is about not spreading the plant. Pulling the material out to look does not belong in the survey.
Services
The incoming pipe is plastic and a few joints inside look soldered. Why is solder on a joint not the same finding as a lead supply pipe?
Own page
Because solder on a joint is a different observation, it is not the same finding as a lead supply pipe. The incoming pipe here is plastic. A few joints that look soldered are joints, not a lead pipe running in from the main. The survey can note both: plastic incoming, soldered appearance on some joints. It has not analysed the solder, and it has not renamed the plastic as lead. If lead in the water is the worry, the Drinking Water Inspectorate says you can ask the water company to test the kitchen tap.
Damp
The lightwell drain outside a basement window is blocked with leaves, and the cellar was dry. What has the dry day not cancelled?
Own page
Not cancelled by a dry cellar: the blocked lightwell drain outside the basement window remains a water path the dry day has not removed. Leaves in the outlet were seen. The cellar happened to be dry on the visit. Dryness on one day does not prove the outlet will run when rain fills the lightwell. The survey can record both facts. It must not let the dry cellar erase the blockage. The blockage is still the finding the dry day left standing.
Damp
A Victorian coal chute still opens into the front wall of the cellar. What water path does that chute keep that a blocked air brick does not?
Own page
Not the same path as a blocked air brick: the Victorian coal chute still opens into the front wall of the cellar and keeps that opening. A chute is a route from the front, where coal once came in, into the cellar. Water from the pavement or the front area can use that opening. A blocked air brick is a ventilation hole that is obstructed. It is a different element. The chute does not become an air brick because both are in the front wall, and the air brick does not describe the chute.
Roof and rainwater
Spray foam has been applied to the underside of a thatch. Why is that a product question for the lender and the thatcher, not a quilt the survey can ignore?
Own page
Because spray foam is on the underside of the thatch, it is a product question for the lender and the thatcher, not a quilt the survey can ignore. Foam bonded under thatch hides the underside and is not a quilt you lift at a corner. RICS says spray foam can restrict the view of roof timbers, and that lenders have their own questions. The survey does not set lender policy, and it does not shrug the foam off as ordinary insulation. The thatcher is the person for the thatch. The lender asks what the lender asks.
Structure
You are buying a flat over a parade, and the shop soffit looks like planks. What can the inspection inside the flat not identify in the shop?
Own page
Not identified from inside the flat: the inspection cannot name the shop soffit that looks like planks. You are in the flat. The soffit is on the shop. Planks that look like planks are not a identification, and a visual look from the wrong side of the ceiling does not confirm what the panels are. The survey would not name those panels from the flat. IStructE guidance is the specialist route where a RAAC question has to be answered. The home survey has not answered it from indoors.
Structure and movement
A crack is opening and a new tree has been planted, not removed. Why is new planting a poor match for a heave story?
Own page
Because the tree has been planted and not removed, new planting is a poor match for a heave story. Heave after removal is the story of ground recovering when a tree that was drying the soil has gone. A new tree is the opposite event. It does not show that a tree was taken out, and it does not explain an opening crack as heave from that removal. The crack is still there to describe. The new tree is a poor match for the mechanism someone has suggested.
Grounds
You already have a mortgage offer, and knotweed is in the survey. Why must the lender still be told, rather than hoping the offer has closed the point?
Own page
Because knotweed is in the survey, the lender must still be told, and the mortgage offer already out has not closed the point. An offer was made on what the lender knew then. The survey's report of knotweed is later information. Hoping the offer has swallowed it leaves the lender in the dark. GOV.UK's guidance is about not spreading knotweed. It is not a reason to keep the survey quiet. Tell the lender. Do not invent a treatment distance while you do it.
Roof and rainwater
You are buying with cash, so no lender will ask about spray foam. Why does the foam still limit what the survey could see of the timbers?
Own page
Because the foam hides the timbers, a cash purchase does not restore the view the survey could not get. No lender asking is a funding fact. It does not peel spray foam off the rafters. RICS says foam can stop a proper view of the roof timbers, so a leak or decay behind it may not be seen. The survey records that limit. Cash does not turn the hidden timber into inspected timber. The finding stays the finding, with or without a mortgage.
After the survey
The new-build fence does not follow the boundary on the plan in the pack. Can the survey redraw the boundary?
Own page
No, the survey cannot redraw the boundary where the new-build fence does not follow the plan in the pack. The surveyor can say the fence on the ground and the line on that plan do not agree, if both were looked at. Redrawing the boundary is a title act. It is not a sentence in a home survey. NHBC describes Buildmark as 10-year cover where that policy applies. That description does not move a legal line. The solicitor and the title documents deal with the boundary. The survey does not.
Money
The survey says consider a drain camera. Why does this page not give you the price of that camera?
Own page
Because this page does not price a drain camera, the survey's words 'consider a drain camera' come without a price. A home survey can suggest a further look. It does not hire the camera, and it does not publish the cost of hiring one. RICS does not publish the survey fee as a percentage of the purchase price, and it does not publish a camera price either. A friend's figure is not your quotation. This page will not invent one. Ask the firm who would do the camera for a written price for this address.
Walls
The bricks have spalled in a band under a leaking gutter, and the mortar joints are still standing. Is that the same defect as a crack through the wall?
Own page
No. Spalled bricks in a band under a leaking gutter, with the mortar joints still standing, are not the same defect as a crack through the wall. The survey has recorded broken brick faces under that gutter. It has not decided that the wall is split, and it has not folded the two into one finding. Spalling is the face of the brick coming away while the joints stay proud. A crack through the wall is a split in the masonry. The leak explains a wet band. It does not, on its own, show that the wall has moved.
Walls
Hard cement strap pointing sits over soft brick on a terrace. Has the survey told you to hack it off, or only recorded that the pointing is cement?
Own page
Only recorded. Hard cement strap pointing over soft brick on this terrace has been written down as cement. The survey has not told you to hack it off. Strap pointing is a smear of hard mortar across the joint and onto the face. The visit names that material. It does not set a method for taking it off, and it does not say every joint must come out. Soft brick and a hard cement face are a mismatch the surveyor could see. Removal, if anyone advises it, is a later specification, not a sentence the report has already given you.
Walls
The render runs straight into the flower bed and there is no bellcast. What moisture path is that, as against a diagnosis of rising damp?
Own page
It is ground contact, not a rising-damp diagnosis. Render that runs straight into the flower bed, with no bellcast, keeps soil and splash against the coating instead of throwing water clear. That is a path at the base of the wall. The survey has recorded the missing bellcast and the render buried in the bed. It has not diagnosed rising damp, and a meter at that junction would not turn soil against render into groundwater rising through the masonry. The defect to name is the detail at the flower bed.
Walls
Render is cracked at one window corner and the masonry behind was not opened up. Has the survey diagnosed a failed lintel?
Own page
No. A crack in the render at one window corner, where the masonry behind was not opened up, is not a diagnosis of a failed lintel. The survey has recorded a crack in the coating at that corner. It has not seen the lintel, the bearings or the brick behind the render, and it has not decided that the lintel has failed. Window corners collect cracks for several reasons, including shrinkage of the coating. One crack in render is not, by itself, a failed support over the opening.
Walls
The surveyor tapped the render and called one patch hollow. What has that tap not proved about the brick behind the coating?
Own page
The tap has not proved the state of the brick behind the coating. A hollow sound on one patch means the render there is not stuck fast to whatever is behind it. The survey has recorded that sound at that patch. It has not opened the coating, so it has not seen the brick, and it has not decided whether the face is sound, soft, damp or already loose. Hollow render is a bond between coating and background. It is not a test result for the masonry the tap could not reach.
Walls
Rust-coloured freckles show through pebble-dash. Is that pattern already a wall-tie investigation, or only a stain the survey could see?
Own page
Only a stain the survey could see. Rust-coloured freckles through pebble-dash are not already a wall-tie investigation. The survey has recorded a pattern of stains on the coating. It has not located the ties, opened the cavity or tested any tie. Freckles can come from corroding metal somewhere behind the dash, including ties or a bead, but the colour on the surface does not identify which metal or how far it has gone. Seeing the stain is the finding. An investigation of the ties is a different visit, and this one did not do it.
Walls
A horizontal crack follows the first-floor line on a cavity wall. Why should that not be filed as ordinary settlement without a question about the ties?
Own page
Because that line is where a tie question belongs, and ordinary settlement has not been shown. A horizontal crack following the first-floor line on a cavity wall is the sort of bed-joint crack people associate with expanding, corroding ties, which are often placed near floor levels. The survey has recorded the crack and where it runs. It has not tested the ties, and it has not established settlement of the foundations. Filing it as ordinary settlement skips the cavity-wall mechanism the crack itself raises. The two labels are not interchangeable on this pattern.
Walls
The flank wall is described as bowed, and no plumb or measured offset is written down. What has the survey actually recorded?
Own page
A visual description, not a measurement. The flank wall is described as bowed, and no plumb or measured offset is written down, so the survey has recorded how the wall looked. It has not recorded how far the wall is out of line, and it has not decided whether the bow is old, worsening, or tied to movement of the ground. 'Bowed' in prose is an observation from the visit. Without a plumb reading or an offset, nobody can take a figure from the report. The survey has not turned that word into a measured distortion.
Walls
One bulge sits on the party wall of a terrace. Can the home survey decide that the neighbour must pay for it?
Own page
No. One bulge on the party wall of a terrace does not let the home survey decide that the neighbour must pay. The survey has recorded a bulge and where it sits. It has not apportioned cost, and it has not found whose work, whose lack of restraint or whose ground caused it. The Party Wall etc. Act is a notice process for certain work affecting a party wall. It is not a bill this inspection has issued. Who pays, if anyone pays, is outside the condition note.
Walls
The report names a Boot lintel over the bay and the concrete was not opened. Does the name mean the reinforcement has been tested?
Own page
No. Naming a Boot lintel over the bay does not mean the reinforcement has been tested. The concrete was not opened, so the steel inside was not seen. The survey has identified the type from the shape it could see: a boot-shaped concrete lintel, common over bays. It has not exposed the reinforcement, tested it for corrosion, or said the steel is sound. The name is a label for the member. A test of what is cast inside it is a different job, and this inspection did not do that job.
Walls
A timber lintel over the back door sags and the brick above it is distorted. Why is that distortion not automatically subsidence of the foundations?
Own page
Because the distortion belongs to the lintel, not to the foundations. A timber lintel over the back door that sags, with the brick above it distorted, is a local failure of that timber and of the masonry it was holding. The survey has recorded the sag and the distorted brick over the opening. It has not shown the foundations moving, and it has not called this subsidence. Brick follows a timber that bends. That pattern stops being a foundation claim when it is explained by the member over one door.
Walls
A crack stops at the end of a concrete lintel and does not continue into the wall. What foundation movement has that pattern not shown?
Own page
It has not shown foundation movement at all. A crack that stops at the end of a concrete lintel, and does not continue into the wall, is a local pattern at the bearing. The survey has recorded where the crack starts and where it stops. It has not shown the ground moving, and it has not measured any foundation. Movement of the foundations would be expected to carry a crack on through the masonry, not to finish neatly at the end of one lintel. This pattern has not shown that. The finding stops with the lintel end.
Walls
A soldier course over a sash window has dropped in the middle. Has the survey said the arch has spread, or only that those bricks look uneven?
Own page
Only that those bricks look uneven. A soldier course over a sash window that has dropped in the middle has been recorded as an uneven line of bricks on end. The survey has not said the arch has spread. Spread would mean the arch has flattened and pushed its supports apart, which is a structural claim. Looking uneven is what the eye saw. The visit did not measure the abutments, and it did not decide that the opening has widened. Keep the sentence at the bricks that sit low in the middle.
Structure
A steel beam over a knocked-through lounge is encased and was not exposed. What can the survey not say about its size or its bearings?
Own page
It cannot say the size, and it cannot say the bearings are adequate. The steel beam over the knocked-through lounge is encased and was not exposed, so the section was hidden and the ends in the walls were hidden. The survey can say a beam is there and that it is cased. It has not measured the steel, counted the bearings, or seen a padstone. Approved Document A is structural guidance for building work. It is not a size read off this casing, and the survey has not issued a building-regulations certificate for the opening.
Walls
A drip stain shows under a cavity tray only after rain, and wall ties are not mentioned. Why should those two mechanisms not be swapped?
Own page
Because one is rain at the tray and the other is metal in the cavity, and the survey has not mixed them. A drip stain under a cavity tray only after rain is water showing at the tray line when it rains. Wall ties are not mentioned, and they were not tested. Swapping the mechanisms would turn a rainwater mark into a tie failure the inspection did not record. The survey has recorded the stain and its timing. It has not decided the ties are corroding, and it has not said the tray is a tie.
Walls
Weep holes above a window have been painted shut. What path for water has that closed, and what has it not proved about the wall ties?
Own page
It has closed the outlet from the cavity tray, and it has proved nothing about the wall ties. Weep holes above a window are the path that lets water caught by the tray drain to the outside. Paint across them shuts that path. The survey has recorded the closed weeps. It has not tested the ties, opened the cavity, or decided that the ties are sound or failed. A blocked outlet is a rainwater detail. Tie corrosion is a different mechanism, and paint on a hole does not investigate it.
Walls
Cavity-insulation beads have spilled into the meter cupboard. Has the survey certified the fill, or only recorded the beads it could see?
Own page
Only the beads it could see. Cavity-insulation beads spilled into the meter cupboard have been recorded as beads in that cupboard. The survey has not certified the fill. It has not looked through the whole cavity, checked that the fill is complete, or confirmed a guarantee. Spilled beads show that material has left the cavity at this opening. They do not map the insulation, and they do not pass or fail it. Certification of a cavity fill is a different product from a home survey note of what had spilled.
Damp
A row of old injection holes runs along the skirting. Does that row prove the wall had rising damp, or only that someone once treated it?
Own page
Only that someone once treated it. A row of old injection holes along the skirting proves a damp-proofing injection was drilled there. It does not prove the wall had rising damp. The survey has recorded the holes. It has not recovered the old diagnosis, retested the wall as a rising-damp case, or decided the treatment was needed or successful. Holes are evidence of a job. They are not evidence that groundwater was the cause. The report should stay with what is still there: plugged holes, not a proved history of rising damp.
Damp
A tide mark shows only behind a wardrobe on an outside wall. Why is that a poor match for a house-wide rising-damp diagnosis?
Own page
Because the mark is local to a cold, unventilated spot, not a pattern around the house. A tide mark only behind a wardrobe on an outside wall fits still air against a cold face, which is a condensation pattern. The survey has recorded where the mark is, and where it is not. It has not diagnosed rising damp through the house. Rising damp would be expected at the base of walls more widely, not only in the one place furniture blocks the air. Copying this mark onto every room overstates a cupboard-shaped stain.
Roofs
White salts on a chimney breast stop at the bedroom ceiling and do not reach the floor. Why is that not the same pattern as rising damp?
Own page
Because the salts stop at the ceiling and never reach the floor, which is the wrong direction for rising damp. White salts on a chimney breast, ending at the bedroom ceiling, fit the flue and the stack above, not groundwater climbing from the skirting. The survey has recorded the height the salts reach. It has not diagnosed rising damp, and it has not sampled the deposit. Rising damp marks the bottom of a wall and works upward. A pattern that stops overhead and spares the floor is a chimney pattern. The two should not be given the same name.
Structure and movement
A crack is wider near the ceiling and dies out above the skirting. What movement does that shape suggest, and what has it not measured?
Own page
The shape suggests movement from higher in the wall, and it has measured nothing. A crack wider near the ceiling that dies out above the skirting opens more at the top than at the bottom. That taper is the pattern people associate with movement from above, such as a spreading roof or a dropping head, rather than a foundation crack wider at the floor. The survey has recorded the shape. It has not measured how far anything has moved, has not monitored the crack, and has not proved the cause. The suggestion is in the taper. The measurement is absent.
Structure and movement
A crack is wider at the skirting and closes before it reaches the ceiling. Why should that shape not be copied out as roof spread?
Own page
Because that taper is the opposite of the roof-spread pattern. A crack wider at the skirting that closes before the ceiling opens at the bottom and pinches out above. Roof spread is associated with cracks that open at the top, where rafters push the wall head out. The survey has recorded a bottom-heavy crack. It has not recorded roof spread, and it has not measured the rafters. Copying this shape out as roof spread swaps the taper. The note does not support that heading, and the inspection has not made the measurement spread would need.
Structure and movement
A crack continues through the damp-proof course into the brickwork below. What has that continuity not, by itself, put a date on?
Own page
It has not put a date on the crack at all. A crack that continues through the damp-proof course into the brickwork below is continuous across that line. The survey has recorded that the crack does not stop at the damp-proof course. It has not dated the movement, and continuity by itself cannot. An old crack and a new one can both cross a damp-proof course. One visit sees the line. It does not see when the line opened, and it does not see whether it is still opening. The date is what this continuity has not given you.
Structure and movement
A previously filled crack has opened again along the same line. What can the survey not say about when that first fill was done?
Own page
It cannot say when the first fill was done. A previously filled crack that has opened again along the same line shows a repair that no longer closes the crack. The survey has recorded the reopen along that line. It has not found a date for the filler, a receipt, or the name of who did it. The fill might be recent or decades old, and the crack in it does not carry the year. What the visit can say is that the line is open again. What it cannot say is when that first fill was done.
Structure and movement
The crack is in the plaster and the surveyor could not see a matching crack in the brick. Why is a plaster crack not yet a structural diagnosis?
Own page
Because the structure that would carry the diagnosis was not seen to be cracked. The crack is in the plaster, and the surveyor could not see a matching crack in the brick. The survey has recorded a plaster crack and that limit. It has not diagnosed a structural crack in the masonry. Plaster cracks from shrinkage, heat, a poor key and ordinary decoration. Until a crack shows in the brick, or the plaster is opened and the brick is found cracked, the structural claim has not been made. A finish crack is not yet that diagnosis.
Structure and movement
One paragraph says settlement and the next says subsidence for the same crack. What should you ask before those two words are treated as one insurance claim?
Own page
Ask which word was meant, and why, before anyone treats them as one claim. Settlement and subsidence are not the same label for the same crack. The survey has used both in successive paragraphs and has not reconciled them. It has not opened an insurance claim, and it has not decided that a claim exists. You should ask the surveyor to say which word stands, what they saw that supports it, and which sentence should be corrected. Until that is done, the two words must not be copied onto one claim form as if they were a single agreed cause.
Grounds
The seller says a large tree came out last year and a crack opened afterwards. Can the survey confirm heave from that sentence alone?
Own page
No. The survey cannot confirm heave from the seller's sentence alone. Heave, in this storey, would be the ground swelling after a large tree came out, and a crack opening afterwards is the timing the seller describes. The inspection has recorded the crack it could see. It has not tested the soil, monitored levels, identified the stump as the cause, or checked that the crack really post-dates the felling. A sentence is not a heave test. The survey has not confirmed it.
Drainage
A crack in the wall sits beside a drain run that was not camera-surveyed. Why is the crack not already a drainage defect?
Own page
Because the drain was not seen, so the crack is not already a drainage defect. A crack beside a drain run that was not camera-surveyed is a wall crack next to a pipe the inspection did not look inside. The survey has recorded the crack and the fact the drain was not surveyed. It has not found a broken pipe, a leak, or a washed-out bearing. Proximity is not a test. Drainage defects are what a drain inspection finds. This visit did not do that inspection, and the crack does not become one by standing nearby.
Structure and movement
The seller mentioned old underpinning and the surveyor found no plaque or drawing. What can the inspection not verify about that work?
Own page
It cannot verify that the underpinning was done, nor its depth, its extent or its design. The seller mentioned old underpinning, and the surveyor found no plaque or drawing. The inspection has nothing on the wall or in the papers it saw that confirms the work. It has not measured a deepened foundation, and it has not checked a specification. A mention is not a verification. Until a drawing, a building-control record or an exposure shows the concrete, the survey cannot say the underpinning exists, let alone that it was adequate.
Structure
The floor slopes towards the party wall and the doors still latch. Has the survey measured whether that slope is still moving?
Own page
No. The survey has not measured whether the slope is still moving. The floor slopes towards the party wall, and the doors still latch, which is a shape and a fact about the doors on the day. One visit cannot show a rate. The survey has recorded the slope and that the doors close. It has not monitored the floor, repeated a level, or decided that the slope is live or historic. Latching means the leaves still meet the stops. It is not a measurement of ongoing movement.
Structure
A ceiling crack runs dead straight along a plasterboard joint. Why is that a weak match for movement in the foundations?
Own page
Because a dead-straight line along a plasterboard joint is how a taped joint fails, not how foundations draw a crack. The survey has recorded a ceiling crack on that manufactured edge. It has not linked it to the foundations, and the shape is a weak match for that link. Foundation movement shows in walls and masonry, usually not as a perfectly straight split that follows a board. The joint was always a line in the ceiling. A crack that chooses it is a ceiling-finish defect unless something else, which this note does not have, ties it to the ground.
Structure
A gap has opened above the skirting on one wall and nowhere else. What else should be read with that gap before anyone says subsidence?
Own page
Read the rest of that wall, the other skirtings, the floor and any cracks outside, before anyone says subsidence. A gap above the skirting on one wall and nowhere else is a local opening between plaster and timber. The survey has recorded that limit. It has not diagnosed subsidence from the gap. Shrinkage, a skirting that was never tight, or plaster that has pulled back can open one run. Subsidence is a claim about the ground and the foundations. It needs more than one gap. Those other signs are what should be read with it.
Structure and movement
A raking crack leaves the corner of a window and runs up to the ceiling. What opening is that crack using, and what foundation depth was not measured?
Own page
It is using the window opening, and no foundation depth was measured. A raking crack that leaves the corner of a window and runs up to the ceiling is following the weak point openings make in a wall. The survey has recorded that path. It has not dug down, and it has not measured how deep the foundations are. The corner of the window is the opening the crack is using. Depth of the foundation is the figure this visit does not contain. The pattern is not a foundation measurement.
Walls
Brick stitches are visible in the flank wall. Does the fact they are there mean the movement has stopped?
Own page
No. Brick stitches in the flank wall mean someone repaired the brickwork. They do not mean the movement has stopped. The survey has recorded the stitches it could see. It has not monitored the wall since the repair, compared old levels, or decided that the crack behind the stitches is quiet. A repair shows that a crack was worth stitching. It does not show the result over time. The fact the stitches are there is the fact of a repair. Stopped movement is a later measurement, and this visit did not make it.
Walls
A line of small filled holes looks like helical-bar plugs. What has the survey not been shown about the design of that repair?
Own page
The design. A line of small filled holes that looks like helical-bar plugs has not come with the design of that repair. The survey has recorded the look of the plugs. It has not been shown a drawing, a bar length, a spacing rule or an engineer's specification. Looking like helical bars is an appearance. The design is the document that says what was specified for this crack. That document was not part of the inspection. The survey cannot supply it from the size of the holes.
Walls
A grid of filled holes matches the look of a wall-tie replacement. Has the survey tested the ties that were put in?
Own page
No. A grid of filled holes that matches the look of a wall-tie replacement is not a test of the ties that were put in. The survey has recorded the pattern. It has not found the new ties in the cavity, pulled one, or checked their length and embedment. Replacement work often leaves a grid of filled holes on the outer leaf. That appearance is what was seen. A test of the ties inside is a different visit, and this inspection did not make it. The holes are not a pass, and they are not a failure.
Walls
The report says the cavity width was not measured. Why can nobody then take a tie length from the survey and order parts?
Own page
Because the length of a tie depends on the cavity width, and that width is not in the report. The survey says the cavity width was not measured, so there is no figure to add an embedment to and no length to order. The inspection has recorded the absence of a measurement. It has not estimated a width, and it has not specified a tie. Ordering parts from a sentence that says 'not measured' invents the number the surveyor withheld. Nobody can take a tie length from this report, because the report does not contain one.
Walls
The inner leaf is cracked and the outer leaf the surveyor could see is not. What does that split not decide about the wall ties?
Own page
It does not decide the ties either way. The inner leaf is cracked and the outer leaf the surveyor could see is not, and that split is a difference between two leaves, not a tie test. The survey has recorded which leaf is cracked and the limit of what could be seen outside. It has not tested the ties, and it has not decided that they have failed or that they are sound. Tie corrosion more often marks the outer leaf, so a quiet outer face does not convict the ties and does not clear them. The split leaves the tie question undecided.
Walls
A render crack is straight and vertical beside a soil pipe. Why might that be a joint in the coating rather than movement of the wall?
Own page
Because render is put on in bays, and a straight vertical line beside a soil pipe often follows a stop in the coating. The survey has recorded a crack that is straight, vertical and next to that pipe. It has not opened the render, and it has not diagnosed movement of the wall. Movement cracks more often step or rake, and they do not politely follow a pipe. A day joint, or a joint where the render met a chase, can open as a ruled line. That is why this one might be a joint in the coating.
Walls
A crack shows through paint that looks recently applied on the render. What has that paint layer not done to the crack underneath?
Own page
It has not repaired the crack underneath. Paint that looks recently applied, with the crack showing through, has covered the render and failed to hide the line. The survey has recorded a crack telegraphing through that coating of paint. It has not dated the crack in the render, and it has not decided that decoration closed it, stitched it or made it safe. Paint is a film. A film does not tie the two sides of a crack together. What the paint layer has not done is repair the crack that is still visible through it.
Structure
A crack sits exactly where a later extension meets the original house. Why is that joint a different thing from a crack in the middle of the old wall?
Own page
Because two builds meet there, and a crack in the middle of the old wall is in one build. The crack that sits exactly on the joint is using the junction between the later extension and the original house, where two ages of structure can move a little differently. The survey has recorded that position. It has not called it the same defect as a crack in the old wall, and it has not issued a building-regulations certificate for the extension. Approved Document A is structural guidance. It is not a verdict this inspection has given on the joint.
Property types
The main walls are cavity brick and the bay is solid. Why should a damp reading in the bay not be copied onto the cavity walls?
Own page
Because the bay is a different wall. The main walls are cavity brick and the bay is solid, so a damp reading in the bay belongs to that solid construction. The survey has recorded the reading where it was taken. It has not shown the same condition in the cavity walls, and it has not tested them by copying a number across. A solid bay is one leaf, often more exposed and without the cavity that separates the main inner leaf from the rain. The cavity walls are the other construction. Copying the bay onto them invents a finding the inspection did not make.
Walls
A new patio has buried an air brick that used to vent the floor void. What timber risk is that, and what rot has it not proved?
Own page
The risk is a floor void that no longer gets that air, and no rot has been proved. A new patio has buried an air brick that used to vent under the floor. The survey has recorded the buried vent. It has not seen the joists fail, has not found rot, and has not said the timber is decayed. Suspended timber floors rely on air bricks to keep the void from sitting still and damp. Covering one raises that risk. It does not, by itself, prove that any joist has rotted. The missing vent is the finding.
Damp
Outside paving sits above the damp-proof course beside the kitchen. What mechanism is that, and why is it not a specification for chemical injection?
Own page
It is bridging of the damp-proof course, and it is not a specification for chemical injection. Outside paving beside the kitchen sits above the damp-proof course, so the ground level outside is higher than the barrier in the wall. Moisture can pass the barrier by way of the paving and the masonry above it. The survey has recorded that relationship. It has not specified an injection, and it has not decided that a chemical damp-proof course is the remedy. The mechanism is the high paving. Lowering the paving, or separating it from the wall, addresses the bridge.
Damp
A rainwater hopper overflows onto solid brick and the plaster inside is salt-stained. Which defect should you read first, the hopper or a damp treatment?
Own page
Read the hopper first. A rainwater hopper that overflows onto solid brick is putting water onto the wall, and the salt-stained plaster inside sits on that path. The survey has recorded the overflow and the staining. It has not specified a damp treatment, and it has not decided that the salts need a chemical system while the hopper still overflows. On solid brick the rain has no cavity to fall into. The defect to read first is the hopper that is discharging onto the wall. A damp treatment that ignores it treats the stain and leaves the water.
Services
A WC overflow has dripped onto the brick until the mortar is gone. Why is that a plumbing leak and not rising damp from the ground?
Own page
Because the water is the WC overflow, not the ground. A WC overflow that has dripped onto the brick until the mortar is gone is a plumbing leak of cistern water, concentrated on one patch of wall. The survey has recorded the drip and the lost mortar under it. It has not diagnosed rising damp, and the pattern does not fit rising damp. Rising damp is moisture from the ground at the base of a wall. This damage follows a pipe that should have discharged elsewhere and instead ran down the face. Read it as plumbing.
Roofs
The chimney stack leans and the rafters were not measured for spread. Why should that lean not be written up as roof spread by default?
Own page
Because the rafters were not measured, so roof spread is not the default. The chimney stack leans, and that lean belongs to the stack until something shows the roof pushing the wall. The survey has recorded the lean. It has not measured the rafters for spread, and it has not written the lean up as spread. A stack leans from its own height, its mortar, sulphate action or a poor base. Roof spread is outward thrust of the rafters at the eaves. Without that measurement, defaulting to spread names a mechanism the inspection did not establish. The finding is a leaning stack.
Roofs
Render on a disused stack is bulging and the mortar behind it is crumbly. What has the survey not sampled if it mentions sulphate?
Own page
The mortar. If the survey mentions sulphate, it has not sampled the mortar to show it. Render on a disused stack is bulging and the mortar behind it is crumbly, which is what the eye could see. Sulphate is a word for a chemical effect people discuss on old stacks, where flue deposits can attack mortar and throw the render off. Mentioning the word is not a laboratory sample. The survey has recorded bulge and crumbly mortar. It has not taken mortar away for testing, and it has not proved sulphate. The sample is what is missing.
Roof and rainwater
An open joint in a parapet coping sits above a damp patch in the top-floor ceiling, and the roof covering looked even. What path for water is that?
Own page
Through the open joint in the coping, not through a failed covering. An open joint in a parapet coping, sitting above a damp patch in the top-floor ceiling, is a gap at the top of the wall where rain can enter and track down. The roof covering looked even, so the survey has not blamed a hole in the covering. It has recorded the open joint and the damp patch in line with it. The path to name is that joint: water into the coping, into the head of the parapet, and through to the ceiling below.
Timber
The survey says the wall plate could not be seen. What timber conclusion is simply unavailable until someone looks at that plate?
Own page
Any conclusion about the plate itself. The survey says the wall plate could not be seen, so nobody can say it is sound, decayed, or attacked. The inspection has recorded the limit. It has not concluded that the plate is rotten, and it has not given it a clean bill. The wall plate is the timber on the wall that takes the feet of the rafters or the joists. Until someone looks at that plate, every timber conclusion about it is unavailable. Other wood that was seen is a different sentence and does not stand in for the piece that stayed hidden.
Roof and rainwater
A secret gutter behind a parapet is lined in lead that has split, and the tiles in front still look even. Where is the leak path the tiles are not showing?
Own page
The leak path the even tiles are not showing is the split lead in the secret gutter behind the parapet. Rain falling into that hidden channel can pass through the split and wet the wall or the roof build-up behind, while the front tiles stay even. The survey has recorded the split lining it could see. It has not water-tested the route or timed how long the lead has been open. It has not traced how far any wetting has travelled inside. A tidy slope in front of the parapet does not close that gutter.
Roof and rainwater
A valley is packed with moss and grit from the covering. Has the survey said the valley has failed, or only that it could not see the lining?
Own page
Only that it could not see the lining. A valley packed with moss and grit is an obstructed channel, not a verdict that the valley has failed. The debris hides the lead, felt or other lining underneath, so the surveyor could not say whether that lining is holed, tired or still sound. Moss can hold water and grit can block the outlet, which is worth clearing, but a cover of debris is not the same as a failed valley. The survey recorded what blocked the view. It did not water-test the channel and it did not date any leak.
Roof and rainwater
Lumps of mortar torching have fallen onto the loft insulation. What does that debris tell you about the underside of the tiles, and what leak has it not proved?
Own page
The debris tells you that mortar torching has come off the underside of the tiles and dropped onto the insulation. Torching is the mortar that older roofs used under the tiles, and lumps on the loft floor mean that bedding has detached. Tiles can then be less held from below, and driving rain can pass the laps more easily than when the torching was intact. That has not proved a leak. Fallen mortar is not a dated stain, and the survey has not shown water coming through the covering on the day.
Roof and rainwater
A purlin in the loft is propped with a timber stud that does not land on a wall. What load path has that prop not created?
Own page
That prop has not created a load path from the purlin down into a wall. A timber stud that stops on a ceiling joist, a board or thin air has nowhere structural to deliver the load the purlin is carrying. The purlin still spans between its real bearings, and the stud is an extra piece that does not finish on masonry. The survey has seen the prop and where it fails to land. It has not calculated the load, tested the ceiling under the stud, or designed a support that does reach a wall.
Roof and rainwater
A trussed-rafter has been cut to enlarge a loft hatch. Why is that a different problem from a missing tile on the same slope?
Own page
A cut trussed rafter is a change to the roof frame, not a gap in the covering. Trussed rafters work as a set of timbers that share load, so cutting one to enlarge a loft hatch breaks that arrangement at the opening. A missing tile on the same slope is a covering defect: rain can enter at that hole, and the tile can be replaced without redesigning the truss. The survey has seen the cut member. It has not calculated what the trimmed opening can carry. Approved Document A is structural guidance, not a certificate this inspection has issued for that hatch.
Roof and rainwater
The eaves have pushed out and a gap has opened between the ceiling and the wall. What has the survey not measured if it only says the roof may be spreading?
Own page
If the survey only says the roof may be spreading, it has not measured the movement. Pushed eaves and a gap between ceiling and wall are the signs it could see. It has not measured how far the eaves have gone out, how wide the gap is, whether a tie is still tying the feet, or whether the movement is old or still going on. May be spreading is a caution, not a measured diagnosis. The survey has not calculated the thrust and has not specified ties, bolts or a rebuilt eaves.
Roof and rainwater
A flat roof holds a pond of water and the ceiling underneath has no stain. Has the survey called the covering failed because of the pond?
Own page
No. The survey has not called the covering failed because of the pond. Standing water shows that the falls or the outlet are not clearing the flat roof, which can age the felt or membrane, but a pond is not itself a split in the covering. The ceiling underneath had no stain, so a leak into that room was not seen on the day. The inspection recorded water lying on the roof. It did not water-test the covering, did not cut a core, and did not decide that the flat roof is at the end of its life.
Roof and rainwater
An intact blister sits in the felt of a flat roof over a bay. Why should that blister not be burst on a viewing to see what is inside?
Own page
Leave the blister unburst. It is a raised pocket in the felt over the bay, and the felt around it is still continuous. Bursting it on a viewing puts a hole in that covering so you can look inside, and rain can then enter a roof that had not been opened. The pocket may hold air, moisture or both, and popping it does not date the fault or tell you the deck condition. The survey left the blister intact. It has not sampled the inside and has not called the bay roof failed because of one unopened blister.
Roof and rainwater
The outlet from a parapet gutter is blocked and the gutter is holding water against the wall. Why is the first repair the outlet, not a new damp-proof course?
Own page
The first repair is the blocked outlet, because that is what is holding water against the wall. A parapet gutter that cannot empty lets rain stand where the wall meets the roof, which is a rainwater fault. A new damp-proof course is aimed at moisture rising in the masonry, not at a gutter full of debris. Clearing the outlet deals with the water that is there. The survey has seen the blockage and the standing water. It has not said the wall needs a new damp-proof course, and it has not flow-tested the gutter once it can empty.
Roof and rainwater
A downpipe from the main roof dumps onto a lower flat roof with no shoe. What has the survey not flow-tested about that lower covering?
Own page
The survey has not flow-tested the lower covering at all. It saw a downpipe from the main roof dumping onto the flat roof with no shoe, which is a concentrated discharge onto one spot. It has not tested how much water arrives, whether the lower felt or membrane copes with that point load, how the falls take it, or whether the lower outlet clears it. No shoe means the water is not turned and spread. The finding is that discharge detail. It is not a drainage test, and it is not a verdict that the lower covering has failed.
Roof and rainwater
A cast-iron gutter is cracked at one joint and the rest of the run looks original. Has the survey specified a whole new plastic system?
Own page
No. The survey has not specified a whole new plastic system. It has recorded a crack at one joint of a cast-iron gutter, with the rest of the run looking original. That is a local defect at a joint, not a design for replacement in plastic. Original lengths can remain, be repaired, or later be renewed, and the survey has not chosen among those. It has not tested every other joint, so a tidy look along the run is not a pass for the whole gutter. The finding stops at the crack that was seen.
Roof and rainwater
The fascia is soft behind the gutter and the tiles above still sit in line. Why is rotten fascia not a verdict on the tile fixings?
Own page
Rotten fascia is not a verdict on the tile fixings because they are different parts. The fascia is the board behind the gutter, and softness there is decay in that board, usually from gutter wetness. Tile fixings are the nails or pegs higher up, holding the tiles to battens. Tiles that still sit in line do not prove those fixings are sound, and a soft fascia does not prove they have failed. The survey saw the decayed board. It did not lift the tiles, and it has not decided the condition of the fixings.
Roof and rainwater
Soffit vents on a cold roof have been painted over. What moisture risk in the loft does that raise, and what condensation has it not measured?
Own page
Painted-over soffit vents raise the risk that moist air stays in a cold-roof loft because the intake at the eaves is closed. Those vents are there so outside air can enter and the roof space is not sealed. Paint across them blocks that path, which can leave the underside of the covering more prone to condensation. The survey has seen the painted vents. It has not measured condensation, humidity or how wet the timbers are. No dripping was recorded as a test result. The note is a blocked intake, not a measured moisture load.
Roofs
Wire netting over thatch is loose at the ridge and the surveyor did not lift the coat. What condition of the reed or straw was not inspected?
Own page
The condition of the reed or straw under the wire was not inspected. Loose netting at the ridge is what the survey could see without lifting the coat. Depth of the thatch, the fixings, the ridge work itself and any softness or decay in the coat stayed hidden. Wire holds the surface and deters birds. It is not the thatch. A slack ridge wire does not tell you the coat is sound, and it does not tell you the coat has failed. The survey stopped at the netting it did not lift.
Roofs
The only weathering between thatch and the chimney is a mortar fillet. Why is that fillet not a lead flashing, and what leak has it not timed?
Own page
A mortar fillet is not a lead flashing because it is mortar smeared at the junction, not metal dressed into the chimney and over the thatch. Lead flashing is cut, stepped or chased into the stack so water is turned onto the covering. A fillet simply fills the angle. It cracks as the thatch moves and as the mortar weathers, and then the junction is open. The survey has not timed a leak. It recorded that the only weathering seen was the fillet. It did not water-test it and did not date any staining.
Services
A log burner is fitted in a thatched house and the survey did not inspect the flue liner. What safety check has not been done?
Own page
The safety check that has not been done is an inspection of the flue liner and of how that flue is separated from the thatch. The survey noted a log burner in a thatched house and stopped there. It did not inspect the liner, the joints, the terminal or the distance between the hot flue and the coat. A home survey does not light the stove and does not certify it. Seeing the appliance in the room is not a flue inspection. The burner has not been passed, and it has not been failed, by this visit.
Roofs
Flaunching is cracked and the pots have not shifted. Why is cracked flaunching a maintenance note rather than a leaning stack?
Own page
Cracked flaunching is a maintenance note because the pots have not shifted and the stack has not been described as leaning. Flaunching is the mortar that beds and weathers the pots at the top of the chimney. Cracks in that mortar can let rain into the top of the stack, so they are worth repairing. They are not, by themselves, a leaning chimney or a pot that is loose. The survey saw cracked mortar and pots still seated. It has not tested the flues and has not said the stack must come down.
Roofs
An open pot has no cowl and the fireplace below smells damp. Has the survey shown rain down the flue, or only that the pot is open?
Own page
Only that the pot is open. An open pot with no cowl can admit rain, and a damp smell at the fireplace fits a flue that might be wet, but the survey has not shown that rain did come down the flue. Smell is not a measurement, and no water test was carried out. The finding is a pot without a cowl. It does not prove a rain path, it does not time the smell, and it does not say the fireplace is unsafe. The inspection stopped at what could be seen at the pot and noticed in the room.
Services
A disused flue has a vent in the breast and the pot was not capped in a way the surveyor could confirm. What moisture path remains if the flue is closed at the top only?
Own page
If the flue is closed at the top only, the moisture path that remains is inside the disused flue toward the vent in the breast. Rain may be kept out at the pot, but moist air can still sit in the stack, condense on the cold flue, and track to that vent or into the breast masonry. The surveyor could not confirm how the pot was capped, so even the closure at the top is unverified. The vent shows an opening at room level. The survey has not measured moisture in the flue and has not shown this path is active.
Roof and rainwater
Lead flashing is dressed into a chase and the pointing over the chase has fallen out. What is left holding the water out, and what was not water-tested?
Own page
What is left holding the water out is the lead dressed into the chase. The pointing that should seal the top of that chase has fallen out, so the groove above the lead is open. Wind-driven rain can get in over the flashing and behind it. Nothing was water-tested. The survey saw the lead still turned into the chase and the missing pointing. It has not shown how much rain gets past, has not timed a leak, and has not said the lead itself has failed. The weakness recorded is the open chase, not a missing flashing.
Roof and rainwater
At a side abutment the cover flashing is there and soakers were not seen. Why can the survey not confirm the soakers from the ground?
Own page
The survey cannot confirm the soakers from the ground because soakers sit under the tiles, hidden by the covering and by the cover flashing. They are small trays at the side of the wall, one to each course, and from ground level the visible piece is the cover flashing over the top. Not seeing soakers means they were not in view. It does not prove they are missing, and it does not prove they are present. The survey recorded the cover flashing it could see. It did not lift tiles, and it did not water-test the abutment.
Roof and rainwater
A roof window sits on a timber kerb and the surveyor could not see a proper skirt or flashing kit. What leak path is unverified?
Own page
The unverified leak path is the junction between the roof window, the timber kerb and the covering. A skirt or a proprietary flashing kit is what normally weathers that opening. The surveyor could not see one, so the path around the kerb has not been shown to be sound and has not been shown to leak. The survey recorded a window on a timber kerb without a visible kit. It did not water-test the joint, did not lift the covering, and did not decide that the window must be replaced.
Roof and rainwater
The cheek of a dormer is clad in felt that is cracking, and the front tiles of the dormer look sound. Why can the cheek leak while those tiles do not?
Own page
The cheek can leak while the front tiles do not because they are different faces. The cheek is the side of the dormer, clad in felt that is cracking, and water can enter those cracks on a vertical face without ever crossing the tiled front. Sound tiles on the front only describe that front slope. They do not cover the cheek and they do not heal cracked felt. The survey has recorded the cracking on the side. It has not water-tested the cheek and has not blamed the front tiles for a leak they do not form.
Roof and rainwater
The small flat roof on a dormer appears to fall back towards the house wall. What has the survey not measured with a level, and why does the direction matter?
Own page
The survey has not measured the fall with a level. It recorded that the small flat roof on the dormer appears to fall back toward the house wall. Direction matters because water that runs toward the wall can pond against the junction with the house instead of leaving at an outer edge or an outlet. Appearance from the ground is not a level reading. The survey has not shown how steep the fall is, has not water-tested the junction, and has not decided that the covering has failed. The note is the apparent direction.
Roofs
Spray foam has been applied to the underside of a felted roof slope. Why is that a different lender question from foam on a slate roof with a ventilated void?
Own page
Foam under a felted slope is a different lender question because the foam sits against a covering that has no ventilated void the survey can describe. On a slate roof that still has a ventilated void, there is an air path and a gap in which the underside of the slates and the rafters can at least be discussed. Under felt, the foam closes the space against the membrane, so timber, felt and moisture cannot be separated by looking. The survey has recorded where the foam is. It has not tested the foam, has not sampled the timber, and has not made a lending decision.
Roofs
Spray foam covers the rafters so the surveyor could not see the timber. What decay check is blocked, even if the foam itself looks stuck?
Own page
The decay check that is blocked is a look at the rafters for rot, beetle and wetting. Spray foam covers the timber, so the surveyor could not see the wood. Foam that looks stuck only shows the face of the foam. It does not show whether the rafter behind is firm, holed or damp. The survey has recorded the concealment. It has not sampled the foam, has not probed the timber through it, and has not said the rafters are sound. Stuck foam is not a decay inspection.
Roof and rainwater
The loft notes damp on the underside of the sarking and the tiles outside are whole. Why might that be condensation in the roof build-up rather than a leak?
Own page
It might be condensation in the roof build-up because the tiles outside are whole and the damp is on the underside of the sarking, which is where moisture in the roof space can settle. BRE has described dripping that is built-up condensation rather than a leak through the covering. Whole tiles do not prove that account, but they do mean a hole in the covering was not what the survey saw. The inspection recorded damp on the sarking. It has not proved a leak, it has not proved condensation, and it has not run a test that separates the two.
Roof and rainwater
Loft insulation is stuffed tight into the eaves and the cold-roof gap is gone. What ventilation path has that blocked?
Own page
Stuffing the insulation into the eaves has blocked the cold-roof ventilation path at the intake. On a cold roof, air is meant to enter at the eaves, pass through a gap above the insulation, and move along under the covering. When the quilt is packed tight, that gap is gone and the intake cannot feed the loft. The survey has seen the blocked eaves. It has not measured condensation, has not measured airflow, and has not said the roof is leaking. The finding is a closed ventilation path, not a proved moisture result.
Choosing a survey
There is no loft hatch and the surveyor did not open the ceiling. What of the roof structure is simply not in the report?
Own page
The roof structure that can only be seen from inside the loft is simply not in the report. With no hatch, and because the surveyor did not open the ceiling, the rafters or trusses, the purlins, the underside of the covering and the junctions at party or gable walls were not inspected. The outside of the roof may still be described from ground level. Silence on the frame is not a pass. It is an access limit. The survey has not said the structure is sound, and it has not said it is defective. Those timbers were not in the inspection.
Roof and rainwater
The underside of a valley is boarded over in the loft. Why can a stain on that boarding not be dated, and what lining was not seen?
Own page
A stain on the boarding cannot be dated because the boards hide when the mark was made and whether it is still active. The valley lining was not seen at all. Lead, felt or whatever else forms the channel sits above those boards, on the outside of the roof, and the loft view stopped at timber. The survey can record the boarded underside and the stain on it. It has not aged the mark, has not called the valley failed, and has not identified the lining material. Colour on a board is not a date and not a view of the metal or felt.
Hazardous materials
The garage roof looks like asbestos cement and the house roof is tile. Why does the garage sheet not answer whether the house contains asbestos?
Own page
The garage sheet does not answer whether the house contains asbestos because it is a different building and a different covering. A garage roof that looks like asbestos cement is a visual impression of those sheets only. The house roof is tile, so the house covering is not that sheet. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos in other products, and a home survey does not sample asbestos by looking. The survey has not tested the garage sheet and has not tested the house. It has not called either safe or unsafe. Appearance is not a sample.
Roof and rainwater
A slipped tile sits on the party line and the neighbour's loft was not entered. Can the survey instruct the neighbour to share the repair?
Own page
No. The survey cannot instruct the neighbour to share the repair. It can record a slipped tile on the party line, seen from the side that was inspected. It cannot enter a loft that was not opened, serve a party-wall notice, or order the neighbour to pay or to do the work. Sharing a repair, if it arises at all, is a matter for the titles, the owners and any party-wall process, not a sentence in a home survey. The far side of the tile was not seen. The finding is a slipped tile on the line, nothing more decisive than that.
Roof and rainwater
A small flat roof over a bay is tired and the pier below is damp, while the main roof is dry. Why should the pier not be treated as a main-roof leak?
Own page
The pier should not be treated as a main-roof leak because the main roof is dry and the damp pier sits under a tired flat roof over the bay. The two coverings are separate. Water reaching that pier, if it is coming from above, has the bay roof and its junctions as the local path, not the main slopes that showed dry. The survey has recorded a tired bay roof and a damp pier beneath it. It has not water-tested the path, has not blamed the main roof, and has not decided that the pier damp must be rising damp instead.
Roofs
The fireplace is gone and the stack still stands above the roof. What support for that stack was not seen in the rooms below?
Own page
What was not seen is the support that now carries the stack through the rooms below. The fireplace is gone, so the breast and hearth that once made the support obvious were not there to inspect. Whatever remains, whether a narrowed breast, a beam, brackets or nothing adequate, was not visible. The stack still standing above the roof is not proof those supports are sound. The survey has recorded a stack without its fireplace. It has not calculated the load, has not opened the ceilings, and has not said the stack is safely carried.
Services
A cowl sits on a pot that still serves a gas fire. Has the home survey confirmed that cowl is the right terminal for that appliance?
Own page
No. The home survey has not confirmed that the cowl is the right terminal for that gas fire. It can record that a cowl sits on a pot and that the pot still serves a gas fire in the room. It cannot match the terminal to the appliance, check the flue, or certify the installation. Gas was not tested. A cowl that looks tidy can still be the wrong type for that fire, and a correct type would still need a gas engineer to confirm it. The survey stopped at what was visible. It has not passed the terminal.
Roof and rainwater
One step of lead flashing has lifted and the rest are dressed down. What weather entry is local to that step?
Own page
The weather entry local to that step is wind-driven rain at the lifted piece of lead, into the gap that one step has opened. The other steps are still dressed down, so the note is not a failure of the whole flashing run. Rain can reach the chase or the abutment at the lifted step only, while the dressed steps still cover their own courses. The survey has recorded one lifted step. It has not water-tested it, has not said how much rain gets in, and has not specified new lead for the steps that remain tight.
Roofs
The thatch eaves of two cottages almost touch. What can the survey of one cottage not say about the neighbour's coat?
Own page
The survey of one cottage cannot say whether the neighbour's coat is sound, how thick it is, or how the two roofs actually meet. It can record that the thatch eaves almost touch. It did not cross the boundary, did not lift the neighbour's coat, and did not inspect their ridge, fixings or wire. Proximity is a fact about the gap. It is not a condition report on the next house. The survey has not judged the neighbour's thatch and has not said the nearness itself is a defect in either coat.
Timber
Fresh-looking flight holes are in the sapwood of one joist end, and the heartwood beside them is solid. Why has that not ordered a spray of the whole house?
Own page
Holes in the sapwood of one joist end have not ordered a spray of the whole house. The survey saw fresh-looking flight holes in that sapwood, with the heartwood beside them still solid. That is a local note at one bearing. It is not a map of active attack through the floors, and it is not a specification for chemical treatment of every timber. The survey has not probed the rest of the house, has not found frass everywhere, and has not instructed a spray. One softwood end is not a whole-house infestation.
Timber
Flight holes in a beam have no fresh dust under them. What can the survey not say about whether the beetle is still active?
Own page
The survey cannot say whether the beetle is still active. Flight holes with no fresh dust under them show old emergence, not insects seen at work on the day. Lack of dust is not proof they have gone, because dust can be cleaned away or fall where it was not looked for. It is also not proof they are active. No monitoring was done. The finding is holes without fresh dust. The survey has not declared the attack historic for certain, and it has not declared it live.
Timber
A large oak lintel has the sort of holes associated with deathwatch beetle, and the softwood floorboards do not. Why should those floorboards not be condemned with the lintel?
Own page
Those floorboards should not be condemned with the lintel because they do not show the holes, and the attack associated with deathwatch beetle is linked here to the oak, not to the softwood boards. Deathwatch is a hardwood problem, often in damp oak, which is a different timber from the floorboards beside it. The survey has recorded the sort of holes seen in the lintel. It has not found the same holes in the boards, has not said the floor is infested, and has not specified that the boards be replaced with the lintel. The floor stays out of that condemnation.
Timber
The timber sill of one window is wet-rot soft and the frame above it is firm. Why is that sill not a diagnosis of dry rot in the floor?
Own page
That sill is not a diagnosis of dry rot in the floor because the decay found is local wet rot in one window sill. Wet rot stays where timber has remained wet. The frame above the sill was firm, which keeps the finding on the sill rather than on a fungus travelling through the joinery. The floor was not the subject of the note and was not opened. The survey has identified a soft sill. It has not diagnosed dry rot, has not said the floor is affected, and has not specified that floor timbers be replaced.
Timber
Strands like dry rot were seen behind one skirting and the floorboards were not lifted. What extent of decay is still unknown?
Own page
The extent still unknown is how far any decay runs past that one skirting. Strands like dry rot were seen there, and the floorboards were not lifted, so the joists, the boards and the timbers beyond that skirting were not seen. The survey cannot say whether the strands stop at that board or continue under the floor. It has not measured lost section, has not named how much timber must come out, and has not mapped a limit. The finding is strands at one skirting. The size of the problem is still unknown.
Timber
A fungal fruiting body was seen on a cellar joist. Why is naming the fungus not the same as mapping how far the timber has lost section?
Own page
Naming the fungus is not the same as mapping lost section because a name identifies the fruiting body, not the strength of the timber. The survey saw a fungal fruiting body on a cellar joist. That records what was growing there. It does not measure how far the joist has wasted, whether the next joist is hollow, or where the growth stops. The inspection has not probed every member and has not specified which timbers to replace. A label, even a correct one, is not a map of section loss.
Timber
A cellar beam shows cuboidal cracking and the surveyor did not probe every joist. What does that cracking pattern suggest, and what replacement has it not specified?
Own page
Cuboidal cracking suggests brown-rot decay in that cellar beam, the pattern in which the wood breaks into cube-like blocks. It suggests that kind of decay in the beam that shows it. It does not name the species for certain, because more than one brown rot can leave that pattern, and it has not specified which joists to replace. The surveyor did not probe every joist. The survey recorded the cracking it saw. It has not written a renewal schedule and has not said the whole cellar floor must be renewed.
Timber
A joist end is built into a wall that read as damp, and the end itself was not exposed. What decay may be hidden, and why was it not confirmed?
Own page
The decay that may be hidden is rot in the joist end where it is buried in the damp wall, at the bearing you cannot see. Timber built into wet masonry often softens at that end while the visible span still looks fair. It was not confirmed because the end was not exposed. A damp reading on the wall is not a view of the wood. The survey has recorded a buried bearing in a wall that read as damp. It has not said the joist has lost its bearing, has not specified a repair, and has not proved the end is decayed.
Damp
The seller says a solid floor replaced a rotten timber floor. What can the survey not check about the damp-proof membrane under that new slab?
Own page
The survey cannot check the damp-proof membrane under that new slab, because the membrane, if it exists, is buried in the floor. The seller's account, that a solid floor replaced a rotten timber floor, is a statement the inspection cannot verify from the surface. The survey has not seen the membrane, has not seen whether it is continuous, and has not seen whether the old rotten timber was fully removed. A reading on the finished floor is not a view of the layer underneath. The membrane remains unchecked.
Walls
Air bricks are only on the front and the rear void has none the surveyor could see. What ventilation of the floor has not been shown?
Own page
Cross-ventilation of the floor has not been shown. Air bricks only on the front, with none the surveyor could see at the rear, do not demonstrate that air can cross the void under a suspended timber floor. One elevation can let air in and still leave the back of the void stale if there is no way through. The survey recorded the front bricks and the absence it could see at the rear. It has not measured airflow, has not opened the floor, and has not said the joists are decayed. The missing path is what has not been shown.
Grounds
A deck blocks the air bricks along the back wall. Why is that a timber-floor question and not a defect of the deck boards themselves?
Own page
It is a timber-floor question because the deck is blocking the air bricks that ventilate the underfloor void, not because the deck boards have been found defective. The boards may be perfectly sound and still sit across the vents. The defect that matters to the house is the stopped air path under the suspended floor. The survey saw the deck covering those bricks. It has not said the deck timber is rotten, has not graded the boards, and has not inspected the joists in the void. The deck is the obstruction. The floor ventilation is the issue.
Damp
Mould sits on a cold concrete lintel in a bedroom and the skirting below is dry. Why does that pattern fit condensation better than rising damp?
Own page
The pattern fits condensation better than rising damp because the mould is on a cold concrete lintel, up at the window, while the skirting below is dry. Condensation settles on the coldest surface, and a concrete lintel in a heated bedroom is a typical cold bridge. Rising damp would be expected low down, at the base of the wall, where this skirting was dry. The survey has read the pattern. It has not laboratory-tested the moisture, has not diagnosed rising damp from the lintel, and has not said the wall needs a damp-proof course.
Damp
Mould is only behind furniture against an outside wall, and the meter was not a laboratory test. What has the survey not measured about how the room is heated and ventilated?
Own page
The survey has not measured how the room is heated and ventilated. Mould only behind furniture on an outside wall fits a cold, still pocket where the piece stands against a cold surface. The meter was not a laboratory test, so it did not identify the mould, sample the air, or track humidity. The inspection saw where the mould was. It did not log the heating pattern, the ventilation, how long the furniture has stood there, or the surface temperature over time. Those room-use facts are what has not been measured.
Services
A bathroom fan discharges into the loft rather than outside. What moisture is being put into the roof void, and what fan performance was not tested?
Own page
Moist air from the bathroom is being blown into the loft, not carried outside. The fan discharges into the roof void, so steam from washing and bathing can settle on cold felt, rafters and the underside of the covering. That is a moisture path into the void. The home survey has seen where the duct ends. It has not measured how much air the fan moves, how long it runs, or whether the extract rate is adequate. Fan performance was not tested. The finding is the discharge point, not a passed or failed fan.
Walls
Trickle vents on the windows are taped shut. Why is that a ventilation note and not a defect in the glass?
Own page
Taping the trickle vents shut is a ventilation note, not a defect in the glass. Those slots are the background air path in the window frame, and tape stops that path. The panes, the seals and the frames are a different matter, and the survey has not called them failed because the vents are closed. Nobody measured how the room ventilates with the vents taped. The note names a blocked ventilator. It does not say the glazing unit must be replaced, and it does not treat tape as a crack.
Services
A positive-input fan sits in the hall ceiling. Has the home survey tested that unit, or only recorded that it is fitted?
Own page
The home survey has only recorded that a positive-input fan is fitted in the hall ceiling. It has not tested the unit. A box or grille on the ceiling is not a trial of the fan, the filter, the loft intake or the controls. The visit did not measure the air being pushed into the hall, did not run a cycle, and did not decide whether this is the right way to ventilate the house. What is known is that the equipment is there. What is not known is whether it works.
Damp
A cellar has been tanked and it still smells damp. What can the survey not say about the tanking system it could not see behind the lining?
Own page
The survey cannot say whether the tanking behind the lining is sound, failed or the wrong system, because that layer was not seen. A cellar that has been tanked and still smells damp gives a smell and a lining, not a view of the membrane, the slurry or the joints. The inspection did not open the lining. It has not decided that water is crossing the tanking, sitting behind it, or arriving somewhere the system does not cover. Smell is recorded. The hidden tanking is not diagnosed.
Damp
A sump and pump sit in the cellar floor and the power was off. What flood path is that pump there for, and what has not been run?
Own page
The sump and pump are there to lift water that collects in the cellar, and nothing was run because the power was off. The survey can record the sump in the floor, the pump and the dead supply. It has not seen the pump start, watched a discharge, or proved where water would go if the cellar took in water. No flood was staged as a test. The equipment explains the path it was fitted for. The visit did not demonstrate that path.
Drainage
The drain in a basement lightwell is full of leaves. Why can that blocked gulley wet the basement wall without any rising damp from the floor slab?
Own page
A lightwell drain full of leaves can wet the basement wall from outside without any rising damp from the floor slab. Rain that cannot leave the well stands against the wall and soaks the masonry at that point. The survey can see the leaves and the blocked gulley. It has not found moisture rising through the slab, and it has not tested the floor. A wet wall beside a choked lightwell drain has a rainwater explanation. It should not be rewritten as damp coming up from the floor.
Walls
An old coal chute still passes through the basement wall and the cover is loose. What rain path is that opening?
Own page
The loose cover is a rain path through the basement wall along the old coal chute. Water that lands on that opening can run down the chute and into the cellar instead of staying outside. The survey records an opening that still passes through the wall and a cover that does not sit tight. It has not measured how much rain gets in, and it has not decided that every damp mark in the basement comes from this hole. The path named is the chute itself.
Environment
A pipe and fan that look like a radon sump are in the cellar. Has the survey measured the radon level, or only seen the hardware?
Own page
The survey has only seen the hardware. A pipe and fan that look like a radon sump are in the cellar, and no radon level was measured. The visit did not test the air, did not confirm that the fan runs, and did not sample anything. UK radon mapping is a separate product from a note that a pipe is there. The survey can describe the equipment it saw. It cannot say the level is high, low or acceptable, because that measurement was not made.
Damp
A resistance meter beeped on a salty chimney breast. Why can salts make that kind of meter read high when the wall is not newly wet?
Own page
Salts in the chimney breast can make a resistance meter beep when the wall is not newly wet. That kind of meter reads how easily a current passes. Hygroscopic salts from old flue deposits can pass a current without a fresh leak. The survey has a high reading on a salty breast. It has not proved a current water path, and a beep is not a decision that the chimney is wet today. The salts are the reason a high reading can mislead.
Choosing a survey
A Level 1 report does not quote moisture-meter readings. Does that mean the surveyor ignored damp, or that the Level 1 scope is visual?
Own page
The missing moisture-meter readings mean the Level 1 scope is visual, not that damp was ignored. A Level 1 report is a visual inspection, and this one does not quote meter readings because that is outside what this product sets out to publish. The surveyor can still describe staining, a tide mark or a smell that was seen. What was not done is a moisture-meter survey. Absence of numbers is the scope. It is not a statement that damp was looked for and dismissed.
Walls
A sash will not stay open because the cords are broken, and the timber frame is sound. Why is that a repair to the sash gear and not a window replacement by default?
Own page
Broken cords are a repair to the sash gear, not a window replacement by default, because the timber frame is sound and the sash will not stay open. The failure is in the cords, the pulleys or the weights that hold the sash. The survey has not condemned the glass or the box frame. It has not said the window must be replaced. Mending the gear that keeps the sash up is a different job from changing the whole window, and the sound frame is why replacement is not the starting point.
Walls
The sill of a bay window is rotten and the sashes above it still open. What timber has the survey actually called decayed?
Own page
The timber the survey has called decayed is the sill of the bay, not the sashes above it. Those sashes still open. The inspection can describe softness, a broken paint line or lost section in that sill where it was seen. It has not called the whole bay rotten, and it has not opened hidden ends of the frame to chase decay that was not exposed. The named timber is the sill. The sashes are a separate piece that still worked on the day.
Property types
The house is in a conservation area and the survey does not mention an Article 4 direction. Has the survey checked whether replacement windows need planning permission?
Own page
No. The survey has not checked whether replacement windows need planning permission, and it does not mention an Article 4 direction because that check was not done. The house is in a conservation area. That is a planning fact for the council and the solicitor, not a consent the inspection grants. Historic England explains that listing, where a building is listed, covers the whole building. This survey has not established listing either. It describes the windows it saw. It does not decide Article 4, permission or consent.
Legal and neighbours
One replacement window has no FENSA certificate in the pack. Is that window unlawful, or is the certificate only one route under the competent-person schemes?
Own page
The missing FENSA certificate does not make that replacement window unlawful. Competent-person schemes are one route to building-regulations compliance, and FENSA is one such scheme, not the only route. The survey has not produced a certificate, and none for this window was in the pack. A council application is another route that can exist. The inspection records the window it could see. It does not issue the paperwork, and a missing scheme certificate is not a verdict that the window fails the law.
Walls
A new door threshold bridges the damp-proof course and the plaster beside the frame is marked. What path is that threshold, as against a failed window elsewhere?
Own page
The new door threshold is a bridge across the damp-proof course, and that is the path to the marked plaster beside the frame. It is not a failed window elsewhere. Moisture can track over the course where the threshold crosses it and show in the plaster next to the lining. The survey can see the threshold and the marking. It has not blamed another window, and it has not laboratory-tested the wall. The path to name is this threshold at this door, not a glazing failure in a different opening.
Structure
An opening has been widened for a new door and no lintel is visible. What support above that opening was not confirmed?
Own page
The support above the widened opening was not confirmed, because no lintel is visible. The survey can see that the opening has been made wider for a new door and that no lintel, beam or other support was in view. It has not opened the plaster to find a hidden member, and it has not calculated whether the wall above is carried. Approved Document A is structural guidance. It is not a certificate that this opening is supported. What remains unconfirmed is the support itself.
Property types
A balcony deck forms the roof of the room below and the covering was not lifted. What leak path into that room is unverified?
Own page
The leak path from the balcony deck into the room below is unverified, because the covering was not lifted. That deck is the roof of a habitable room. Water that gets under the surface could reach the ceiling beneath, and the survey could not see the membrane, the falls or the outlets while the covering stayed down. The visit records a deck that was walked. It has not found a leak, and it has not cleared one. The hidden path through the deck remains unchecked.
Walls
One cladding panel on a flat block is loose at a corner. Has the home survey produced an EWS1 form because of that panel?
Own page
No. A cladding panel loose at one corner has not caused the home survey to produce an EWS1 form. The survey can record the loose edge. An EWS1 is a separate external-wall assessment form, not a line in a home survey, and this visit has not issued one. The loose corner is a condition note about that panel. It is not a fire-engineering verdict on the wall, and it does not fill in a form a lender may ask for. The panel was seen. The form was not produced.
Property types
A lobby door in a block of flats is wedged open. What compartmentation point is that wedge defeating, and what fire test was not done?
Own page
The wedge defeats the lobby door as a compartmentation point: a door meant to close is held open. The survey can see the wedge and a door that will not shut while the wedge is there. No fire test was done. The inspection has not timed a closer, sampled the door leaf, or certified the stair. It records a door held open. What the wedge defeats is the closing of that door, not a test result the visit never produced.
Legal and neighbours
The lease plan the agent showed does not match the balcony you walked onto. Can the survey redraw the lease plan?
Own page
No. The survey cannot redraw the lease plan when the balcony you walked onto does not match the plan the agent showed. The inspection can describe that balcony: its deck, its railing and the door onto it. The lease plan is a document. The solicitor compares the plan with the demise, and HM Land Registry holds the title information. Walking the balcony does not amend the lease, does not decide what was demised, and does not turn a mismatch into a new plan.
Services
Damp staining is inside a service cupboard around pipes, and the outside wall is dry. Why should that not be reported as penetrating damp from rain?
Own page
That staining should not be reported as penetrating damp from rain, because it is inside a service cupboard around pipes and the outside wall is dry. Rain penetrating the external wall would be expected to relate to the outside face. Here that face was dry, and the marks sit on the services. The survey records staining around pipes. It has not tested the pipework, and it has not proved a leak. Naming rain through the wall would pick the wrong path when the wet marks are in the riser.
Property types
The flat sits over a shop and a steel beam is visible in the shop ceiling. What bearing and fire protection of that beam did the flat survey not see?
Own page
The flat survey did not see the bearing of the steel beam or its fire protection. The beam is visible in the shop ceiling, under a flat that sits over the shop. From the flat, the inspection is of the home above. A beam glimpsed below is not a view of its ends, its connection into the walls, or any casing that should protect the steel. The survey records that a steel beam is there. It has not confirmed bearing or fire protection, and it has not designed the beam.
Property types
A shop extractor passes through the wall under the flat and the brick around it is stained. What grease and weather path is that hole, separate from the flat's own roof?
Own page
The hole where the shop extractor passes through the wall is a grease and weather path of its own, separate from the flat's roof. The duct goes through the brick under the flat, and the staining around it can be fat, condensate or rain at that penetration. The survey can see the hole and the stained brick. It has not traced a leak from the flat's covering, and it has not tested the extractor. The path to name is the opening in the wall, not the roof over the flat.
Legal and neighbours
The upper maisonette's floor extends over the neighbour's porch. Why can the survey describe the floor timbers and still not define the flying freehold?
Own page
The survey can describe the floor timbers and still not define the flying freehold, because timber is a condition matter and the flying freehold is a title arrangement. The upper maisonette's floor extends over the neighbour's porch. That overlap can be seen. The inspection can comment on the timbers, their span and their condition as far as they were visible. It cannot say who owns the structure, the space or the repairing duty. Those sit in the lease or the transfer. Describing timber does not define the flying freehold.
Money
A Section 20 notice is already in the management pack for roof works. Does the survey replace that consultation, or sit beside it?
Own page
The survey sits beside the Section 20 notice. It does not replace that consultation. The notice already in the management pack is the landlord's consultation about roof works. The home survey describes the roof it saw. It does not count responses, does not check the stages of the notice, and does not decide that the process was followed. Read them as two papers: one about condition, one about consultation. Neither turns into the other because they arrived in the same story about the roof.
Money
The survey is silent on ground rent. Has it missed a defect, or is the rent a lease term the solicitor reads?
Own page
Silence on ground rent is not a missed defect. The rent is a lease term the solicitor reads, and the survey is a condition report. A clause about how the rent changes, including one described as doubling, lives in the lease. The inspection has not failed to spot a crack by leaving the rent unquoted. It does not interpret the clause or say what a lender will make of it. The solicitor reads the rent. The survey stays on the building.
Money
The lease has fewer than 80 years left and the survey's worst note is a rating 2. Which of those two is the survey, and which is the lease length GOV.UK warns about?
Own page
The rating 2 is the survey's worst condition note. The lease length is the lease, and GOV.UK warns that extending a shared-ownership lease can be much more expensive below 80 years. Those are different facts. The survey rates what it saw. It does not count the years left, and it does not price an extension. The solicitor reads the unexpired term from the lease. A rating 2 is not a comment on the term, and the term is not a condition rating. Do not fold one into the other.
Legal and neighbours
You have the survey and you do not yet have the management pack. What service-charge history is the survey not a substitute for?
Own page
The survey is not a substitute for the service-charge history in the management pack you do not yet have. That history is the accounts, the record of what leaseholders have been asked to pay, and the note of major works already raised. The inspection describes the flat and the common parts it could see. It does not list charges, arrears or planned costs. A defect the survey names is not a ledger. Until the pack arrives, that money history is absent, and the survey cannot invent it.
Money
The survey mentions the roof of the block and does not state the reserve fund. Why is the fund a management-pack figure and not a condition rating?
Own page
The reserve fund is a figure from the management pack, not a condition rating of the roof. The survey mentions the roof of the block because it looked at the covering. It does not hold the accounts, and it does not state how much is set aside. A note on the roof answers what the covering looked like. The fund answers what money the block says it holds. Leaving the fund out of the report is not a missing rating. The fund was never something the inspection calculates.
Legal and neighbours
An RTM company manages the block and the roof is a rating 3. Who does the survey say will instruct the roof works?
Own page
The survey does not say who will instruct the roof works. An RTM company manages the block, and the roof carries a rating 3, which is the survey's condition label. Right to manage is about who runs the building day to day. It does not make the survey the client for the works, and it does not name the RTM company, a landlord or a leaseholder as the person who must place the order. That instruction sits in the RTM papers and the leases. The survey records the roof. It does not appoint anyone to order the work.
Legal and neighbours
The agent called the flat commonhold and the papers you have are an ordinary lease. Can the survey convert one into the other?
Own page
No. The survey cannot convert an ordinary lease into commonhold because the agent used that word. The papers you have are a lease. Commonhold is a different tenure for a block. The inspection describes the flat. It does not change how the flat is owned, does not register a commonhold association, and does not correct the agent's label. The solicitor reads the documents in front of you. Until those documents say commonhold, the survey will not treat the flat as if they did.
Drainage
A manhole is in the drive and the surveyor did not lift it. What of the drain run is absent from the report?
Own page
Everything inside that drain is absent from the report, because the manhole in the drive was not lifted. The cover can be recorded. The chamber, the benching, the flow and the direction of the pipes were not seen. No camera was used, and the survey has not tested the run. The report cannot describe a drain it did not open. What is missing is the view that lifting the cover, or a later drain survey, would have given.
Drainage
Two inspection chambers are in the garden and only the one by the kitchen was opened. Why does the open one not describe the other?
Own page
The open chamber does not describe the other, because they are separate chambers and only the one by the kitchen was opened. That opening shows its own channel, its own pipes and its own condition. The second cover stayed shut, so its interior was not seen. A drain can change direction, size and duty between two covers. The survey has not inferred the closed chamber from the open one, and it has not tested the pipe that may run between them.
Drainage
Rainwater and a soil pipe appear to enter the same chamber. Why should you not assume that is a lawful combined drain without the water company or the plans?
Own page
Do not assume a lawful combined drain. Rainwater and a soil pipe appearing to enter the same chamber is only what the survey could see. It is not a ruling that the connection is accepted. The inspection has not checked the water company's position, the maps or how the pipes were joined. Combined drainage exists in some older places and is refused in others. The survey does not decide which this is. The water company or the plans do. The note is the shared chamber, nothing more.
Grounds
Roots sit in the channel of a chamber and a willow stands three metres away. Has the survey shown the roots come from that tree, or only that roots are in the chamber?
Own page
The survey has only shown that roots are in the chamber. It has not shown they come from the willow. Roots in the channel are what was seen when the cover was lifted. Tying them to that tree would take an identification the visit did not make. The tree stands nearby. Nearness is not proof. No sample was matched to the willow, and the survey has not said the tree must be removed because roots were sitting in the channel.
Drainage
The report recommends a CCTV drain survey and none is attached. What has the home survey already done, and what is the camera still for?
Own page
The home survey has done its visual inspection, and a look into any chamber that was opened. The camera is still for the buried run that was not seen. Recommending a CCTV drain survey means that length was not filmed, and none is attached, so the report does not contain a camera result. The survey has not passed the buried drains and has not failed them. If you instruct a camera, that is the next inspection. It is not a finding you already hold.
Drainage
The cover lifted looks like a septic tank and no outlet was found. Why must that not be written up as a treatment plant?
Own page
It must not be written up as a treatment plant, because a treatment plant is a different installation and no outlet was found. The cover that was lifted looks like a septic tank. The survey did not see a powered plant, a sample point or a pipe leaving the tank. Calling it a treatment plant would name equipment that was not there to see. A septic tank and a treatment plant are not interchangeable labels. This note is a tank-like chamber with no outlet found, and no more than that.
Drainage
The seller said septic tank and the surveyor saw a sealed tank with no outlet pipe. Why do those two names describe different maintenance?
Own page
Those names describe different maintenance because a cesspool holds sewage and is emptied, while a septic tank is part of a line that has an outlet. The seller said septic tank. The surveyor saw a sealed tank with no outlet pipe, which fits a cesspool rather than a tank that discharges. The survey has not treated the seller's word as proved. It has recorded the sealed tank and the missing outlet. Emptying a holding tank and looking after a tank that discharges are not the same job, so the name matters before maintenance is planned.
Drainage
A treatment plant has an alarm box and the power was off on the day. What treatment performance was not observed?
Own page
Treatment performance was not observed. The plant has an alarm box, and the power was off, so the process the plant is meant to run was not seen working. No sample was taken, no motor or blower was heard, and the alarm was not tested. The survey records the box and a plant with the supply off. It has not decided that the plant treats properly, and it has not decided that it has failed. The day simply did not show performance.
Drainage
A washing-machine waste appears to run to a crate soakaway in the garden. Why is foul water into a soakaway not the same thing as a roof-water soakaway?
Own page
Foul water from a washing machine into a crate soakaway is not the same thing as a roof-water soakaway. The machine waste is dirty water from the house. A roof soakaway takes rain from gutters. Both can end in a crate in the garden, and they are still different discharges. The survey can record the waste pipe that appears to run that way. It has not tested the ground, traced every joint or accepted the connection. The note is a foul waste to a crate, not a rainwater system.
Environment
A septic tank sits close to a ditch and the survey did not measure the distance. Why is a binding-rules question for the papers, not a figure the survey guessed?
Own page
A binding-rules question belongs with the papers, not with a distance the survey guessed, because the survey did not measure how far the tank is from the ditch. The visit can say the tank sits close to the ditch. It cannot invent a clearance. Rules about where a tank may discharge, and how near a watercourse it may sit, are for the permits and the authority. The finding is unmeasured proximity. The survey has not produced a figure, and it should not be asked to pretend it did.
Drainage
A water-company map in the pack shows a public sewer in the road, not in the garden. Why does that map not describe the private run under the lawn?
Own page
That map does not describe the private run under the lawn, because it is a water-company plan of the public sewer and it shows that sewer in the road. A private drain in the garden is not the line the sheet was drawn to show. The survey does not turn the map into a plot of the private pipes, and putting the map in the pack does not make it one. A chamber or a gulley may have been seen. The private run under the lawn was not mapped by that sheet.
Drainage
The gulley at the foot of a downpipe is cracked and water pools beside the wall. What foundation risk is that pooling, before anyone mentions subsidence as a fact?
Own page
The foundation risk, before anyone calls it subsidence, is water pooling beside the wall where the gulley is cracked. The downpipe is delivering water, and the cracked gulley is not taking it away, so the ground at the foot of the wall stays wet. The survey can see the crack and the pool. It has not found movement, has not monitored the building, and has not said the foundations have shifted. Subsidence is not a fact on this note. Persistent wetting at the wall base is.
Drainage
An old interceptor in the chamber is full of debris and the stopper is missing. What flow problem is that, and what CCTV has it not replaced?
Own page
The flow problem is an interceptor full of debris with the stopper missing, so the old trap cannot pass flow as it should. The survey has seen the debris and the absent stopper in the chamber. That look has not replaced CCTV. No camera has filmed the pipes upstream or downstream, and a blocked interceptor does not locate every defect further along the drain. The finding stops at the chamber. The buried run is still unseen.
Grounds
Knotweed is growing on the far side of the fence and none was seen in the garden. What can the survey not say about rhizomes under the lawn?
Own page
The survey cannot say whether rhizomes run under the lawn. Knotweed was growing on the far side of the fence, and none was seen in the garden. The inspection does not dig, does not look under the turf, and does not map roots it cannot see. No stems on this side is not a finding that the plant stops at the fence. What is known is visible growth next door and a garden surface with no knotweed seen. The ground under the lawn was not investigated.
Grounds
Dead canes and a contractor's sticker are in the flower bed. Does that sticker prove the knotweed has been eradicated?
Own page
No. The sticker does not prove the knotweed has been eradicated. Dead canes and a contractor's sticker show a labelled bed and growth that looks dead. They do not show what is left underground. The survey cannot see rhizomes, cannot audit a treatment programme, and cannot issue a completion certificate because a sticker is in the flower bed. Dead canes can stand while the plant persists below. The sticker records a visit. It does not record eradication.
Grounds
The agent called a clump of bamboo Japanese knotweed. Why should the survey not copy that name if the plant was not identified?
Own page
The survey should not copy the agent's name, because the plant was not identified and bamboo is not Japanese knotweed. An unidentified clump should stay unidentified. The agent's label is not a botanical finding. The inspection can describe the clump, where it stands and that it was not named with any confidence. Promoting a sales word into a knotweed record would state something the visit did not establish. The note, if the plant was not identified, is the clump. It is not knotweed by repetition.
Grounds
The report names Himalayan balsam by the brook and does not mention knotweed. Why is that still a spreading-plant note and not a knotweed mortgage form?
Own page
Himalayan balsam by the brook is still a spreading-plant note, and it is not a knotweed mortgage form. The report names balsam and does not mention knotweed. Balsam spreads along watercourses in its own right. Silence on knotweed does not fill in a knotweed form, and it does not prove knotweed is absent from the whole plot. GOV.UK guidance on invasive plants treats specified plants as themselves. The survey's finding is the balsam it named. The paperwork for knotweed is a different form, and this report has not produced it.
Hazardous materials
Old thermoplastic floor tiles show at the edge of a carpet. Has the survey sampled them for asbestos, or only noted the tiles?
Own page
Only noted, not sampled. The old thermoplastic floor tiles that show at the edge of the carpet have been recorded as a visible material. The survey has not sampled them for asbestos. A home survey does not identify asbestos by looking at a worn edge. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos, and floor tiles are one of the products that question is asked about. The carpet still hides most of the floor, so the note covers the exposed margin only. Nothing in that look decides what the tiles contain.
Hazardous materials
A flue pipe in the loft looks like asbestos cement and it was not disturbed. What has the survey told you not to do with that pipe?
Own page
Leave that flue pipe undisturbed. The survey has told you, by recording an asbestos-cement-like flue in the loft that was not disturbed, that the pipe was seen and not tested. It has not told you to sand it, cut it, or break it open to see what is inside. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos, and cement flues are one of the products that look can only suggest. A home survey does not sample by looking. The finding is an undisturbed pipe that might be asbestos cement, not a clearance and not a removal instruction.
Hazardous materials
A corner of textured coating has already been scraped back to the plaster. Why does that scrape not tell you the coating was free of asbestos?
Own page
That scrape is not a result. A corner of textured coating already taken back to the plaster shows that someone disturbed the surface. It does not tell you the coating was free of asbestos. A home survey does not sample by looking, and a torn edge is not a sample either. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos, including in textured coatings. The survey can record the scrape and the coating that remains. It has not decided the coating is clear, and it must not be read as calling the material safe or unsafe from the damage alone.
Hazardous materials
The house is pre-2000 and one ceiling is new plasterboard. Why does the new board not prove the older ceilings are clear?
Own page
The new board proves nothing about the older ceilings. One new plasterboard ceiling in a pre-2000 house shows that one surface has been replaced. It does not prove the older ceilings are clear of asbestos. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos, and a later board is only the later board. A home survey does not sample by looking, and it cannot see through a new lining to whatever was left above it or next door. The report can separate the new ceiling from the old ones. It has not cleared the rooms that were not replastered.
Environment
An address report says the radon probability is higher in this band. Has anyone measured the radon in this house for three months?
Own page
No. Nobody has measured the radon in this house for three months just because an address report says the probability is higher in this band. That report is an area-style probability for the address, not a detector left in the rooms. The survey has not carried out a radon test, and it has not been given a three-month result to interpret. UKradon publishes maps and explains an Action Level and a Target Level without this visit turning either into a reading for the living room. The house itself remains unmeasured.
Environment
A radon fan in the cupboard was switched off. What protection is that fan not providing while it is off, and what level was not measured?
Own page
While it is switched off, that radon fan is not providing the underfloor extraction it is there to provide. A fan in a cupboard only moves air when it is running. Off, the sump or the subfloor path it serves is not being drawn, so the protection associated with the fan is not in operation. The survey has not measured a radon level in the house, switched on or switched off. It has recorded a fan that was off. It has not decided what the air in the rooms contains, and it has not tested whether the fan would work if someone turned it on.
Environment
You plan to sleep in the basement and the radon page you read is an area map. Why is the map not a measurement of that bedroom?
Own page
The map is not a measurement of that bedroom. An area map of radon describes the ground and the probability attached to a district. It does not sample the air in the basement you plan to sleep in. The survey has not measured radon in that room, and sleeping there does not turn the map into a detector. Basements sit closer to the ground, which is why buyers ask, but closeness is not a reading. UKradon maps remain maps. The bedroom remains unmeasured until a proper test is done in the house.
Environment
The England flood map shades the street and the surveyor found no tide mark in the house. Why are those two records about different things?
Own page
Those two records are about different things. The England flood map shades an area, including this street, for long-term flood risk. The surveyor found no tide mark in the house, which is a statement about what was visible inside on the day. A dry wall does not rewrite the map, and the map does not invent a watermark the surveyor did not see. The survey has not measured a past flood depth and has not certified the house as never having flooded. One product is an area check. The other is an inspection with no tide mark found.
Environment
Flood guards are stored in the garage and were not fitted on the day. What have those guards not proved about the floor level or an insurance claim?
Own page
Those guards have not proved either thing. Flood guards stored in the garage, and not fitted on the day, show that boards or barriers were present in storage. They do not prove the floor level relative to any flood, and they do not prove an insurance claim. The survey saw equipment that was not in place across the doors. It has not tested the guards, timed how they fit, or read a policy. A dry day with gear on a shelf is not a flood event and not a claims history.
Walls
Metal lintels on a house near the sea are rusting at the bearings. Why is that a corrosion note and not evidence of foundation heave?
Own page
Rust at the bearings is a corrosion note, not evidence of foundation heave. The metal lintels on this house near the sea are rusting where they bear into the wall. That is metal deteriorating at its ends, which salt air can aggravate. Heave would be the ground pushing the building up. The survey has not shown that mechanism from the rust, and it has not tested the wall ties or the foundations. It has recorded corrosion of those lintels. The coastal setting explains why the note is about steel, not about the soil.
Environment
The house is in a former coalfield and no Coal Authority search is in the survey PDF. Why is that search a separate product?
Own page
That search is a separate product. The house being in a former coalfield does not put a Coal Authority search inside the survey PDF, and the home survey is not that search. The inspection can record cracks, slopes and what the ground looked like on the day. It does not order mining reports, interpret mine plans, or replace the Coal Authority product a solicitor usually obtains. No search in the PDF means the mining search has not been done as part of this report. The survey has not decided the coal risk, because that decision is not its document.
Grounds
A concrete cap in the garden is said by the seller to be an old shaft. Can the survey confirm the cap is adequate?
Own page
No. The survey cannot confirm that the concrete cap in the garden is adequate. The seller's say-so that it covers an old shaft is a statement, not a test of the cap. The inspection can record a concrete slab, its visible condition and where it sits. It cannot see the shaft beneath, the quality of any filling, or whether the cap was designed for that hole. A Coal Authority search is a separate product from the home survey. Adequacy of a shaft cap is not something this visit has certified.
Property types
The bungalow is a concrete block house in Cornwall and no mundic screen is attached. Has the home survey carried out that screening test?
Own page
No. The home survey has not carried out a mundic screening test. The bungalow is described as a concrete block house in Cornwall, and no mundic screen is attached to the report. Screening of that kind is a specialist test of the concrete. It is not performed by looking at blockwork on a normal inspection. The survey can record the construction it believes it saw. It has not sampled the blocks, and it has not produced the screen that is missing from the pack.
Roofs
The flat roof deck is described as planks that may be RAAC, and no core was taken. What investigation has the survey deferred?
Own page
The survey has deferred any investigation that would identify the planks. The flat roof deck is described as planks that may be RAAC, and no core was taken. RAAC is a form of concrete panel that IStructE says needs investigation. This visit has not investigated the deck and has not sampled a plank. It has recorded a possible identification from what could be seen, and it has left the actual investigation, including any opening-up or testing, to a later specialist instruction. The word may is doing real work in that sentence.
Property types
A news story about RAAC in a school is being quoted at you. Why does that story not identify the concrete in this house?
Own page
A news story does not identify the concrete in this house. RAAC reported in a school is about that school, or about a class of public buildings in the headlines. It is not a core from your roof, your floor, or your wall. RAAC is a form of concrete panel that IStructE says needs investigation. The survey of this house has not investigated or sampled whatever concrete is here. Quoting a story at the surveyor does not transfer the school's finding onto your panels. The house is identified only by what this inspection actually saw.
Grounds
A neighbour's tree is the one the survey mentions beside a crack. Can the survey make the neighbour cut it down?
Own page
No. The survey cannot make the neighbour cut the tree down. It can mention the neighbour's tree beside the crack, and it can describe the crack. It cannot compel an owner, serve a notice, or decide a boundary dispute. Party-wall guidance on GOV.UK is about certain building work, not an order this inspection can issue to fell a tree. The report records a tree and a crack next to each other. It has not decided who must act, and it has not made the cutting happen.
Grounds
The survey suggests a tree is relevant to a crack and does not say whether the tree is protected. What consent question is outside the inspection?
Own page
The consent question outside the inspection is whether this tree is protected and, if it is, what consent would be needed before it is pruned or removed. The survey suggests the tree is relevant to a crack. It does not say the tree is protected, and it has not checked that point. Historic England explains that listing covers the whole building. That explanation is not a tree decision, and the survey does not grant consent. Protection of the tree, whatever form it takes, was not established on this visit.
Drainage
No dye test was done between the WC and the chamber. What connection has the survey not demonstrated?
Own page
The connection between the WC and the chamber has not been demonstrated. No dye test was done, so the survey has not shown that the pan discharges to that chamber, or that the run between them is intact. What was seen is the WC and a chamber, if the cover was lifted, as two places. A visual note is not a test. The inspection records the limit. It has not traced the pipe and it has not produced a drainage result for that link.
Drainage
There is no emptying invoice for the tank. Why is that a paperwork gap and not a survey defect rating of the lid?
Own page
The missing emptying invoice is a paperwork gap, not a defect rating of the lid. There is no invoice for the tank in the pack, so you do not have a record of when it was last emptied. It does not turn an absent bill into a condition score for that cover. A cesspool holds sewage and is emptied. A septic tank and a treatment plant are different. The report has not rated the lid for lack of an invoice, and it has not decided which of those the tank is beyond what was seen.
Walls
The survey says clinker block and a forum has told you that means mundic. Why should those two words not be glued together without a test?
Own page
Do not glue clinker block and mundic together without a test. The survey's words are clinker block, which is a description of the wall material the surveyor believes they saw. A forum saying that means mundic has skipped the test that would be needed to say so. The home survey has not carried out a mundic screen, and a nickname on the internet is not that screen. Clinker block can be discussed as non-standard construction. Mundic is a separate conclusion about concrete, and it is not established by renaming the surveyor's phrase.
Selling
The seller's questionnaire says the house has never flooded and the map still shades the postcode. Which document is a memory, and which is an area check?
Own page
The questionnaire is a memory, and the map is an area check. The seller's form says the house has never flooded, which is their recollection or their declaration, not a measurement. The map still shades the postcode because that is what the long-term flood check shows for the area. The survey has not adjudicated which voice wins, and it has not measured a flood depth. Both papers can be true in their own terms: a seller may not recall a flood, or may deny one, while an area model still shades the street. Neither document is the other.
Environment
A slope of field runs towards the back wall and the surveyor saw no flood mark. What overland path has been described, and what event was not witnessed?
Own page
The overland path described is the slope of field running towards the back wall. Rain on that field has a fall toward the house, which is a route water could take across the ground. The event that was not witnessed is an actual flood. The surveyor saw no flood mark, so the report does not record a past depth or a past line on the wall. A slope is geometry the eye can see in dry weather. It is not the same thing as watching water arrive. The survey has described the path. It has not certified that a flood has used it.
Structure
The extension is said to have a radon barrier in the slab and the slab was not opened. What can the survey not confirm about that barrier?
Own page
The survey cannot confirm that a radon barrier is in the slab, that it is continuous, or that it was detailed at the edges. The extension is said to have one, and the slab was not opened. A statement about a membrane you cannot see is only a statement. The inspection can record the claim and the fact the concrete stayed closed. It has not measured radon, and it has not verified the barrier. UKradon maps and levels do not become a certificate for a hidden sheet. The barrier, if it exists, remains unseen.
Hazardous materials
A sheet soffit under the eaves looks like asbestos cement and it is still in place. Why is leaving it in place a different action from sanding it?
Own page
Leaving the sheet soffit in place is a decision not to disturb it. Sanding it would be the opposite: it would work the surface and make dust. The survey has seen a soffit under the eaves that looks like asbestos cement and is still fixed. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos. A home survey does not sample by looking, and it has not sampled this sheet. It has not called the soffit safe or unsafe. The difference in action is between leaving an intact sheet alone and attacking the material. The note supports the first, not the second.
Grounds
A knotweed management plan is in the pack and the end date has passed. What has the survey not done to renew or inspect that plan?
Own page
The survey has not renewed the knotweed management plan and has not inspected the ground as a fresh management inspection. The plan is in the pack and the end date has passed, so you have an expired document, not a current programme. The home survey can note that the paperwork is out of date and can record any growth it actually saw. It does not extend a contractor's plan by mentioning it, and it does not replace the visits that plan may have required. What has not been done is renewal and a plan-led inspection.
Structure
The extension appears to stand over the old drain run and no camera survey is attached. What bearing and what pipe condition are both untested?
Own page
Both are untested. The extension appears to stand over the old drain run, and no camera survey is attached, so neither the bearing nor the pipe condition has been demonstrated. The survey can record that the building seems to cross the line where a drain is thought to run. It has not exposed the foundation, load-tested the wall, or filmed the pipe. A home survey does not become a drainage investigation because two lines overlap on a sketch. The report leaves both the support under the extension and the state of the buried pipe undecided.
Drainage
A high-level alarm is fitted to a cesspool. What does that alarm monitor, and what treatment of sewage does a cesspool not do?
Own page
The alarm monitors level, not treatment. A high-level alarm on a cesspool warns that the stored sewage has risen toward the point where the tank needs emptying. A cesspool holds sewage and is emptied. It does not treat sewage the way a treatment plant does, and it is not the same thing as a septic tank. The survey has seen that an alarm is fitted. It has not tested the alarm, measured the contents, or decided that the tank is treating anything. The finding is a level warning on a holding tank.
Electrics
The consumer unit still has rewireable fuses. Is that sentence already an electrical installation condition report?
Own page
No. A sentence that the consumer unit still has rewireable fuses is not an electrical installation condition report. It is a visual note of what is in the cupboard. The survey has not tested the circuits, measured the earthing, or produced an EICR. Rewireable fuses are an older form of protection the surveyor could see. Seeing them names the equipment. It does not grade the installation, clear it, or stand in for the report an electrician issues. The home survey has stopped at the observation.
Electrics
Rubber-sheathed cable is visible in the loft and the circuits were not tested. What age clue is that cable, and what safety verdict is missing?
Own page
The age clue is the rubber sheath itself: this is an older form of cable, visible in the loft, from a period of wiring that later practice moved away from. The safety verdict that is missing is any test of the circuits. The survey saw the cable and did not test it. It has not issued an electrical installation condition report, and it has not said the loft wiring is sound or failed. Rubber sheathing tells you about age and type where it could be seen. It does not measure insulation, polarity or earthing.
Electrics
A short run of lead-sheathed cable remains at the meter head. Has the survey said the whole installation is lead, or only that this tail was seen?
Own page
Only this tail was seen. The survey has not said the whole installation is lead. A short run of lead-sheathed cable remains at the meter head, which is a local observation of that tail. The rest of the wiring was not thereby classified. Lead sheath on a meter tail is a material at that point. It is not a map of every circuit. The home survey did not test the installation and did not produce an electrical report. The finding stops where the eyes stopped: at the meter head.
Legal and neighbours
The kitchen looks newly wired and there is no electrical certificate in the pack. What has the survey not been given about who did that work?
Own page
The survey has not been given the name of the person who did the kitchen wiring, or any certificate for that work. The kitchen looks newly wired, which is an appearance: new faces, new points, perhaps a new cable where it shows. There is no electrical certificate in the pack. Looking new does not identify an electrician, a scheme, or a tester. The home survey has not tested the new work and has not invented the missing paperwork. Who did it, and on what authority, is the gap.
Services
A gas fire sits in a timber surround and no Gas Safe record is in the pack. Has the home survey been a gas safety inspection?
Own page
No. The home survey has not been a gas safety inspection. A gas fire sits in a timber surround, and no Gas Safe record is in the pack. The survey can describe the fire, the surround and the fact the papers were missing. It has not tested the appliance, the flue, the ventilation or the clearances, and it has not issued a landlord gas-safety record or any equivalent. Gas work is for a Gas Safe registered engineer. This visit only noted what was in the room and what was not in the file.
Services
A combi boiler has no service sticker and the heating was on. What has running the heating not proved about the flue or the heat exchanger?
Own page
Running the heating has not proved the flue or the heat exchanger. The combi was on, so the survey knows the system produced heat during the visit. It does not know the condition of the flue, the combustion, or the heat exchanger inside the boiler. There is no service sticker. A home survey is not a gas safety inspection and not a boiler service. Heat at a radiator is an operation check of the most basic kind. It is not a strip-down and not a flue analysis.
Services
The boiler flue terminates under a car port roof. Has the survey checked that location against Approved Document J, or only seen where it comes out?
Own page
The survey has only seen where the flue comes out. It has not checked that location under the car port roof against the guidance the question names, and it has not measured the distances that guidance is about. The finding is a terminal in a particular place: beneath the car port. A home survey is not a gas safety inspection. Seeing the outlet does not certify the terminal, the car port as a covered area, or the flue run back to the boiler. The location was observed. It was not approved by this visit.
Services
An unvented cylinder has a discharge pipe that disappears into the wall. What relief path has not been traced to the outside?
Own page
The relief path that has not been traced is the discharge from this unvented cylinder to the outside. The pipe leaves the cylinder and disappears into the wall. The survey has not seen where it emerges, whether it is the safety discharge, or whether it ends in a visible, safe position. A home survey is not a gas or plumbing commissioning test. An unvented cylinder relies on its relief route when something goes wrong. That route, beyond the wall, was not followed, so it remains an untraced path rather than a confirmed one.
Services
The cold-water header tank in the loft has no lid or lagging. What contamination and freeze risk was seen, and what water test was not taken?
Own page
The risks seen are contamination and freezing. The cold-water header tank in the loft has no lid, so dust, debris and insects can enter the stored water, and no lagging, so the tank and its pipes are exposed to loft temperatures. The water test that was not taken is any sample or analysis of that water. The survey saw an open, unlagged tank. It did not test potability, metal content or bacteria. The finding is the missing lid and the missing insulation, not a laboratory result.
Services
A lead pipe is visible at the internal stopcock and the kitchen tap is fed from somewhere unseen. What length of lead has the survey not traced?
Own page
The survey has not traced the length of lead between the internal stopcock and the kitchen tap, or beyond the stopcock toward the road. A lead pipe is visible at the stopcock. The kitchen tap is fed from somewhere unseen. What you have is one visible piece of lead, not a measured run. The drinking-water guidance on lead is not a sample this visit took. The home survey records the pipe it could see. It has not mapped how much lead remains in the supply to that tap.
Services
The incoming pipe looks like lead and the pipes under the sink are copper. Why does the copper not prove the supply from the road is lead-free?
Own page
Copper under the sink does not prove the supply from the road is lead-free. The incoming pipe looks like lead, which is the pipe before the installation changes, and the pipes you can see under the sink are copper. Those are two observations at two places. Copper shows that someone used copper where it is visible. It does not show what is buried between the road and the house, or what remains hidden between the incoming lead and the sink. The survey has not traced the supply and has not sampled the water. The road-side supply is unproved.
Services
A blue plastic main stops at an old lead tail before the stopcock. What piece of pipe is the remaining lead, and what water sample was not taken?
Own page
The remaining lead is the old tail, the short piece after the blue plastic main stops and before the stopcock. That is the lead the survey could see. The water sample that was not taken is any test of the water drawn from this house. Blue plastic upstream and a lead tail at the change of material are a visual sequence. They are not a laboratory result, and they are not a measurement of how the water sits against drinking-water guidance. The survey has named the tail. It has not sampled the tap.
Money
The EPC recommends a different boiler and the survey did not. Why is the certificate not a condition report on the boiler you have?
Own page
The certificate is an energy model, not a condition report on the boiler you have. The EPC recommends a different boiler. The survey did not. Those are different jobs. An energy certificate estimates performance and lists measures. It does not open the case, inspect the flue, or describe the heat exchanger of the boiler that is actually installed. The home survey, whatever it said about heating, is the condition document. The recommendation on the EPC is not a defect diagnosis and not a service record. It has not examined the boiler you have as a surveyor examines a building.
Money
The EPC assumes a loft insulation depth and the surveyor could not get into the loft. Which document actually saw the loft?
Own page
Neither document saw the loft. The EPC assumes a loft insulation depth, which is an assumption in an energy model, not a visit into the roof space. The surveyor could not get into the loft, so the home survey did not see it either. No paper in front of you is an eyewitness account of that insulation. The certificate's chart is not a measurement taken in this roof, and the survey's limit is an unopened hatch. The loft itself remains unseen by both.
Choosing a survey
The seller has offered the EPC as if it were the survey. What does an energy certificate not inspect in the structure?
Own page
An energy certificate does not inspect the structure. Offered as if it were the survey, the EPC still only rates energy performance and lists recommendations. It does not examine foundations, roofs, walls, floors or the frame of the house in the way a home survey does. It is not a Level 2, and it is not a Level 3. The seller's offer does not change the document. What it does not inspect is the structural fabric: movement, decay, coverings, and the other condition questions a survey is for. You have been handed an energy paper.
Money
The lender has asked whether spray foam is present and the survey says the rafters were covered. What question is still for the lender, not for a condition rating alone?
Own page
The question still for the lender is whether this roof, with the rafters covered, is acceptable to them as security. The survey says the rafters were covered, which is a condition observation about spray foam or a similar coating hiding the timber. A condition rating, if one is given, records the surveyor's view of that covering. It does not answer the lender's criteria, and it does not apply for the mortgage. The lender asked whether spray foam is present. The survey has described covered rafters. The lending decision remains the lender's.
Roofs
Spray foam continues across the party line in the loft. What fire and moisture separation has that foam not been tested for?
Own page
The foam has not been tested for fire separation or for moisture separation at the party line. Spray foam continues across the party line in the loft, so the visible barrier between the two roofs is interrupted or covered by the foam. The survey can record that continuity. It has not fire-tested the party wall, has not sampled the foam, and has not shown that moisture can or cannot cross. A home survey does not carry out those tests. The separation the party wall was there to provide has not been demonstrated once the foam runs through.
Services
A boiler is in a bedroom cupboard and the surveyor did not test the ventilation of that cupboard. What combustion-air question remains open?
Own page
The combustion-air question that remains open is whether the bedroom cupboard can supply and ventilate the boiler safely. The surveyor did not test the ventilation of that cupboard. A boiler in a sleeping room's cupboard raises that question because the appliance takes air and gives up exhaust in a tight space next to where people sleep. The home survey has not been a gas safety inspection. It has not measured vents, proved a flue, or calculated air supply. The cupboard was seen. Its ventilation was not tested. That is the open question.
Services
A balanced flue passes through timber cladding and the gap around the flue looks tight. What clearance has not been measured?
Own page
The clearance that has not been measured is the gap between the balanced flue and the timber cladding it passes through. The gap looks tight, which is an impression from the visit, not a dimension. The survey has not put a rule on that junction and has not checked it as a gas inspection. A balanced flue through combustible cladding is a place where clearance matters, and this report does not contain the measurement. Looking tight is the observation. The missing figure is the actual clearance, which was never taken.
Services
The oil line is buried across the lawn and no leak was seen at the boiler. What of that buried line was not inspected?
Own page
The buried length across the lawn was not inspected. No leak was seen at the boiler, which only means the visible boiler end was dry on the day. The oil line under the grass was not uncovered, not pressure-tested and not walked as an open pipe. The survey can note the boiler, the tank if it was seen, and the fact the line disappears into the ground. It cannot describe corrosion, joints or leaks in soil it did not open. Most of that supply line is the part the visit did not inspect.
Electrics
The consumer unit is under the stairs behind stored paint. What fire-precaution comment might a survey make, and what landlord EICR has it not become?
Own page
A survey might comment that the consumer unit under the stairs is hemmed in by stored paint, so access is obstructed and combustible material is piled beside the electrical equipment. That is a fire-precaution observation about what was seen. It has not become a landlord EICR. An electrical installation condition report is a tested certificate with its own status, including in the rented sector. This visit did not test the circuits and did not produce that certificate. The comment, if made, is about storage and location. It is not the landlord's electrical report.
Services
Bonding was not seen on the oil pipe where it enters. What electrical test is still outstanding?
Own page
The electrical test still outstanding is a test of whether the oil pipe is bonded, and of the continuity of that bonding back to the installation. Bonding was not seen where the pipe enters. The survey has not carried out that test and has not produced an electrical installation condition report. Absence of a visible clamp is an observation. It is not a measurement of resistance and not a pass or a fail under test conditions. The outstanding work is an electrician's test, not a second look from the hallway.
Roof and rainwater
Solar panels cover part of the south slope and the tiles under them were not seen. What covering condition is hidden, and what electrical generation test was not done?
Own page
The covering hidden under the solar panels is the south-slope tiles the surveyor could not see, and no electrical generation test was done. The array covers part of that slope, so the tiles, laps and fixings beneath it were out of view. The visit can note the panels, the edge flashings and any ceiling mark below. It cannot grade a covering it did not look at. Output from the panels, the inverter and the array wiring were not measured. A roof inspection is not a generation test, and this one has not supplied that result.
Electrics
An EV charger is on the drive and no installation certificate is in the pack. Has the home survey electrically tested that charger?
Own page
No. The home survey has not electrically tested the EV charger on the drive. Seeing the unit, and noting that no installation certificate is in the pack, is a visual record. It is not a test of the circuit, the protective device or the connection into the house. The surveyor does not remove electrical fittings to prove how the charger was wired. Without that certificate, and without a test, the visit cannot say the charger was installed or left in any particular electrical condition.
Services
An air-source heat pump sits on a bracket and the condensate drips at the wall. What noise, defrost and leak tests were not part of the home survey?
Own page
Noise, defrost and leak tests were not part of the home survey. The air-source heat pump was seen on its bracket, and the condensate was seen dripping at the wall. That is a visual note of where the unit sits and where water was falling on the day. It is not a measurement of noise, not a run through a defrost cycle, and not a test for a refrigerant leak. The survey has not decided that the pump, the bracket or the drip is satisfactory.
Services
An unvented cylinder is in a bedroom cupboard. What discharge route and service record are missing if the survey only says the cylinder is present?
Own page
The missing pieces are the discharge route and a service record. The survey only says an unvented cylinder is present in a bedroom cupboard, so it has not traced where water would go if a safety valve opened, and it has not seen papers showing the cylinder has been serviced. Presence is a location note. It is not a check of the tundish, the pipe run, the valves or the last service. The visit has not decided that this cupboard installation is in order.
Services
The gas meter is in a cellar that has no vent the surveyor could see. Why is that a gas-safety question for a registered engineer rather than a damp rating?
Own page
Because an unvented cellar can hold gas if the meter leaks, and that is a gas-safety question for a Gas Safe registered engineer, not a damp rating. The surveyor could see no vent. That observation is about ventilation of a gas fitting. It is not a damp reading, and it is not a test of the meter, the joints or the pipework. The home survey has not certified the installation. It has recorded a meter in a cellar with no vent in view.
Services
The visible pipes are new copper. Why can the survey still not promise the drinking water is free of lead from fittings it did not sample?
Own page
Because new copper is only the pipe the eye could see, and the survey did not sample the fittings or the water. Lead can still come from solder on joints and from brass fittings, even where the visible runs look modern. The Drinking Water Inspectorate explains that lead in drinking water is not limited to an old lead pipe. This visit did not test the water and did not cut out a joint. It cannot promise the supply is free of lead.
Services
A gas fire is still fixed and the seller says it is capped. What cap was not verified if the surveyor did not dismantle the connection?
Own page
The cap itself was not verified. The gas fire is still fixed, and the seller's word that it is capped was not checked by dismantling the connection. The surveyor can record a fire in place and a seller's statement. Without taking the joint apart, the visit cannot say a proper cap is fitted, that the supply is isolated, or that the joint is tight. No gas test was done. The fire has not been certified as safe or as safely disconnected.
Services
A boiler condensate pipe runs into a rainwater gulley outside. What freeze risk on that pipe was not tested in summer?
Own page
The freeze risk that was not tested is the chance this external condensate pipe blocks with ice in cold weather. The pipe was seen running into a rainwater gulley. A summer visit can record that route. It cannot show whether the pipe freezes, whether the gulley connection leaves a length of pipe in the cold, or whether the boiler would stop if the outlet blocked. No winter trial was done. The survey has not cleared the pipe for freezing.
Electrics
The consumer unit shares a cupboard with a damp stain from a pipe. Why should the damp and the electrics be read together and still not be called an EICR?
Own page
The damp stain and the consumer unit should be read together because a pipe leak and a live assembly share one cupboard, but that pairing is still not an EICR. The survey can record the stain, the pipe and the board it could see. It has not tested the circuits, opened the unit as an electrical inspection, or coded any fitting. An electrical installation condition report is a separate test. This visit did not do it, and the damp does not turn the survey into one.
Property types
A Dorlonco house has a brick skin and the surveyor could not see the frame. Why does the brick skin not retire the non-standard label?
Own page
The brick skin does not retire the non-standard label because a Dorlonco house is a steel-framed system, and the surveyor could not see that frame. Brick can be a cladding this type was built to carry. It is not proof of an ordinary brick house, and it is not a view of the steel. The survey can describe the brick face. It cannot drop the system name, or clear the frame, on the strength of a skin that hides the structure. The frame condition is still unknown.
Property types
The bungalow is described as a Hawksley aluminium system. Why is a modern plastic cladding over it not a change of construction the survey can certify?
Own page
Because plastic cladding is a covering, not a new structure, and the survey cannot certify that a Hawksley aluminium system has stopped being one. The bungalow was described as that aluminium system. A modern plastic skin may hide the original sheeting and improve the look. It does not, by itself, prove the frame has been replaced or that the construction is now conventional. The survey saw a cladding. It did not open it, and it has not issued a certificate that the system has changed.
Property types
A Unity house has no cracks on the front. Does a quiet elevation mean the frame fixings are sound?
Own page
No. A quiet elevation does not mean the frame fixings are sound. The Unity house shows no cracks on the front, and that is all the front has shown. The fixings that hold the precast frame sit inside the construction. They were not opened, not photographed and not tested. Absence of cracks on one face is a comment on that face. It is not a clearance of concealed brackets, straps or column joints the surveyor could not see.
Property types
A builder has quoted cavity-wall insulation for a Wimpey no-fines house. Why is that quote using the wrong wall?
Own page
The quote is using the wrong wall because a Wimpey no-fines house is solid no-fines concrete, not a cavity wall that insulation is pumped into. Cavity-wall insulation assumes two leaves with a gap and, usually, ties. This system does not have that gap. The survey's job is to name the wall that is there. A builder's price for a cavity treatment does not create a cavity, and the home survey has not found one just because the quote says so.
Property types
The concrete columns of an Airey house have been painted and no repair scheme is in the pack. What has the paint not shown you about the concrete?
Own page
The paint has not shown you the concrete. It covers the Airey columns, so cracks, spalling, exposed reinforcement and the condition of the concrete beneath the coating were not visible. No repair scheme is in the pack, and paint is not a scheme. The survey can say the columns are painted. It cannot describe concrete it could not see, and it has not tested or sampled that concrete. The coating is a finish, not a report on the columns.
Property types
The survey calls the house a Cornish unit, with posts and panels. Why should a brick outer leaf added later not delete that description?
Own page
Because the Cornish unit is the posts and panels the survey named, and a brick outer leaf added later is cladding, not a deletion of that system. The brick may change the look and cover the original face. It does not remove the posts and panels behind it, and it does not authorise you to describe the house as ordinary brick. The survey has recorded a Cornish unit. The later leaf should be added to that description, not used to erase it.
Property types
Laing Easiform is named and the walls are solid concrete. Why is a cavity-tie survey the wrong extra report?
Own page
A cavity-tie survey is the wrong extra report because these walls are solid concrete, so there is no cavity in which wall ties are doing that job. Laing Easiform is named, and the survey has described solid concrete. Ties belong to cavity walls, typically two leaves held together. Ordering a tie report copies a specification from a different house. The home survey has not found a cavity, and it has not tested any ties, because that is not the wall in front of it.
Money
The lender has asked what an Orlit house is. Does the home survey answer the lender's lending criteria, or only describe the construction?
Own page
It only describes the construction, not the lending rule. The home survey does not answer the lender's lending criteria for an Orlit house. It can say what Orlit construction is, as far as the visit could see: a precast reinforced-concrete system, with the limits of that look. Whether this lender will accept it, and on what terms, is the lender's decision. The report contains no criteria, and it should not be asked to invent them.
Property types
The barn conversion still uses the original timber trusses and they were only seen from the floor of one bedroom. What farm loading were those trusses not reassessed for?
Own page
The trusses were not reassessed for the loads they carried as a farm building, nor for the different loads a house now hangs on them. Stored crops, equipment and an open agricultural roof are not the same duty as ceilings, insulation and rooms. The surveyor saw the original timber trusses only from the floor of one bedroom. That is a limited view. It is not a structural calculation. Approved Document A is structure guidance. This visit has not applied it as a check of these trusses.
Property types
Plasterboard lines the barn walls and the stone was seen only at one opening. What of the original wall is the survey not able to describe?
Own page
The survey cannot describe the original stone wall that stays behind the plasterboard, except at the one opening where stone was seen. Thickness, bond, pointing, cracks and whether the masonry is wet are all hidden by the lining. The visit can describe the plasterboard and that one reveal. It cannot treat the lining as if it were the stone, and it has not opened the boards to inspect the barn wall. Most of the original wall is undescribed because it was not visible.
Legal and neighbours
A planning decision for the barn conversion is in the pack. Why does that decision not describe the condition of the roof on the day of the survey?
Own page
A planning decision does not describe the roof on the day of the survey because it is a permission, not an inspection. It records what the council decided about the conversion, often with conditions, at the date of that decision. It does not look at tiles, felt, timbers or leaks on the day the surveyor attended. The survey's roof note, including anything not seen, is the condition record. The decision in the pack cannot stand in for it.
Property types
The ground floor of the barn was a livestock stand and is now a slab. What damp-proofing under that slab was not verified?
Own page
The damp-proofing under the slab was not verified at all. The ground floor was a livestock stand and is now a slab, and the survey could see only the top surface. Any membrane, tanking or damp-proof course beneath that concrete was hidden. A dry floor on the day does not prove a barrier is there, and a livestock floor was often built for animals rather than as a domestic damp-proofed slab. The visit has not confirmed what, if anything, was placed under the new concrete.
Property types
A modern timber frame sits behind a brick skin and the frame was not opened. Why is the brick not the structure the survey has proved?
Own page
The brick is not the structure the survey has proved because the structure of this house is the modern timber frame, and that frame was not opened. The brick is a skin in front of it. The survey saw brick. It did not see the studs, the sheathing, the insulation or the cavity behind the skin. Proving the brick to be the load-bearing structure would be a different building. This inspection has not shown that, and it has not certified the hidden frame either.
Property types
A timber-frame semi has a party wall the surveyor could not see inside. What fire and sound separation was not opened up?
Own page
The fire separation and the sound separation inside the party wall were not opened up. The surveyor could see the face of the wall in this timber-frame semi, not the build-up between the two homes. Linings, cavity barriers, insulation and joints stayed covered. No fire test and no sound test was done. The survey can say the party wall was not opened. It cannot say the separation is present, complete or missing.
Property types
The 1930s bay has a small flat roof that ponds, and the cavity walls are dry. Why should the bay roof be read on its own?
Own page
The bay roof should be read on its own because it is a small flat roof that ponds, and dry cavity walls do not clear that ponding. Water sitting on the flat top is a roof finding at the bay. The main cavities being dry says something about those walls on the day. It does not inspect the flat covering, the outlets or the abutment where the bay meets the house. The survey has not decided the flat top is sound merely because the cavities were dry.
Property types
A lath-and-plaster ceiling sags in a 1930s bedroom and the joists above were not seen. What has the sag not proved about the joists?
Own page
The sag has not proved anything about the joists, because the joists were not seen. It shows that the lath-and-plaster ceiling in this 1930s bedroom is distorting. Laths can lose their grip and plaster can drop while the joists above remain. The joists could also be in trouble, and that was not checked. The survey must not turn a sagging ceiling into a joist failure, or into a clean bill for the joists. Neither finding was available from the ceiling alone.
Property types
The rear addition is a single leaf of brick and the main house is thicker. Why should a damp reading in the addition stay in the addition?
Own page
A damp reading in the addition should stay in the addition because that rear wall is a single leaf of brick and the main house is a thicker, different wall. Moisture in the thin leaf can come from rain through the brick, from ground levels, or from a detail the front does not share. The survey has not shown that the same reading applies to the main house. Copying it across would turn one wall's result into a diagnosis of another wall that was not that leaf.
Property types
A crack steps along an Edwardian string course and then stops. What decorative course is that crack following, and what monitoring has not been set up?
Own page
The crack is following the string course, the decorative horizontal band of brick or stone on this Edwardian wall, and it then stops. That is the course it is tracking. What has not been set up is monitoring: no tell-tales, no dated measurements and no repeat visit to see whether the crack is still moving. One inspection can record the path and the stop. It cannot show live movement, and it has not diagnosed a cause. The decorative course is not a monitoring record.
Property types
In this bungalow the living-room ceiling is the underside of the roof. Why does a stain there matter more to daily use than the same stain in an empty loft?
Own page
The stain matters more to daily use because this living-room ceiling is the underside of the roof, so the mark is in the room you occupy. There is no empty loft between you and the covering. The same stain in an unused roof void sits above a ceiling you do not live under. Here, water, staining and cold meet the sofa. The survey has recorded that stain on the occupied soffit. It has not, from the mark alone, decided whether the cause is a leak or condensation.
Property types
The chalet bungalow has rooms in the roof and the dormer cheeks are cracked. Why is that not an empty-loft question?
Own page
It is not an empty-loft question because the dormer cheeks are walls of rooms in the roof, and those cheeks are cracked. A chalet bungalow uses that roof space as bedrooms. The cheek is the side of the dormer, usually a light framed panel with a covering, forming the room. An empty loft is a void you do not occupy. Cracks here are in occupied fabric. The survey saw the cracks. It did not open the cheeks, and it has not proved what the studs behind them are doing.
Choosing a survey
A Level 1 has been offered on a Victorian terrace with a cellar and a bay. What does the Level 1 scope not set out to open or to advise on in the way a Level 3 description does?
Own page
The Level 1 scope does not set out to open the fabric, and it does not advise on the cellar, the bay or the repairs in the way a Level 3 description does. Level 1 is a visual overview for a conventional home in good condition. It notes condition and urgent defects and generally does not tell you how to manage them. A Victorian terrace with a cellar and a bay is an older, more complicated house. Level 3 is the description RICS aims at that sort of building. Level 1 was not set out to do that job.
Choosing a survey
The house is named as non-standard and the quote is for a Level 2. What limit in a Level 2 should you ask the firm to talk through before you instruct?
Own page
Ask the firm to talk through the limit that a Level 2 is described for conventional homes in reasonable condition, while this house is named as non-standard. Level 2 gives repair and maintenance advice, but it is not the fuller account of how an unusual building is put together that a Level 3 is for. It will not open the hidden system. That scope limit is what you need to hear before you instruct, so you do not buy a report that keeps stopping at the lining of a frame it was not set out to explain.
Choosing a survey
The firm says the surveyor will be on site for part of the morning. Why is that visit length not a promise that every floorboard will be lifted?
Own page
Part of a morning is a visit length, not a promise that every floorboard will be lifted. A Level 2 inspection describes what can be seen without taking the house apart. The surveyor does not raise every board, empty every cupboard or remove linings because they stayed until lunch. Time on site is not a count of boards. Concealed joists stay concealed unless a different instruction said they would be opened. The length of the visit has not changed that limit.
Choosing a survey
Before you instruct, what should you ask the firm about access to the loft, the cellar and any outbuilding that is in the sale?
Own page
Ask whether the loft, the cellar and every outbuilding included in the sale can be entered on the day, who will unlock them, and what the report will say if a hatch, a door or a ladder is missing. Ask whether the fee assumes that access. A space that cannot be entered is not inspected. Those three questions stop you discovering the limit only when the PDF says the loft was closed, the cellar was locked, or the garage was too full to walk into.
Money
One firm quoted more for a Level 3 than for a Level 2 of the same house. What has the higher fee not listed about the defects?
Own page
The higher fee has not listed any defect. It is one firm's price for a Level 3 rather than a Level 2 of the same house, which is a longer inspection and a report with more advice. The defects, if there are any, are found on the day. They are not itemised in the quote. Paying more does not preview what is wrong, and it does not buy a mortgage valuation. MoneyHelper makes the distinction: a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. Neither fee is a defect list.
Money
The quote separates a drain-camera visit from the survey fee. Why is that camera not already included just because the report might recommend it?
Own page
The camera is not already included because a home survey does not film the drains. The quote has separated that visit from the survey fee so you can see it is a further investigation. A report might later recommend a camera. A recommendation is not the same thing as having bought the visit, and it is not the same thing as having done it. MoneyHelper distinguishes a mortgage valuation from a structural survey. Neither of those, and not this survey fee, is a drain camera.
Reading the report
Only one window is a condition rating 3 and the rest are 1. Why does that not make the whole elevation a rating 3?
Own page
It does not make the whole elevation a rating 3 because condition ratings attach to the element that was rated. Condition rating 3 means serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation, and here that applies to one window. Condition rating 1 means no repair is currently needed, which is what the other windows carry. The elevation is not given the worst number by infection. One defective window stays one window. The sound ones are not rewritten.
Reading the report
An element is rating 2 and the text says further investigation. What has the rating not already commissioned?
Own page
The rating has not commissioned any investigation. Condition rating 2 means defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent. The words further investigation are advice that more enquiry is needed. They are not an appointment, a paid instruction or a specialist's report. Nobody has been booked by the number. The survey has flagged the element and stopped. You still have to decide whether to commission that next look, and from whom.
Reading the report
A wall is recorded as not inspected because furniture was against it. What must you not fill in as a rating 1?
Own page
You must not fill in condition rating 1. The wall is NI, not inspected, because furniture was against it, and NI is not a pass. Rating 1 means no repair is currently needed, which can be said only of something that was inspected and found not to need repair. This wall was hidden. Writing a 1 would invent a result the survey refused to give. The furniture is the reason for the limit. It is not evidence the wall is sound.
After the survey
The only rating 3 is a gutter joint. Why is that not, by itself, a reason to invent a price reduction with no contractor's note?
Own page
A single rating 3 on a gutter joint is not, by itself, a reason to invent a price reduction. The survey has flagged that joint. It has not priced the repair, and you have no contractor's note of what the work actually is. A figure you choose in the kitchen is not evidence. Until someone who repairs gutters has looked and written down the job, a chip is a guess dressed up as a negotiation. The report is not that quote.
After the survey
You want to reopen the price and the survey has asked for a structural engineer. What is missing if you chip the price before that engineer has written?
Own page
What is missing is the structural engineer's written findings. The survey has asked for that engineer. It has not supplied their view of cause, extent or repair. If you chip the price before they have written, you are negotiating without the investigation the report said was needed. You do not yet know whether the point is small, large or different from the survey's first reading. The survey has not costed the work and has not stood in for the engineer.
Selling
The seller offers to repair a rating 3 item before exchange. What should be agreed in writing, and what has the survey not supervised?
Own page
Agree in writing the exact item, who will do the work, the standard they will work to, and which papers you will see when it is finished. Agree whether you, or a surveyor on a fresh instruction, can look again before exchange. The original survey has not supervised the repair. It will not watch the work, and it does not become a sign-off because the seller has offered to put the rating 3 item right. An offer is not a completed job.
Selling
The seller asks for the whole survey PDF. Why is what you pass on a choice about your instruction, not a duty the survey form prints on the seller?
Own page
What you pass on is a choice about your instruction, not a duty the survey form prints on the seller. The report was prepared for the person who commissioned it. The seller can ask for the whole PDF. The form does not require you to hand it over, and it does not create a right for the seller to receive your file. You may decide to share an extract, the whole report, or nothing, and your solicitor is the person to shape that decision.
After the survey
You are buying without a mortgage and the roof is a rating 3. Why does the lack of a lender not retire the roof note?
Own page
The lack of a lender does not retire the roof note because the note is about the roof, not about a mortgage. Buying without a mortgage removes the lender. It does not remove the covering, the defect the survey recorded, or the fact that you would live under it. Cash is a way of paying. It is not a second inspection that clears a rating 3 roof. The finding stays until the roof is understood, not until a bank drops out of the story.
Money
The lender mentions a retention after its valuation. Is that retention the same document as your home survey's rating?
Own page
No. A retention the lender mentions after its valuation is not the same document as your home survey's rating. The retention is the lender's decision on the valuation it instructed. Your rating sits in the survey you instructed about condition. MoneyHelper is plain that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. The two papers can talk about the same house and still not be the same finding. The survey has not set the retention, and the valuation has not become your report.
After the survey
A snagging list notes decoration and a Level 3 notes the roof trusses. Why should those two lists not be treated as the same kind of inspection?
Own page
They should not be treated as the same kind of inspection because a snagging list that notes decoration is a finish list, and a Level 3 that notes the roof trusses is a home survey of structure. Paint, marks and small items of completion are not trusses. A Level 3 is not a decorator's punch list, and a snagging visit is not the detailed survey RICS describes for how a building is built. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. Neither list has opened a claim under it.
Money
The house is described as having Buildmark cover. Has the home survey opened a warranty claim, or only inspected the building?
Own page
The home survey has only inspected the building. It has not opened a warranty claim. The house is described as having Buildmark cover, and NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. Cover, if it applies to this address, is a claim you make under that product. The inspection can record a defect it saw. It does not start the claim, it does not fill in the warranty forms, and it does not decide that the policy will meet the cost.
Choosing a survey
You are buying in Scotland and someone has called the Home Report an English Level 2. Why is the Home Report a different product, even where a surveyor still walks the house?
Own page
The Home Report is a different product because it is the Scottish report a purchaser is pointed to, not an English Level 2 you instruct yourself. In Scotland the seller provides the Home Report, including a Single Survey, an energy report and a property questionnaire. An English Level 2 is the survey a buyer in England or Wales commissions. A surveyor still walking the Scottish house does not rename that pack. Do not force the English level onto it, and do not invent a lifespan the Home Report does not have in this note.
Selling
The property questionnaire inside a Home Report says the boiler was serviced. Has the single survey verified that service, or is the questionnaire the seller's form?
Own page
The questionnaire is the seller's form. The single survey has not verified that the boiler was serviced. The property questionnaire inside the Home Report is where the seller states matters such as a service. That statement is not a gas inspection, and the survey did not service the boiler or test the appliance because a box was ticked. If you need the service proved, you need the service papers, not a second reading of the seller's answer.
Money
A Scottish lender still wants its own valuation instruction. Why does the valuation inside the Home Report not automatically become that lender's valuation?
Own page
Because the lender has asked for its own valuation instruction, and the valuation inside the Home Report does not automatically become that instruction. The figure and the comments in the pack were prepared for the Home Report. A Scottish lender can still want a valuation on its own terms, for its own security. This page does not invent those terms. A valuation is also not a substitute for reading the condition comments in the Single Survey. The lender's job, if they still want it, is a separate job.
Property types
The only view of a park home chassis was through a small service hatch, and the axle was not in that view. What of the steel underframe is still undescribed?
Own page
The steel underframe outside that hatch is still undescribed, and so is the axle. The survey saw the park home chassis only through a small service hatch, and the axle was not in that view. It has recorded that limited opening. It has not described the rest of the chassis, the axle, or how the frame bears on the pitch. GOV.UK treats a park home as a special case when buying. A look through one hatch is not a survey of the whole underframe. It does not set the pitch fee, and it does not replace the written agreement.
Property types
A porch has been built against the park home and it sits on the pitch, not on the chassis. What does the home survey of the porch not decide about site permission?
Own page
The home survey of the porch does not decide whether the site has permitted that addition. The porch sits on the pitch, not on the chassis, so it occupies the site as well as meeting the home. The survey can describe the porch it could see: the junction, the roof and how it meets the wall. It has not read the site licence, the park rules or any consent to build on the pitch. GOV.UK treats park homes as a special case when buying. This inspection does not replace the written agreement.
Services
A locker of LPG bottles is fixed to the drawbar end of a park home. What gas-safety inspection has the home survey not performed on that locker?
Own page
No gas-safety inspection of that locker has been performed. The home survey can note a locker of LPG bottles fixed to the drawbar end, and what of the casing, the pipe and the regulator was in view. It has not tested tightness, checked the hoses, or signed the bottles as fit to use. Gas safety is a different inspection. Seeing the locker is not that inspection, and the report should not be read as one.
Electrics
The tails leaving the meter are still in old fabric braid, and the consumer unit itself is plastic. What age clue sits in the braid rather than in the board?
Own page
The age clue sits in the fabric braid on the tails, not in the plastic consumer unit. Old braid on the cables leaving the meter is a sign of an earlier installation that has not all been replaced. A newer plastic board can be fitted onto those old tails. The survey has noted that combination by looking. It has not dated the braid, tested the tails, or decided that the board is old merely because the covering on the cables is.
Services
A green-and-yellow cable bridges a plastic insert in the water pipe and then vanishes. What continuity of that bond was not measured?
Own page
The continuity of that bond was not measured. A green-and-yellow cable bridges a plastic insert in the water pipe and then vanishes, which the survey can describe as a conductor that appears to cross the plastic. Continuity is an electrical test. The home survey did not carry one out, and it did not confirm that the cable still joins metal on both sides. What happens after the cable vanishes was not traced.
Services
The casing of a night-storage heater is cracked and the core bricks are visible. Has the survey electrically tested the heater, or only noted the damaged case?
Own page
The survey has only noted the damaged case. It has not electrically tested the heater. The casing of the night-storage heater is cracked and the core bricks are visible, which is physical damage the inspection can record. Exposed bricks and a split case are not a test of the element, the controls or the supply. The survey did not energise the heater or take any reading at the terminals. The finding stops at the damaged case.
Services
A vented copper cylinder is dripping at the inspection hatch and the immersion boss is crusted. What leak is visible, and what internal sacrificial anode was not pulled?
Own page
The visible leak is the drip at the inspection hatch of the vented copper cylinder, and the sacrificial anode inside was not pulled. The survey can see water at that hatch and crust on the immersion boss. It has not drained the cylinder, withdrawn the anode, or judged how much of the anode remains. A drip you can point at is not an internal inspection of the vessel. The home survey has not carried one out.
Hazardous materials
Textured coating survives only on the bulkhead over the stairs, and the landing ceiling is skim. Why does the skimmed landing not sample that bulkhead?
Own page
The skimmed landing does not sample the bulkhead, because a new skim is not a test of the coating left beside it. Textured coating survives only on the bulkhead over the stairs. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos. A home survey does not sample it by looking. The skim shows the landing ceiling was given a new face. It does not identify, and it does not clear, the textured coating that remains on the bulkhead.
Hazardous materials
Square ceiling tiles in the garage look like insulating board and were not sampled. Why is a visual likeness not an asbestos identification?
Own page
A visual likeness is not an asbestos identification, because those garage tiles were not sampled. Square ceiling tiles that look like insulating board are a resemblance, not a laboratory result. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos. A home survey does not identify it by appearance. The tiles may be what they resemble, or they may not. The report has not decided that, and it has not called them safe or unsafe.
Electrics
A small distribution board is on the wall beside a shower tray. What electrical test and what zoning comment are both outside a visual home survey?
Own page
Both an electrical test and a zoning comment under the wiring rules are outside this visual home survey. A small distribution board on the wall beside a shower tray is something the surveyor can see and record as a position. The inspection did not test the board, the circuits or any protective device. It also did not apply bathroom zoning as an electrical inspector would. The note is where the board sits. It is not an electrical certificate.
Walls
Secondary glazing is screwed through the staff bead of a sash in a listed house. What consent has the survey not looked up, and what rot in the bead was only partly seen?
Own page
Listed building consent for the secondary glazing has not been looked up, and rot in the staff bead was only partly seen. Screws through the bead of a sash in a listed house are an alteration the inspection can describe. They are not a consent the survey has checked or granted. Historic England explains that listing covers the whole building. Softness in the bead is a timber note from the parts that could be reached. Hidden decay behind the secondary frame was not fully exposed.
Drainage
The seller points at a lawn under a trampoline and calls it the soakaway. What crate or pit has the survey not uncovered there?
Own page
No crate and no pit have been uncovered under that trampoline. The seller points at a lawn and calls it the soakaway. The survey can record the claim and the fact that the grass was not opened. It has not found a crate, a pit, a pipe or a working soakaway in that spot. A name given to turf is not an inspection of drainage. The survey only records what was seen, which is lawn and a trampoline.
Walls
A plastic casement has been cut into a stone mullion window on a listed cottage. Can the survey regularise that opening?
Own page
No. The survey cannot regularise a plastic casement cut into a stone mullion on a listed cottage. It can record the plastic frame, the cut stone and what has been lost of the mullion pattern. Regularising an opening is a consent process. Historic England explains that listing covers the whole building. The survey does not grant consent, and a condition note does not become listed building consent because the opening was photographed.
Services
The oil boiler's filter bowl sits in a brick cabinet with no drip tray the surveyor could see. What leak containment was missing from the photograph?
Own page
A drip tray, or any other leak containment under the filter bowl, was missing from the photograph. The oil boiler's filter bowl sits in a brick cabinet, and the surveyor could not see a tray beneath it. The survey records that gap in the view it had. It has not tested the oil line, the fire valve or the boiler. It has not proved a leak that has not yet marked the cabinet. Missing containment is the note.
Roof and rainwater
Tennis balls and leaves are stuffed in the secret gutter behind a parapet. What lining under that debris was not seen, and where would an overflow wet the wall?
Own page
The lining under the tennis balls and leaves was not seen, and an overflow would wet the wall beneath the parapet. Debris stuffed in the secret gutter hides the sole and the outlets. Water that cannot get away spills onto the wall the parapet is meant to protect, often at the head of that wall rather than as a missing tile on the slope. The survey has recorded the blockage it could see. It has not cleared the gutter or proved the wall is already wet.
Damp
A pin meter was pushed into a salt band above a skirting and it screamed. Why can hygroscopic salts alone drive that kind of reading?
Own page
Hygroscopic salts alone can drive that screaming reading, because they hold moisture in the plaster the pins touch. A pin meter pushed into a salt band above a skirting often shouts where the salts are, even when no liquid leak is arriving on the day. The survey has recorded a high reading in a salt band. It has not, from that reading alone, decided that water is rising, that a pipe is leaking, or that the wall needs a new damp-proof course.
Property types
At the party line of a BISF house the original profiled steel sheet is still visible in the loft. What of that sheet was not thickness-tested?
Own page
The thickness of that profiled steel sheet was not tested. At the party line of a BISF house the original sheet is still visible in the loft, so the survey can say the sheet is there and how it looked from that space. It has not measured the thickness, sampled any coating, or described the sheets hidden in the walls. A visible edge in the loft is not a thickness test of the party-line steel.
Legal and neighbours
A large letter plate has been cut into a flat entrance door and the intumescent strip is missing beside it. What fire performance has the survey not laboratory-tested?
Own page
The fire performance of that door has not been laboratory-tested. A large letter plate has been cut into a flat entrance door, and the intumescent strip is missing beside it. The survey can describe the cut, the plate and the gap where the strip should be. It has not burned the door, timed any resistance, or certified the door. A missing strip is a visible gap in the edge detail. It is not a laboratory result.
Property types
A Woolaway panel joint is open at one corner and the concrete edge is spalled. What PRC repair certificate is absent from that observation?
Own page
A PRC repair certificate is absent from that observation. A Woolaway panel joint is open at one corner and the concrete edge is spalled, which the survey can describe as a joint and a spall it saw. A certificate would be a paper record of a recognised repair to this precast concrete system. It was not produced by looking at the corner. The survey has not certified the panels, and it has not tested the concrete.
Roof and rainwater
The apron flashing under a roof window is dressed so water runs back toward the frame. What weather path is that, distinct from the glass itself?
Own page
The weather path is rain turned back toward the roof-window frame by the apron, which is separate from the glass. The apron flashing is dressed the wrong way, so water running down it is sent toward the frame instead of being shed onto the tiles below. The survey can see that dressing. It has not tested the glass unit, and it has not decided that the sealed pane has failed. The path is the flashing, not the glass.
Money
The lender's figure is short of the agreed price and the only survey note on the roof is a rating 2. Why is the shortfall not a translation of that rating into pounds?
Own page
The shortfall is not that rating 2 rewritten as money. The lender's figure comes from the mortgage valuation, and a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. The roof note is a condition label in the home survey. It is not a price, and it is not the arithmetic behind the gap between the agreed price and the lender's figure. The survey has not priced the roof. Do not invent a repair bill and then call that bill the shortfall.
Services
One valve on an underfloor manifold is wet at the spindle and the loops were cold. What does that drip show, and what slab leak has it not located?
Own page
The drip shows a wet spindle on that one manifold valve, and it has not located a leak in the slab. The survey can see moisture at the spindle of the valve that was wet. The loops were cold, so the system was not seen running. No pressure test was done, and no pipe under the floor was exposed. A drip at a valve on the manifold is a leak at that valve. It is not a map of a slab leak.
Roofs
Moss is growing in the flaunching and the pot is still plumb. What maintenance of the flaunching is being described, as against a stack that is leaning?
Own page
What is being described is weathered flaunching that is carrying moss, not a stack that is leaning. The mortar crowning the chimney has plants in it, which means that mortar is open enough to hold growth, while the pot itself was seen upright. A leaning stack would be the chimney moving out of plumb. The survey has described moss in the flaunching and a pot that is still straight. It has not called the stack unsafe from moss alone, and it has not tested the flue.
Electrics
A socket sits beside a bath and no RCD label was read. Why is that a visual flag for an electrician and not already an EICR code?
Own page
It is a visual flag for an electrician because the survey has not produced an EICR code. A socket beside a bath, with no RCD label read, is something the home survey can point at. Coding a defect belongs to an electrical inspection, which this visit did not perform. The survey has not assigned a code, tested the circuit, or confirmed whether any protective device covers that socket. The flag is the location and the missing label. The code, if one is given, comes later.
Walls
The double-glazed pane in a timber casement is misted and the casement stile is soft at the bottom. Which of those two defects is glass, and which is timber decay?
Own page
The misted pane is the glass defect, and the soft stile is the timber decay. The double-glazed unit has lost clarity between the panes, which is a failed seal in the glass, not rot. The casement stile is soft at the bottom, which is the timber itself breaking down where water sits. The survey has separated those two by looking and by probing the stile. It has not replaced either, and it has not tested the glass beyond the mist it could see.
Property types
A king post in the barn roof has been cut to fit a roof window. What original truss action has that cut interrupted, if the survey could see the cut?
Own page
The cut interrupts the king post's original action in the truss, the link between the apex and the tie, if that cut was seen. A king post works with the tie and the principals so the truss acts as one frame. Cutting it for a roof window removes that post from the line where the cut is. The survey can describe the cut it could see. It has not calculated what remains, and it has not approved the alteration. Approved Document A is structural guidance. It is not a certificate this inspection has issued.
Money
You were at the mortgage valuation and the valuer did not go into the cellar. Why is that visit still not a survey of the cellar?
Own page
That visit is still not a survey of the cellar, because a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey and the valuer never went down. You were there, and the cellar was not entered, so nothing in it was inspected. Even the rooms that were entered were not being surveyed as a home survey. MoneyHelper draws that distinction. There is no valuation comment that can be stretched into a cellar survey. A home survey, if you instruct one, is a different visit.
After the survey
The developer's snagging app lists a scratched skirting and your surveyor has flagged a missing restraint strap in the loft. Why do those two notes not belong on the same list?
Own page
They do not belong on the same list, because a scratched skirting and a missing restraint strap are different kinds of note. The developer's app is collecting a finish item. The surveyor has flagged a strap in the loft that should be holding the roof structure and was not seen. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey does not open a claim. A paint scratch on the app does not absorb or cancel the strap.
Services
A carbon monoxide alarm sits on a bookshelf across the room from an open flue. What siting check has the home survey not treated as a Gas Safe inspection?
Own page
The home survey has not treated that alarm position as a Gas Safe inspection. A carbon monoxide alarm on a bookshelf across the room from an open flue is a siting observation the surveyor can make. It is not a check of the sensor, the expiry or the flue. Gas Safe inspection is a separate activity. The survey has not certified the alarm, the flue or the appliance. The note is where the alarm was sitting.
Drainage
Where a pitch-fibre pipe emerges under a patio slab it is oval rather than round. What length of oval pipe beyond that point was not camera-surveyed?
Own page
Whatever length of oval pipe lies beyond that exposed end was not camera-surveyed. Where the pitch-fibre pipe emerges under a patio slab it is oval rather than round, which the survey can describe at that visible end. Oval pitch fibre often means the pipe has squashed, but the inspection has not measured how far that shape continues. No camera was sent along the drain. The finding stops at the pipe that could be seen.
Roof and rainwater
Fine cracks radiate from the nails on a small lead flat, which is the look of fatigue. What deck movement under the lead was not measured?
Own page
Movement of the deck under the lead was not measured. Fine cracks radiating from the nails on a small lead flat are the look of fatigue, which the survey can describe. That pattern is often linked to the lead working against a deck that is not still, but the inspection did not measure the movement, lift the lead, or test the deck. Do not scrape or dress the lead from this note. The survey has recorded the crack pattern. It has not measured what the deck is doing.
Property types
A Hawksley bungalow shows an aluminium stanchion at one corner where the cladding has been taken off. What of the remaining hidden stanchions was not exposed?
Own page
The remaining stanchions, still hidden behind the cladding, were not exposed. A Hawksley bungalow shows an aluminium stanchion at one corner where the cladding has been taken off, so that one member could be seen. The others stay covered. The survey has described the exposed corner. It has not uncovered the rest, and it has not tested the aluminium it could not see. One opened corner is not a survey of every stanchion.
Walls
Map cracking in the render of a Wimpey no-fines house follows no structural line. Why is that pattern not the same evidence as a horizontal tie-failure crack in a cavity wall?
Own page
Map cracking that follows no structural line is not the same evidence as a horizontal tie-failure crack. In this Wimpey no-fines house the cracks in the render wander, rather than tracking a tie line. No-fines concrete is not that cavity. The survey has recorded a render pattern. It has not tested the render or any ties. The pattern is map cracking, not a tie failure. The survey has not called this wall a cavity, and it has not found tie failure.
Roofs
In an Orlit loft the precast roof beams are visible and one bearing looks chipped. What load test of those beams has the visual note not performed?
Own page
The visual note has not performed any load test of those precast beams. In an Orlit loft the beams are visible and one bearing looks chipped, which the survey can describe from the loft. A chip at a bearing is a knock or a break in the concrete at the support. It is not a load test, a calculation, or a certificate that the beams can carry the roof. The survey has not loaded them, sampled the concrete, or measured deflection.
Property types
The steel frame of a Unity house can be seen at the eaves where the fascia has gone. What corrosion at the hidden lower frame was not reached from that gap?
Own page
Corrosion on the hidden lower frame was not reached from the gap at the eaves. The steel frame of a Unity house can be seen where the fascia has gone, so the survey has a view of steel at the top. The lower lengths, the feet and the parts built into the wall were not reached through that gap. The survey has not exposed them and has not tested them. Eaves steel is not a report on the whole frame.
Walls
A horizontal pour line shows in a Laing Easiform wall and it is not a crack. Why should a pour line not be reported as movement?
Own page
A pour line should not be reported as movement, because it is how the wall was cast, not a crack that has opened. A horizontal line in a Laing Easiform wall can look sharp, and the survey can record it as a construction joint between lifts of concrete. Movement would be displacement, taper, or a crack that continues as a break. The survey has not called this line a crack. It has not monitored the wall, and it should not be rewritten as settlement.
Walls
A rust stain runs down from a Cornish unit post and the panel beside it is quiet. What reinforcement inside that post was not exposed?
Own page
The reinforcement inside the Cornish post was not exposed. A rust stain runs down from the post, and the panel beside it is quiet, so the survey can describe the stain and the quiet panel. Rust on the surface can come from steel inside the post, but the inspection did not open the post, expose the bar, or measure any loss of steel. A stain is not an exposure of the reinforcement. The panel being quiet does not clear the post.
Walls
Steel plates of an Airey repair scheme are visible at the corners. What design of that scheme was not in the papers the surveyor was given?
Own page
The design of that repair scheme was not among the papers the surveyor was given. Steel plates of an Airey repair are visible at the corners, so the survey can say plates are there and how they looked. It cannot, from the plates alone, name the design, the designer, or whether the scheme was finished as specified. Those facts sit in the papers. They were not in the bundle handed over, and the survey has not invented them.
Choosing a survey
A Home Report contains both a single survey and a valuation section. Why should you not treat the valuation section as the lender's own mortgage valuation?
Own page
You should not treat the valuation section as the lender's own mortgage valuation. A Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to, and it contains a single survey together with a valuation section. That section is part of the Home Report. It is not the valuation your own lender may still instruct, and it is not an English Level 2 that you go and commission yourself. The two ideas of value can differ because they are not the same job.
Selling
The seller has an invoice for a gutter repair dated last spring. Why does that invoice not overwrite a fresh leak stain the surveyor saw under the same joint?
Own page
The invoice does not overwrite the fresh leak stain, because a bill from last spring is not a dry joint today. The seller has paperwork for a gutter repair. The surveyor has now seen a leak stain under the same joint. A paid bill is a history of a job. It is not a finding that the joint is dry. The survey records the stain it saw. It does not cancel that stain because an older invoice exists.
Reading the report
The outbuilding is NI because it was locked. What condition must you not assume for a shed the surveyor did not enter?
Own page
You must not assume any condition for a shed the surveyor did not enter. The outbuilding is NI because it was locked. NI means not inspected, not a pass. No condition was established for the interior, the roof from inside, or the frame. Rating 1 would mean no repair currently needed, but that rating was not given. Do not promote a locked shed to a pass, and do not invent a rating 3 either. The honest reading is that it was not inspected.
Choosing a survey
You instructed a Level 3 and the drains are still only what could be seen at the chambers. Why has the building survey not become a CCTV survey by virtue of its name?
Own page
The building survey has not become a CCTV survey merely because it is called a Level 3. The drains are still only what could be seen at the chambers. A Level 3 looks at the building in more detail than a Level 2, within what can be seen and reached. It does not put a camera down the pipes. The survey has not traced the runs or tested the drains. The name of the report does not add a drainage survey that was not instructed.
Money
The firm says a revisit after the house is empty would be a further instruction. Why is that second visit not automatically included in the first fee?
Own page
The second visit is not in the first fee, because the firm has defined the empty-house revisit as a further instruction. The first fee paid for the inspection that was done, with furniture in place and the limits that creates. A return once the house is empty is another attendance. A mortgage valuation is not a structural survey, and neither product silently includes a second day the firm has said it will charge as a new instruction. The survey has not promised that return inside the original fee.
Roofs
A new rooflight has been cut into the front slope of a house in a conservation area. Has the survey established whether that opening had planning permission?
Own page
No. The survey has not established whether that rooflight had planning permission. A new opening has been cut into the front slope of a house in a conservation area. The survey can describe the rooflight, the flashing and the way the covering was cut. It has not searched the planning record, and it does not grant consent. Historic England explains that listing, where a building is listed, covers the whole building. This note is a conservation-area opening. Either way the inspection has not established permission.
Property types
Where a socket was cut in, the breather membrane of a timber frame is torn and the cavity side is visible. What weather resistance at that cut was not made good in the note?
Own page
The weather resistance of the torn breather at that socket cut was not made good in the note. Where a socket was cut in, the membrane is torn and the cavity side is visible. The survey can record the tear and the view into the cavity. It has not repaired the membrane, and it has not decided that the frame behind is dry or sound. A torn breather is a gap in the weather line. The note leaves that gap open.
Damp
Coal dust and soft joist ends sit together in a Victorian cellar. Why is the dust not the cause of the softness, and what moisture was the more relevant note?
Own page
The coal dust is not what made the joist ends soft. The moisture at those ends is the note that matters. Soft joist ends in a Victorian cellar are a timber defect, and dust from old coal can blacken the wood without rotting it. Softness means the wood has lost its substance, which fits prolonged wetting rather than a coating of dust. The survey has recorded soft ends and dust together. It has not blamed the dust, and it has not laboratory-tested the timber.
Property types
Original Crittall windows sit in a 1930s cavity wall and condensation runs on the metal. Why is that cold metal a condensation note rather than a failed cavity?
Own page
The cold Crittall metal is a condensation note, not evidence that the cavity has failed. Original steel windows in a 1930s cavity wall run with condensation because the frame is a cold bridge. Moisture from room air lands on that cold metal. That is not water crossing a failed cavity, and it is not evidence that the wall ties have failed. The survey has recorded condensation on the Crittall. It has not tested the cavity, the ties or the steel beyond what it could see.
Walls
A leaded light with stained glass is buckled and the survey did not test the came. What craft repair has not been specified, and what structural crack has a buckled light not proved?
Own page
No craft repair has been specified, and the buckle has not proved a structural crack. The leaded light with stained glass is buckled, and the survey did not test the came. Buckle in a leaded light is often the cames and the glass moving over time. That is a glazing craft question. It does not, by itself, prove that the wall or the lintel has cracked. The survey has described the buckle. It has not specified a releading, and it has not diagnosed structural movement from the light alone.
Structure
Concrete sleepers hold up the patio and the bottom sleeper has rotated outward. Has the survey calculated the soil behind it, or only recorded the rotation?
Own page
Only the rotation was recorded. The concrete sleepers hold up the patio, and the bottom sleeper has rotated outward, which is the movement the survey wrote down. Nobody on that visit calculated the soil behind the wall: not the pressure of the ground, not how wet it is, and not whether the sleepers were meant to hold that patio. A home survey describes the tilted course it can see. It has not decided the cause, and it has not produced a retaining-wall design.
Structure
The brick piers of the rear garden wall lean and the house walls the surveyor checked are still plumb. Why should that lean not be filed as subsidence of the house?
Own page
That lean should not be filed as subsidence of the house. The brick piers of the rear garden wall lean, and the house walls the surveyor checked are still plumb. Those are different structures. Subsidence, in the sense a buyer is worrying about, is movement of the ground under the building. A garden pier can tilt from its own footing, from a tree, or from the wall it sits in, without the house having moved. The survey recorded a leaning pier and plumb house walls. It has not called the house subsiding.
Walls
Weep holes in the retaining wall along the side path have been painted over. What water path was closed, and what pressure behind the wall was not measured?
Own page
Paint closed the weep holes, and those holes were the water path out of the retaining wall. The wall along the side path is meant to let water behind it escape through the weeps rather than stand against the back of the masonry. The survey can see that the holes have been painted over. It has not measured the pressure of water or wet ground behind the wall, and it has not tested whether any weep still runs. A coat of paint is not a drainage check. The inspection recorded a closed outlet, not a pressure reading.
Legal and neighbours
The neighbour's drive is the ground being held up by a wall on your side of the fence. Can the home survey bill that neighbour for a rebuild?
Own page
No. The home survey cannot bill that neighbour for a rebuild. The neighbour’s drive is the ground being held up by a wall on your side of the fence, and the inspection can describe that relationship as it appeared. It cannot send an invoice, decide who owns the wall, or say who must pay. Party-wall and boundary duties, where they exist, are a legal process. GOV.UK sets out party-wall procedures for certain work. A condition report is not that process, and it has not started one.
Structure
The front boundary wall appears to hold the public pavement at a higher level. Has the survey taken on the highway authority's job, or only described the wall?
Own page
The survey has only described the wall. It has not taken on the highway authority’s job. The front boundary wall appears to hold the public pavement at a higher level, and that appearance is what the inspection recorded. It did not inspect as the highway authority, did not accept the pavement, and did not decide who maintains the difference in level. A home survey walks the wall from the property. It does not become the authority for the road because the pavement sits higher.
Grounds
Wire gabion baskets retaining the bank have split and stones have spilled. What design of that bank has the survey not replaced with a sentence about the wire?
Own page
The survey has not replaced the design of that bank with a sentence about the wire. Wire gabion baskets retaining the bank have split and stones have spilled, and that is the condition the inspection recorded. A gabion is a cage whose stone fill and whose size are a design, not a caption. The visit did not recalculate the bank, did not check how the baskets were founded, and did not specify a new cage. Spilled stone is evidence of a failed basket. It is not a replacement design.
Structure
A crack leaves the retaining wall and continues into the house plinth. What has that continuous crack not yet proved about which element moved first?
Own page
The continuous crack has not proved which element moved first. It leaves the retaining wall and continues into the house plinth, so the survey can record one crack crossing from wall to plinth. Continuity shows the two are linked at the surface. It does not show whether the retaining wall moved and tore into the plinth, whether the house moved and the crack ran outward, or whether both responded to the same ground. Sequence was not established. The inspection has not named a first movement.
Structure and movement
A glass tell-tale is glued across a crack in the lounge wall and nobody has written a date or a reading on it. What movement history is the survey unable to inherit?
Own page
The survey cannot inherit a movement history from that tell-tale. A glass tell-tale is glued across a crack in the lounge wall, and nobody has written a date or a reading on it. The glass shows only what it looks like on the day of the inspection: intact, cracked, or loose. Without a date of fixing and a recorded reading, there is no timed series to take over. The report can note that a tell-tale is present. It cannot say how the crack has behaved since the glass was stuck on.
Structure
Concrete nibs show at the base of the flank wall and there is no underpinning drawing in the pack. What work might that concrete be, and what has not been verified?
Own page
The concrete might be underpinning, a local thickening, or some other base detail, and none of that has been verified. Concrete nibs show at the base of the flank wall, and there is no underpinning drawing in the pack. The survey can describe the concrete it could see at ground level. It cannot say how deep it goes, whether it was designed, or whether it is the edge of a proper underpin. Seeing a nib is not the same as reading a drawing. The inspection has not confirmed what the concrete is.
Money
The seller says there was a subsidence claim and no schedule of works is in the survey. What can the inspection not read about that claim?
Own page
The inspection cannot read that claim. The seller says there was a subsidence claim, and no schedule of works is in the survey. A spoken mention is not the insurer’s file. The visit cannot see what cause was accepted, what was repaired, what was excluded, or whether anyone signed the work off. The Association of British Insurers describes a claim as the insurer’s investigation and the works that follow. None of that paper was in the report. The surveyor saw the building on one day. The claim itself was not there to read.
Grounds
A stump beside the bay was ground out and the seller thinks the new crack is heave. Can the survey prove heave from the stump alone?
Own page
No. The survey cannot prove heave from the stump alone. A stump beside the bay was ground out, and the seller thinks the new crack is heave. Heave, on a clay soil, is the ground swelling as it takes up moisture after a tree’s demand is removed. That mechanism is a possibility the seller has named. It is not a result. The inspection did not test the clay, did not level the bay, and did not watch the crack. A ground-out stump and a new crack, together, do not prove the soil has swollen.
Grounds
The report mentions clay and a willow, and it does not record a borehole. What soil test has not been done?
Own page
No borehole was recorded, so the soil test that would describe this clay has not been done. The report mentions clay and a willow. That is a comment linking a high-demand tree with a soil that can shrink and swell. It is not a laboratory result and not a hole in the ground. Plasticity, moisture profile and desiccation were not measured. The survey can flag the combination it was told about or could see. It has not tested the soil under the house.
Structure and movement
The same crack shows on the outside brick and on the inside plaster in the same place. What does that mirror suggest, and what monitoring has not been set up?
Own page
The mirror suggests the crack may pass through the wall, rather than sitting only in the inside plaster, and no monitoring has been set up. The same crack shows on the outside brick and on the inside plaster in the same place. That match is a reason to treat it as one crack seen from both faces. It is not a measurement of whether the crack is still moving. The survey did not fit a tell-tale, did not take a dated width, and did not leave a log. The suggestion is about depth. The watch has not started.
Walls
A movement joint in a long side wall has closed up so the filler is squeezed out. What is that joint for, and what has its closure not measured?
Own page
The joint is there so a long wall can expand and contract without tearing the masonry, and its closure has not been measured. In this side wall the filler is squeezed out, which shows the joint has shut. The survey can record that the compressible material is no longer sitting in an open gap. It cannot say by how much the wall has shortened the gap, whether the movement is thermal, whether it is still going on, or what force is now in the masonry. Closure was seen. It was not measured as a history.
Property types
The house is named as Reema hollow-panel concrete and no core sample is attached. What has the name established, and what concrete inside the panel was not tested?
Own page
The name has established a system label, not a test of the concrete inside the panel. The house is named as Reema hollow-panel concrete, and no core sample is attached. Naming is the surveyor identifying a non-standard system from the form of the building and the records available. The concrete within the hollow panel, and any reinforcement in it, was not drilled out and was not tested. A home survey does not sample concrete by looking at it. The label is an identification. The inside of the panel remains untested.
Property types
A Dorran concrete bungalow is named and the pack has no repair-scheme drawings. What has paint on the panels not revealed about the frame?
Own page
Paint on the panels has not revealed the frame. A Dorran concrete bungalow is named, and the pack has no repair-scheme drawings. The coating can hide cracks, patches and the line of the concrete frame, or it can sit on a frame that was never opened up. The survey named the system. It did not strip the paint, did not see the frame, and did not find drawings that would show a recognised repair. Decoration is not a view of the concrete behind it. The frame stays undescribed.
Property types
The survey calls the house a Stent system and the gable has no crack. Does a quiet gable retire the non-standard description?
Own page
No. A quiet gable does not retire the non-standard description. The survey calls the house a Stent system, and the gable has no crack. The system is the way the house was built. An uncracked gable is one elevation on the day of the visit. It does not change the construction into a conventional cavity wall, and it does not cancel the name. The inspection recorded a Stent house whose gable happened to show no crack. It has not withdrawn the non-standard label.
Walls
Render covers a house the report calls Wates PRC. Why can the render not stand in for a look at the concrete panels?
Own page
Render cannot stand in for a look at the concrete panels, because the render is what is hiding them. The report calls the house Wates PRC, and the panels sit under that coat. The survey can name the system and describe the render: cracks, hollows, patches. It cannot see the panel joints, the concrete face, or any repair to the panels while the coat remains. A home survey does not sample concrete by looking at a covering. The render is a finish. It is not the inspection the panels still need.
Property types
A Parkinson-framed house has a brick outer skin and the frame was not opened. What is the brick not proving about the frame?
Own page
The brick is not proving anything about the frame. A Parkinson-framed house has a brick outer skin, and the frame was not opened. The skin can look ordinary, repointed, or cracked, and none of those faces is the concrete frame behind it. The survey named the system and saw the brick. It did not expose a stanchion, did not test the frame, and did not confirm that the brick is tied to a sound structure. Outer brick is cladding in this arrangement. It is not evidence for or against the frame.
Property types
The report names a Smith system house and then describes ordinary cracked pointing. Why is the pointing note not a test of that system?
Own page
The pointing note is not a test of that system. The report names a Smith system house and then describes ordinary cracked pointing. Cracked mortar is a joint defect a surveyor can see on almost any brick face. It says nothing about the concrete system behind the name: not the panels, not the frame, and not whether a repair scheme was carried out. The inspection identified a non-standard house and, separately, noted pointing. One sentence does not test the other.
Property types
Cladding is missing at two corners of a Hawksley bungalow and aluminium stanchions show. What of the stanchions still covered was not exposed?
Own page
The stanchions still covered by cladding were not exposed. Cladding is missing at two corners of a Hawksley bungalow, and aluminium stanchions show there. Those two corners are the only aluminium the survey saw. The rest of the frame remains behind whatever cladding is still fixed, so its section, its fixings and any corrosion were not in view. Missing boards at two corners are an opening. They are not a survey of the stanchions that opening did not reach.
Walls
A cob wall has been coated in hard cement that is map-cracked. Why is that coat a moisture risk to the cob, and what mix of the wall was not sampled?
Own page
The hard cement is a moisture risk to the cob because it holds water against a wall that needs to dry, and the mix of that wall was not sampled. The coat is map-cracked. Cob is an earth wall. A dense cement skin is less able to let moisture leave than the cob behind it, and cracks in the skin are routes for rain to get in and then stay. The survey can see the map cracking and name the mismatch. It did not cut a sample, did not analyse the earth mix, and did not measure how wet the cob is behind the coat.
Walls
Flint work with brick dressings has cement strap pointing that is shelled off in patches. What damp path is the failed pointing, and what rising-damp treatment has it not specified?
Own page
The failed pointing is a path for rain into the joints, and it has not specified a rising-damp treatment. Flint work with brick dressings has cement strap pointing that is shelled off in patches. Strap pointing sits on the face of the joint. Where it has shelled, the joint behind is open or recessed and rain can run into the wall. That is a penetrating-damp route at the face. The survey recorded the shells and the open patches. It did not prescribe a chemical injection, a new damp course, or any other rising-damp treatment.
Walls
The cottage wall is random stone with no cavity the surveyor could find. Why should a high meter reading at the base not be copied onto a cavity-wall diagnosis?
Own page
A high meter reading at the base should not be copied onto a cavity-wall diagnosis, because the surveyor could find no cavity. The cottage wall is random stone. A cavity-wall story, bridged insulation, failed ties, rain trapped in a gap, needs a gap. This wall has not got one that was found. The high reading is a reading at the base of solid stone. It might have several causes. It is not evidence of a cavity defect, and the survey has not transferred it onto that diagnosis.
Walls
A wattle-and-daub panel between timbers is soft and the oak posts beside it are hard. Why should the posts not be condemned with the panel?
Own page
The posts should not be condemned with the panel. The wattle-and-daub panel between the timbers is soft, and the oak posts beside it are hard. Softness is in the infill: the daub, and perhaps the wattle that holds it. The oak the surveyor found hard is a different material doing a different job. Condemning the posts would take a failure of the panel and paste it onto timbers the inspection did not find decayed. The survey separated them. The panel is the soft element. The posts were not.
Walls
Masonry paint is peeling and limewash shows underneath on a cottage the agent called listed. Can the survey authorise stripping that paint?
Own page
No. The survey cannot authorise stripping that paint. Masonry paint is peeling, and limewash shows underneath, on a cottage the agent called listed. Historic England explains that listing covers the whole building, not a single feature someone chooses to decorate. The inspection can record peeling paint and the limewash under it. It cannot confirm the list entry, grant listed-building consent, or tell anyone to strip the coating. The agent’s word is not the list. The survey does not grant consent.
Walls
Harling has come away in sheets on the gable and the stone behind is wet. What has fallen off, and what injection of the stone has that not ordered?
Own page
Harling has fallen off in sheets, and that loss has not ordered an injection of the stone. On the gable the coat has come away, and the stone behind is wet. What fell off is the harling, the rendered skin, not a piece of the wall’s structure by that fact alone. Wet stone is what the survey could see once the sheets had gone. The inspection recorded a lost coat and a wet face. It did not specify a chemical damp-proof injection, and it did not test the stone for a treatment.
Walls
Roughcast sounds hollow at one corner and solid a metre away. What does the hollow tap say, and what brick behind it was not opened?
Own page
The hollow tap says the roughcast is debonded at that corner, and the brick behind it was not opened. A metre away the same coat sounds solid, so the loss of grip is local on the evidence of the tap. Hollow means the coat has left the background and a void is answering the knock. Solid means, at that spot, the coat still seems keyed. The survey did not hack off the roughcast, did not see the brick face, and did not record a crack or a repair in brick it never exposed. The tap is a sound. The brick is still covered.
Damp
A gap at the skirting shows dot-and-dab plasterboard on an outside wall, and mould is in that gap. Why can that void be a cold spot without being rising damp?
Own page
That void can be a cold spot, with mould fed by condensation, without the moisture being rising damp. A gap at the skirting shows dot-and-dab plasterboard on an outside wall, and mould is in that gap. Dot-and-dab leaves a cavity of still air between the board and a cold external leaf. The gap at the skirting is a view into it. Cold surfaces in an unventilated void grow mould without any water rising through the masonry. The survey can record the lining and the mould. It has not diagnosed rising damp, and it has not proved damp from the ground.
Structure
A lath-and-plaster ceiling bulges and bits of the plaster key have dropped in the loft. What has the bulge not proved about the joists above it?
Own page
The bulge has not proved anything about the joists above it. A lath-and-plaster ceiling bulges, and bits of the plaster key have dropped in the loft. Those keys are the plaster that was pushed through the laths and held the ceiling up. When they break and fall, the ceiling is losing its grip and can sag. The joists that carry the laths are a different member. Debris on the loft floor shows failed keys. It does not show that the joists are rotten, deflected, or undersized. The survey saw a failing ceiling. It did not condemn the floor structure above it.
Structure
The lounge chimney breast is gone and the bedroom above still has its breast. What support in the floor void was not seen?
Own page
The support in the floor void was not seen. The lounge chimney breast is gone and the bedroom above still has its breast, so something in the floor zone ought to be carrying what remains. Gallows brackets, a beam, or another designed support would sit in that void, and the survey did not see them. The loft is not the floor void. Looking between the ceiling joists of the roof space does not open the floor under the bedroom breast. The inspection recorded a missing lower breast and a remaining upper one. It did not confirm the support.
Structure
A steel beam over a former wall has no padstone the surveyor could see at one end. What bearing is unverified?
Own page
The bearing at the end with no visible padstone is unverified. A steel beam over a former wall has nothing the surveyor could see, at one end, that spreads its load into the masonry. A padstone is that spreader. Its absence from view means the survey cannot say the beam sits on a padstone, on a few courses of brick, or on an inadequate point. The other end is a different question if a bearing was seen there. This end was not verified. The inspection recorded a beam whose support at one end could not be confirmed.
Structure
A steel beam disappears into the party wall and the neighbour's side was not opened. Can the survey say the bearing on that side is sound?
Own page
No. The survey cannot say the bearing on the neighbour’s side is sound. A steel beam disappears into the party wall, and the neighbour’s side was not opened. The bearing on that side is the part of the beam the inspection did not see: how much steel is in the wall, what it sits on, and whether the neighbour’s masonry is adequate. Soundness is a conclusion about that hidden end. The survey has no view of it, so it cannot give the conclusion. What it can say is that the beam enters the party wall on this side.
Structure
The old garage door opening has been bricked up and no lintel is visible over the infill. What load path above that infill was not confirmed?
Own page
The load path above the infill was not confirmed. The old garage door opening has been bricked up, and no lintel is visible over the infill. Something above that opening, a lintel, the original beam, or the new brickwork itself, is carrying the wall or the roof loads that cross it. The survey could not see which. Brick in the old hole shows an infill. It does not show that a lintel still spans, that the lintel was removed, or that the new masonry was built to carry load. The path of the load remains unconfirmed.
Structure
The loft-conversion stair has no handrail and the survey notes it. Has that note searched the building-regulations file?
Own page
No. The note has not searched the building-regulations file. The loft-conversion stair has no handrail, and the survey records that absence as a condition of the stair that was seen. A missing rail is something a person can fall against. Writing it down is not a search of approvals, completion certificates, or plans. The inspection did not open the building-control record and did not produce a certificate of its own. Approved Document A is structural guidance, not a handrail file, and the survey has not applied it as permission for the stair. The note is the missing rail.
Roof and rainwater
Tile hanging on a dormer cheek is slipping and the front window of the dormer is dry. Why can the cheek leak while the window does not?
Own page
The cheek can leak while the window stays dry because they are different faces of the dormer. Tile hanging on the cheek is slipping, and the front window of the dormer is dry. The window is a glazed opening on the front. The cheek is the side, weathered by tiles hung on battens. When those tiles slip, the lap that keeps rain out of the side is lost, even if the glass and its frame took no water on the day. A dry window does not inspect the cheek. The survey recorded slipping tiles. It has not cleared the side of the dormer.
Roof and rainwater
A rooflight was seen only from the room below and the flashing kit was not visible in the loft. What weather joint is unverified?
Own page
The weather joint between the rooflight and the roof covering is unverified. The rooflight was seen only from the room below, and the flashing kit was not visible in the loft. From the room you see glass, lining, and perhaps a stain. You do not see the upstand, the soakers, or the proprietary flashing that joins the frame to the tiles or slates. That joint is the weathering. It was not in the loft either, so the survey has not inspected it. A view of the glass is not a view of the joint.
Reading the report
The roof structure is marked NI because there is no loft hatch. Why must that not be rewritten as a condition rating 1?
Own page
It must not be rewritten as condition rating 1, because NI means not inspected, not a pass. The roof structure is marked NI because there is no loft hatch. Rating 1 means no repair currently needed. That rating is a judgement on something the surveyor inspected. The rafters, the ceiling joists and the underside of the covering were not seen, so they were not given that judgement. Putting a 1 on an unseen roof would invent a clean bill. The letters NI are the limit. They are not a quiet way of saying the roof is fine.
Reading the report
The boiler line carries the document mark R rather than a condition rating. What sort of papers is R pointing at, and who asks for them?
Own page
R is pointing at papers, not at a condition of the boiler. The boiler line carries the document mark R rather than a condition rating. RICS uses R for documents the buyer may be asked to request before signing contracts: for a boiler, that sort of paper is a service record, a warranty, an installation certificate, or a building-regulations approval. The mark is not rating 1, not rating 2, and not rating 3. It does not say the boiler is sound, and it does not say it has failed. The surveyor does not collect the papers. The solicitor asks for them.
Choosing a survey
The Level 2 visit found non-standard construction and the firm says Level 3 would have been the better product. Can the same visit be relabelled as a Level 3?
Own page
No. The same visit cannot be relabelled as a Level 3. The Level 2 visit found non-standard construction, and the firm says Level 3 would have been the better product. That advice fits what RICS describes: Level 2 is aimed at conventional homes, and Level 3 is the more detailed survey for unusual or altered buildings. The inspection that already happened was done to the Level 2 scope. Calling the same notes a Level 3 would pretend a wider inspection had been carried out. A better product is a new instruction. It is not a new cover on the old report.
Choosing a survey
A report that is not from an RICS firm uses red, amber and green boxes. Are those boxes the RICS condition ratings 1, 2 and 3?
Own page
No. Those boxes are not the RICS condition ratings. A report that is not from an RICS firm uses red, amber and green. Those are that firm’s own colours, on that firm’s own scale. They are not condition ratings 1, 2 and 3, which belong to a RICS Home Survey and carry RICS definitions. Similar colours do not make the scales the same. The survey you are reading was not produced as a RICS product. Its boxes should be read with the key printed in that report, not with a RICS key brought in from somewhere else.
Choosing a survey
The surveyor was on site for a short part of the morning on a Level 3. Why is the length of the visit not proof that every floor was opened?
Own page
The length of the visit is not proof that every floor was opened. The surveyor was on site for a short part of the morning on a Level 3. Time on site is a duration. Opening a floor is a specific act: boards lifted, coverings moved, a void seen. RICS describes Level 3 as a more thorough visual survey than the lower levels. It does not describe it as a promise that every floor is opened, and a short morning does not prove those openings happened. Nor would a long day prove them.
Choosing a survey
Two bedrooms were locked because tenants were out. What rating must you not invent for rooms that were not entered?
Own page
You must not invent a condition rating for rooms that were not entered. Two bedrooms were locked because the tenants were out. The surveyor did not see those rooms, so they cannot be given rating 1, which means no repair currently needed, or rating 2, which means defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent, or rating 3, which means serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. The honest mark is NI. NI means not inspected, not a pass. A locked door is not a clean bedroom. It is a room the inspection did not include.
Reading the report
Fitted carpets were not lifted and the floors are marked not inspected. What floor defect has that limit not ruled out?
Own page
That limit has not ruled out a floor defect under the carpets. Fitted carpets were not lifted, and the floors are marked not inspected. NI means not inspected, not a pass. Rot, insect damage, a failed board, or a dip you cannot feel through a thick carpet can all sit under a covering the surveyor left in place. Rating 1, no repair currently needed, was not given, and you should not add it. The mark is the limit of the inspection. It has not cleared the floors.
Selling
The seller stayed in every room during the inspection. Does their presence turn the report into a survey they commissioned?
Own page
No. Their presence does not turn the report into a survey they commissioned. The seller stayed in every room during the inspection. That is access and company. The client is the person named in the terms, which is the person who instructed the firm. Standing beside the surveyor does not move that name, does not let the seller set the findings, and does not make their comments part of the evidence unless the report clearly records them as comments. In England and Wales this private instruction is not a Scottish Home Report. A Home Report is the product a purchaser there is pointed to.
Selling
The seller offers a survey they commissioned last year. Why is that PDF not the same instruction as the survey you would book for yourself?
Own page
That PDF is the survey they commissioned, not the instruction you would book for yourself. The seller offers a report from last year. They were the client then. You were not. Reliance sits with the client, or with someone the firm later accepts in writing. Handing you the file does not, by itself, make you that person. A survey you book is a new instruction, on the building as it stands when your surveyor attends, with your name on the terms. Last year’s pages are not that visit. In Scotland a Home Report is a different product a purchaser is pointed to.
After the survey
You are buying with cash and the only report on the table is the seller's. Why does paying cash not turn that report into your own advice?
Own page
Paying cash does not turn the seller’s report into your own advice. You are buying without a mortgage, and the only report on the table is the one the seller commissioned. Cash means no lender is sending a valuer. It does not mean the seller’s PDF was written for you, and it does not create reliance. The client is still the person who instructed that survey. Your payment method changes the lending. It does not change the terms of a report you did not commission.
After the survey
You have three contractor quotes for the same rating 3 item and they do not match. Why should the survey not be asked to average them into a price reduction?
Own page
The survey should not be asked to average those quotes into a price reduction. You have three contractor quotes for the same item the report has marked, and they do not match. The survey describes the defect and its seriousness in the surveyor’s terms. It does not price the work, and it does not blend three builders into a single figure you can deduct. Different quotes usually mean different scopes: what is included, what is provisional, and what was only glanced at. An average would invent a fourth number nobody quoted and pretend the survey had produced it.
After the survey
A structural engineer's letter says one crack is historic and the home survey calls the same crack ongoing. What has neither document done to settle that disagreement by itself?
Own page
Neither document has settled the disagreement by itself. A structural engineer’s letter says one crack is historic, and the home survey calls the same crack ongoing. Each is an opinion from the work that person did. The letter is not a monitoring record just because an engineer signed it, and the survey is not a monitoring record just because it used the word ongoing. Historic means, in that letter, that the writer thinks movement has stopped. Ongoing means the surveyor thinks it has not. Neither has produced the dated series that would decide the point. The disagreement stands because both stopped short of that series.
Selling
The buyer wants the seller to pay for a structural engineer before exchange. Does the home survey order the seller to do that?
Own page
No. The home survey does not order the seller to pay for a structural engineer before exchange. It can recommend further investigation. It cannot instruct the seller, set a deadline, or make that recommendation a term of the sale. Who pays, and whether the work is done before exchange or not at all, is a negotiation between buyer and seller. The report is advice to its client. It is not an order on the other party. The question of funding sits with the solicitors. The survey has not decided it.
After the survey
The only rating 3 is a split gutter joint and you still want the house. Why is that rating not an instruction to withdraw?
Own page
A rating 3 on a split gutter joint is not an instruction to withdraw. It marks that joint as needing repair, replacement or investigation, and it leaves the decision about the house with you. The survey has rated one defect: the split in the gutter joint. It has not told you to walk away, and it has not priced the house or the joint. The rating describes the gutter, not a verdict on the purchase. What follows is to understand the split and to get a quotation for that joint, not to treat the digit as an order.
Money
The lender talks about a retention for the roof and your survey rated that roof 2. Why are those two documents not the same decision?
Own page
They are not the same decision because a retention is the lender's step on its own valuation, and rating 2 is your survey's condition label on the roof. MoneyHelper is plain that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. The home survey has said something about the roof's condition. It has not set a retention, named a sum, or told the lender what to hold back. The lender's letter is not a second copy of the rating. Reading the two papers as one decision mixes a lending control with a condition comment.
Money
Your home survey never mentions a price and the lender's valuation comes in lower than the offer. Why can the survey not be read as disagreeing with that figure?
Own page
The survey cannot be read as disagreeing with the figure because it never mentions a price. Silence is not a rival valuation. The lender's figure is the result of the valuation the lender instructed, and MoneyHelper is clear that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. Your home survey describes condition within the limits of that inspection. It has not valued the house, not compared itself with the offer, and not said the lender is wrong. A lower figure is a valuation outcome. The survey's quietness on money is the design of the report, not a dispute.
Money
The housing association has asked for a valuation for staircasing and you thought it was a condition survey. What condition of the flat has that valuation not described?
Own page
The staircasing valuation has not described the condition of the flat. It is a valuation of a further share, asked for by the housing association, not a home survey of roofs, walls, services or damp. If you thought the visit was a condition survey, that expectation does not change the instruction. The valuation has not opened up the flat, not rated elements, and not told you what repair the building needs. GOV.UK warns that extending a shared-ownership lease can be much more expensive below 80 years. That warning is about the lease. It is not a condition description either.
Money
The EPC floor area and the agent's particulars do not match. Has the home survey measured the house for the energy certificate?
Own page
No. The home survey has not measured the house for the energy certificate. An EPC floor area and the agent's particulars are two other documents, and a mismatch between them is a mismatch between those documents. The survey describes condition of the building it was instructed to inspect. It has not produced an energy certificate, not recalculated the floor area for one, and not chosen which of the two figures is the energy figure. If the areas disagree, that disagreement stays with the EPC and the particulars until someone instructed to measure for that purpose says otherwise.
Choosing a survey
In a Scottish Home Report the energy section suggests more loft insulation and the single survey rates the roof covering 1. Why can both of those be true?
Own page
Both can be true because they answer different questions inside the Home Report. The energy section is about heat loss, and a suggestion of more loft insulation is an energy comment, not a verdict that the covering has failed. The single survey's 1 on the roof covering is that survey's condition comment on the covering itself. A covering can be in the state the single survey described and the loft can still be short of insulation. A Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to. It is not an English Level 2 you instruct yourself.
Environment
A coal mining search is in the legal pack and the survey found no crack. Why does a quiet wall not cancel that search?
Own page
A quiet wall does not cancel the coal mining search. The search is a Coal Authority product about mining records, and it is separate from the home survey. The survey found no crack it could see. That is a comment on the walls on the day. It has not searched the mining records, not cleared a shaft or a working, and not decided that the ground is untroubled because the plaster is quiet. Absence of a crack is not a substitute for the search sitting in the legal pack. The two results answer different questions and both can stand.
Environment
The England flood map shades the plot and the house sits on a raised plinth with no tide mark inside. Why is the plinth not a flood model?
Own page
The plinth is not a flood model. It is a raised base the survey could see, and the lack of a tide mark inside is only the lack of a stain the survey could see. The England flood map shades the plot as a flood-risk product of its own. The survey has not modelled flood depth, not replayed a past flood, and not decided that a raised plinth takes the house out of the shaded area. A dry interior on the day of inspection is not a hydrology result. The map still shades the plot.
Environment
A radon fan is running in the cupboard and the pack has no measurement result. What level has the running fan not proved?
Own page
The running fan has not proved any radon level. It shows that a fan in the cupboard was switched on and turning. A fan is a piece of equipment. A level is a measurement, and the pack has no measurement result. The survey has not measured radon, not sampled the air, and not read a result that is not in the papers. UK radon guidance and maps are separate from this inspection. Hearing or seeing the fan is not a figure, and it is not a pass.
Environment
A radon detector printout from several years ago is in a kitchen drawer. Why is that printout not a measurement the survey took this week?
Own page
That printout is not a measurement the survey took this week because the survey did not take it. It is an old detector result, found in a kitchen drawer, from several years ago. The inspection has not sampled the air, not placed a detector, and not adopted the drawer's paper as its own test. A sheet in a drawer can be real as a piece of paper and still be someone else's earlier result. UK radon maps and a current measurement are different again. The survey's silence on a figure is not an endorsement of the old printout.
Roofs
Spray foam was stripped from part of the slope and a skin of it remains on the rafters. What timber face is still hidden?
Own page
The timber face still hidden is the rafter surface under the skin of foam that remains. Stripping part of the slope has shown only the part that was stripped. Where a skin stays on the rafters, that face has not been seen. The survey has recorded the remaining coating. It has not called the timber under it sound or decayed, because it could not see it. A partial strip is not a cleared roof. The coated face stays hidden until that skin is off and the timber is looked at.
Walls
Filled drill holes from a tie replacement are only on the gable and the front elevation has none. What has the gable pattern not said about the front ties?
Own page
The gable pattern has not said that the front ties were replaced, or that they are sound. Filled drill holes on the gable are a trace of work on that wall. The front elevation has none of those holes. The survey has recorded where the holes are and where they are not. It has not tested the ties in the front wall, not seen them, and not treated a blank elevation as a pass. Absence of holes is not a test result. The front ties remain undescribed.
Hazardous materials
A black cold-water cistern in the loft looks like an old moulded tank and it was not sampled. Why is a likeness not an identification of asbestos?
Own page
A likeness is not an identification because the cistern was not sampled. The survey can say a black cold-water cistern in the loft looks like an old moulded tank. Looking is not a laboratory result, and a home survey does not identify asbestos by appearance. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos. The report has not called the cistern asbestos, and it has not called it free of asbestos. The look of the tank is not its name.
Grounds
A root barrier shows in a shallow trench at the fence and no green canes were seen. What does the barrier not prove about whether knotweed is gone?
Own page
The barrier does not prove that knotweed is gone. It proves that a root barrier was seen in a shallow trench at the fence. No green canes were seen on the day, which is an observation about growth above ground, not a clearance. The survey has recorded the membrane and the absence of canes. It has not dug out the trench, not tested the ground beyond it, and not certified eradication. A barrier is a control that was installed. It is not a statement that the plant has died.
Grounds
An older survey in the pack names knotweed and this inspection in autumn saw none. Why does the older sentence not get deleted by a season without leaves?
Own page
The older sentence does not get deleted because autumn without leaves is a poor moment to erase a named plant. Knotweed dies back. This inspection saw no canes. That is what this visit found, in the season it was made. It has not contradicted the older survey out of existence, and it has not certified that the plant is gone. A season without leaves hides the growth the older sentence was about. The pack now holds both: a previous naming, and a later visit that saw none.
Property types
Rust is concentrated at the hitch of a park home and the rest of the chassis was behind a skirt. What of the underframe was not seen?
Own page
The underframe behind the skirt was not seen. Rust concentrated at the hitch was in view, and the survey can describe that hitch. The rest of the chassis stayed behind the skirt, so its steel, joints and any other corrosion were not inspected. The note is a hitch and a limit. It is not a condition for the hidden underframe. GOV.UK treats a park home as a special case when buying. This look does not set the pitch fee and does not replace the written agreement.
Roofs
The ridge of a thatched roof has slipped and the coat below still looks even from the lane. What of the ridge fixings was not lifted?
Own page
The ridge fixings were not lifted. The survey saw a ridge that has slipped, and a coat that still looks even from the lane. An even coat at that distance is a distant impression of the main thatch. It is not a view of the spars, the wire or whatever else holds the ridge. The inspection has not opened the ridge, not counted fixings, and not decided the coat underneath is sound because it looks tidy from the road. The slipped ridge is the defect in view. The fixings stay unseen.
Roofs
Birds are using the eaves of the thatch and the surveyor did not identify the species. What wildlife conclusion is outside the condition note?
Own page
Any conclusion about species, protection or a wildlife licence is outside the condition note. The survey can say birds are using the eaves of the thatch, and it can say what disturbance of the coat was seen. It did not identify the species. It has not decided that the birds are protected, that they are not, or that work to the eaves would need a licence. The condition note stops at the birds and the eaves.
Property types
A satellite dish is fixed to the front of a listed house. Can the survey give consent for it to stay?
Own page
No. The survey cannot give consent for the dish to stay. It can record that a satellite dish is fixed to the front of a listed house. Historic England explains that listing covers the whole building. Consent to keep, move or remove a dish is a listed-building matter, not a sentence the survey can issue. The inspection has not granted consent, not refused it, and not decided that a small dish falls outside listing. The dish is a fixture the survey saw.
Property types
Downlighters have cut the vapour-control layer of a timber frame and the cuts were seen from the loft. What airtightness test was not carried out?
Own page
An airtightness test was not carried out. From the loft, the survey saw that downlighters have cut the vapour-control layer of the timber frame. Those cuts were visible. A test of how airtight the house is was not. The inspection has recorded holes in the layer. It has not measured air leakage, not pressure-tested the dwelling, and not decided how much the cuts matter in figures. Seeing a cut is not a fan test.
Property types
Brick slips on a modern timber-frame house look like a brick wall from the street. What structure has that face not proved?
Own page
That face has not proved a brick wall, or any masonry structure carrying the house. Brick slips on a modern timber-frame house are a cladding that looks like brick from the street. The survey has recorded the appearance. It has not opened the wall, not found a loadbearing brick leaf, and not treated the street view as the structure. The frame, if it is the frame the particulars describe, sits behind the slips. The face does not prove it, and it does not prove the opposite either. Looks from the pavement stop at the slips.
Property types
Grease staining on the flat's kitchen wall sits beside a flue from the shop below, and the shop was not entered. What path is that stain, separate from the flat's own roof?
Own page
The stain reads as a path from the shop flue, not as a leak from the flat's own roof. Grease on the kitchen wall sits beside that flue, which is a cooking path from below. The shop was not entered, so the flue was not followed inside the shop. The survey has not traced the duct, not smelt its way to a roof defect, and not blamed the flat's covering. Separate from the roof, the path on offer is the flue beside the wall. It is a reading of position, not a test of the shop.
Property types
The coach-house floor is the garage ceiling and a false ceiling hides the steel. What beam size was not measured?
Own page
No beam size was measured. The coach-house floor is the garage ceiling, and a false ceiling hides the steel, so the survey could not put a tape on the beam. Depth, width and the number of members are unknown. The inspection has recorded the false ceiling and the fact of a floor over a garage. It has not measured the steel, not calculated whether it is adequate, and not invented a size from the span it could pace. Hidden steel has no size in this report.
Money
The survey describes the block roof and does not attach the service-charge accounts. Why are the accounts a management-pack document?
Own page
The accounts are a management-pack document because they are the landlord's or the agent's record of service charges, not a product of the home survey. The survey describes the block roof it could see. It does not attach the accounts, and it has not audited them. A condition comment on a roof is not a set of figures for cleaning, insurance or reserves. Those figures live in the pack the solicitor asks the managing agent for. Their absence from the survey PDF is not an omission of a page the survey was meant to include.
Money
A lease extract mentions a rent review and the survey is silent. Has the survey failed to value the rent, or is the clause for the solicitor?
Own page
The clause is for the solicitor. The survey has not failed to value the rent, because valuing a rent review was never its job. A lease extract that mentions a review is a legal clause. Silence in the survey is the survey staying off that clause. It has not priced the rent, not forecast a review, and not ignored a defect in the building by being quiet. The failure would be to pretend a condition report can construe the lease. It cannot. Hand the extract to the solicitor.
Legal and neighbours
An EWS1 form is already in the management pack and the survey does not restate its option. Why should you read the form rather than ask the survey to invent a grade?
Own page
Read the form, because the option is already written there, and the survey must not invent a grade. An EWS1 in the management pack is the external-wall assessment that was signed for that purpose. The home survey has not repeated it, has not carried out that assessment, and has not substituted a condition sentence for the option on the form. Asking the surveyor to invent a grade would manufacture a result they were not instructed to give. The form you have is the form to read.
Money
The Buildmark paperwork is in a previous owner's name. Has the home survey transferred that cover?
Own page
No. The home survey has not transferred the cover. The Buildmark paperwork is in a previous owner's name, and the survey can record that. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. Whether that product still benefits a later owner is a question for the policy and for NHBC, not a transfer the inspection performs. The survey does not open a claim. It has not assigned the policy, not confirmed it is in force, and not put your name on it.
Legal and neighbours
Your kitchen floor passes over a passage the surveyor walked under, and the neighbour's hall was not entered. What flying-freehold right was not read in a deed?
Own page
The flying-freehold right itself was not read in a deed. The surveyor walked under the passage and could see that your kitchen floor passes over it. The neighbour's hall was not entered. What was seen is a physical overlap: floor above, passage below. What was not read is the right that says you may keep that floor there, who repairs it, and who may enter. The survey has not opened the title and has not found those words. A walk under a beam is not a deed.
Drainage
A manhole position on an old plan now sits under the extension slab and the cover was not found. What pipe condition under that slab is unknown?
Own page
The pipe condition under that slab is unknown. An old plan puts a manhole where the extension slab now is, and the cover was not found. The survey has not lifted a cover that is not there, not camera-surveyed the run, and not seen the pipe the slab covers. It can record the clash between the plan and the floor. It cannot say the pipe is intact, collapsed, or even still on that line. Unknown means unknown. The slab is the reason.
Legal and neighbours
The water-company plan shows a public sewer crossing the lawn and the surveyor did not trace it. Why does the plan not become a CCTV survey?
Own page
The plan does not become a CCTV survey because a plan is a drawn record of a route, and a camera survey is a look inside the pipe. The water-company plan shows a public sewer crossing the lawn. The surveyor did not trace it on the ground and did not film it. The survey has not confirmed the line, the depth or the condition. Putting the plan in the pack does not switch on a camera. The drawing stays a drawing.
Drainage
The pitch-fibre pipe at the chamber collar gives under a thumb and was not camera-surveyed. What shape of pipe further along the run was not seen?
Own page
The shape of the pipe further along the run was not seen. At the chamber collar the pitch-fibre gives under a thumb, which is a local softness the survey could feel. Beyond that collar the bore was not camera-surveyed, so ovality, flat spots or a sound round pipe are all unseen. The inspection has recorded a soft collar. It has not mapped the run, not declared a collapse, and not cleared the length it could not see. Softness at the start is not a section through the rest.
Services
An air-source heat pump stands close to a bedroom window and no noise reading was taken. What has the survey not measured, and what service record is separate?
Own page
The survey has not measured the noise, and it has not measured a separation. The heat pump stands close to a bedroom window, which is a position the inspection could see. No noise reading was taken, so there is no figure for how loud it is at that window. The service record for the unit is a separate document: servicing, commissioning or warranty papers the survey did not produce. The report has described a location. It has not tested the pump and it has not stood in for that record.
Roof and rainwater
Nesting debris sits under the solar panels and the mesh is missing on one edge. What tile condition under the array was not seen, and what electrical test was not done?
Own page
The tile condition under the array was not seen, and no electrical test of the panels was done. Nesting debris sits under the solar panels, and the mesh is missing on one edge, which the survey could record from what was visible. The tiles beneath the array stayed covered. The inspection has not lifted a panel, not described those tiles, and not tested the electrical side of the installation. Debris and a gap in the mesh are the findings. They are not a tile survey and they are not an electrical certificate.
Electrics
An EV charging cable lies across the front path with no cover and the unit was not energised by the surveyor. What electrical test is still outstanding?
Own page
An electrical test of the charging unit is still outstanding. The survey saw an EV cable lying across the front path with no cover. The unit was not energised. The inspection has not tested the charger, not issued an electrical certificate, and not decided the circuit is sound because the box looks modern. A cable on the path is a physical hazard the report can mention. It is not a test. The outstanding test is the electrical one the surveyor did not carry out.
Electrics
A cellar light is wired in rubber-sheathed cable and the circuit was not tested. What age clue is that cable, and what EICR has it not become?
Own page
The age clue is the rubber sheath itself, and it has not become an EICR. Rubber-sheathed cable on a cellar light is the look of an older installation, left in place when other parts of the house may have changed. The survey has recorded that sheath by looking. The circuit was not tested. An electrical installation condition report is a test and a certificate. This visit produced neither. The clue sits in the cable you can see. It is not a dated certificate, and it is not a pass for the cellar circuit.
Services
One short lead joint remains under the sink and the rest of the visible pipework is copper. What length of pipe between the stopcock and the road was not traced?
Own page
The length between the stopcock and the road was not traced. One short lead joint under the sink was visible, and the rest of the visible pipework is copper. Visible copper does not describe the buried supply. The survey has recorded the joint it could see. It has not followed the pipe outside, not said the incoming main is copper, and not sampled the water. The unseen length is the run from the stopcock toward the road. A short joint indoors is not that run.
Services
The oil-tank bund is full of rainwater so the tank base could not be seen. What containment has that water not demonstrated?
Own page
The water has not demonstrated that the bund would contain a leak of oil. The bund is already full of rainwater, so any spare capacity is hidden and the tank base could not be seen. The survey has recorded a bund full of water and a base out of sight. It has not emptied the bund, not inspected the base, and not tested whether the wall of the bund would hold oil. A bund that is full of rain is not showing you containment. It is showing you water.
Services
A bulk LPG tank sits in the side garden and the surveyor did not measure its distance from the house. What gas-safety inspection has not been done?
Own page
A gas-safety inspection of the bulk LPG tank has not been done. The tank sits in the side garden, which the survey could see, and the surveyor did not measure its distance from the house. There is no separation figure in the report, and none is invented here. The inspection has not checked the tank, the regulators or the pipe for gas safety. Seeing a tank on a plinth is not that inspection. The missing job is the gas-safety inspection, including the measurement the visit did not take.
Services
A capped gas point sits beside a back boiler the seller says is unused. What cap was not dismantled to prove the boiler is isolated?
Own page
The cap itself was not dismantled, so the back boiler has not been proved isolated. A capped gas point sits beside it, and the seller says the boiler is unused. The survey can record the cap and the seller's words. It has not taken the cap off, not tested the pipe, and not confirmed that the boiler is disconnected from gas. A cap that stays on is a cap that was seen. Isolation is a gas-safety conclusion the inspection did not reach.
Structure
Cracks radiate from a ceiling rose and do not follow a board joint. Why is that a weak match for a plasterboard joint, and what foundation measurement is still missing?
Own page
It is a weak match for a plasterboard joint because a joint crack follows the joint, and these cracks radiate from the ceiling rose instead. They do not run along a board edge. The survey has recorded that pattern. It has not called it proof of foundation movement, and the foundation measurement is still missing: nobody has levelled, monitored or measured the foundations. A crack diagram is not that measurement. The pattern argues against a simple board joint. It does not, on its own, measure the ground.
Structure
One bay of floor is springy where the joists meet the party wall and the ends were not exposed. What decay at those ends is still a guess?
Own page
Decay at the joist ends in the party wall is still a guess. One bay is springy where those joists meet the wall, and the ends were not exposed. Spring is a feeling underfoot. It is not a view of the timber buried in or against the wall. The survey has recorded the lively bay. It has not seen rot, beetle or a failed bearing at the ends, and it has not ruled them out. Until the ends are opened, decay there is a possibility, not a finding.
Walls
The pulley stile of one sash is soft and the sash itself still slides. Which piece of timber has the survey called decayed?
Own page
The survey has called the pulley stile decayed, not the sash. The stile is soft, which is the piece beside the sash that carries the pulleys. The sash itself still slides, so the moving sash was not the timber described as decayed. The inspection has named the stile from the softness it found. It has not taken the sash out, not probed every rail, and not said the whole window is rotten because one stile gives. The decayed piece, on this note, is the pulley stile.
Timber
A converted chapel has deathwatch-type holes in one oak truss and the new softwood joists beside it are clean. Why should the new joists not be sprayed because of that truss?
Own page
The new joists should not be sprayed because of that truss. The deathwatch-type holes are in one oak truss, and the new softwood joists beside it are clean. Spraying the joists would treat timber that showed no attack, on the back of a different piece of oak. The survey has recorded holes of that type in the truss and a clean face on the new joists. It has not found flight holes in the softwood, not confirmed live insects, and not prescribed a spray. The truss does not convict the joists.
Timber
White mycelium was seen in the void under a bay window and the floorboards of the room were not lifted. What spread of decay is unmapped?
Own page
The spread under the room is unmapped. White mycelium was seen in the void under the bay window, which is one void the survey could look into. The floorboards of the room were not lifted, so the growth beyond that void was not followed. The inspection has recorded mycelium where it was seen. It has not mapped how far decay runs under the floor, not named every timber it affects, and not cleared the boards it left down. The unmapped spread is the part under the room.
Damp
A basement tanking membrane bulges as if water sits behind it. What system behind the membrane was not inspected, and what pump was not run?
Own page
The system behind the membrane was not inspected, and the pump was not run. The basement tanking membrane bulges as if water sits behind it, which is an appearance the survey could see. What lies behind, the drained cavity, the channels or the wall itself, was not opened. Any pump that should take that water away was not operated. The inspection has recorded a bulge. It has not confirmed standing water, not tested the system, and not declared the tanking a success or a failure beyond the bulge it could see.
Drainage
The cellar sump float is stuck in the up position and the pump did not start. What flooding path is that pump there for, and what test was missed?
Own page
The pump is there for water that collects in the cellar sump, and the test that was missed is making it start. The float is stuck up, and the pump did not start. A sump takes water that reaches the lowest point, whether from the basement drainage or from seepage the system was built to lift. The survey has recorded a stuck float and a silent pump. It has not freed the float, not proved the pump runs, and not followed where that water would go if the sump overflows. The missed test is an operating test of the pump.
Drainage
The lightwell gulley appears to join a foul stack and no dye test was done. What connection has not been shown?
Own page
The connection from the lightwell gulley into the foul stack has not been shown. The gulley appears to join that stack, which is what the pipes look like. No dye test was done, so water from the gulley was not traced. The survey has recorded an appearance. It has not proved the connection, not proved a different connection, and not shown where the lightwell actually discharges. Appearance is the finding. The connection itself remains unshown.
Walls
A perpend is missing on the weather face and a damp patch inside lines up with it after rain. Why should that be read as a rain path before any rising-damp treatment?
Own page
Read it as a rain path first, because a missing perpend on the weather face lines up with a damp patch inside after rain. An open cross joint is a hole in the face that rain can use. The alignment after rain is the timing that fits water coming through, not water rising from the ground. The survey has recorded the missing joint and the matching patch. It has not established rising damp, and it has not justified a rising-damp treatment. The rain path is the reading that matches what was seen.
Damp
The path sits above the damp-proof course only beside the gulley, and the rest of the wall base is clear. Why should the damp note stay local to that gulley?
Own page
The damp note should stay local to that gulley because the bridging is local. The path sits above the damp-proof course only beside the gulley, and the rest of the wall base is clear. A high path at one point can bridge the course there. It does not describe the whole wall. The survey has recorded a local bridge. It has not found the path high elsewhere, and it has not turned one gulley into rising damp along the elevation. The note belongs where the path is high, which is beside that gulley.
Damp
Chemical injection holes are present and a new path still bridges them. Why is another injection not the first reading of that detail?
Own page
Another injection is not the first reading, because a new path still bridges the holes. Those chemical injection holes mark an earlier attempt to form a damp course in the wall. A later path, step or render can sit across that line and let moisture step over it. The survey has seen the holes and the bridge. It has not tested the old chemical, and it has not decided that a second row of injection would stop the damp.
Walls
Daylight shows through the top of a meter box where a cavity tray would normally sit. What weather path is that gap, and what tray was not seen?
Own page
The gap is a weather path for rain driven into the cavity, and the cavity tray that should turn that water out was not seen. Daylight at the top of the meter box means the outer leaf is open where a tray would normally sit over the opening. Wind-blown rain can enter that slot instead of being caught and drained through a weep. The survey has recorded the light and the missing view of a tray. It has not opened the wall, has not found a tray higher up, and has not decided that the cavity is already wet.
Roofs
From the loft a ridge of spray foam fills the underside of a valley. What lining of that valley can no longer be seen?
Own page
The lining under that valley can no longer be seen, because a ridge of spray foam fills its underside. From the loft the foam occupies the junction where an underlay, felt or metal valley lining would otherwise show. The survey has recorded the foam ridge. It has not peeled it back, has not identified the lining now buried, and has not decided that the valley is watertight or leaking. RICS notes that spray foam can hide roof timbers and that lenders ask their own questions. This inspection does not answer those questions for them, and it does not see through the foam.
Drainage
The seller has a drain CCTV from last year and the survey recommends a camera survey without commenting on that video. What has the home survey not watched?
Own page
The home survey has not watched the seller's drain CCTV from last year. It recommends a camera survey and does not comment on that video, so the footage is outside the inspection. A recording the surveyor did not view is not a finding about the drains under this house. The survey has not adopted last year's pictures, has not said they are still true, and has not itself run a camera. What it has done is flag that a drain survey by camera is still wanted. The old disc or link remains unwatched.
Choosing a survey
A Level 1 was booked when you had asked for advice on repairs to an older house. What does the Level 1 scope not set out to advise on?
Own page
The Level 1 scope does not set out to advise you how to repair or manage the defects in this older house. You asked for repair advice. What was booked is a Level 1, which RICS describes as a visual overview of condition, risks and urgent matters, aimed at conventional homes and generally not a specification of how to put defects right. The survey can note what it saw. It has not produced the repair advice you asked for, and it has not become a Level 2 or Level 3 because the house is old.
Money
A valuation and a home survey happened the same morning with two different people. Why does sharing a morning not make them one job?
Own page
Sharing a morning does not make them one job, because a valuation and a home survey are different instructions done by two different people. MoneyHelper is plain that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. The valuation is for the lender's security. The home survey is the inspection you commissioned about the building. They can be booked for the same morning and still answer different questions, with different notes and different limits. The survey has not become the valuation, and the valuation has not become the survey, because the visits overlapped.
Money
One firm's quote is silent on whether the annexe is included and the other firm's quote excludes it. What has the cheaper number not listed?
Own page
The cheaper number has not listed the annexe. One firm is silent on whether the annexe is included. The other firm says it is excluded. Silence is not a list, and it is not the same as inclusion. A lower figure that never mentions the annexe has not priced the second building, the extra roof, or the time to inspect it. The survey has not happened yet, so nothing has been decided about the annexe's condition. Until the quiet quote says the annexe is in, the cheaper number is a price for a scope that leaves the annexe unstated.
Money
The survey quote shows a separate disbursement for a mining search. Why is that search not already inside the inspection fee?
Own page
The mining search is not inside the inspection fee because a Coal Authority search is a separate product from the home survey. The quote shows it as a disbursement, which means it is paid on as a distinct charge rather than folded into the visit. Walking the house does not search the mining records. The survey fee is for the inspection. The disbursement is for a different enquiry, ordered from outside the inspection. The survey has not, by printing that line, already obtained the search or interpreted a mine entry under this plot.
Selling
The seller refused access to the loft on the day. What roof structure must you not treat as inspected?
Own page
You must not treat the roof structure in that loft as inspected. The seller refused access on the day, so the rafters, purlins, collars and any alteration up there were not seen. A home survey describes what was opened. A locked or refused hatch is a limit, not a quiet pass. The survey has not examined that roof structure, has not said the timbers are sound, and has not borrowed the seller's account of what is above the ceiling. Anything you were not allowed to see stays uninspected.
Roof and rainwater
A neighbour's extension means your gutter now discharges onto their new flat roof. Can the survey decide who must move that gutter?
Own page
No. The survey cannot decide who must move that gutter. It can record that your gutter now discharges onto the neighbour's new flat roof, which is a change in where the rain goes. Who has to move the gutter, alter the outlet or accept the water is a boundary and neighbour question, not a condition finding. The inspection has not applied the party wall rules, has not appointed anyone, and has not split the cost or the duty. GOV.UK explains party walls and related work. A home survey does not issue that decision.
Property types
A conservatory dwarf wall is bolted to the house and no damp-proof course was visible in that wall. What moisture path is unverified at the bolts?
Own page
The moisture path at the bolts is unverified, because the dwarf wall is fixed to the house and no damp-proof course was visible in that wall. Bolts through the junction can link the conservatory masonry to the house wall. Without a visible course, the survey cannot say moisture is stopped at that line, and it also cannot say the bolts are already carrying damp indoors. It has seen the bolts and the absence of a visible course. It has not opened the joint, has not traced a damp line into the house, and has not decided that the bolts are the active path.
Electrics
The garden office has its own consumer unit and the house board was the only one described in detail. What of the office installation was not tested?
Own page
The garden office installation was not tested. It has its own consumer unit, and the house board was the only one described in detail, so the office circuits, that second board and the cable between the buildings stay outside the description. A home survey does not test electrics by looking at a consumer unit. The survey has noted that a separate board exists. It has not tested the office installation, has not produced an electrical certificate, and has not borrowed the house-board notes to cover the garden office.
Grounds
A swimming-pool plant room was seen and the pumps were not run. What water-tightness of the pool has the home survey not tested?
Own page
The home survey has not tested the water-tightness of the pool. The plant room was seen and the pumps were not run, so nobody circulated the water, loaded the pipes or watched the shell under working pressure. Seeing filters, pumps and valves is a visual note of equipment at rest. It is not a leak test of the tank, the liner or the buried pipework. The survey has recorded the plant it could see. It has not decided that the pool holds water, and it has not decided that it leaks.
Drainage
The sample chamber on a treatment plant was shut and the alarm light was dark. What treatment quality was not observed?
Own page
The treatment quality of the plant was not observed. The sample chamber was shut, so the survey did not see the liquor a treatment plant is meant to produce, and the alarm light was dark, which was not a test of the alarm. A treatment plant is not a septic tank and not a cesspool. A cesspool only holds sewage until it is emptied. This note is about a plant whose sample point stayed closed. The survey records that. It has not judged the effluent, has not proved the plant is working, and has not proved it has failed.
Drainage
The seller says soakaway crates lie under the new patio and nothing was dug up. What crate has the survey not seen?
Own page
The survey has not seen the soakaway crate the seller says lies under the new patio. Nothing was dug up, so the crate, its wrap, its inlet and the ground around it stayed buried. A seller's sentence is not a view of the crate. The survey can record the new patio and the claim. It has not confirmed that a crate is there, has not measured it, and has not decided that it drains. The home survey did not test the drains and did not open the patio.
Grounds
Fresh fill sits in a stump grind against the kitchen wall. What root and what soil movement has that fill not explained?
Own page
The fresh fill has not explained which root was taken out, or what soil movement followed, against the kitchen wall. A stump grind is a hole where a stump was ground down. New fill in that hole hides the remaining root, the depth of the grind, and whether the ground beside the wall has shrunk, heaved or simply been made up. The survey has seen fresh fill against the kitchen wall. It has not identified the root, has not diagnosed movement, and has not opened the fill to see the soil under it.
Walls
Flood air bricks with closable covers are fitted and the covers were not operated. What seal has not been tested, and what flood depth was not modelled?
Own page
The seal of those closable covers has not been tested, and no flood depth at this wall was modelled. Flood air bricks are fitted, and the covers were not operated, so nobody closed them, felt the seal, or watched whether they actually shut. The survey has seen the bricks and the covers. It has not tested the seal and has not modelled a depth of floodwater against the wall. A GOV.UK long-term flood-risk check is a separate map product. It is not a depth model produced by this inspection, and the covers were not tried.
Structure
A radon membrane, where it laps a service pipe in a void, looks torn. What continuity of that barrier was not proved, and what radon level was not measured?
Own page
The continuity of the radon membrane at that pipe was not proved, and no radon level was measured. The membrane looks torn where it laps a service pipe in a void, which is a visual break in the lap, not a test of the whole barrier and not a reading of the air. The survey has recorded the tear it could see. It has not proved the membrane is continuous around the pipe, has not traced the barrier under the floor, and has not measured a radon level in the house. A torn lap is not a number.
Walls
On a house near the sea, rust stains the weep holes over the windows. What metal has that stain not identified, and what tie survey has it not replaced?
Own page
The rust stain has not identified which metal is rusting, and it has not replaced a wall-tie survey. Near the sea, rust at the weep holes over the windows can come from a tie, a lintel, a bead or some other piece the stain does not name. The survey has seen the staining. It has not identified the metal, has not opened the cavity, and has not carried out the tie survey that would look at the ties themselves. A stain over a window is not that investigation, and it is not a finding that the ties have failed.
Property types
The cottage is in Wales and the particulars quote Historic England. Which body's list should the solicitor actually match the building to?
Own page
The solicitor should match the cottage to Cadw's list, not to Historic England. The building is in Wales, and the particulars quote the English body. Cadw explains listing in Wales. Historic England explains list entries in England, which is the wrong list for this cottage. The survey has not matched the building to either list, has not confirmed a grade, and does not grant consent. A sentence in the sales pack is not the Welsh entry. The list the solicitor should actually use is Cadw's.
Legal and neighbours
Water is entering your flat from the flat above and an RTM company manages the block. Who does the survey say must open the upstairs bathroom?
Own page
The survey does not say who must open the upstairs bathroom. Water is entering your flat from the flat above, and an RTM company manages the block, but those are two facts the inspection does not join into an order. The survey can record the entry of water on your side. It has not entered the flat above, has not seen that bathroom, and has not decided that the RTM company, the upstairs owner or the landlord must open it. GOV.UK describes an RTM company as taking on management of a qualifying block of flats. Management is not a key the survey can turn.
Money
A Section 20 notice for window works is in the pack and your survey rates the windows 2. Why is the notice not a restatement of that rating?
Own page
The notice is not a restatement of that rating because they answer different questions. A Section 20 notice is a consultation paper about proposed window works and how a landlord may seek to recover the cost through the service charge. The survey's rating of the windows is a condition comment on what the surveyor saw. One can exist without the other meaning the same thing. The survey has rated the windows. It has not written the notice, has not checked that the consultation was carried out properly, and has not decided that the works described are the repairs its rating had in mind.
Property types
Balcony tiles sound hollow near the door and the covering was not lifted. What membrane under the tiles is unknown?
Own page
The membrane under the tiles is unknown, because the covering was not lifted. Hollow sound near the door means the layers there are not bonded solidly to whatever is beneath, or there is a void. It does not show the membrane, its laps or whether it is intact. The survey has recorded the hollow tiles beside the door. It has not lifted them, has not identified a membrane, and has not decided that the balcony is leaking or watertight. Building-safety papers for leaseholders are a separate legal guidance. They are not a view under these tiles.
Legal and neighbours
The lease plan shows a deeper balcony than the one you stood on. Can the survey stretch the plan to match the metal deck?
Own page
No. The survey cannot stretch the lease plan to match the metal deck. The plan shows a deeper balcony than the one you stood on, and the inspection records the deck that was there, not a redrawn demise. Plans are documents. Metal is what you walked on. The survey has not measured the plan into a new drawing, has not decided which is right, and has not altered the lease. A mismatch is for the solicitor, with the filed plan, not a correction the surveyor can make by eye.
Environment
A new-build plot sits beside an electricity substation the surveyor noted. What electromagnetic test was not part of the home survey?
Own page
No electromagnetic test was part of the home survey. The surveyor noted that the new-build plot sits beside an electricity substation, which is a location note. It is not a measurement of fields, not a health study, and not a reading taken at the plot boundary. The inspection has recorded the neighbour on the plan. It has not tested anything electromagnetic, has not modelled exposure, and has not decided that the substation is acceptable or unacceptable. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. Noting a substation does not open a claim under it.
Walls
New windows have no trickle vents and the developer's snagging list does not mention them. What ventilation path is absent, and what decoration snag has not answered it?
Own page
The background ventilation path through trickle vents is absent, and a decoration snag has not answered that. The new windows have no trickle vents, so the small openings that would have let a steady trickle of outdoor air into the rooms are not there. The developer's snagging list does not mention them. Paint, scratches and sealant are decoration items. They do not put vents into the frames. The survey has seen windows without those vents. It has not measured airflow, has not designed a replacement path, and has not accepted the snagging list as a reply.
Money
The agent says the house is under warranty and does not name the warranty body. Has the survey identified which scheme, if any, applies?
Own page
No. The survey has not identified which scheme, if any, applies. The agent says the house is under warranty and does not name the warranty body, so the inspection has a sales sentence rather than a scheme. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. That description is not a finding that this house has Buildmark, or that it has some other policy. The survey has not seen a policy schedule, has not named a provider, and does not open a claim. Unnamed cover is not identified cover.
Property types
Expanding foam fills the skirt vents of a park home. What underfloor ventilation of the chassis has that foam blocked, and what of the steel was not seen?
Own page
The foam has blocked the underfloor ventilation that those skirt vents were there to give the chassis, and the steel behind the foam was not seen. Expanding foam fills the openings in the skirt, so air that should move under the park home is stopped at the vents. The survey has seen the filled vents. It has not seen the chassis steel in those openings, has not described the frame behind the foam, and has not decided that the steel is sound or corroded. This note does not set the pitch fee and does not replace the written agreement.
Roofs
Wire netting has disappeared into the thatch coat and only the ridge wire is still visible. What thickness of coat was not measured?
Own page
The thickness of the thatch coat was not measured. Wire netting has disappeared into the coat, which is what happens when later thatch is laid over older wire, and only the ridge wire is still visible. The survey can see that the netting has been swallowed and that the ridge wire remains. It cannot say how thick the coat is, because it did not measure it. Depth is not something you can read off a buried wire from the ground or from a glance at the ridge.
Property types
A mezzanine in a barn conversion is nailed up to a truss the surveyor could see. What structural check of that connection has not been calculated?
Own page
The structural check of that nailed connection has not been calculated. A mezzanine in the barn conversion is nailed up to a truss the surveyor could see, so the inspection has a visual note of nails into a truss, not a calculation of what the connection can carry. Approved Document A is guidance on structure. The survey has not assessed this connection against it and has not produced a structural certificate. Seeing nails does not show the load path, the truss design, or whether the mezzanine was part of the original frame. The check remains uncalculated.
Roof and rainwater
The main-roof valley of a Victorian terrace discharges onto the felted kitchen roof. Why should stains in the kitchen not be blamed on the slate slopes first?
Own page
Stains in the kitchen should not be blamed on the slate slopes first, because the main-roof valley discharges onto the felted kitchen roof. Rain from the two slate slopes is being delivered, by that valley, onto the flat felt rather than into a gutter that misses it. The kitchen ceiling is under that felted roof. The survey has seen the discharge arrangement. It has not water-tested the slates, has not decided the slates are the source, and has not proved the felt is sound. The first place to read the stains is the roof the valley is actually loading.
Roof and rainwater
One hip tile course on a 1930s semi has dropped and the other hip is even. What fixing at the dropped hip was not seen from the ground?
Own page
The fixing that should hold the dropped hip course was not seen from the ground. One hip tile course on this 1930s semi has dropped, and the other hip is even, so the survey has a local fault on one hip rather than a finding that both hips have moved. Mortar, nails or clips under the dropped course are above the line of sight from the ground and were not exposed. The survey has recorded the drop and the even hip.
Property types
Quarry tiles on an Edwardian porch sound hollow and the porch floor is timber. What decay under the tiles is unconfirmed?
Own page
Decay in the timber under those quarry tiles is unconfirmed. The tiles sound hollow and the porch floor is timber, so a void or a loose bed may sit over boards or joists, which is where wet rot can hide. Hollow sound is not a view of the timber and not a diagnosis. The survey has heard the tiles and noted the timber floor. It has not lifted a tile, has not seen the boards beneath, and has not confirmed decay. The timber may be wet, dry, or already softened. This inspection has not chosen.
Property types
In a chalet bungalow the knee wall of a roof room is damp at the wall plate and the main tiles look even. What junction was not opened?
Own page
The junction at the wall plate was not opened. In this chalet bungalow the knee wall of the roof room is damp at the plate, and the main tiles look even, so the damp is sitting at the eaves junction rather than under a disturbed tile you can see from outside. The survey has recorded damp at the plate and an even covering. It has not opened the junction, has not seen the plate, the felt or the back of the knee wall, and has not decided whether the moisture is a leak at that joint or condensation on a cold line.
Drainage
The cellar sump discharge leaves through the only window that was venting the room. What ventilation has that pipe compromised, and what pump test was not run?
Own page
The pipe has compromised the ventilation that this window was giving the cellar, and no pump test was run. The sump discharge leaves through the only window that was venting the room, so the opening that should let air change is partly or wholly taken by the pipe. The survey has seen that arrangement. It has not measured the air that still gets past the pipe, has not run the pump, and has not decided that the sump clears the cellar. A pipe through the only vent is a ventilation loss first. It is not a working test of the pump.
Property types
Encaustic hall tiles are cracked along the edge of one floorboard. Why is that a weak match for foundation movement?
Own page
It is a weak match for foundation movement because the cracks follow the edge of one floorboard. Encaustic hall tiles broken along a single board line are tracking the timber under them, a joint that can open as a board cups, shrinks or loses its fixings. Foundation movement tends to be argued from cracks that run through walls and openings, not from a line that stops at one board. The survey has seen the cracked tiles on that edge. It has not diagnosed foundation movement, has not levelled the house, and has not said the footing has shifted.
Services
A modern gas fire sits in an old tiled fireplace and the surveyor did not see a flue liner or a sweep record. What combustion check is missing?
Own page
The combustion check of that gas fire and its flue is missing. A modern fire sits in an old tiled fireplace, and the surveyor did not see a flue liner or a sweep record, so the old throat has not been shown to be lined, swept or suitable. The survey has seen the appliance in the opening. Gas work of this sort belongs with a Gas Safe engineer. The home survey did not do that check, and it has not called the fire safe or unsafe.
Services
Mould rings the bathroom ceiling around an extractor that did not spin. Why is that a fan and moisture note rather than a roof leak?
Own page
It is a fan and moisture note because the mould rings an extractor that did not spin, which is the pattern of moist air left in the room, not a leak tracking from the roof. The stain or growth sits around the fan that failed to turn. A roof leak would be argued from a path in the covering above, not from a ring around a dead extract. The survey has seen the mould and the fan that did not spin. It has not opened the roof, has not measured the fan, and has not decided that rain is the source.
Services
The bathroom duct in the loft is disconnected and the trickle vents downstairs are open. Where is the moist air going, and what fan performance was not measured?
Own page
The moist air is going into the loft at the disconnected bathroom duct, and the fan's performance was not measured. An open trickle vent downstairs does not reconnect a duct in the roof. The extract that should leave the bathroom is spilling into the loft space instead. The survey has seen the disconnection. It has not measured the fan, has not timed a flow, and has not decided how much moisture is arriving on the rafters. Open vents on the floor below are a different path. They do not catch the air the broken duct is dumping overhead.
Walls
An air brick was found only because a kitchen plinth was off, and the other vents on that wall are hidden by units. What floor void has not been shown to be ventilated?
Own page
The floor void behind that kitchen wall has not been shown to be ventilated. One air brick was found only because a plinth was off, and the other vents on that wall are hidden by units, so the survey has a single accidental view rather than a clear run of vents. A brick found behind a plinth may itself be blocked, and the hidden ones may be open, closed or absent. The inspection has not shown air moving through the void, has not seen the void, and has not decided the joists are dry. One uncovered brick is not a ventilated floor.
Damp
Condensation sits on a concrete lintel and nowhere on the plaster below. Why does that cold line fit a bridge rather than moisture rising from the floor?
Own page
That cold line fits a bridge because the condensation sits on the concrete lintel and nowhere on the plaster below. A concrete lintel is a colder, denser band than the plastered wall under it, so room moisture lands on the lintel first. Moisture rising from the floor would be expected low on the wall, not as a line up at the opening with dry plaster beneath. The survey has recorded that pattern. It has not opened the lintel, has not proved a failed damp course at floor level, and has not decided the wall is rising-damp. The pattern is the bridge.
Damp
A solid floor is damp at the skirting and the middle of the slab reads dry. What edge detail is the likely note, and what membrane under the slab was not seen?
Own page
The likely note is the edge detail at the skirting, and the membrane under the slab was not seen. The solid floor is damp at the perimeter and the middle reads dry, which points at the junction of slab, wall and skirting rather than at a failure across the whole floor. A damp-proof membrane under the slab, if it exists, was not visible from above. The survey has recorded the edge damp and the drier middle. It has not seen that membrane, has not decided it is missing, and has not decided the slab is saturated. The pattern localises the note to the edge.
Timber
The suspended-timber joists the surveyor could see are dry and the wall they enter is damp. What joist end inside the wall is still hidden?
Own page
The joist end built into that damp wall is still hidden. The suspended-timber joists the surveyor could see are dry, which describes the visible span, not the end buried in masonry that is itself damp. Decay and wet rot commonly start at that bearing, where timber meets wet wall and air cannot dry it. The survey has seen dry timber in the open and a damp wall at the entry. It has not opened the wall, has not seen the joist end, and has not cleared it because the middle of the joist felt dry.
Structure
The hearth has lifted and the survey mentions sulphate, without a sample. What laboratory test has not been done on that concrete?
Own page
The laboratory test of that hearth concrete has not been done. The hearth has lifted, and the survey mentions sulphate without a sample, so the lift is a thing seen and the sulphate is a name without a specimen. A laboratory would need a sample of the concrete before it could say sulphate had expanded it. The survey has not taken that sample and has not had the test done. It has not decided that sulphate caused the lift, and it has not ruled sulphate out. Mentioning the word is not the test.
Structure
A stack was removed in the roof and a ceiling binder below looks newly strained. What connection between those two notes was not opened up?
Own page
The connection between the removed stack and the strained ceiling binder was not opened up. The survey has two notes: a stack taken out in the roof, and a binder below that looks newly strained. It has not exposed how the ceiling is carried where the stack used to pass, and it has not shown that the strain is the result of the removal. Approved Document A is guidance on structure. The inspection has not calculated this and has not certified it. Two observations in one house are not yet one mechanism.
Roof and rainwater
Lead is let into a cut in the brick of a chimney and the mortar over the cut is missing. What weather resistance is left, and what hose test was not done?
Own page
What is left is lead sitting in an open cut, with the mortar cover gone, and no hose test was done. Lead let into a chase in the chimney brick relies on the mortar over that cut to close the joint against rain. With the mortar missing, the weather resistance at the chase is the bare lead in an open slot, which is not a closed flashing. The survey has seen the cut and the missing mortar. It has not hosed the chimney, has not proved how much water enters, and has not dressed the lead or repointed the chase.
Roofs
A pot stands with almost no flaunching around its base and the stack is vertical. What is holding that pot, and what lean of the stack has not been claimed?
Own page
Almost nothing visible is holding the pot, and no lean of the stack has been claimed. Flaunching is the mortar haunch that beds a pot at the top of the stack. Here that haunch is almost gone, so the survey cannot point to a sound bed holding the pot. The stack itself is vertical, which means the inspection has not said the brickwork leans. An upright stack is not a fixing for the pot. The survey has seen a poorly flaunched pot on a vertical stack. It has not pulled the pot, has not claimed a lean, and has not proved the pot is secure.
Roof and rainwater
A parapet gutter falls towards a stopped end rather than the outlet. What overflow onto the wall does that set up?
Own page
It sets up an overflow onto the wall at the stopped end, because the parapet gutter falls away from the outlet and towards a dead end. Water that should run to the outlet runs the other way, ponds where the gutter stops, and then has nowhere to go but over the lining into the parapet or down the wall. The survey has seen that fall. It has not watched a storm fill the gutter, has not measured a depth of overflow, and has not decided how often the wall is wetted. The geometry is the finding. The overflow path is what that geometry sets up.
Roof and rainwater
The secret gutter's only outlet is a small hopper that is blocked. Why is the hopper the first defect, rather than the tiles in front of the gutter?
Own page
The hopper is the first defect because it is the secret gutter's only outlet and it is blocked. Water in that gutter has nowhere else to go. The tiles in front of the gutter are the covering you see first, and they are the wrong place to start if the outlet cannot empty. The survey has seen a blocked hopper serving as the sole outlet. It has not blamed the tiles, has not stripped them, and has not decided they are sound. A blocked only-outlet will back the gutter up whether the tiles in front are neat or not.
Roof and rainwater
Cast-iron gutter brackets are pulling out of a soft fascia. What timber has failed, and what tile fixing has that not condemned?
Own page
The soft fascia timber has failed to hold the brackets, and that has not condemned the tile fixings. Cast-iron gutter brackets are pulling out of a fascia that is soft, so the timber of the fascia board is the piece that has given way. The nails or screws no longer have a sound hold. The tiles on the slope are a different fixing, into battens and rafters the survey has not condemned from this bracket note. The inspection has seen brackets leaving a soft board. It has not lifted the tiles, has not failed their nails, and has not said the roof covering is insecure.
Roof and rainwater
Sarking felt sags into the eaves gap and holds a trough. What ventilation and what drainage of that felt were not corrected on the day?
Own page
Neither the ventilation past that eaves gap nor the drainage of the sagging sarking felt was corrected on the day. The felt has dropped into the gap and holds a trough, so moisture on the underside of the covering can sit there instead of running outside. The survey recorded the sag and the trough. It has not trimmed the felt, opened the eaves, or shown how air now moves at that point. A trough seen in the loft is a condition note, not a repair carried out during the visit.
Roof and rainwater
A gang-nail plate is missing from one truss joint and the other trusses still have theirs. What joint is local, and what redesign of the roof was not done?
Own page
The missing plate is local to that one truss joint, and no redesign of the roof was done. The other trusses still have their gang-nail plates, so the survey is describing one connector that is absent, not a scheme for the whole roof. It has seen the bare joint. It has not calculated what that joint now carries, specified a replacement plate, or produced a new roof design. Approved Document A is guidance on structure. This visit did not apply it as a redesign of the trusses.
Roof and rainwater
A scarfed purlin joint is opening and the prop under it lands on a ceiling joist. What load path ends on that joist rather than on a wall?
Own page
The load path that ends on the ceiling joist, rather than on a wall, is the one through that prop. The scarfed purlin joint is opening, and the timber shoved underneath it stops on a ceiling joist. The purlin is trying to hand load to that joist. A ceiling joist is not a wall. The survey has seen the open scarf and where the prop lands. It has not measured the load, tested the ceiling, or found a bearing that actually reaches masonry.
Roof and rainwater
The eaves of a hipped roof have kicked out on one elevation only. Why is roof spread still a question, and what tie was not seen in the loft?
Own page
Roof spread stays a question because a hip usually helps to hold the eaves in, yet this eaves has kicked out on one elevation only, and the tie that should restrain that side was not seen in the loft. The survey recorded the kick on that elevation. It did not find a tie, a collar arrangement, or a secure ceiling-joist connection doing that job. It has not measured how far the eaves has moved, and it has not decided that spread is the only possible cause.
Roof and rainwater
A flat-roof upstand finishes below the coping of the parapet. What path does wind-driven rain then have, if the felt field itself is intact?
Own page
Wind-driven rain can pass over the top of that low upstand and down the back of the parapet, even while the felt field itself stays intact. The upstand stops below the coping, so it does not finish under the coping or high enough to close the junction. Water driven at the parapet can get behind the membrane at the wall head. The survey has seen the relative heights. It has not sprayed the detail, opened the coping, or shown that the wall head is dry.
Roof and rainwater
Blisters line up along a day joint in the felt and the rest of the roof is smooth. Why is that a joint note rather than a failed deck everywhere?
Own page
It is a joint note because the blisters follow one day joint and the rest of the felt is smooth, so the survey is not describing a failed deck across the whole roof. A day joint is where one spell of felt work meets the next. Blisters lined up on that line point to the lap: poor bond, trapped moisture or a ridge in the joint. The survey has seen that pattern. It has not cut a blister, tested the deck, or found the boards rotten from edge to edge.
Roof and rainwater
Lead on a bay roof has split at a drip and the timber roll looks intact. What movement of the deck was not measured under that split?
Own page
The movement of the deck under that split was not measured at all. The lead on the bay roof has split at a drip, and the timber roll beside it still looks intact, so the survey can describe a crack at the joint and a roll that has not obviously failed. It cannot say how far the boards moved, whether they are still moving, or whether the split is only the lead tiring in its bay. No dimension of that movement was taken on the day.
Roof and rainwater
A cement fillet replaces soakers where a lean-to meets the wall. Why is the fillet not a lead soaker, and what leak has it not timed?
Own page
The fillet is not a lead soaker because it is a mortar band on the face of the junction, not pieces of lead woven with the tiles and turned into the wall. It has not timed any leak: the survey cannot say when water will pass it, or whether water has already passed it and dried. The cement was seen where soakers would normally be. It was not cut out, and no leak was dated from staining, a drip or a history.
Roof and rainwater
A dry-verge system is fitted on one gable and the other gable is still mortared. What age of the tiles has the new verge not reset?
Own page
The new verge has not reset the age of any of the tiles. A dry-verge system on one gable is an edge detail: a cloak, a batten and a plastic or metal finish instead of mortar. The tiles on that slope stay the tiles they were. The other gable is still mortared, so the two edges are not even the same age of repair. The survey saw the mismatch. It has not redated the covering, and it has not called the roof new because one verge was changed.
Services
Shelves have been built across the vent of a boiler cupboard. What combustion-air path is blocked, and what Gas Safe test was not done?
Own page
The combustion-air path into the boiler cupboard is blocked where shelves have been built across the vent, and no Gas Safe test was done. Air that should reach the boiler through that opening is obstructed by the shelving. The survey has seen the shelves across the vent. It has not measured the free area left, tested combustion, or checked the flue. A Gas Safe inspection is a different visit. This one did not carry it out.
Services
A flue from a fire passes through a bedroom ceiling in a boxing that is warm. What clearance inside that boxing was not measured?
Own page
The clearance inside that boxing was not measured. A flue from a fire passes through the bedroom ceiling, and the boxing around it was warm to the note of the visit. Warmth may be ordinary heat from the flue or a sign the casing is close to the pipe. The survey has not opened the boxing, has not measured the gap to the timber or the plaster, and has not tested the flue. Gas safety and flue clearance are a different inspection from recording a warm box.
Services
A condensate pipe runs outside with no insulation and the visit was in warm weather. What freeze test was not possible, and what leak was not implied?
Own page
A freeze test was not possible, and no leak was implied by the bare pipe. The condensate run is outside without insulation, and the visit was in warm weather, so the survey could not watch that pipe freeze, block or split. It recorded the route and the missing insulation. It did not find water escaping, did not see ice, and did not treat a bare pipe as proof of a leak. Winter behaviour was not on show.
Services
The programmer clicked on and several radiators stayed cold. What has that shown about the controls, and what sludge in the system was not diagnosed?
Own page
The click has shown that the programmer tried to call for heat, and it has not diagnosed sludge. Several radiators stayed cold after the control moved. That separates a dead programmer from a system that was asked to heat and did not heat those emitters. The survey did not sample the water, did not open a radiator, and did not name sludge, a stuck valve, air or a pump fault. Cold surfaces are an observation. They are not a diagnosis of what is in the pipes.
Services
The immersion thermostat dial does not turn and the cylinder was not heated during the visit. What electrical test of that immersion is outstanding?
Own page
An electrical test of that immersion is still outstanding. The thermostat dial does not turn, and the cylinder was not heated during the visit, so the survey has a seized control and no demonstration that the heater works. It has not tested the circuit, the thermostat, the cut-out or the element. A home survey does not carry out an electrical inspection. The dial that will not move is a handling note, not a certificate that the immersion is dead or safe to use.
Services
A combi boiler is mounted on an outside wall in a cupboard open to the weather. What flue and what frost protection were not tested?
Own page
Neither the flue nor the frost protection was tested. The combi sits on an outside wall in a cupboard open to the weather, so the survey can describe that exposed position. It cannot say the flue discharges safely, that the terminal is clear, or that any frost protection works. The visit did not include a Gas Safe inspection. Cold-weather performance of the case and the pipe was not demonstrated by looking at an open cupboard.
Electrics
An electric-shower pull cord hangs over the bath and no RCD was identified for it. Why is that a visual flag and not an EICR code?
Own page
It is a visual flag because the home survey only saw the pull cord hanging over the bath and did not identify an RCD for it. An EICR code is the product of an electrical inspection, with its own tests and its own classification. This visit did not do that inspection. The cord over the bath, and no RCD identified, are observations for an electrician. They are not a code from this report.
Electrics
A solar inverter in the loft has no shutdown label the surveyor could read. What isolation procedure was not tested?
Own page
The isolation procedure for that inverter was not tested. The unit sits in the loft with no shutdown label the surveyor could read, so the visit cannot say how the system is switched off, in what order, or where the isolators are. The survey saw an unlabelled inverter. It did not operate a shutdown, did not follow a written procedure, and did not produce an electrical certificate. A missing label is a visual limit, not a trial of isolation.
Electrics
A home battery sits in a closed cupboard and the survey did not open the manufacturer's data. What ventilation and what installer certificate are both outside the visual note?
Own page
Both the ventilation the battery needs and the installer certificate are outside the visual note. The survey saw a home battery in a closed cupboard and did not open the manufacturer's data, so it cannot say what airflow that unit requires or whether this cupboard provides it. It also did not see a certificate from the installer. A closed door and a box on a shelf are not those two documents, and they are not a test.
Services
Heat-pump condensate drips onto a paved path that slopes back to the wall. What icing and what damp path were not tested out of winter?
Own page
Neither icing nor a damp path into the wall was tested out of winter. Heat-pump condensate drips onto a paved path that falls back toward the wall, so the survey can see where the water is put in mild weather. It cannot see ice building on that fall, and it cannot show that the water soaks the wall, because those are cold-weather and moisture questions the visit did not test. The slope was noted. The consequences were not.
Services
One underfloor loop is labelled as the bedroom and that room's floor was cold while others were warm. What leak or valve fault has not been located in the slab?
Own page
No leak and no valve fault has been located in the slab. One underfloor loop is labelled as the bedroom, and that room's floor was cold while other floors were warm. The survey has matched a label to a cold surface. It has not opened the slab, pressure-tested the loop, or found whether a valve is shut, a pipe is leaking, or the loop is simply not calling. The cold floor is an observation. The cause under the floor is still unlocated.
Hazardous materials
An old night-storage heater is the type sometimes associated with asbestos and it was not sampled. Why must the survey not declare that heater free of asbestos?
Own page
The survey must not declare that heater free of asbestos because it was not sampled. An old night-storage heater of a type sometimes associated with asbestos was seen, and looking at the case is not a sample. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos. The visit has not identified the materials inside this heater, and it has not cleared them. A home survey does not decide that question by eye. The heater stays suspect until someone competent identifies it.
Hazardous materials
Thermoplastic tiles are stuck with a black adhesive and neither the tile nor the adhesive was sampled. What has a visual note not identified?
Own page
The visual note has not identified whether the thermoplastic tile or the black adhesive contains asbestos. Neither was sampled. A black adhesive under this kind of tile is a familiar suspect appearance in older floors. Appearance is not an identification. The survey recorded the tiles and the adhesive it could see. It has not named the material, and it has not cleared it. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos. Looking does not sample it.
Hazardous materials
A white rope seal shows in an old flue opening and it was not disturbed. What should you not do with that rope before it is identified?
Own page
You should not pull, cut or take out that white rope before it is identified. It shows in an old flue opening and it was not disturbed, so the survey has a visual note of a seal, not a sample. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos, and a rope in an old flue is a known place to leave alone until someone competent identifies it. The home survey has not named the fibre. It has not cleared it either.
Hazardous materials
The garage soffit is a cement sheet and the house soffits are timber. Why does the garage sheet not answer the house, and why should it not be sanded to check?
Own page
The garage sheet does not answer the house because the house soffits are timber and the garage soffit is a different material. It should not be sanded to check, because sanding would disturb a cement sheet the survey has not sampled. A home survey does not identify asbestos by wearing the surface away. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos. The visit records two different soffits. It does not clear the sheet, and it does not transfer the timber finding onto the garage.
Hazardous materials
Textured coating lines the undercroft ceiling of a split-level house and nowhere upstairs. What has decorating upstairs not tested?
Own page
Decorating upstairs has not tested the textured coating on the undercroft ceiling. That coating lines the undercroft and was not seen upstairs, so paint, lining paper or a new ceiling on the upper floors says nothing about this one. The survey has not sampled the texture. A home survey does not identify a coating by looking. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos. The upstairs work has not been a test of the undercroft.
Services
A lead rising main is visible in the cellar and the kitchen has been repiped in plastic. Why does the kitchen pipe not retire the lead in the cellar?
Own page
The kitchen plastic does not retire the lead because the rising main in the cellar is still lead and still upstream of that new pipe. Water can pass through the lead before it ever reaches the plastic. The survey has seen the lead main and the change of material. It has not tested the water at the tap, has not traced every branch, and has not said the drinking supply is clear of lead. The Drinking Water Inspectorate's concern is lead in the water people drink. A new kitchen run does not remove the main.
Services
Blue plastic pipe joins a short lead tail just inside the front wall. What remaining lead is that tail, and what sample at the tap was not taken?
Own page
That tail is remaining lead in the supply, just inside the front wall, and no sample at the tap was taken. Blue plastic meets a short lead length, so the renewal stopped at that joint rather than removing all the metal. Short does not mean none. The survey has seen the joint. It has not tested the drinking water, has not measured how the lead affects the tap, and has not said the supply is clear. The Drinking Water Inspectorate deals with lead in drinking water. This visit did not.
Reading the report
The chimney stack is rating 2 and the flashings on the same stack are rating 3. Why should those two numbers not be merged into one colour for the whole chimney?
Own page
They should not be merged because they are different elements with different meanings. Rating 2 means defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent. Rating 3 means serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. The stack is the first and the flashings on that same stack are the second. One colour for the whole chimney would hide the urgent flashing note or overstate the stack. The survey has separated them. NI, not inspected, is not in play here and would not be a pass if it were.
Damp
The report says further investigation by a damp contractor. Why is that sentence not already a diagnosis of rising damp?
Own page
That sentence is not a diagnosis of rising damp because it only asks for further investigation. The survey has not named the mechanism. Rising damp, moisture drawn from the ground, is one possibility a contractor might consider, alongside leaks, bridged damp-proofing, rain penetration or condensation. The report has not chosen among them. It has recorded that the cause is still to be investigated. A recommendation to appoint someone is not the finding they have yet to make.
Choosing a survey
You paid for a Level 3 and the carpets stayed down. Why has the building-survey name not promised that floor coverings would be lifted?
Own page
The building-survey name has not promised that, because a Level 3 is a more detailed report, not a warrant that fitted coverings will be lifted. You paid for that level, and the carpets stayed down. The survey should say so, as a limit on what was seen of the floors. It has not inspected the boards or the joists the carpet still hides. The product name describes how the survey is reported. It does not, by itself, move the furniture or take the carpet up.
Choosing a survey
The PDF is titled HomeBuyer and the firm is not described as RICS-regulated. What RICS product has that title not created by itself?
Own page
The title has not created a RICS Home Survey by itself. HomeBuyer on the cover is the firm's wording. The firm is not described as RICS-regulated, and a RICS home survey is the product of a firm that is. The word does not turn this PDF into a Level 2, a Level 3, or any other RICS report. The survey you have is whatever that firm actually did. The title has not enrolled it in the RICS product range.
Choosing a survey
The firm's brochure talked about a quick turnaround and the report arrived later. Why does the delivery date not change what was inspected on the day?
Own page
The delivery date does not change the inspection because the looking was done on the day of the visit, not on the day the PDF arrived. A brochure that talked about a quick turnaround was talking about speed. It was not a description of extra rooms, extra tests or a different level. Late paperwork does not add findings, and it does not delete the ones that were seen. What was inspected is what the surveyor could see while they were there.
Choosing a survey
Before you instruct, what should you ask about whether the garage flat roof and the garden office are inside the fee?
Own page
Ask, in writing, whether the garage flat roof and the garden office are inside the fee and inside the inspection, or whether either is excluded as an outbuilding. Do it before you instruct, so the answer is part of the quote rather than a surprise in the report. The survey has not yet decided anything about those roofs, because it has not been commissioned. A fee that is silent on them has not promised them. Get a yes or a no on each.
Money
One quote mentions the cellar and the other is silent. What inspection has the silent quote not promised?
Own page
The silent quote has not promised an inspection of the cellar. The other quote mentions it, so that firm has put the cellar into what you are buying. Silence is not the same sentence. You cannot read a cellar inspection into a fee that never names one. MoneyHelper makes a different point that is easy to mix in here: a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. Neither quote becomes that valuation, and the quiet one has not promised the below-ground look.
Selling
The buyer wants floorboards lifted and the seller refuses. What can the survey record about boards it was not allowed to lift?
Own page
The survey can record that the boards were not lifted because the seller refused, and that the joists and the underside of the floor were not seen. It cannot describe timber it was not allowed to open, and it cannot turn the refusal into a defect that was found. The limit is the finding. A sentence that the boards stayed down, with the reason, is what the inspection can honestly say. Guessing at rot or at sound timbers would both go beyond the boards that were not lifted.
After the survey
A builder has quoted to inject the walls and the survey's damp note is a leaking gutter. Why should that quote not be sent to the seller as the cost of the defect the survey named?
Own page
It should not be sent as that cost because the survey named a leaking gutter, and the quote is for injecting the walls, which is a different job. The price of a treatment the report did not specify is not the cost of the defect the report did name. Sending it to the seller presents a damp-proofing bill as if the survey had diagnosed rising damp and specified injection. It did not. The named defect is the gutter. The quote answers something else.
After the survey
You are minded to withdraw because one window is a rating 2. Why is that rating a repair note rather than a reason the standard tells you to leave?
Own page
That rating is a repair note on one window, not a reason the standard tells you to leave. The report has graded that window as a defect to repair. It has not written an instruction to end the purchase, and the grading system does not attach an order to withdraw to a single window. Leaving is your decision about the whole buy. Read what is actually wrong with the frame, the glass or the sill. The number marks a repair. It does not make the decision for you.
Money
The lender has named a retention sum and the survey gives no figure. Why must you not treat the survey as the source of that sum?
Own page
You must not treat the survey as the source because the survey gives no figure, and the retention sum was named by the lender. A retention is the lender holding back part of the mortgage until work it cares about is done. That sum is the lender's condition. MoneyHelper is plain that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. Even if the lender's valuer prompted the retention, the buyer's survey did not price it and did not invent the amount. The report with no figure is not where the number came from.
Money
Almost every element is rating 1 and the valuation is still below the price. Why can a low valuation sit beside a quiet condition report?
Own page
A low valuation can sit beside a quiet condition report because value and condition are different jobs. Almost every element is on the quiet grade, and the price is still not what the valuation says. MoneyHelper is clear that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. A report that finds little to repair does not set the figure a valuer or a lender will put on the house. The survey has not explained a number it did not calculate, and it has not promised that a calm condition grade will match the asking price.
Choosing a survey
You are buying in Scotland and a friend says you must instruct an English-style Level 2 as well as use the Home Report. What does the RICS consumer guide actually say a purchaser can rely on?
Own page
The RICS consumer guide says a purchaser can rely on the Home Report. It does not say you must also instruct an English-style Level 2. A Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to. It is not an English Level 2 that you commission yourself as the starting survey. Your friend has added a must that the guide does not contain. You can still choose more advice. The thing the guide says you can rely on is the Home Report, not a second English product stacked on top as a requirement.
Environment
The mining search refers to a shaft recorded in the area and the surveyor saw no cap in the garden. What has the inspection not done to clear that record?
Own page
The inspection has not cleared that record at all. The mining search refers to a shaft recorded in the area, and the surveyor saw no cap in the garden. Not seeing a cap is a limit of what was visible on the lawn. It is not a search of the records, not a probe of the ground, and not a statement that the shaft entry is wrong. A Coal Authority search is a separate product from the home survey. The home survey has not replaced it and has not cancelled the line the search already contains.
Environment
The seller's form says the lane flooded and the current area map does not shade the house. Which record is a memory, and which is a map of the area?
Own page
The seller's form is a memory: someone reports that the lane flooded. The current area map is a map of the area, and on it the house is not shaded. They are not the same record, and neither is a depth the survey measured. A reported flood in the lane can be true while a long-term area map leaves the building unshaded, because a map of the area is not a diary of the road. The survey has not tested flood depth and has not chosen a winner between the form and the map.
Money
You have paid for an address-level radon search. What measurement in the living room has that search not carried out?
Own page
The search has not measured radon in the living room at all. An address-level search is a desk product about that address. It is not a monitor left in the room, and it is not a reading of the air you would sit in. Paying the fee buys the search. It does not buy a measurement. The home survey has not tested radon either. Maps and published levels describe risk information. They are not a result from this living room, and no such result should be invented from the fee.
Walls
A wall-tie guarantee in the pack has an end date that has passed. What test of the ties has the expiry not performed?
Own page
The expiry has not performed any test of the ties. A guarantee in the pack has an end date that has passed, which means the paper cover has run out. It does not mean someone has inspected the ties, pulled one, or looked into the cavity on the day the date fell due. The home survey has not tested the ties either. An ended guarantee is a date. It is not evidence the ties have failed, and it is not evidence they are sound.
Walls
The surveyor notes colder patches on an inside wall and suggests the cavity fill may be patchy. What thermographic survey has that hand test not been?
Own page
It has not been a thermographic survey at all. The surveyor felt colder patches on an inside wall and suggested the cavity fill may be patchy. A hand on plaster is not a camera survey, not a map of the insulation, and not an opening of the cavity. The suggestion is a hypothesis from touch and from what fill is said to be there. The home survey has not proved gaps, has not measured heat loss, and has not shown where any missing fill starts and stops.
Money
A lender's question about knotweed is unanswered and the survey saw no stands. Has the survey filled in the lender's form?
Own page
No. The survey has not filled in the lender's form. The knotweed question on that form is unanswered, and the survey saw no stands. Those are different documents. A visual note that no stands were seen is not a completed answer in the lender's box, and it is not a statement the seller has signed. The survey did not walk the form, did not write the lender's reply, and did not convert an empty question into a no. Someone still has to answer the form.
Grounds
Himalayan balsam lines the brook at the foot of the garden and knotweed is not mentioned. Why is that still a plant the survey should not rename as knotweed?
Own page
Because it is Himalayan balsam, and renaming it as knotweed would name a plant the survey did not record. Knotweed is not mentioned. Balsam along the brook is the plant that was seen. They are different species. GOV.UK guidance on invasive non-native plants is about not letting those plants spread. It does not ask a survey to collapse every invasive plant into Japanese knotweed. The report should keep the name of what was there. Balsam is already a plant to take seriously. It is not knotweed by another word.
Property types
The barn doors have been replaced in plastic and the house is listed. Can the survey regularise those doors?
Own page
No. The survey cannot regularise those doors. The barn doors have been replaced in plastic and the house is listed. Historic England explains that listing covers the whole building, not a shortlist of features someone hoped to keep. Plastic replacements may need consent. The survey can record that the doors are plastic and that the building is listed. It does not grant consent, it does not decide that consent was given, and it does not make unauthorised work authorised. Regularising is a consent question. It is not a sentence in a home survey.
Walls
The stone plinth under a cob wall is eroded and the cob above it is still covered. What splash-back risk is that, and what cob mix was not tested?
Own page
Rain bouncing off the eroded stone plinth is the splash-back risk, and it meets cob that is still covered. The survey has not tested the cob mix. A stone plinth is meant to throw water clear of an earth wall. Where that stone has worn back, the bounce can reach the cob instead of falling away. The report records the worn plinth and the covering above it. It has not decided that the cob is already failing, and a hidden face is not a test result.
Walls
A panel of knapped flint is loose on the front and the brick quoins are firm. What facing has moved, and what structural crack has it not proved?
Own page
The knapped flint facing is what has moved, and that loose panel has not proved a structural crack. The brick quoins are firm, which is the part of the front the survey could compare with the flint. Knapped flint is a facing bedded in mortar, often in panels between those brick corners. A panel can loosen in its own bed while the quoins stay put. The survey has described the loose facing. It has not found a crack through the wall, and firm quoins are not a guarantee of the flint.
Walls
A stone mullion is cracked at the cill and the glass is intact. What stone repair has not been specified, and what listing consent has the survey not given?
Own page
No stone repair has been specified, and the survey has not given listing consent. The mullion is cracked at the cill and the glass is intact, so the note is the stone, not a broken pane. Intact glass does not say how the crack should be pinned, pieced or left. Historic England explains that listing covers the whole building, which includes this mullion, not a fragment the report can release. The survey does not grant consent. It has described a crack. It has not designed the repair.
Walls
Cement patches sit in otherwise lime joints on a listed front. Can the survey order those patches to be hacked off?
Own page
No. The survey cannot order the cement patches to be hacked off. They sit in otherwise lime joints on a listed front, which the inspection can describe. An order to hack mortar off is a works instruction, and it can be a consent question. Historic England explains that listing covers the whole building, joints included. The survey does not grant consent, and it does not command a method. It has recorded hard patches in lime joints. It has not told anyone to cut them out.
Services
A wood burner in a thatched house sits on a hearth the surveyor could see, and the flue liner was not. What installation record is missing?
Own page
The installation record for the wood burner and its flue is missing from what this survey can show. The hearth was visible, and the flue liner was not. Seeing a stove on a hearth does not produce the paperwork for how it was fitted, and it does not show the liner in the flue. The report can describe the appliance and the hearth that were in view. It has not inspected the liner, and it has not found, or written, an installation record.
Property types
The sole plate of a historic frame is below the floor and was not exposed. What decay at that plate is simply not in the report?
Own page
Any decay in the sole plate is simply not in the report, because that plate was below the floor and was not exposed. The survey cannot describe rot, insect damage or a sound section it never saw. A historic frame often meets damp masonry at this lowest timber. That is why the hidden plate matters. The report can say the plate was not opened up. It cannot say the timber is decayed, and it cannot say the timber is clear.
Property types
The tiled canopy over a 1930s front door leaks into the porch and the main roof is dry. Why should the porch canopy be priced on its own?
Own page
The porch canopy should be priced on its own because it is leaking into the porch while the main roof is dry. It is a separate tiled element over the front door, not a slope of the main roof. A dry main roof does not pay for this canopy, and it does not cancel the leak. The survey has separated the two. It has not costed the canopy, and it has not decided that the main covering needs the same work.
Property types
The rear closet wing is one brick thick and the front wall is thicker. Why must a damp reading in the wing stay in the wing?
Own page
A damp reading in the closet wing must stay in the wing because that wall is one brick thick and the front wall is thicker. They are not the same construction, so a reading on the thin rear wall does not describe the front. The survey has located the moisture with the single-skin wing. It has not tested a damp-proof course through the house, and it has not decided that the thicker front is wet because the wing was.
Walls
A leaded light is buckled and the came was not tested. What craft repair has not been written, and what subsidence has a buckled light not shown?
Own page
No craft repair has been written, and the buckled light has not shown subsidence. The came was not tested. A leaded light buckles when the lead strips tire and the glass bellies, which is a glazing craft problem. Subsidence would be the ground and the masonry moving. A wavy panel does not prove that. The survey has described the buckle. It has not specified releading, and it has not diagnosed downward movement of the house from the glass.
Roofs
A bungalow stack sits on the ridge with no stay and one pot leans. What is leaning, the pot or the stack, if the brickwork below the pot is upright?
Own page
The pot is leaning, not the stack, if the brickwork below the pot is upright. A stay is missing, which is a separate fact about restraint of the stack, not proof that the brick has tilted. The survey can see an upright shaft and a pot that is out of plumb on top of it. It has not pulled the pot off, and it has not measured the flue. Upright brickwork is why the lean is being kept with the pot.
Structure
Cellar steps are worn in the middle and the strings are firm. What trip hazard was seen, and what structural failure of the stair was not claimed?
Own page
The trip hazard is the treads worn in the middle. Structural failure of the stair was not claimed, because the strings are firm. Wear in the walking line makes a hollow that can catch a foot. The strings are the boards at each side that carry the treads, and they were firm. The survey has described a worn surface and sound-looking carriages. It has not said the stair is collapsing, and it has not load-tested the flight.
Property types
You plan to sleep in the basement and the survey does not mention fire escape. What means-of-escape design has the inspection not produced?
Own page
The inspection has produced no means-of-escape design at all. You plan to sleep in the basement, and the survey does not mention fire escape, because a home survey does not design one. Escape from a basement bedroom is a layout question: a protected stair, a window of a usable size, or another route a designer would set out. None of that was drawn. The report describes the rooms it could see. It has not designed how you would leave in a fire.
Grounds
The fence posts stand on your side of the panels and the seller says the fence is shared. Can the survey decide the boundary from the posts?
Own page
No. The survey cannot decide the boundary from the posts. They stand on your side of the panels, and the seller says the fence is shared, but neither fact is a title determination. Post position is how the fence was built. A seller's remark is a remark. The inspection can describe the fence it saw. It cannot award the boundary, and it cannot turn a timber fence into a decided legal line.
Drainage
The tank has an inlet and the surveyor found no outlet pipe after looking around the lid. Why must that not be described as a treatment plant that discharges?
Own page
It must not be described as a treatment plant that discharges because no outlet pipe was found. A treatment plant discharges treated liquid. What was seen is a tank with an inlet and no outlet around the lid. A cesspool holds sewage and is emptied. A septic tank and a treatment plant are different. The survey only records what was seen. It has not certified the tank type, and it has not found a discharge to describe.
Drainage
The interceptor stopper is missing and the chamber smells. What fresh-air inlet question is that, and what camera survey has it not replaced?
Own page
The missing stopper raises a fresh-air inlet question: whether air and smell are still meant to move at the inlet, or are simply pouring through the open interceptor. It has not replaced a camera survey. The chamber smells and the stopper is gone, which the survey can see. Nobody ran a camera along the drain. A smell and an empty socket are not a picture of the pipe, and they do not show whether the fresh-air inlet still works.
Drainage
The downpipe stops short of a gulley that sits proud of the paving so water misses the grate. What foundation splash is that, before anyone calls it subsidence?
Own page
It is foundation splash: roof water missing the grate and landing on the paving beside the wall, where it can soak the ground at the base. That is a rainwater fault, and it comes before anyone calls it subsidence. The downpipe stops short of a gulley that sits proud, so the discharge never enters the grate. The survey has seen that miss. It has not investigated the foundations, and it has not diagnosed ground movement from a wet patch.
Legal and neighbours
The extension appears to stand over the line of a public sewer on the plan. What build-over consent has the survey not produced?
Own page
The survey has not produced any build-over consent. The extension appears to stand over the line of a public sewer on the plan, which is a reason to ask whether a water company agreed the build. An agreement of that sort is a document. The inspection can note the apparent overlap. It has not applied for consent, has not found a letter of consent, and has not decided that the sewer is, or is not, under the foundations.
Drainage
Roots sit in the channel and no tree in the garden was identified as the source. Why should the survey not name a culprit tree?
Own page
The survey should not name a culprit tree because no tree in the garden was identified as the source. Roots sit in the channel, which is what was seen. Several trees, or a tree now gone, can send roots into a drain. Naming one of them would be a guess. The report can record roots in the pipe. It has not identified which plant grew them, and it has not mapped every tree in the garden to the channel.
Reading the report
The words further investigation sit next to a rating 2. What appointment has that phrase not already made?
Own page
No appointment has been made. The words further investigation sit next to a rating 2, and they recommend that someone look more closely. They do not book that person, pay them, or put a date in a diary. A rating 2 means defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent. The phrase does not upgrade the rating, and it does not commission the specialist. The survey has written a recommendation. It has not already made the appointment.
Choosing a survey
A Level 2 is offered on a thatched cottage. What should you ask the firm about whether that product is the one they use for this roof?
Own page
Ask the firm whether a Level 2 is actually the product they use for a thatched roof, or whether they would want a more detailed inspection of this one. An offer of a Level 2 names a standard product. It does not, by itself, say the firm is content to use it on thatch, where the coat, the ridge and the timbers under the thatch are easy to under-describe. The survey has not been done yet. The question is about the product, before you instruct it.
Choosing a survey
A surveyor who is not described as RICS-regulated offered verbal comments and no written report. What record would you not have if a lender or a solicitor asks later?
Own page
You would not have a written report. The person is not described as RICS-regulated and offered verbal comments only, so there is no document setting out what was seen, what was not inspected, and what condition was found. A lender or a solicitor who asks later can be shown a conversation, which is not a record they can file. The comments may have been useful on the day. They do not exist as a report once the visit is over.
Choosing a survey
The flat is one unit in a large block. Why can the time on site not include a full inspection of every other flat's demised space?
Own page
Because the instruction is this flat, not the inside of every other demise. Time on site can cover the flat you are buying and the common parts the surveyor is allowed to enter. It cannot include a full inspection of every other flat's demised space. Those homes are not the property, and the surveyor has no right to walk them. Hours in the block are not hours inside the neighbours. Keys to one flat do not open the rest.
Choosing a survey
Before you instruct, what should you ask about which specialists the firm will not include, such as electrics, gas and drains?
Own page
Ask which specialists the firm will not include, and name electrics, gas and drains in that question. Before you instruct, the point is to hear that a home survey does not test those services. The firm should say they are outside the visit, not folded into the fee as silent tests. You are asking for the boundary of the instruction. The survey has not happened, and it will not become an electrical, gas or drain test by being booked.
Money
The seller cancelled on the morning of the inspection. Why is any cancellation charge a matter for that firm's terms, not a figure in a condition rating?
Own page
Any cancellation charge is a matter for that firm's terms because the seller cancelled on the morning, before a condition report existed. A condition rating describes a defect in a building. It is not a fee. The firm's terms are what say whether a late cancellation is charged and on what basis. MoneyHelper is clear that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. Neither of those documents is where a cancellation charge is written. The survey did not take place, so there is no rating to hold a figure.
Selling
The seller wants to repair the gutter before you exchange and asks you not to reduce the price. What written record of that repair would the survey still not supervise?
Own page
The survey would still not supervise any written record of that gutter repair. The seller wants to do the work and asks you not to reduce the price. A later invoice, a photograph or a note from their contractor would be their record. This inspection does not watch the repair, sign it off, or rewrite itself when they say it is done. The original note about the gutter stays what was seen on the day. It does not become a completion certificate.
Selling
The buyer has sent the seller one page of ratings and not the paragraphs. Why is a number without the paragraph a poor basis for a reply?
Own page
A number without the paragraph is a poor basis for a reply because the number is only the label. The paragraph says what was seen, where, what was not inspected, and what the surveyor recommends. The buyer has sent one page of ratings and kept the prose. Replying to the bare number means arguing with a digit. You cannot tell a gutter from a roof, or a limit of inspection from a defect, until the paragraph is there.
After the survey
A camera survey the survey recommended has come back clear. Why should the price conversation move off the drains and stay with whatever the camera did not cover?
Own page
Because the camera the survey recommended has come back clear, so the drain suspicion that camera was asked to check is no longer the open item. The price conversation should move off the drains and stay with whatever that camera did not cover. The home survey did not itself test the drains. A separate camera did, and it was clear for the length it filmed. Other findings in the report were not in that film. They are the conversation that remains.
Money
You may walk away and you have already paid for a damp report and a drain camera. Why do those fees not become a repair credit inside the home survey?
Own page
Those fees do not become a repair credit inside the home survey because they are what you paid other people for their own reports. The damp report and the drain camera are separate instructions. The home survey does not hold them as a credit, does not owe you the seller's money, and does not rewrite itself into a bill against the house. Walking away leaves you with the reports you bought. It does not convert their fees into a repair figure printed in the survey.
Walls
A new cavity wall has no weep holes over the openings the surveyor looked at. What water path is missing, and what snagging app entry about paint has not dealt with it?
Own page
The missing water path is the weep that should let water out of the cavity above the opening. A new cavity wall had no weep holes over the openings the surveyor looked at. Water that passes the outer leaf is meant to drop and leave through those holes, not sit on the lintel. A snagging-app entry about paint has not dealt with that. Paint is a finish. Weep holes are a way out for water. The survey has noted the absence. It has not drilled the wall, and it has not opened a warranty claim.
Property types
The show home has a hedge on the boundary and your plot has a close-board fence in a different place. What boundary of the plot did the survey of the show home not inspect?
Own page
The survey of the show home did not inspect the boundary of your plot. The show home has a hedge, and your plot has a close-board fence in a different place. Those are different lines and different treatments. Looking at the show home's hedge describes the show home. It does not describe where your fence stands or what it is made of. The inspection of the show house stopped at the show house.
Money
You have heard the builder has stopped trading. Has the home survey told you whether a warranty still responds?
Own page
No. The home survey has not told you whether a warranty still responds. You have heard the builder has stopped trading, which is a rumour or a fact the inspection was not asked to prove. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey does not open a claim, and it does not read the policy to see who must answer if the builder has gone. Condition comments are not a statement that cover still responds.
Legal and neighbours
The lease plan colours a store in the yard and the agent says it is demised. Can the survey award you that store?
Own page
No. The survey cannot award you that store. The lease plan colours a store in the yard, and the agent says it is demised, but award of a demise is a reading of the lease and the plan, not a finding from a site walk. The inspection can see a store and describe its condition. It cannot colour the plan, cannot prefer the agent's sentence to the document, and cannot give you the building.
Money
The budget service charge and last year's actual do not match in the pack. Why is that a managing-agent figure and not a condition rating of the roof?
Own page
Because the mismatch is a managing-agent figure about money, and a condition rating of the roof is a comment on the fabric. The budget service charge and last year's actual do not match in the pack. That is accounts. The survey, if it rates the roof, rates what it could see of the roof. It does not audit the budget, and it does not turn a money gap into a roof defect or a roof defect into an accounts gap.
Money
The pack shows a nil reserve fund and the roof is rating 3. Why does the nil not change the rating, and the rating not fill the fund?
Own page
The nil does not change the rating because a reserve fund is an accounts balance and the rating is the survey's label on the roof. The rating does not fill the fund because a survey label does not pay money in. The pack shows a nil reserve, and the roof is rating 3. Those facts sit side by side. Neither edits the other. The inspection has not audited the fund, and the fund has not reroofed the building.
Money
The agent says ground rent on a recent lease is a peppercorn. Has the survey checked that lease against the ground-rent legislation, or is that the solicitor's reading?
Own page
That is the solicitor's reading. The survey has not checked the lease against the ground-rent legislation. The agent says ground rent on a recent lease is a peppercorn. An agent's sentence is not the lease, and it is not an application of the Act. The inspection looks at the flat. It does not construe permitted rent, and it has not confirmed that this document is one on which only a peppercorn may be reserved.
Property types
A corridor door closer is wedged with a fire extinguisher. What compartmentation point is defeated, and what test was not done?
Own page
The compartmentation point defeated is that corridor door, for as long as the closer is wedged open with a fire extinguisher. A door that should shut cannot separate the corridor while it is held open. The test that was not done is any test of the closer, the seals or the door as a fire door. The survey saw the wedge. It did not time a close, did not check a certificate, and has not said the door would pass one.
Walls
The bolts holding a glass balcony balustrade are rusting. What load test of that glass has the survey not done?
Own page
No load test of that glass has been done. The bolts holding the balustrade are rusting, which the survey can see and record. A load test would try how the glass and the bolts take weight. This inspection did not do that, did not pull a bolt, and did not certify the balustrade. Rust is a condition note on the fixings. It is not a test result, and it is not an external-wall form.
Property types
A dry-riser inlet is noted at the base of the block. What fire-service test of that riser was not part of the flat survey?
Own page
No fire-service test of that riser was part of the flat survey. A dry-riser inlet was noted at the base of the block, which means a cabinet or an inlet the surveyor could see. A fire-service test would charge the riser, try the valves and confirm the outlets. None of that was done. The flat survey records a fitting at street level. It does not test the riser and it does not certify the fire main.
Walls
A gap shows between cladding and a window head on the block. Has that gap produced an EWS1, or only a sentence in the survey?
Own page
Only a sentence in the survey. The gap between cladding and a window head has not produced an EWS1. An EWS1 is a separate form about the external wall, filled in by someone instructed to do that assessment. The home survey can write that a gap was seen. It has not completed an EWS1, has not classified the wall system, and has not decided from one gap what the form would say.
Legal and neighbours
The upper maisonette's lease is said to put the roof on that owner and the survey rates the roof 3. What covenant has the rating not enforced?
Own page
The rating has not enforced any repairing covenant. The upper maisonette's lease is said to put the roof on that owner, and the survey rates the roof 3. The rating describes the roof that was seen. A covenant is a promise in the lease. The survey does not enforce it, does not sue on it, and does not decide that the saying about the lease is accurate. Condition and the repairing promise stay apart.
Legal and neighbours
A sales leaflet says commonhold and the document in the pack is a lease. Can the survey change the tenure to match the leaflet?
Own page
No. The survey cannot change the tenure to match the leaflet. A sales leaflet says commonhold and the document in the pack is a lease. Tenure is what the documents are, not what the brochure prefers. The inspection looks at the building. It does not convert a lease into commonhold, and it does not vote the leaflet into the title. The pack you were given contains a lease. That is the document the solicitor reads.
Legal and neighbours
Your staircase flies over the neighbour's hall and you could not see their ceiling. What support for those treads was not inspected from their side?
Own page
The support for those treads was not inspected from the neighbour's side at all. Your staircase flies over their hall, and you could not see their ceiling, so the hangers, joists or wall bearings on that side were not in view. The survey can describe the stair from your side: treads, strings, and what the soffit shows in your own house. It has not seen how the flight is carried where it crosses their hall.
Property types
The parking bay under a coach house has a boxed bulkhead and the surveyor could not see why the headroom changes. What structure inside that bulkhead is unknown?
Own page
Whatever structure is inside the boxed bulkhead is unknown. The parking bay under the coach house changes headroom, and the surveyor could not see why, because the boxing was not opened. It may conceal a beam, a duct, a stepped slab or something else. The survey has not chosen among those. It has recorded a bulkhead and a change in headroom. It has not identified the structure inside. A painted lid is not a section through the floor.
Property types
The Welsh list entry gives the building a grade and the survey gives condition ratings. Why is the grade not a rating 1, 2 or 3?
Own page
Because a Cadw grade is a listing grade, and a condition rating is the survey's label for repair. The Welsh list entry gives the building a grade. The survey gives condition ratings. Those scales do not convert. The grade is not a rating 1, 2 or 3. Cadw explains listing in Wales. The survey has not regraded the building, and it has not turned the list entry into a statement of whether repair is needed. Read the grade as listing, and the numbers as condition.
Services
Pipe lagging in the loft is chewed and the pipe itself was not leaking on the day. What pest conclusion is outside the survey, and what leak was not seen?
Own page
Any conclusion about which pest is present, or whether an infestation is active, is outside the survey. The leak that was not seen is a leak from the pipe: it was not leaking on the day. The lagging is chewed, which the survey can record as damaged insulation. The inspection has not identified the animal, has not traced a nest, and has not pressure-tested the pipe. Chewed lagging is not a pest report, and a dry pipe on the day is not a lifetime clearance.
Walls
A socket on a dot-and-dab wall is cold and stained and the plasterboard was not pulled off. What void behind that socket was not inspected?
Own page
The void behind the plasterboard, in the dabs around that socket, was not inspected. The socket is cold and stained, and the board was not pulled off, so the cavity between board and masonry stayed closed. The survey can record a cold, marked face at the socket. It has not seen the void, has not traced a damp path inside it, and has not decided whether the stain is condensation on the board or moisture from the wall behind.
Damp
The soffit of a steel beam shows condensation and the wall below is dry. Why is that a cold-bridge note and not moisture from the ground?
Own page
It is a cold-bridge note because the wet face is the steel soffit, which chills room air until moisture drops out on the metal, and the wall below is dry. Moisture from the ground would show low on the masonry, and that wall was dry. The survey has recorded condensation on the beam. It has not called it rising damp, and it has not proved a leak from above. Steel carrying cold into a warm room is the mechanism that fits what was seen.
Walls
Damp inside lines up with a cracked stone sill and the wall base is dry. Which defect should be read first?
Own page
Read the cracked stone sill first. The damp inside lines up with that crack, and the wall base is dry, so the pattern points at the opening rather than at moisture climbing from the ground. The survey has not opened the wall and has not laboratory-tested the sill. Alignment is a reason to take the sill before a house-wide damp label. It has not specified the stone repair. The dry base is why rising damp is the poorer first reading.
Damp
A tide mark stops about a metre up in one alcove and is absent on the rest of the wall. Why is a house-wide rising-damp label a poor fit?
Own page
A house-wide rising-damp label is a poor fit because the tide mark stops about a metre up in one alcove and is absent on the rest of the wall. Rising damp, where it is real, is a low band that follows the base, not a single recess. One alcove can be a cold chimney breast, a salt patch, a leak or a local finish. The survey has not labelled the whole house. It has recorded a mark that stays in that alcove.
Grounds
A raised flower bed covers the damp-proof course along one bay only. What local path is that, and what chemical treatment has it not specified?
Own page
The local path is the raised flower bed bridging the damp-proof course on one bay only. Soil and plants sit over the course, so moisture from the bed can pass into that wall instead of being stopped by the barrier. The survey has recorded the cover along that bay. It has not specified a chemical damp treatment, and it has not decided that injection, or any other chemical method, is the remedy. A bridge on one bay is a local path. It is not a prescription for chemical works along the rest of the house.
Walls
No cavity tray was seen over a replacement lintel and the inner reveal is stained after rain. What detail is missing, and what tie failure has it not proved?
Own page
The missing detail is a cavity tray over the replacement lintel, and the stain has not proved a wall-tie failure. Rain reaching the cavity above an opening needs a tray to throw it out through the outer leaf. Where no tray was seen, water can cross to the inner reveal and leave a stain after rain. The survey has recorded that absence and the stain. It has not tested the wall ties, and a stained reveal is not evidence that the ties have corroded.
Walls
A horizontal crack follows the floor line on the gable only. Why should the front and rear elevations not be condemned with that gable?
Own page
The front and rear elevations should not be condemned with the gable because the horizontal crack follows the floor line on the gable only. That crack is a local pattern on one wall. It can be a reason to ask about ties in that gable. It is not a finding that the front and rear leaves have the same defect. The survey has not tested wall ties on any elevation. A crack confined to the gable does not become a house-wide tie failure by being serious on that one wall.
Walls
Rigid insulation shows in the cavity at a window reveal where the frame was replaced. What fill of the rest of the cavity was not seen?
Own page
The fill of the rest of the cavity was not seen. Rigid insulation shows in the cavity at a window reveal where the frame was replaced, which tells you a board is present at that opening. It does not tell you whether the same board, a different fill, or an empty cavity continues past the reveal. The survey has recorded the exposed edge. It has not opened the wall elsewhere, and it has not described a whole-house insulation type from one cut reveal.
Roofs
Spray foam sits on a breathable membrane under slates. Why is that a different moisture question from foam on a felted cold roof?
Own page
Foam on a breathable membrane is a different moisture question from foam on a felted cold roof, because the membrane is meant to let vapour pass and the felt is not. Spray foam sitting on that membrane under slates can block the path the membrane was there to provide. The survey has seen foam on the membrane. It has not sampled the foam, has not measured moisture in the slates, and has not treated this roof as if it were a felted cold roof.
Roof and rainwater
Ceiling ties are present and the eaves have still kicked. What has the presence of those ties not measured about whether they are doing the job?
Own page
The presence of the ceiling ties has not measured whether they are doing the job. They are there, and the eaves have still kicked, so something is spreading the roof even though a tie exists. A tie only restrains thrust if it is the right member, properly connected, and actually taking load. The survey has seen the ties and the kick at the eaves. It has not measured the spread, tested the connections, or calculated whether those ties are resisting the rafters.
Roof and rainwater
The valley board is soft at the eaves end and firm at the ridge. What length of board is decayed, and what lead above it was not uncovered?
Own page
The length of decayed valley board is not known, and the lead above it was not uncovered. The board is soft at the eaves end and firm at the ridge, so decay has been found at one end and not described at the other. Softness at the eaves does not give a measured length of rotten timber along the valley. The survey probed or noted what it could reach. It did not strip the lead, so the metal over that soft end, and over the firmer length, stays unseen.
Roofs
The back gutter lead behind a chimney is split and the pots are sound. What leak path is local to that gutter?
Own page
The leak path is the split in the back gutter lead behind the chimney, and it is local to that gutter. Water that should be carried around the stack can drop through the split into the roof at the abutment. The pots being sound does not close that path. The survey has seen a split lead gutter and sound pots. It has not tested the flues, and it has not blamed the pots for a leak that starts in the gutter metal.
Roofs
New sand-and-cement flaunching sits on an old stack and is already cracking. What flexibility has that hard mix not given the pots?
Own page
That hard sand-and-cement mix has not given the pots any flexibility. New flaunching sits on an old stack and is already cracking, which is what a rigid crown often does when pots and masonry move with heat and weather. The survey has seen fresh hard mortar that has cracked. It has not said the stack is leaning, has not tested the flues, and has not treated the cracks as proof that the pots are loose.
Services
A fireplace is boarded and the vent in the board has been taped shut. What moisture path up the flue was closed?
Own page
The moisture path that was closed is the air route up the disused flue. A fireplace has been boarded and the vent in that board has been taped shut, so the flue no longer has the opening that lets it breathe into the room. Moisture from the flue can then sit in the stack instead of drying. The survey has seen the board and the taped vent. It has not tested the flue, and it has not said the boarding itself is a structural defect.
Walls
A Boot lintel shows a rust stain at one end and the brick above is even. What reinforcement inside that lintel was not exposed?
Own page
The reinforcement inside that Boot lintel was not exposed. A rust stain at one end shows that something in or on the lintel is corroding at that point, while the brick above stays even. A Boot lintel is a concrete section with a toe that supports the outer leaf, and steel can sit inside it. The survey has seen the stain and the even brick. It has not opened the concrete, has not found the steel, and has not decided how far any corrosion extends.
Structure
A timber beam over a former shopfront sags and the flat above was not opened at the bearings. What end condition is unknown?
Own page
The end condition of the timber beam is unknown. It sags over a former shopfront, and the flat above was not opened at the bearings, so the survey could see the span and the deflection but not how the ends sit in the wall. Bearing length, decay in the pocket and what actually carries the beam were not seen. The sag is recorded. The ends are not. No end was opened, so bearing and decay in the pocket stay outside this visit.
Walls
A bow window has spread at the cill and the brick piers either side are upright. Why is that spread a window question before it is foundation movement?
Own page
The spread is a window question first because the bow has opened at the cill while the brick piers either side stay upright. A bow relies on the cill and the frame to hold the curve. When those give way, the window splays without the neighbouring masonry rotating. The survey has seen spread at the cill and upright piers. It has not exposed the foundations, and it has not called this foundation movement.
Walls
A sash will not stay open and the pocket shows a missing weight. Why is that sash gear, not a failed frame?
Own page
That is sash gear, not a failed frame. The sash will not stay open and the pocket shows a missing weight, so the balance that should hold the sash has gone. A missing weight, or the cord that should carry it, is ironmongery in the box frame. The survey has seen the empty pocket. It has not condemned the stile or the cill, and a sash that will not stay up is not, by itself, a rotten frame.
Walls
A slim double-glazed unit in a listed sash is misted. Can the survey approve a replacement unit?
Own page
No. The survey cannot approve a replacement unit for the misted slim double glazing in this listed sash. Misting means the seal of that unit has failed and the pane is no longer clear. Approving a replacement is a consent question as well as a glazing question. Historic England explains that listing covers the whole building. The survey does not grant consent, and it has not decided that a new unit may be fitted in the sash.
Walls
The lining behind a front-door architrave is soft and the door leaf is sound. What timber is decayed, and what damp path at the threshold was noted with it?
Own page
The decayed timber is the door lining behind the architrave, not the door leaf. The lining is soft and the leaf is sound, so the defect sits in the hidden frame lining rather than in the door you swing. The survey noted that softness together with a damp path at the threshold. It has not said the whole frame is rotten, and it has not uncovered every face of the lining behind the architrave.
Walls
A new timber threshold sits higher than the damp-proof course and the plaster beside the jamb is marked. What bridge is that threshold?
Own page
The bridge is the new timber threshold sitting higher than the damp-proof course. Timber that stands proud of the course can carry moisture past the barrier and into the jamb, which matches the marked plaster beside it. The survey has seen the high threshold and the mark. It has not specified a chemical treatment, and it has not decided that the rest of the wall is bridged. The path named here is this threshold.
Roof and rainwater
The shed flat roof holds a pond and the house roof does not. Why must the shed pond not be written up as a house-roof failure?
Own page
The shed pond must not be written up as a house-roof failure because the house roof does not hold that water. Ponding on the shed flat roof is a defect of the shed covering, its falls or its outlets. The survey has separated the two roofs. It has not said the house covering has failed, and it has not inspected the house roof by looking at the shed. A pond on an outbuilding stays on the outbuilding.
Property types
Polycarbonate sheets on a conservatory are opaque and crazed. What has aged, the sheets, and what frame or foundation has that haze not condemned?
Own page
What has aged is the polycarbonate sheets. They are opaque and crazed, which is how that plastic fails in sunlight. The haze has not condemned the frame, and it has not condemned the foundation. The survey has seen the sheets. It has not said the bars, the base or the ground under the conservatory have failed because the plastic has gone milky. Opacity is a sheet failure, not a finding that the conservatory structure has moved.
Legal and neighbours
A garden office looks recently built and no paperwork is in the pack. What planning or building-regulations search has the survey not carried out?
Own page
The survey has not carried out a planning search or a building-regulations search for the garden office. It looks recently built, and no paperwork is in the pack, which is a gap in the papers you were given. Looking at a new-looking building is not a search of the council record. The survey can describe the office it could see. It has not decided that permission exists, and it has not decided that the office is unauthorised.
Grounds
A timber sleeper wall holds a lawn and a fence stands on top of it. What of the sleepers is retaining soil, and what of the fence is not a house defect?
Own page
The sleepers are what retains the soil, and the fence standing on them is not a house defect. A timber sleeper wall holds the lawn. The fence is a boundary screen on top of that wall. The survey has separated the retaining timber from the fence and from the house. It has not said the house has moved because a garden wall holds a lawn, and it has not called the fence part of the dwelling.
Structure
A freestanding garden wall has a cracked pier and the house ten metres away is plumb. Which structure is the crack about?
Own page
The crack is about the freestanding garden wall, not the house. A pier in that wall is cracked, and the house ten metres away is plumb. Distance and a plumb house mean the pier crack has not been carried across to the dwelling. The survey has described the garden structure. It has not diagnosed foundation movement in the house from a crack in a wall that does not hold the house up.
Walls
A weep hole in the retaining wall drips after rain and the house wall above it is dry. What is the drip doing, if the house damp-proof course is clear?
Own page
The drip is the retaining wall weeping after rain, and it is not a failure of the house damp-proof course. A weep hole is there to let water out from behind the wall that holds the ground. The house wall above it was dry, and the course was clear, so the drip is doing that draining job rather than crossing into the house. The survey has seen the weep run and a dry house wall. It has not said the house is damp.
Legal and neighbours
The title plan shows a T mark on the garden wall and the survey describes the lean. Which document deals with the mark, and which with the lean?
Own page
The title plan is the document that carries the T mark, and the survey is the document that describes the lean. Ownership of the garden wall, if the mark means anything, is for the solicitor reading the title, not for the inspection. The survey has recorded how the wall leans. It has not decided who must repair it, and it has not turned a T mark into a condition rating. Mark and lean stay in different documents.
Structure and movement
Metal monitoring studs are fixed either side of a crack and there is no log of readings. What movement has the presence of the studs not recorded?
Own page
The studs have not recorded any movement. Metal monitoring points fixed either side of a crack show that someone intended to measure it. Without a log of readings, there is no series of distances and no direction of travel. The survey has seen the studs. It has not inherited a history from their presence, and it has not measured whether the crack is opening, closing or still. Hardware without numbers is not monitoring.
Structure and movement
After a large tree was removed the crack is wider at the top of the wall. What pattern is that, and what soil test has not confirmed heave?
Own page
The pattern is a crack wider at the top after a large tree was removed, and no soil test has confirmed heave. A crack that opens upward is the shape people associate with ground rising, and tree removal is a common reason buyers ask about heave. Association is not confirmation. The survey has recorded the shape and the history it was given. It has not tested the soil, and it has not proved the ground has heaved.
Structure
New concrete shows only at one corner and the rest of the footing line looks undisturbed. What length of underpinning, if any, was not documented?
Own page
The length of any underpinning was not documented. New concrete shows only at one corner, and the rest of the footing line looks undisturbed, so the survey cannot say how far a scheme extends or whether the concrete is underpinning at all. It has seen a local patch. It has not seen drawings, a building-control record, or the footing beyond that corner. A single corner cannot stand in for a documented length.
Money
You have read that policies often carry a subsidence excess. Why is that excess not the cost of repairing the crack the survey described?
Own page
The excess is not the cost of repairing the crack the survey described. You have read that policies often carry a subsidence excess, which is a policy term about what the policyholder may bear if a claim is paid. It is not a builder's price, and it is not this report turned into money. The survey has described a crack. It has not priced a repair, and it has not read your policy.
Choosing a survey
A Level 3 is the most detailed of the three home surveys. Why is it still not a guarantee that concealed foundations were exposed?
Own page
It is still not a guarantee that concealed foundations were exposed. A Level 3 is the most detailed of the three home surveys, and it remains a visual inspection of what can be seen without opening the structure as a matter of course. The survey has used the access it had. It has not dug out the foundations, and choosing the most detailed level does not create a trench. Concealed concrete stays concealed unless a different instruction exposes it.
Choosing a survey
The firm is RICS-regulated and you did not meet the person who will sign the report. What should you ask about who inspected and who signs, without treating a job title as a condition rating?
Own page
Ask who walked the house and who will sign, and do not treat a job title as a condition rating. The firm is RICS-regulated, which speaks to the practice, not to a rating of the brickwork. You did not meet the person who will sign. The survey has not been signed by a title. A job title does not describe the condition of the walls, and it is not a substitute for the text you will read. The letterhead is not the inspection.
Services
The heating system was drained because the house is empty. What boiler performance could not be observed?
Own page
What could not be observed is the boiler actually performing. The heating system was drained because the house is empty, so there was no filled circuit to fire, no heat to feel and no circulation to watch. The survey has recorded an empty system. It has not tested the gas, has not seen the boiler run, and has not produced a gas-safety record. A drained boiler is an inspection limit, not a pass.
Reading the report
Furniture covered the wall the surveyor most wanted to see and that wall is NI. What damp conclusion is unavailable?
Own page
No damp conclusion is available for that wall. Furniture covered the area the surveyor most wanted to see, and the wall is NI. NI means not inspected, not a pass. The survey has not said the wall is dry, and it has not said it is damp. Rating 1 would mean no repair currently needed, but that rating was not given. Do not promote a covered wall to a pass, and do not invent a rating 3 either.
Reading the report
Vinyl is glued to the kitchen floor and was not lifted. What timber or slab under it is outside the inspection?
Own page
The timber or the slab under the vinyl is outside the inspection. The covering is glued to the kitchen floor and was not lifted, so the survey could not see whether boards, joists or a concrete slab lie beneath. A glued sheet is not a view of the structure. The visit has recorded the limit. It has not graded the hidden floor, and silence under the vinyl is not a pass. The sheet stays the limit of what was seen.
Selling
The report is addressed to the seller and the terms say reliance is limited. Why should you not assume you can rely on it as if you had instructed it?
Own page
You should not assume you can rely on it as if you had instructed it. The report is addressed to the seller, and the terms say reliance is limited. The duty described in those terms runs to the person who was the client. You were not. The survey can still be read as information about the house. It does not become your instruction, and it does not put you in the seller's place, merely because a copy was handed over.
After the survey
You want a price change now and the survey has asked for an engineer before anyone specifies a repair. What specification is missing from that price change?
Own page
The specification missing from that price change is the repair the engineer has not yet written. You want a price change now, and the survey has asked for an engineer before anyone specifies the work. A change in price without that specification is a number with no scope. The survey has not designed the repair, has not measured it, and has not turned its request for an engineer into a finished scheme.
Money
The Home Report includes a valuation section and your lender has booked a separate valuation. Why is the Home Report figure not automatically the lender's figure?
Own page
The Home Report figure is not automatically the lender's figure because your lender has booked a separate valuation. The Home Report includes a valuation section, and that section belongs to the Home Report. A Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to. It is not an English Level 2 you instruct yourself, and its figure is not, by itself, the valuation your lender has chosen to obtain. The two valuations stay separate jobs.
Environment
You will use the basement as a room and the only radon information is an area map. Why is the map not a reading in that room?
Own page
The map is not a reading in that room. An area map describes radon likelihood across ground, not the air in the basement you will use. Using the space as a room does not sample it. The survey has not measured radon there, and it has not turned a published map into a detector result. Until a proper test is done in the house, the room itself is unmeasured. The basement air remains unknown.
Environment
Flood guards are in the garage and were not fitted during the visit. What protection was not demonstrated on the day?
Own page
The protection that was not demonstrated is the flood guards actually fitted. They were in the garage and were not put on the openings during the visit, so nobody saw them seal, fit or hold. Owning guards is not the same as showing that they work on this house. The survey has recorded where they were stored. It has not tested a flood, has not measured flood depth, and has not watched a defence in place.
Walls
Render on a coastal house is fretting and salt sits in the pores. Why is that a materials note and not evidence the foundations have heaved?
Own page
That is a materials note about the render, not evidence the foundations have heaved. Render on a coastal house is fretting, and salt sits in the pores, which is what salt crystallisation does to a coating in sea air. The survey has described the face of the wall. It has not tested the soil, has not seen the footings, and has not reported heave from salt in the render. The coating is the subject of this note.
Roofs
The porch roof is a single plank the surveyor says may be RAAC and no sample was taken. What investigation has been deferred?
Own page
The investigation that has been deferred is any proper look at the plank, including sampling. The porch roof is a single plank the surveyor says may be RAAC, and no sample was taken. RAAC is a form of concrete panel that IStructE says needs investigation. The survey has not investigated this plank and has not sampled it. A possible identification is not that investigation. Sampling was the step this visit left undone.
Structure and movement
Stainless studs are fixed each side of a crack in the gable and no log of distances is in the pack. What has the hardware not recorded?
Own page
The hardware has not recorded how wide the crack was, or whether it changed. Stainless studs are fixed each side of a crack in the gable, and no log of distances is in the pack. Studs are the points a measuring device would use. Without the distances, there is no series and no trend. The survey has seen the studs on the gable. It has not reconstructed readings that nobody wrote down.
Money
You have seen that home policies often describe a subsidence excess. Why is that excess not a builder's price for the crack in this report?
Own page
That excess is not a builder's price for the crack in this report. You have seen that home policies often describe a subsidence excess. An excess is a policy feature about a claim, if a claim is made and if the policy responds. The survey has described a crack. It has not asked a builder to price it, and it has not converted a policy term into the cost of the work on this wall.
Choosing a survey
Level 3 is described as the most detailed home survey. Why does that description still not mean the foundations were dug out and inspected?
Own page
The description still does not mean the foundations were dug out and inspected. Level 3 is the most detailed home survey, which means a closer visual look, more time and more reporting, not an excavation. The survey can record cracks, floors and the ground surface. It cannot see concrete that stays under the soil. No part of that description opens the footings unless the instruction separately says they were exposed, and this one does not.
Services
The heating was drained down because the house is vacant. What firing of the boiler could the survey not watch?
Own page
The firing of the boiler could not be watched. The heating was drained down because the house is vacant, so there was no water in the circuit and no call for heat that the appliance could answer. The survey has seen a cold, empty installation. It has not watched a burner light, has not felt the system heat, and has not carried out a gas-safety inspection. Vacancy explains the drain-down. It does not replace the missing firing.
Reading the report
Sheet vinyl is glued across the kitchen and was left down. What floor construction under it is outside the notes?
Own page
The floor construction under the sheet is outside the notes. Sheet vinyl is glued across the kitchen and was left down, so boards, joists or a slab were not available to describe. The notes stop at the covering. They do not contain a construction for the hidden floor, and they do not award it a pass. Rating 1 would mean no repair currently needed, and that label was not given to a floor the survey did not see.
Selling
The report's reliance wording names the seller. Why is that a reason not to treat the PDF as advice addressed to you?
Own page
The reliance wording names the seller, and that is why the PDF is not advice addressed to you. A report speaks to the person the terms name. Here that person is the seller. You can learn from the pages, but learning is not the same as being the client the wording protects. The survey has not been readdressed. The clause does the opposite: it tells you who may rely. The name in the clause is the point.
After the survey
You want the price changed before the structural engineer the survey named has written. What repair specification does that request not yet have?
Own page
The request does not yet have a repair specification. You want the price changed before the structural engineer the survey named has written, so the change would be agreed with no description of the work. The survey has pointed at an engineer. It has not written the engineer's scope, the method or the extent. A price move in that gap has nothing technical to attach to. Nothing in the gap is a scheme of work.
Environment
The basement will be a study and the only radon paper is an area map. Why has nobody measured the air in that room?
Own page
Nobody has measured the air in that room. The basement will be a study, and the only radon paper is an area map. A map shades districts. It does not sample the study. The survey has not measured radon in the basement air, and planning to work down there does not operate a detector. The paper in the pack remains an area description, not a result for this floor. The study air is still unmeasured.
Environment
Flood boards are stacked in the garage and were not offered up to the doorway. What fit and what seal were not shown?
Own page
The fit and the seal were not shown. Flood boards are stacked in the garage and were not offered up to the doorway, so the visit never saw whether they meet the frame or whether the seals close the gap. A stack is storage. It is not a demonstration. The survey has recorded the boards where they lay. It has not measured flood depth and has not watched a defence on the opening.
Walls
Coastal render is fretting and salts sit in the surface. Why is that a coating note rather than heave of the footings?
Own page
It is a coating note because the salts and the fretting are in the surface of the render, not in a movement of the footings. Coastal render breaking down with salt in the face is a materials problem in the coat. Heave of the footings would be the ground lifting the wall, which this surface damage does not show. The survey has described the coating. It has not tested the soil and has not reported the footings as heaved.
Property types
A Trusteel stanchion base is exposed at one corner and the rest of the frame is behind brick. What of the steel has the survey actually seen?
Own page
The steel the survey has actually seen is the Trusteel stanchion base exposed at one corner, and not the frame that stays behind the brick. A stanchion is an upright of this steel-framed house. At that open corner the inspection can note the metal that shows, any scale on it, and how the base sits. The brick cladding covers the other legs and the rails. The survey has not opened that cladding and has not followed the member up the wall. Seeing one base does not decide the condition of the hidden Trusteel steel.
Property types
The report names a Hawthorn Leslie steel frame and no cladding was lifted. Why does the name not amount to an inspection of the steel?
Own page
The name does not amount to an inspection of the steel because no cladding was lifted. Naming a Hawthorn Leslie frame is a recognition of the system from the clues the surveyor could see. It is not a look at the metal. The steel stays behind the skin that was left in place. The survey has recorded the name and the fact that the cladding was not opened. It has not described rust, loss of section, or protective coatings on members it never reached. A correct label is not the same thing as having inspected the frame.
Property types
A Dennis Wild house is described as steel with a brick skin and the steel was not uncovered. What is the brick not proving?
Own page
The brick is not proving the condition of the Dennis Wild steel it covers. The house is described as a steel frame with a brick skin, and that steel was not uncovered. Brick you can see is the outer leaf. It can look ordinary, cracked, or recently repointed, and none of those faces is the frame. The survey has recorded the construction and the fact that the steel stayed hidden. It has not decided that the brick shows the steel to be sound, and it has not decided that the brick shows the steel to be failing.
Walls
The profiled cladding at the base of a BISF house is loose and the upper sheets look fixed. What steel behind the tight sheets was not seen?
Own page
The steel behind the upper sheets that still look fixed was not seen. On this BISF house the profiled cladding is loose at the base, so the inspection could note that loose edge and whatever steel, if any, showed there. The upper sheets that look tight were not taken off. Looking fixed is an appearance of the cladding, not an opening. The survey has not described the frame, the sheeting or the fixings concealed by those tight sheets. A loose base does not become a tour of the steel higher up.
Property types
The infill between posts of a converted barn is modern block and the posts themselves were not tested. What load is the block not carrying on its own?
Own page
The modern block is not carrying the roof load on its own. In this converted barn the posts are the frame, and the infill between them is block. The posts were not tested. Block can close the bays, hold a lining and keep the weather out, without being the member the roof was built to stand on. The survey has described the infill and untested posts. It has not calculated a load path, and it has not decided that the block has taken over from the frame. Approved Document A is structural guidance. It is not a certificate this visit has issued for the infill.
Property types
A workshop conversion has a steel portal the surveyor could see and no calculation was attached. What size of steel was not checked against a design?
Own page
The size of the steel portal the surveyor could see was not checked against a design. The workshop conversion has a portal frame in view, so the inspection can say the frame is there and how it looked: rust, connections, and whether anything is obviously bent. No calculation was attached. Section size, span and loading were not compared with a design. Seeing steel is not measuring it against what the conversion asks it to carry. The survey has not produced that check. Approved Document A is structural guidance. It is not a calculation this visit carried out, nor a certificate for the portal.
Property types
A shed in the garden of a listed house is not mentioned on the list entry the agent quoted. Can the survey decide the shed is outside the listing?
Own page
No. The survey cannot decide that the shed is outside the listing. The agent quoted a list entry that does not mention the shed, and silence in that quotation is not a ruling. Historic England explains that listing covers the whole building. Whether a garden shed is within the curtilage, and protected with the house, is a legal question. The survey can describe the shed it saw. It has not read the entry as a lawyer, has not applied a curtilage test, and does not grant or withhold listing. An omission in the agent's extract does not put the shed outside the list.
Walls
Gypsum skim covers lime plaster on a listed internal wall and the skim is cracking. Can the survey consent to leaving the skim on?
Own page
No. The survey cannot consent to leaving the gypsum skim on. The skim covers lime plaster on a listed internal wall, and it is cracking. That is a condition note: a harder finish over an older plaster, with cracks the inspection could see. Historic England explains that listing covers the whole building, which includes this internal wall. Consent to retain the skim, or to take it off, is listed building consent. The survey has not looked that up and does not grant it. Cracks do not become a permission, and a neat patch would not become one either.
Walls
A timber lintel in a listed opening is soft at one end and the stone jambs are firm. What consent has the survey not given for replacing that timber?
Own page
The survey has not given listed building consent to replace that timber lintel. One end is soft and the stone jambs are firm, so the note is decay in the timber, not a failure of the stone. Firm jambs do not repair the soft end and do not authorise a new lintel. Historic England explains that listing covers the whole building, including this opening. The survey has described softness where it could be reached. It has not designed a replacement, has not said the timber must come out, and has not granted consent for that work.
Roof and rainwater
Stone roof slates are delaminating on a listed cottage and the ridge looks even. What of the slates was not a reason to reroof the whole slope in the report?
Own page
The delaminating stone slates were not, in this report, a reason to reroof the whole slope. Delamination is those slates splitting and shedding, which the survey can record on the slope it could see. An even ridge is the line of the ridge, not a test of every slate. The report has not written that the whole slope must be stripped because some slates are delaminating. It has also not used the even ridge to declare the covering sound. Local failure and a full reroof are different decisions, and only the condition that was seen has been recorded.
Property types
The cottage is in Wales and the brochure cites an English list. Which nation's list should the solicitor match?
Own page
The solicitor should match the Welsh list, the record Cadw explains, and not the English list the brochure cites. The cottage is in Wales. An English entry is a different nation's record, even when the wording looks official. Cadw is the source for understanding listing in Wales. The survey can note that the brochure quoted an English list and that the building stands in Wales. It has not matched the two records, has not confirmed a grade, and has not decided that the English citation is the listing that applies. The nation's list is a solicitor's check against the Welsh record.
Roofs
Cement has been used to point a listed chimney and the rest of the stack is in lime. Can the survey order the cement to be raked out?
Own page
No. The survey cannot order the cement to be raked out. Cement pointing on a listed chimney, beside lime on the rest of the stack, is a condition contrast the inspection can record. Hard cement and lime behave differently in weather, and the survey can say which material was seen where. Historic England explains that listing covers the whole building, including this stack. An order to rake out and repoint is a specification, and on a listed chimney it can also be a consent question. The survey has given neither. It has not instructed a mason and it has not granted consent.
Property types
The skirt of a park home was not lifted and the chassis was only seen at the hitch. What of the steel under the floor is outside the notes?
Own page
The steel under the floor, behind the skirt that was not lifted, is outside the notes. The chassis was only seen at the hitch, so the inspection can describe that hitch end and nothing the skirt hides. A park home stands on a steel chassis. GOV.UK treats park homes as a special case when buying. The survey of the unit has recorded a limited view at the hitch. It has not described the rails under the floor. It does not set the pitch fee, and it does not replace the written agreement.
Money
The written pitch agreement is not in the survey pack. What fee and what site rule has the inspection of the unit not set?
Own page
The inspection of the unit has not set the pitch fee, and it has not set the site rules. The written pitch agreement is not in the survey pack, so those terms were not there to read. GOV.UK treats park homes as a special case when buying. A survey of the unit describes the home that was seen. It does not write the fee the site charges, and it does not write the rules on what may stand on the pitch or how the agreement ends. The missing paper is not filled by the condition notes.
Property types
A king post was cut to let a stair through and a steel flitch is bolted beside the cut. What calculation of that flitch was not in the survey?
Own page
No calculation of that steel flitch was in the survey. A king post was cut so a stair could pass, and a flitch plate is bolted beside the cut. The inspection can describe the cut timber and the steel that was seen: the plate, the bolts, and where it sits against the post. It cannot say the plate is the right size, the bolts are the right number, or the stair loads are carried. That calculation was not attached and was not done on this visit. Approved Document A is structural guidance. It is not a certificate the survey has issued for the flitch.
Walls
The gable bows and the front wall the surveyor checked is plumb. Why should the bow not be copied onto the front foundations?
Own page
The bow should not be copied onto the front foundations because the front wall the surveyor checked is plumb. The gable is the wall that bows. The front is a different elevation, and it was checked as upright. Transferring the gable's bow onto those foundations invents a movement the inspection did not find. The survey has recorded a bowing gable and a plumb front. It has not decided that one mechanism explains both, and it has not said the front foundations have moved. A defect stays on the wall where it was seen.
Walls
A bulge follows the first-floor line and the wall below is straight. What restraint at that floor was not seen?
Own page
The restraint where the first floor meets the bulging wall was not seen. The bulge follows that floor line, and the wall below is straight, so the distortion sits at the floor rather than as a tilt from the ground. Restraint at that level would be the straps, the joist ends or the ties that hold the wall back to the floor. None of those was exposed. The survey has recorded the line of the bulge and the straight wall beneath it. It has not opened the cavity, has not tested wall ties, and has not decided that the ties have failed.
Grounds
The bottom timber sleepers of a garden wall are rotten and the house plinth is dry. Which structure is the rot about?
Own page
The rot is about the timber sleeper wall in the garden, not about the house. The bottom sleepers are rotten, which is decay in that retaining wall where the timber meets the ground. The house plinth is dry, so the inspection has not carried the rot across to the house. The survey has recorded a failed or failing garden wall of sleepers, and a dry plinth. It has not decided that the house is subsiding, and it has not decided that the sleeper rot is a damp path into the building. The structure in the sentence is the garden wall.
Legal and neighbours
A T mark on the title plan sits on a leaning garden pier. Which document is the mark, and which sentence is the lean?
Own page
The T mark is a mark on the title plan. The lean is a sentence in the survey. They are not the same document and not the same kind of statement. A T on a title plan is a conveyancing convention about a boundary feature, read with the register and the deeds. The leaning pier is a condition the surveyor saw in the garden. The survey has not interpreted the legal effect of the T, has not decided who must repair the pier, and has not turned the lean into a title finding. The solicitor reads the mark. The survey describes the lean.
Damp
Mould is on the external wall behind a wardrobe and the rest of the room is clean. Why is that a cold-surface and furniture note?
Own page
Because the mould is on a cold external wall that the wardrobe has covered, while the rest of the room is clean. Air does not wash the wall behind a large piece of furniture, so that surface stays colder and can grow mould from ordinary room moisture. The open parts of the room, which are warmer and aired, can stay unmarked. The survey has recorded mould in that hidden spot and a clean room elsewhere. It has not diagnosed rising damp, a leak, or a defect in the wall construction. The note is the cold face and the furniture that blanked it.
Damp
A cupboard on an outside wall has mould on the back and the door was closed during the visit. What air change in that cupboard was not measured?
Own page
The air change inside that cupboard was not measured at all. Mould is on the back, which is an outside wall, and the door was closed during the visit. A closed cupboard on a cold wall is a small unventilated box. The survey can record the mould and the shut door. It did not measure how much air changes in there, did not test a vent, and did not run any instrument on the air. No rate has been written down because none was taken. The missing figure is the air change the visit never measured.
Services
The bathroom fan stopped when the light was switched off and no run-on was observed. What overrun was not demonstrated?
Own page
No overrun was demonstrated. The bathroom fan stopped when the light was switched off, and the surveyor did not see it run on after that. An overrun, if one is fitted, is the period the fan keeps turning once the light is off. That period was not shown, so the report cannot say a timer works, cannot say how it is set, and cannot say there is no timer hiding in a failed switch. What was observed is a fan that stopped with the light. The overrun itself was not demonstrated.
Selling
The seller asks to read your survey before you discuss price. Does the instruction require you to hand it over?
Own page
No. The instruction does not require you to hand the report to the seller before you discuss price. You instructed the survey, and the report is prepared for you. A seller who wants to read it first is asking for a courtesy, not for a right the terms have given them. The survey has not been addressed to the seller. You may share some or all of it, or you may not. The instruction does not force the handover, and it does not force you to wait until the seller has read the file.
Selling
The terms of engagement say the report is for you. Why should the seller not treat it as advice the firm gave them?
Own page
Because the terms say the report is for you, and the seller was not the client. Advice is given to the person the firm agreed to advise. The seller did not instruct this survey and is not named as someone who may rely on it. If they read a copy, they are reading a document written for you, under limits that point at you. They should not treat the findings, the ratings or the suggestions as advice the firm gave them. The firm has not taken them on as a client by the fact that a house they own was inspected.
Selling
The seller repairs the flashing before you have replied to the survey. What supervision of that repair has the original report not given?
Own page
None. The original report has not supervised that repair, has not inspected it, and has not accepted it. The flashing was recorded as it was on the day of the survey. Work done afterwards, before you have replied, is the seller's own job. The surveyor was not there to see the old flashing come off, the new one go on, or the junction it is meant to weather. The report cannot sign off a repair it did not watch. Silence while you were still reading is not approval.
Selling
The buyer texts a screenshot of one sentence and not the paragraph around it. Why is that a poor basis for the seller's reply?
Own page
Because one sentence, cut from the paragraph, drops the limit, the cause and what was not inspected. A screenshot of a single line can make a cautious finding look like a demand, or a description look like a diagnosis. The sentences around it usually say where the surveyor stood, what they could not see, and what they are not deciding. A reply built only on the cropped line answers a question the report may not have asked. The seller, and the buyer, need the paragraph if the reply is going to meet the finding.
Money
The mortgage valuation did not open the loft and your survey did. Why can the valuation not be read as agreeing the roof structure?
Own page
Because a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey, and this one did not open the loft. MoneyHelper makes that distinction: the valuation is for the lender's lending decision, not a survey of how the house is built. Your survey opened the loft and can describe the roof structure it saw. The valuation never looked into that space, so it has no sentence that agrees, or disagrees, with what you found there. Silence from a visit that stayed out of the loft is not consent to the rafters, the purlins or the alterations your surveyor recorded.
Money
One person carried out a mortgage valuation and a home survey on the same day. Why are they still two instructions if the name on both is the same?
Own page
Because the name is the person, not the instruction. One job is the mortgage valuation for the lender. MoneyHelper says a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. The other job is the home survey instructed for you, with its own terms, its own scope and its own report. Doing both on the same day, even in one visit, does not weld them into a single engagement. The lender is not your client, and you are not the lender. The same signature can sit on two pieces of work that answer different questions.
Choosing a survey
A Scottish Home Report is more than one document. Which part is the single survey, and which part is not a condition rating?
Own page
The single survey is the condition part of the Home Report. The energy report is not a condition rating, and nor is the property questionnaire. A Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to. It is a pack, not one undifferentiated report, and it is not an English Level 2 you instruct yourself. The single survey is the survey of the property inside that pack. The energy report deals with energy performance. The property questionnaire is the seller's answers. Only the single survey is the condition survey. The other parts are not condition ratings wearing different covers.
Selling
The property questionnaire states a year the roof was renewed and the single survey does not repeat the year. Which part is the seller's statement?
Own page
The property questionnaire is the seller's statement. The year the roof was renewed sits there because the seller wrote it. The single survey does not repeat the year, so the survey has not adopted that date as its own finding. A Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to, and these are different parts of it. It is not an English Level 2 you instruct yourself. The questionnaire is what the seller says. The single survey is what the survey recorded. Silence on the year is not a confirmation.
Choosing a survey
The quote uses the words HomeBuyer and the house is a heavily altered Victorian. What should you ask about whether that product is the building survey?
Own page
Ask whether the product named HomeBuyer is a Level 2 home survey or the Level 3 building survey. The word on the quote is a label firms still use for the mid-level report. It does not, by itself, mean you have been offered the building survey. On a heavily altered Victorian the level matters, because openings and roofs may have been changed. Ask which level the quote is, what it includes, and what it leaves out on a house of this age.
Choosing a survey
The brochure says building survey and the scope paragraph reads like a Level 2. Which paragraph tells you the product?
Own page
The scope paragraph tells you the product. The words building survey in the brochure do not, if the scope that follows is the narrower one. A Level 2 scope is a visual inspection with limited opening up and services left untested. A Level 3 building survey is the wider product. When the headline and the scope disagree, the paragraph that lists what will and will not be done is the one you can hold the firm to. Marketing language is not the engagement. Read the scope, and ask for the level to be named in the terms.
Choosing a survey
A firm that is not described as RICS-regulated uses the numbers 1, 2 and 3. Are those numbers the RICS ratings by virtue of the digits?
Own page
No. Those numbers are not the RICS ratings merely because the digits are 1, 2 and 3. RICS condition ratings belong to RICS home surveys, used by firms that are working to that product and regulated as such. A firm that is not described as RICS-regulated can still print the same digits. The digits do not import the RICS meanings, the RICS conduct rules, or the RICS complaint route. What each number means is whatever that firm says in its own terms. Matching numerals are not a conversion into a RICS report.
Choosing a survey
After a visit you were given verbal comments and no written report. What would a solicitor have to read if a question arose later?
Own page
Nothing written. A solicitor would have no report to read. Verbal comments exist in the conversation, and perhaps in your memory of it, and they are not a document that can be put on the file. If a question arose later about what was said of a crack, a roof or a piece of paperwork, the solicitor would be looking for a report and would not find one. There is no page to interpret, no scope to check, and no wording both sides can be shown. The visit, without a report, has left the file empty.
Choosing a survey
The cottage is thatched and the firm quotes the same site time as for a modern flat. Why is the brochure time not the inspection of this roof?
Own page
Because the brochure time is a generic slot, the same figure the firm quotes for a modern flat, and a thatched roof is not that flat. The quoted duration describes how the firm diaries an ordinary visit. It does not describe the looking this coat of thatch needs: the ridge, the eaves, the chimney abutment, the valleys if there are any, and the condition of the coat from wherever it can actually be seen. Putting the same hours on two unlike roofs does not make the inspections alike. The brochure time is a scheduling line. It is not the inspection of this roof.
Choosing a survey
The house will still be furnished on the day. What surfaces can the surveyor not claim to have seen behind the furniture?
Own page
The surfaces the furniture covers. Wall, floor, skirting and the backs of fittings that stay hidden by wardrobes, beds, sofas, rugs and stored boxes cannot be claimed as seen. A furnished house is the normal visit, and the surveyor reports the faces that were accessible. Time on site does not confer a view through a chest of drawers. The report should limit itself to what was visible. Anything blanked by furniture remains not inspected, however long the appointment was and however clean the rest of the room looked.
Choosing a survey
There is a self-contained annexe. What should you ask, before you instruct, about whether the fee includes it?
Own page
Ask, before you instruct, whether the fee includes the self-contained annexe or only the main house. Put the question in writing and get the answer into the terms. An annexe with its own entrance can be a second set of rooms the quote never priced. If it is excluded, the report will not describe it. The thing to ask is whether this building is inside the instruction, and what of it the fee covers.
Choosing a survey
The loft hatch is screwed shut. What should you ask the firm about access before the day, rather than after a NI mark?
Own page
Ask, before the day, who will open the screwed loft hatch and when, so the loft is seen rather than marked not inspected. A hatch fastened shut is an access problem you can still solve with the seller. Waiting until the report records that nobody got in leaves a gap. That mark is not a finding that the loft is sound. Ask what access the firm needs, who should undo the screws, and what happens if the hatch is still shut.
Choosing a survey
The agent sent the EPC and called it the survey. What drains, electrics and structure has an energy certificate not described?
Own page
The drains, the electrics and the structure. An energy certificate has not described them. An EPC is an energy assessment: how the home is rated for energy performance, with recommendations about that performance. It is not a home survey. The agent calling it the survey does not change the document. Nobody on that certificate has inspected the drains, tested the wiring, or reported on the roof structure, the walls or the foundations as a surveyor would. Those elements are simply outside what the certificate is for. The file the agent sent is not the inspection you still do not have.
Choosing a survey
The seller's agent offers a surveyor they use often. What should you ask about who the surveyor is instructed by?
Own page
Ask who will instruct the surveyor, and who the client will be. The useful question is whether the firm is instructed by you, with the duty owed to you, or by the seller's agent who uses them often. An introduction is not an instruction. A surveyor the agent likes may be perfectly competent, and the repeated work for that agent is still a fact you should hear about before you appoint. You want the engagement in your name, the report addressed to you, and a clear answer on what other relationship, if any, the firm has with the agent or the seller.
Walls
The gable bulges and the survey mentions possible tie failure without opening the cavity. What investigation has been asked for rather than completed?
Own page
An investigation of the wall ties has been asked for rather than completed. The gable bulges, and the survey mentions possible tie failure. The cavity was not opened, so no tie was seen, tested or counted. Possible is the word for a cause that fits a bulge and has not been checked. The investigation that would confirm or rule out failed ties is the thing still to do. The survey has not done it. It has recorded a bulging gable and a suspicion. Completing that investigation would mean a separate look into the cavity, which this visit did not carry out.
Walls
Rust shows at a window reveal of a steel-framed house and the brickwork elsewhere looks ordinary. What steel away from that reveal was not seen?
Own page
The steel away from that window reveal, behind the ordinary-looking brick, was not seen. Rust at the reveal is the metal that shows where the frame comes close to the opening. It is a real sighting of that piece. The rest of the steel-framed house stays behind brick that looked unremarkable from the outside. Ordinary brick is not a window onto the stanchions, the rails or the bases. The survey has recorded rust where it was visible and has not described the frame it could not see. Local rust does not map the hidden steel, and calm brickwork does not clear it.
Property types
No repair papers are in the pack for a house named as Trusteel. Has the survey failed, or are the papers a solicitor's chase?
Own page
The survey has not failed. The missing repair papers are a solicitor's chase. The pack contains no guarantee, specification or specialist report for a house named as Trusteel, and the survey does not hold that archive. It reports the building it could see and the limits of what it could not see. Papers about earlier coating, repair or a system inspection live with the seller, the solicitor or a specialist firm. Their absence from the survey pack is a document gap. It is not a botched inspection, and it is not proof that repairs were done or that they were never done.
Walls
The cladding system is named and no sheet was removed. What of the frame behind the name was not inspected?
Own page
The frame behind the named cladding was not inspected. The system name is an identification from the outside: a profile, a joint, a detail the surveyor recognised. No sheet was removed, so the steel, the fixings and the cavity face of that cladding stayed covered. The survey has recorded a name. It has not recorded the condition of the frame the name refers to. A correct system label answers what sort of skin this is. It does not answer what the structure behind that skin is like.
Money
The survey names a steel frame and does not say whether a lender will accept it. Why is that silence not a refusal?
Own page
Because silence is the survey staying inside its job, not a lender turning the frame down. The report names a steel frame. It does not say whether any particular lender will accept that construction, because lender criteria are the lender's, and this inspection has not applied them. Absence of a yes is not a no. The survey has not been told the criteria, has not pretended to know them, and has not refused the property. A refusal would be the lender's letter. It is not the gap where a survey declined to invent one.
Choosing a survey
The firm offers Level 3 on a steel-framed bungalow. What will that survey still not do to the steel it cannot see?
Own page
It will still not expose, test or calculate the steel the cladding hides. Level 3 is a more detailed visual survey, with a fuller discussion of how the building is put together. It is not a licence to strip sound cladding, to sample the metal, or to design a repair. Steel that cannot be seen remains unseen, at Level 3 as at any other home-survey level. The firm can name the frame from the clues, describe defects at openings and bases, and spell out the risk of what is covered. It will not turn hidden steel into inspected steel by offering the wider product.
Choosing a survey
In a Home Report the energy report recommends new windows and the single survey rates the windows 2. Why are those different documents?
Own page
Because the energy report is an energy document and the single survey is the condition document. A recommendation of new windows is about energy performance. A condition mark of 2 is a sentence in the single survey, not that recommendation rewritten as a rating. A Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to. It holds both papers, and it is not an English Level 2 you instruct yourself. The documents can share a cover and still answer different questions. One has not become the other.
Selling
In Scotland the seller provides the Home Report. Why is that still not the same as you instructing a private Level 2 in England?
Own page
Because a Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to, provided because the seller must obtain it. It is not an English Level 2 you instruct yourself. In Scotland the seller commissions the pack before marketing, and you are pointed to that pack. In England a private Level 2 is your instruction, on your terms, of a surveyor you appoint. The fact that both involve someone looking at a house does not make them the same product, the same client relationship, or the same country practice. You did not instruct the Home Report. You are offered it.
Money
The valuation mentions damp in one line and your survey explains a leaking gutter. Why should the valuation line not be treated as the diagnosis?
Own page
Because one line in a valuation is not a diagnosis, and a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. MoneyHelper draws that line. The valuation mentions damp. Your survey explains a leaking gutter. The diagnosis, such as it is, is the survey's account of the gutter putting water where it should not. The valuation line is a flag for the lender, written without the explanation your surveyor gave. Treating the flag as the diagnosis flattens a cause into a word. Damp is the symptom the valuer noted. The leaking gutter is the finding the survey set out.
Selling
The seller will not allow a drone and the roof was seen from the ground. What of the rear slope must you not treat as inspected from above?
Own page
You must not treat the rear slope as inspected from above. The seller will not allow a drone, and the roof was seen from the ground. A ground view can show parts of a slope that face you and can miss the crown of the rear slope, the hidden side of a chimney, and junctions that only show from higher up. Those unseen parts of the rear slope were not inspected from above, because the means of looking from above was refused. The survey's ground notes are the inspection you have. They are not a drone pass you can imagine into the file.
Property types
A steel stanchion shows inside a cupboard of a bungalow and the external cladding was not opened. What of the external steel is still hidden?
Own page
The external steel still hidden is the frame outside that cupboard, behind cladding that was not opened. A stanchion in the bungalow shows one steel member you can reach. It does not show the columns, bases or rails in the outer wall. The survey has recorded the steel in the cupboard. It has not stripped the cladding, and it has not measured thickness, rust or connections on the steel the cladding still covers. One internal stanchion is a clue that this bungalow has a steel frame. It is not a description of the external steel that remains out of sight.
Walls
Brickwork is cracked beside an exposed Hawthorn Leslie member and the surveyor calls it rust. What section loss has that crack not measured?
Own page
The crack has not measured any section loss in the Hawthorn Leslie member. Rusting steel expands and can jack the brick beside it, which is why the surveyor links the crack to rust. Expansion explains a mechanism. It does not give the remaining thickness of the steel, the depth of the scale, or how much of the original section is left. The survey has seen cracked brick and an exposed member it calls rust. It has not gauged the steel, opened the rest of the frame, or decided how much metal has been lost.
Walls
The cladding on a BISF house includes a cement sheet and it was not sampled. Why must the survey not call that sheet safe or unsafe?
Own page
The survey must not call that cement sheet safe or unsafe because it was not sampled. Looking at a cladding sheet does not identify asbestos and does not clear it. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos, and BISF cladding is a known place a cement sheet can sit. The survey has seen a cement sheet on the house. It has not taken a sample, tested a fibre, or decided what the sheet contains. A visual note is not a verdict either way.
Grounds
Front railings have been removed from a listed house. Can the survey say whether consent was obtained?
Own page
No. The survey cannot say whether consent was obtained for removing the front railings. Historic England explains that listing covers the whole building, not only the parts a list entry describes in detail, and railings fixed at the front can fall within that. The survey has seen that the railings are gone. It has not searched listed-building consents, and it does not grant consent. A missing run of iron is a site observation. It is not a planning record.
Roofs
Concrete tiles have replaced what look like older slates in a conservation area. Has the survey checked whether that change needed planning permission?
Own page
No. The survey has not checked whether replacing those slates with concrete tiles needed planning permission. It has seen a concrete-tile roof where the covering looks newer than the older slate roofs around it, inside a conservation area. A conservation area is an area designation, and a change of roof material can be the sort of alteration that needs permission. The visit did not search the planning register, did not date the work, and does not decide applications. The tiles are a condition and materials note, not a permission check.
Selling
The only report on offer was written for the seller last winter. Why is a season-old instruction not your survey this week?
Own page
A report written for the seller last winter is not your survey this week because you did not instruct it, and the house has had another season since the visit. The client, the questions asked, and the date all belong to that earlier job. You cannot treat the seller's PDF as a condition report prepared for you now. The old report records what that surveyor saw then, for that client. It has not re-inspected the house this week, and it does not make you the person entitled to rely on those sentences.
Money
The valuation is addressed to the lender. Why should you not treat it as a condition report written for you?
Own page
Do not treat it as a condition report written for you because it is addressed to the lender, and you are not the client of that valuation. MoneyHelper makes the distinction plain: a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. The valuer is helping the lender decide about security for a loan. That job does not set out to describe the house for the buyer in the way a home survey does. The document you may be shown is still the lender's report. It has not become yours because you are paying a fee connected with the mortgage.
Choosing a survey
You already have a Home Report and you are thinking of a second private survey. What should you ask a firm about what the Home Report has already covered?
Own page
Ask the firm which parts of the Home Report it has read, and which defects it would inspect again rather than adopt. A Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to. It is not an English Level 2 you instruct yourself. It already contains a single survey, and usually an energy report and a property questionnaire, prepared under the seller's arrangements. A second private survey is a new instruction. The firm should say plainly what the Home Report has already covered, what it will not reopen, and what you would be paying to have looked at again.
Property types
Stored timber blocks the skirt vents of a park home. What underfloor air to the chassis is restricted?
Own page
The underfloor air that should pass through those skirt vents to the chassis is restricted. Skirt vents are the openings that let outside air under the park home, across the steel chassis and the floor void. Timber stacked against them blocks that path on the sides where it stands. The survey has seen stored timber covering vents. It has not measured the remaining airflow, and it has not inspected the chassis for corrosion caused by still, damp air. Blocked vents are a restriction you can see. They are not a test of the steel underneath.
Selling
The buyer has asked you, as seller, to replace a rating 2 window before exchange. Does the survey order you to do that?
Own page
No. The survey does not order you to replace that window before exchange. It gave the window a condition rating of 2 for the buyer who was the client, if the report is theirs. A rating is a comment on condition. It is not a works order, a contract term, or a demand that you fit a new window as the price of the sale. The buyer may ask for a replacement. That request is a negotiation between you. The survey has not instructed the work, and it has not said the sale can proceed only if the window is renewed.
Choosing a survey
The flat is in a large block with cladding. What should you ask about whether a Level 2 will comment on the block the way a Level 3 would?
Own page
Ask the firm, in writing, what a Level 2 on this flat will say about the block and the cladding, and what a Level 3 would add. A large clad block is not an ordinary house, and the two levels are not written to the same depth. A Level 2 can comment on what is in its scope and can record limits. It is not commissioned as a full building survey of the whole block. The survey you have not yet instructed has not decided the cladding. The question to ask is where each level stops.
Choosing a survey
A workshop stands away from the house. What should you ask about whether the quoted fee includes that workshop?
Own page
Ask whether the quoted fee includes the workshop, or only the house it stands away from. A figure given for the dwelling does not automatically take in a detached workshop, its roof, its electrics, or the path between them. The survey has not yet happened. Until the firm says the workshop is inside the fee, you should assume it is outside. Ask what will be inspected, what will be excluded, and whether a separate figure is needed if you want the outbuilding reported.
Choosing a survey
The house has a cellar and an attic. Why can a time written for a two-storey house not be assumed to include both?
Own page
A time written for a two-storey house cannot be assumed to include the cellar and the attic because those spaces are not the two storeys the figure was built on. A cellar adds volume below the ground floor, often with restricted headroom, damp risk and its own walls. An attic adds a roof void or a room in the roof, with access that may be a hatch rather than a stair. The quoted duration describes the house as the firm pictured it. It has not, unless the firm says so, priced the time to inspect both extra spaces.
Property types
A Trusteel base plate is visible in the meter cupboard and the external brick was not opened. What of the frame outside that cupboard was not seen?
Own page
The frame outside that cupboard was not seen: the stanchions, the other base plates, and the steel buried behind the external brick. A Trusteel base plate in the meter cupboard is one visible foot of a steel frame. It shows that a plate exists where the meter reader stands. It does not show the frame the brick still covers. The survey has recorded the plate in the cupboard. It has not opened the brick, and it has not inspected the steel, the fixings or the corrosion outside that small space.
Roofs
Paint is flaking on a BISF stanchion in the loft and the external sheeting looks tight. What steel behind the sheeting was not inspected?
Own page
The steel behind the external sheeting was not inspected. Flaking paint on a BISF stanchion in the loft is a note about the member the surveyor could see from the hatch. Tight sheeting on the outside shows a skin that has not opened or slipped. It does not show the stanchions, rails or fixings that sheeting covers. The survey has recorded flaking paint in the loft and sheeting that looks tight. It has not stripped that sheeting, and it has not inspected the steel still behind it.
Walls
Cavity insulation is packed against an exposed steel member. What of the steel still buried in that insulation was not seen?
Own page
The steel still buried in the cavity insulation was not seen. Packing against an exposed member hides the faces, the edges and the fixings that the fill covers, even where a short length of steel shows clear of it. The survey has recorded insulation pressed against that member. It has not pulled the fill out, and it has not inspected the buried surface for rust, coating failure or loss of section. The exposed length is not a sample of the steel the insulation still conceals.
Selling
The seller offers indemnity insurance instead of opening up a beam the survey could not see. What condition of the beam does a policy not reveal?
Own page
The policy does not reveal the condition of the beam at all. Indemnity insurance is a contract about who carries a risk if a problem later comes to light. It does not open the ceiling, does not look at the beam, and does not say whether the timber or steel is sound, decayed, undersized or altered. The survey could not see the beam and has said so. A policy offered instead of opening up leaves that limitation where it was. The beam's condition stays unknown.
Money
The valuation says the property is suitable security and the survey rates the roof 3. Why can both sentences exist?
Own page
Both sentences can exist because they answer different questions for different clients. The valuation says the property is suitable security for the lender. MoneyHelper is clear that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. The home survey, instructed to look at condition, has given the roof a rating of 3. Neither sentence cancels the other. Suitable security is the lender's commercial judgement about the loan. The roof rating is the surveyor's condition comment to you. They are allowed to stand side by side.
Damp
Mould is inside a fitted wardrobe on an outside wall and the room face of that wall looks clean. Why is the wardrobe part of the moisture note?
Own page
The wardrobe is part of the moisture note because that is where the mould is. The growth is on the outside wall, inside a fitted cupboard, while the room face of the same wall looks clean. A clean emulsion in the room does not cancel mould on the hidden face. The survey has recorded mould in the wardrobe as part of the moisture picture. It has not decided whether the cause is cold-surface condensation, a leak, or both, and it has not tested the wall by stripping the lining or the cupboard.
Property types
The steps to a park home are loose and not fixed to the unit. What of the chassis has a loose step not described?
Own page
A loose step has not described the chassis at all. The steps are an access fitting that is not fixed to the unit. Their movement shows something about the steps, the ground they stand on, or the fixing that is missing. It does not show the steel chassis or the supports under the home. The survey has recorded loose steps. It has not crawled the chassis, and it has not turned a wobbly tread into a comment on that frame. GOV.UK treats a park home as a special case. The steps do not set the pitch fee or replace the written agreement.
Property types
A glass link joins a barn conversion to a later extension and no papers are in the pack. What approval search has the survey not carried out?
Own page
The survey has not carried out a planning or building-regulations approval search for the glass link. The link is there, joining a barn conversion to a later extension, and the pack contains no papers for it. The visit can record the glass, the frame and the junction. It cannot search the council record, and it does not issue a certificate. Approved Document A is structural guidance. It is not a consent this report has produced. No papers in the pack means the approval search is still outstanding, and the survey has not done it.
Choosing a survey
The PDF is laid out like a familiar survey and the firm is not described as RICS-regulated. What does the layout not create?
Own page
The layout does not create RICS regulation. A familiar set of headings, ratings boxes and room tables is a design. It does not make the firm RICS-regulated, and this firm is not described as regulated. Regulation is a status of the firm and the surveyor, not a typeface. The PDF can look like reports you have seen from regulated firms and still sit outside that regime. The layout has not created a RICS complaints route, a RICS standard of engagement, or a regulated author.
Choosing a survey
The firm describes a site time and the house has an annexe. Why should you not assume that time includes the annexe?
Own page
You should not assume that site time includes the annexe because the firm has described a time, not a list of buildings. An annexe is extra accommodation, often with its own entrance, roof and services, and it can take as long as a small flat. Unless the quote says the annexe is inside those hours, the hours belong to the house as the firm understood it. The survey has not, by a bare site time, promised to inspect the annexe. Assuming it is included is how a limitation appears in the finished report.
Selling
The property questionnaire lists alterations and the single survey says it saw an extension. Which document is the seller's list?
Own page
The property questionnaire is the seller's list. It is the seller's own account of alterations, sitting inside the Home Report alongside the single survey. The single survey is the surveyor's document. When it says it saw an extension, that is an observation from the visit, not the seller's schedule of what was done. In Scotland a purchaser is pointed to that Home Report, which is not an English Level 2 you instruct yourself. Do not swap the two papers. The list of alterations the seller made is the questionnaire.
Selling
The seller left a wardrobe against the wall the surveyor wanted to see. What of that wall must the report mark as not inspected?
Own page
The report must mark as not inspected the part of the wall the wardrobe still covered. The surveyor wanted to see that wall, and the seller left furniture against it, so the hidden plaster, the skirting behind the wardrobe, and any damp staining on that face were not available. What could be seen beside the wardrobe is not the concealed strip. A limitation has to be written against the covered part. The survey has not cleared that hidden face, and it has not turned a blocked view into a dry result.
Walls
Render covers a house the survey calls Dorlonco and no panel was exposed. What concrete behind the render was not tested?
Own page
The concrete behind the render was not tested at all. The survey calls the house Dorlonco, a precast concrete system, and the render was left in place, so no panel was exposed. Naming the system records a construction the surveyor believes this is. It does not core the concrete, test its condition, or show the reinforcement. The survey has identified a rendered Dorlonco house from what could be seen without opening it. It has not tested the panels the render still hides.
Property types
The survey says the bungalow may be a Blackburn system and the seller says it is brick. What has neither sentence confirmed?
Own page
Neither sentence has confirmed the construction. The survey says the bungalow may be a Blackburn system, which is a possible name, not a proved one. The seller says it is brick, which is a label from the person selling, not an opened wall. Between a cautious maybe and a seller's word, the build-up of the wall is still unconfirmed. The survey has not exposed a panel or a brick leaf to settle it. The seller has not produced that opening either. What both sentences leave open is what the wall is actually made of.
Walls
A corner column on a house called Myton is cracked and the other columns are covered. What of those covered columns was not seen?
Own page
The covered columns were not seen at all. On a house called Myton, the survey could see a cracked corner column and could not see the other columns because they are covered. Their concrete, any cracking, and any exposed reinforcement stay unknown. The crack on the corner describes the corner. It does not describe the columns the cover still hides, and it does not prove those columns are sound because they were out of sight. The survey has recorded one visible crack. It has not inspected the covered columns.
Property types
The walls of a house named as Winget have no crack the surveyor could see. Does a quiet wall retire the non-standard name?
Own page
No. A quiet wall does not retire the Winget name. The survey has named the house as Winget and has recorded that no crack could be seen. Absence of a visible crack is a comment on the surfaces available that day. It does not cancel the construction, and it does not test the concrete the name refers to. The non-standard label stays until the construction is shown to be something else, not until a wall happens to look still. The survey has not retired the name, and a quiet elevation has not done it either.
Walls
The survey names Wimpey no-fines concrete and no core was taken. What strength of that concrete has a name not measured?
Own page
The name has not measured any strength of the Wimpey no-fines concrete. No-fines is a cast concrete with gaps in the aggregate, and the survey has identified the wall as that system. Identification is not a core. No core was taken, so density, condition and strength were not measured on this visit. The survey can say what it believes the wall is made of. It cannot put a figure on how strong that concrete is, because it did not sample it. A name is a label. Strength would have been a test, and the test was not done.
Walls
A Cornish unit house has a cracked PRC post at one pier and the other piers are rendered. What of the rendered piers is unknown?
Own page
What is unknown is the PRC posts inside the rendered piers. The survey has seen a cracked precast concrete post at one pier. The other piers are rendered, so those posts, any cracks in them, and any repair behind the coat were not seen. Render does not report the concrete it covers. The cracked pier is a finding about that pier. It is not a description of the rendered ones, and it is not proof they are different or sound. The survey has left the rendered piers unknown.
Walls
Steel plates are bolted to one Airey column and the neighbouring columns have no plates. What repair of the unplated columns was not documented?
Own page
No repair of the unplated columns was documented. Steel plates bolted to one Airey column record a repair, or at least a plating, at that column only. The neighbouring columns have no plates, and the survey has no papers showing they were repaired another way, repaired earlier, or judged not to need the same work. Missing plates are not a repair record. The survey has seen plates on one column. It has not documented a repair of the columns that were left unplated.
Walls
An Orlit house has a concrete beam over one window that is spalling and the other openings look sound. What reinforcement inside the sound-looking beams was not exposed?
Own page
The reinforcement inside the sound-looking beams was not exposed. On this Orlit house the survey has seen a concrete beam over one window that is spalling. The other openings look sound, which means their faces do not show the same break-up. A fair face does not open the beam, and it does not show the steel inside. The survey has recorded spalling at one opening and sound-looking beams at the others. It has not exposed the reinforcement in those sound-looking beams, so their steel remains unseen.
Walls
A Unity house has a horizontal crack at first-floor level on one elevation only. Why should the other elevations not be written off with that crack?
Own page
The other elevations should not be written off because the crack was recorded on one elevation only, and a quiet side is not a cleared side. A Unity house often shows movement at the horizontal joint around first-floor level. Seeing that crack on one face tells you about that face. It does not inspect the same joint where render, a neighbour, or a different light hid it, and it does not prove the other elevations are free of it. The survey has noted the crack it could see. It has not written the other elevations off.
Property types
A Woolaway bungalow is named and the eaves have kicked on one side. What of the PRC frame was not opened to explain that kick?
Own page
The PRC frame was not opened at all to explain the kicked eaves. The survey has named a Woolaway bungalow and has seen the eaves kick on one side. A kick can sit with roof spread or with movement in the precast frame, but this visit did not open the frame to show which, or to show whether either is happening. The name identifies the system. The kick identifies a distortion at the eaves. Neither is an opened column, a post, or a joint. The explanation the opening would have given is still missing.
Property types
Tape is missing from one joint in a SIPs roof the surveyor could see from the loft. What airtightness test of that joint was not done?
Own page
No airtightness test of that joint was done. The surveyor could see, from the loft, that tape is missing from one joint in the SIPs roof. Missing tape is a visual gap in the seal that should run along the panel joint. It is not a pressure test, a smoke test, or a measured leak. The survey has recorded the missing tape at the joint it could see. It has not tested how much air that joint passes, and it has not tested the joints it could not see. The airtightness of the joint remains unmeasured.
Property types
One peg in an oak frame is loose and the neighbouring pegs are tight. What movement of the frame has a single loose peg not measured?
Own page
A single loose peg has not measured any movement of the oak frame. Pegs draw mortice and tenon joints tight. One peg that turns or stands proud, while its neighbours are tight, shows something local about that peg or that joint. It does not measure sway, spread, or settlement of the frame, and it does not say the building has racked. The survey has recorded one loose peg and tight neighbours. It has not monitored the frame, and it has not turned one loose peg into a measured distortion.
Property types
The breather membrane of a timber-kit house is torn at the eaves where the surveyor could see it. What of the frame behind the intact membrane was not seen?
Own page
The frame behind the intact membrane was not seen. The surveyor could see a tear in the breather membrane at the eaves of this timber-kit house, and could see only what that tear and the eaves opening allowed. Where the membrane is still intact, the studs, plates and sheathing behind it stayed covered. A tear is a defect in the sheet at that spot. It is not a window onto the rest of the frame. The survey has recorded the torn eaves membrane. It has not inspected the frame the sound membrane still hides.
Money
The service-charge budget has a line for roof repairs and the survey rates the roof 2. Why is the budget line not a condition rating?
Own page
The budget line is not a condition rating because it is an accounts figure, not the surveyor's look at the roof. The service-charge budget sets out money the manager expects to spend, and one line names roof repairs. The survey has separately given the roof a rating of 2. Those are different authors and different jobs. A sum on a budget does not grade the tiles, and a condition rating does not become the budget. The survey has not adopted the manager's line as its own finding, and the budget has not inspected the roof.
Legal and neighbours
A notice of intention for major works is in the pack and the survey does not mention it. Whose document is the notice?
Own page
The notice is the landlord's or the managing agent's document, not the surveyor's. A notice of intention for major works is a consultation paper about works the landlord proposes. It sits in the legal pack because someone on that side served it. The survey does not mention it because a condition report is not a commentary on every paper the solicitor holds. Silence in the survey does not cancel the notice, and it does not mean the surveyor wrote it. The notice belongs to the person who served it.
Money
A major-works invoice arrived after the survey visit and is not in the report. Has the survey failed to cost those works?
Own page
No. The survey has not failed to cost those works, because costing them was never the inspection. The invoice arrived after the visit and is not in the report for that reason. The survey records the condition it could see on the day. It does not price major works, and it cannot include a bill that did not yet exist. A later invoice is a management document. Its absence from the report is not a missed valuation. The survey has not underpriced the block, because it did not price the block.
Money
The budget shows a reserve-fund contribution and the survey is silent on the fund. Why is the contribution an accounts figure?
Own page
The contribution is an accounts figure because it is a sum the budget asks leaseholders to pay toward a reserve fund, not a finding about the building. The survey is silent on the fund because a home survey does not audit service-charge accounts. Silence is not a statement that the reserve is empty, full, or missing. It is the survey staying inside condition. The budget line remains a money figure prepared by the manager. The report has not checked it, certified it, or translated it into a repair.
Money
The lease says the ground rent doubles on a schedule and the survey never quotes it. Has the survey valued that clause?
Own page
No. The survey has not valued the clause that makes the ground rent double on a schedule. Ground rent is a lease term. The schedule sits in the lease, which the survey does not construe and does not price. The report never quotes the clause because a condition survey is not a ground-rent valuation. Silence is not a nil value, and it is not an agreement that the doubling does not matter. The survey has described the flat it could see. It has left the rent clause to the lease and to the solicitor.
Legal and neighbours
A letter in the pack mentions forfeiture over service-charge arrears. Can the home survey say whether that threat is live?
Own page
No. The home survey cannot say whether that threat is live. The letter mentions forfeiture over service-charge arrears, which is a legal process a landlord may threaten or pursue. The surveyor did not investigate the accounts, did not ask the landlord if the arrears remain, and did not decide whether a forfeiture action is in hand. A condition report describes the flat and the building it could see. It does not try the letter. Whether the threat is live is a question for the solicitor, using the landlord's papers, not a line the survey can add.
Money
The management pack has one year's accounts and the agent said there were more. What accounts has the survey not audited?
Own page
The survey has not audited any of the accounts. It has not audited the one year in the management pack, and it has not audited the further years the agent said exist but did not include. A home survey does not audit service-charge accounts at all. The pack is a legal bundle. The agent's remark is a remark. Neither turns the surveyor into an accountant, and neither puts the missing years into the report. What the survey has not audited is every year, present or absent.
Property types
The balcony deck was not lifted and the membrane under the boards was not seen. What waterproofing is unknown?
Own page
The waterproofing under the balcony boards is unknown. The deck was not lifted, so the membrane that should sit beneath the boards was not seen. Boards can look even, stained, or newly laid, and none of those faces shows the layer that keeps water out of the structure below. The survey has recorded that the deck stayed down and the membrane stayed hidden. It has not tested the waterproofing, and it has not decided that the balcony is watertight. Unknown means the membrane itself was not inspected.
Property types
The flat entrance door has a letterbox with no visible seal and the surveyor did not fire-test the door. What test is still outstanding?
Own page
The fire test of the door is still outstanding. The flat entrance door has a letterbox with no visible seal, and the surveyor recorded that as something seen, or not seen, at the slot. The surveyor did not fire-test the door. A missing visible seal is not a fire result, a smoke result, or a test of any intumescent strip that might sit in the letterbox. The home survey has noted the door it could look at. It has not tested how the door or the letterbox would perform, and that test remains outstanding.
Walls
One spandrel panel has been replaced in a different colour from the rest of the elevation. Has that replacement produced an EWS1?
Own page
No. A replacement spandrel in a different colour has not produced an EWS1. The survey has noted that one panel does not match the rest of the elevation. Colour is what the eye can see. It is not a fire assessment of the external wall, and it is not the form a lender may ask for. The home survey has not inspected the wall system as a cladding specialist would, and it has not sampled the panel or the one it replaced. A mismatch records a change of appearance. It does not issue, or stand in for, an EWS1.
Legal and neighbours
The EWS1 in the pack states an option and the survey does not copy the letter. Why should you read the form itself?
Own page
Read the form itself because the survey has not copied the option letter. An EWS1 states an option about the external wall, and that letter is the point of the form. The home survey is a condition report on the flat. It is not a second EWS1, and leaving the letter off the page is deliberate: the surveyor is not reissuing or confirming the option. If you rely on a paraphrase, you can attach the wrong option to the block. The pack already contains the form. That is the document to read, not a sentence the survey never wrote.
Property types
The lease plan colours a cellar and the survey marks that cellar NI because it was locked. What of the cellar must you not treat as inspected?
Own page
Do not treat the inside of the cellar as inspected. The lease plan colours that cellar, which tells you the plan shows the space, but the survey marked it NI because the door was locked. The surveyor did not walk the floor, look at the walls, or record damp, tanks or structure in there. A coloured plan is a drawing. It is not a substitute for a visit. Whatever the cellar contains, the report has not described it, and you should not talk as if it had.
Money
The service-charge apportionment is a percentage in the lease and the survey does not check the arithmetic. Whose job is that percentage?
Own page
That percentage is the solicitor's job, not the surveyor's. The lease states a service-charge apportionment as a share of the building's costs, and the survey has not checked the arithmetic. A condition report can note what the flat is and what is shared, but it does not add up the fractions, compare them with the budget, or say the share is fair. The figure lives in the lease. Someone has to read that clause and work it through against the accounts. The survey has left that sum alone.
Walls
A landlord's window certificate is in the pack and the survey rates the same windows 3. Why can both documents exist?
Own page
Both can exist because they answer different questions about the same windows. The landlord's certificate is a paper about installation or compliance that someone else produced. The survey has rated those windows 3 as a condition comment from what was seen on the day. A certificate in the pack does not cancel a condition rating, and a rating does not cancel the certificate. The survey has not verified the certificate, and the certificate has not re-inspected the frames. Read them side by side. Neither document replaces the other.
Property types
The private stair to the upper maisonette is said to be demised and the survey rates the treads. What repairing duty has the rating not decided?
Own page
The rating has not decided who must repair the stair. The treads are rated from what the surveyor saw: wear, stability, or the condition of the flight to the upper maisonette. Someone has said the stair is demised, which would usually mean it forms part of the maisonette rather than a common part, but the survey has not read the lease and has not turned that saying into a repairing duty. A condition rating describes the timber or the finish. It does not name the landlord or the leaseholder as the person who must put it right.
Money
The warranty in the pack is not Buildmark and the agent still said NHBC. Has the survey identified which warranty body, if any, is named on the policy?
Own page
No. The survey has not identified which warranty body, if any, is named on the policy. The pack itself says the warranty is not Buildmark, and an agent saying NHBC does not rewrite that. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. A different policy is a different product, with its own provider named on its own pages. The inspection has not read that name across as if it were NHBC, and it has not opened a claim. You have to read the policy schedule for the body that actually issued it.
Money
The seller talks about a defects period and the survey does not date it. What end date has the inspection not calculated?
Own page
The inspection has not calculated any end date for the defects period. The seller has talked about one, which is a claim about time, not a date printed and checked in the report. The survey records condition on the day. It does not run a calendar from completion, handover or a warranty start, and it has not decided when a defects period runs out. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product, and even that description is not a date for this plot. The end date is unread.
Grounds
The new-build plot falls towards the house and ponding sits against the dpc. What warranty claim has that note not opened?
Own page
The note has not opened any warranty claim. The survey has recorded that the new-build plot falls towards the house and that water is ponding against the damp-proof course. That is a ground-levels observation. It is not a claim form, not a notification to a warranty body, and not a decision that the builder has failed a cover. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey does not open a claim under it, or under any other policy. Ponding against the course is the finding. The claim, if someone makes one, has not been started here.
Walls
A cavity closer is missing at one new window reveal and the snagging list is about scuffed paint. Why do those notes not belong on one list?
Own page
They do not belong on one list because a missing cavity closer and scuffed paint are different kinds of note. The closer is the piece that should shut the cavity at the window reveal. Its absence is a building detail the survey recorded at one opening. Scuffed paint is a finish item on a snagging list. Putting the closer on the paint list invites someone to treat a cavity detail as a decoration mark. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey has not opened a claim, and the snagging list has not become one either.
Structure
A steel lintel in the new garage is unpainted and already showing rust. What corrosion protection was not recorded as complete?
Own page
The corrosion protection of that steel lintel was not recorded as complete. The survey saw an unpainted steel lintel in the new garage, already showing rust. Paint, galvanising, or whatever coating the specification expected, was not noted as finished. Rust on a new lintel is early corrosion of bare or unprotected steel, not a completed protection system. The report has not specified a product, and it has not said the lintel has lost its strength. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey has not opened a claim about the coating.
Money
A site inspector's note from the warranty body is in the file and it is shorter than your survey. Why is that note not your condition report?
Own page
That note is not your condition report because a warranty inspector and a surveyor are doing different jobs, and length does not merge them. The site note is the warranty body's own visit, written for its process. Your survey is the condition report you instructed, and it is the longer document because it set out to describe the home. A short note in the file has not been adopted as the survey, and the survey has not been shortened to match it. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. Neither paper, by sitting in the file, opens a claim.
Grounds
The new driveway falls back towards the garage door and the surveyor watched water sit there. What drainage of that drive was not redesigned in the report?
Own page
The drainage of that driveway was not redesigned in the report. The surveyor watched the new drive fall back towards the garage door and saw water sit there. A fall the wrong way sends rain at the door rather than away to a drain or to the road. The report records that. It does not set new levels, add a channel, or relocate a gully. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. Watching water pond is not opening a claim, and it is not a drainage design for the drive.
Roofs
Insulation stops short of the new loft hatch and the rest of the loft looks filled. What cold spot is local to the hatch?
Own page
The cold spot is local to the loft hatch, where the insulation stops short. The rest of the loft looking filled does not cover that opening. A gap around a new hatch is a break in the quilt at the place you climb through, so the ceiling at the hatch can be colder than the ceiling the insulation still covers. The survey has recorded the shortfall at the hatch. It has not measured a temperature, redesigned the loft insulation, or said the whole roof is uninsulated. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The note has not opened a claim.
Electrics
The new consumer unit is labelled and no circuit was tested by the surveyor. What electrical certificate is still a separate paper?
Own page
The electrical certificate for the installation is still a separate paper. A labelled new consumer unit shows names on the ways. It is not a test. The surveyor did not test any circuit, so the report has not produced an electrical installation certificate, and it has not confirmed that labelling matches the cables. Those certificates come from the person who did the electrical work, or from a later inspection by someone instructed to test. The home survey recorded a labelled board and stopped. Labels are not that certificate.
Grounds
Backfill over a service trench on the new plot has settled into a trough. What pipe in that trench was not exposed?
Own page
Whatever pipe lies in that trench was not exposed. The survey saw backfill settled into a trough over a service trench on the new plot. A dip shows the fill has sunk. It does not show the pipe, duct or cable the trench was dug for, and the ground was not opened. The note is not a camera survey of a drain and not a test of a main. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey has not opened a claim or uncovered the service.
Walls
A movement joint in the new brickwork has been pointed across so it cannot move. What is that joint for, and what crack has the pointing not prevented yet?
Own page
The joint is there to let the new brickwork move, and the crack it has not prevented is one that has not formed yet. Pointing across a movement joint fills the gap that was meant to open and close. The survey has recorded that the joint can no longer move. It has not reported a crack caused by that filling, because the note is the blocked joint, not a fracture already mapped on the wall. Locking the gap stores the problem for later movement. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey has not opened a claim.
Walls
Weep holes are present on the front of a new house and missing over the rear openings. What water path is absent at the rear?
Own page
The water path that is absent at the rear is the weep, the outlet that should let water out of the cavity over those openings. The front has weep holes. The rear openings do not. Water that reaches a cavity tray, or the base of a cavity over a rear opening, has no seen route to the outside face. The survey has recorded that absence. It has not proved the cavity is already wet, and it has not tested the trays. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The note has not opened a claim.
After the survey
The developer has closed the snagging app and your survey still lists incomplete flashings. Why does a closed app not close the survey?
Own page
A closed app does not close the survey because the app is the developer's list and the survey is your condition report. Incomplete flashings stay listed until the report is changed or the flashings are actually seen to be complete. Closing a screen on the developer's system ticks their process. It does not delete a surveyor's note, and it does not prove the lead or the felt was finished. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey has not opened a claim, and the developer closing an app has not opened one either.
Property types
The 1930s house is cavity and the porch walls are solid. What damp path in the porch is not a cavity-wall tie problem?
Own page
The damp path in the porch is through the solid wall, not a cavity-wall tie problem. The 1930s house is cavity construction. The porch walls are solid, so there is no cavity there for a tie to sit in, and no tie failure to explain moisture in that masonry. Rain, splash, or ground moisture can cross a solid porch wall because the wall itself is the path. The survey has distinguished the porch from the cavity house. It has not tested wall ties in the main walls, and it has not proved the porch is damp inside. The porch is a different construction.
Walls
A Boot lintel is spalling at one bearing and the brickwork above is still in line. What steel inside that lintel was not exposed?
Own page
The steel inside the Boot lintel was not exposed. Spalling at one bearing is the concrete breaking away at that end, which is where corroding steel often first shows, but the survey did not open the lintel to see the bar or the angle. Brickwork above still in line means the wall over the opening has not been recorded as dropped. Alignment is not a view of the metal. The report has noted the spall at one bearing. It has not measured the steel, and it has not said the lintel has failed. The metal remains covered.
Walls
A cob wall has a hole at the base where the earth has fallen out and the render above is intact. What splash and what animal path is that hole, before anyone injects the wall?
Own page
The hole is a splash hole and an animal path at the base of the cob, not a case for injection. Earth has fallen out where rain splash, or a mouse or similar, has taken the base of the wall, and the render above is still intact. Cob fails when the foot is kept wet or is burrowed, not because it lacks a chemical damp course. The survey has recorded the hole and the intact render higher up. It has not specified injection, and it has not rebuilt the missing earth.
Walls
A brick quoin beside a flint panel has a vertical split and the flint is still tight. What element has moved?
Own page
The element that shows the split is the brick quoin, not the flint panel. A vertical split in the quoin is a crack through the brick corner beside the flint, while the flint itself was seen still tight. The panel has not been recorded as having opened. The movement the crack records, if it is movement rather than an old joint, is in the quoin. The survey has not said why the quoin split, and it has not measured whether it is still moving. Tight flint next door is the comparison. It is not a damp diagnosis.
Services
The bathroom extractor duct ends in the loft insulation and does not reach the outside. Where is the moist air going?
Own page
The moist air is going into the loft, where the duct ends in the insulation. The bathroom extractor discharges into the quilt instead of to the outside, so vapour from showers is put into the roof space. The survey has seen that the duct stops short. It has not measured the airflow, and it has not found an outside terminal joined to this run. A fan that stops in the loft is not extracting to the open air. The moisture stays in the roof.
Walls
A new deck covers the air bricks to the suspended floor and the joists were not seen. What ventilation of the void is blocked?
Own page
The ventilation of the underfloor void is blocked, at the air bricks the new deck covers. Those bricks are the inlets that should let air through to the space under a suspended floor. A deck built over them closes that path. The joists were not seen, so the survey has not described their condition, and it has not measured the air in the void. Covering the bricks is what was visible from outside. The report has not said the timbers are decayed. It has said the ventilation into that void is obstructed by the deck.
Services
The MVHR filters are clogged and the unit was not run. What ventilation rate has the survey not measured?
Own page
The survey has not measured any ventilation rate. The MVHR filters are clogged, and the unit was not run, so there is no reading of how much air the system moves. A mechanical ventilation unit with heat recovery only does its job when air can pass the filters and the fans are operating. Clogged filters are a blockage you can see. They are not a measured rate. The report records the dirty filters and the fact the unit stayed off. It has not balanced the system, and it has not said what the rooms receive.
Services
The kitchen hood recirculates through a charcoal filter and there is no duct to outside. What moisture does that hood not remove from the room?
Own page
The hood does not remove moisture from the room. It recirculates air through a charcoal filter, and there is no duct to outside, so steam from cooking stays indoors. A charcoal filter is aimed at smells. It is not an outside discharge. The survey has recorded a recirculating hood and the absence of a duct. It has not measured humidity, and it has not tested the filter. The moisture produced at the hob is put back into the kitchen. Only a duct to the outside would take that vapour out of the dwelling.
Walls
External render continues below the damp-proof course and the plaster inside is marked at the skirting. What bridge is the render?
Own page
The render is a bridge over the damp-proof course. It continues below the course on the outside, so moisture from the ground or from splash can travel up the render and into the wall, past the barrier the course was meant to provide. The plaster inside is marked at the skirting, which lines up with that path. The survey has recorded the render crossing the course and the mark inside. It has not specified a chemical treatment, and it has not said the mark is only condensation. The bridge is the render itself, taken down too far.
Walls
No cavity tray was seen where a porch roof meets the main wall and the bedroom ceiling above is stained. What junction is the stain pointing at?
Own page
The stain is pointing at the junction where the porch roof meets the main wall. No cavity tray was seen there, so water running down the cavity, or off the porch abutment, has no seen tray to throw it clear of the inner leaf. The bedroom ceiling above is the room that lines up with that junction. The survey has recorded the missing tray and the stain. It has not opened the wall to prove the path drop by drop, and it has not said the stain is a roof leak somewhere else. The porch junction is where the mark is aimed.
Walls
Condensation sits on a metal window frame and the wall beside it is dry. Why should that not be written up as penetrating damp?
Own page
It should not be written up as penetrating damp because the moisture is on the metal frame and the wall beside it is dry. Condensation forms on a cold surface when room air meets it. A metal window is a cold frame. Water on that metal, with dry plaster next to it, is sitting on the frame rather than arriving through the wall from outside. The survey has recorded condensation on the frame and a dry wall. It has not called that penetrating damp, and it has not tested the cavity or the frame joints as a leak.
Services
A positive-input ventilation unit in the loft is switched off and the bedrooms smell stale. What background ventilation was not running on the day?
Own page
The background ventilation that was not running is the positive-input unit in the loft. It was switched off, so it was not pushing air into the house on the day, and the bedrooms smelled stale. A positive-input system is meant to supply a trickle of air from the loft unit into the rooms. Switched off, that supply is absent. The survey has recorded the off switch and the stale smell. It has not measured a ventilation rate, and it has not said the smell proves damp or mould. The unit simply was not running.
Walls
A stain under a window lines up with a cracked sill and the floor is dry. Which defect should be read before any injection?
Own page
Read the cracked sill before any injection. The stain under the window lines up with that crack, so the defect in front of you is a sill that can let rain in at the opening, not a diagnosis that the wall needs a chemical damp course. The floor is dry, which does not fit a general rising path across the room. The survey has recorded the alignment of stain and cracked sill, and a dry floor. It has not specified injection. Treating the wall chemically while the sill still admits rain would ignore the defect the stain is pointing at.
Roof and rainwater
A dry-ridge system is on one slope and the other slope is still bedded in mortar. What age of the covering has the new ridge not reset?
Own page
The new ridge has not reset the age of the covering. A dry-ridge system on one slope is a modern fixing at the apex of that slope only. The other slope is still bedded in mortar, which is the older way of holding the ridge. The tiles or slates on both slopes keep whatever age and fixing they already had. The survey has recorded the split detail. It has not dated the covering, and it has not said the mortared slope was relaid when the dry ridge went on. One new ridge does not make the roof new.
Roof and rainwater
One slate has slipped beside a dormer cheek and the rest of the slope is even. What fixing at that cheek was not seen from the ground?
Own page
The fixing of that slate at the dormer cheek was not seen from the ground. One slate has slipped beside the cheek, and the rest of the slope is even, so the note is local to the junction rather than a general loss of slates. From the ground the surveyor can see the gap and the slipped piece. They cannot see the nail, the clip or the batten that should have held it where it meets the cheek. The report has not said the whole slope is loose. The unseen fixing is the one at that slipped slate.
Services
Rain reaches the fireplace and the pot has no cowl. What weather path is the open pot, and what flue liner was not seen?
Own page
The open pot is a weather path straight down the flue to the fireplace. With no cowl, rain can fall into the pot and arrive in the room, which is what is happening. The flue liner was not seen. The survey has recorded rain at the fireplace and an uncrowned pot. It has not looked up the flue, and it has not confirmed whether a liner is present, broken, or absent. A missing cowl is a cover that was not there. It is not proof of the liner's condition. The rain path is the open pot. The liner remains unseen.
Services
A fireplace is boarded and the pot at the top is open to the rain. What ventilation of that flue was lost at the room, and what rain path remains at the pot?
Own page
The ventilation lost at the room is the air that should have entered the flue through the fireplace, because the opening is boarded. The rain path that remains is the open pot: rain can still fall in at the top and run down a flue that no longer breathes into the room. Boarding stops the room vent. It does not cap the pot. The survey has recorded both. It has not seen a liner, and it has not tested whether the flue is dry behind the board. The lost ventilation is at the hearth. The weather path is still the open pot.
Roof and rainwater
The lead apron at the front of a chimney is lifted and the back gutter looks seated. What weather joint is open, and which one was not the problem?
Own page
The open weather joint is the lead apron at the front of the chimney. Wind has lifted it, so the overlap that should dress down over the tiles is no longer tight, and rain can get in at that face. The joint that was not the problem is the back gutter, which looked seated. The survey has separated the two. It has not lifted the seated gutter to prove it, and it has not redressed the apron. A lifted front apron is the open joint. A back gutter that still sits is not the defect this note is describing.
Roof and rainwater
Mortar torching has fallen in one bay of the loft and the other bays still hold. What of the tiles in the fallen bay was not stripped?
Own page
The tiles in the fallen bay were not stripped. Mortar torching has dropped in that one bay, and the other bays still hold, so the underside of those tiles is bare where the mortar used to be. Torching is the mortar applied from the loft side. Its loss does not mean the tiles were taken off and relaid, and the survey did not strip them to see the nails or the battens. The note is fallen mortar in one bay. The covering above that bay stays unstripped, beyond what could be seen from inside the loft.
Roof and rainwater
The hip iron at the foot of one hip is missing and the bottom tile has slipped. What is holding the rest of that hip?
Own page
The survey has not said what is holding the rest of that hip. The hip iron at the foot is missing, and the bottom tile has slipped, so the metal stop that should keep the lowest hip tile in place is gone and that tile has already moved. The tiles further up the hip were not recorded as slipped. What still holds them, whether mortar, a mechanical fixing, or their seating in the joint, was not taken apart. The report sees a missing iron and one slipped tile. It does not name a hidden fixing as sound all the way to the ridge.
Roof and rainwater
A pond sits at one outlet of a flat roof and the rest of the field drains. Why is that an outlet note rather than a failed deck everywhere?
Own page
It is an outlet note because the pond sits at one outlet and the rest of the field drains. Water is holding at that outlet, not standing across the deck. A flat roof that drains elsewhere is still shedding, which points to the outlet being high, blocked or poorly placed, rather than a covering that has failed over the whole roof. The survey has recorded a local pond. It has not said the deck has collapsed, and it has not water-tested the membrane. The defect to read is the outlet that is not taking the water the rest of the roof is sending.
Roof and rainwater
An open joint in a parapet coping lets you see daylight and the felt field below is dry. What path does rain have through that joint?
Own page
Rain has a path through the open joint in the parapet coping, down into the parapet and towards the wall beneath, even though the felt field below is dry. Daylight through the joint shows the coping units no longer close. Water does not need a wet felt field to use that gap. It can enter the head of the parapet and track inside the wall. The survey has recorded the open joint and a dry field. It has not traced a leak into a room, and it has not repointed the coping. The path is the joint you can see through.
Structure
The stack stops in the roof space and the breast remains in the bedroom below. What support between those two was not opened up?
Own page
The support between the stack that stops in the roof and the breast in the bedroom was not opened up. The chimney stops in the loft while the breast below is still standing. Whatever is holding that breast, a beam, brackets, or corbelling, was not exposed. The survey can see that the stack does not continue and that the breast remains. It cannot see the connection meant to carry the masonry. The support is the unseen item between those two. The report has not confirmed that support is adequate.
Services
A flexible flue liner hangs loose in the loft and does not appear to reach the pot. What connection at the top was not confirmed?
Own page
The connection at the top, between the liner and the pot, was not confirmed. A flexible flue liner hangs loose in the loft and does not appear to reach the pot, so the surveyor could not see it joined at the terminal. A liner that stops short is not a continuous flue. The report records the loose length and the apparent gap. It has not pulled the liner up, and it has not certified the flue. The unconfirmed item is the top connection. Until that joint is seen, the liner is not a finished flue to the pot.
Roof and rainwater
A truss web was cut to make room for a water tank and no extra timber was seen. What of that truss joint is now missing?
Own page
The web that was cut is the missing part of that truss joint. A truss web is a member that joins the others and shares the load. Cutting it for a water tank removes that member at the joint, and no extra timber was seen to replace what the cut took away. The survey has recorded the cut and the absence of additional timber. It has not calculated the strength left in the truss, and it has not designed a repair. The tank sits where the web was. The joint lacks the piece that was cut, with nothing seen in its place.
Roof and rainwater
Valley lead is split at one step and intact at the next. What length of valley is the defect, and what board under the split was not uncovered?
Own page
The defect is the one step where the valley lead is split, not the next step, which is intact. The board under the split was not uncovered. Valley lead is dressed in lengths, and a split in one length is a hole in that piece only. The neighbouring step looking intact keeps the note to the split length. The survey has not stripped the lead, so any wet or decayed board under the split stays unseen. The known defect is that one step of lead. The timber under it was not opened.
Roofs
The only weathering at a chimney is a cement fillet and no lead was seen. What metal detail is absent?
Own page
The metal detail that is absent is lead flashing at the chimney, or any other proper metal weathering. The only weathering seen is a cement fillet, mortar worked into the angle between stack and roof. No lead was seen: no apron, no soakers, and no stepped flashing cut into the joints. Cement can crack and leave the junction open. The survey has recorded a fillet and the absence of lead. It has not said the fillet is already leaking, and it has not fitted metal. The missing detail is the metal the fillet is standing in for.
Roofs
Flaunching is cracked around two pots and sound around the third. What pots are the note about?
Own page
The note is about the two pots where the flaunching is cracked, not the third, where it is sound. Flaunching is the mortar that beds and weathers the pots at the top of the stack. Cracks around two of them open a path for rain at those pots. The third pot, with sound flaunching, is the comparison that keeps the note local. The survey has not said the stack is leaning, and it has not tested the flues. The pots in the note are the two with cracked bedding. The sound pot is not that defect.
Roof and rainwater
A secret gutter over a 1930s bay is blocked with moss and the tiles in front of it look even. Why is the gutter the first place to look?
Own page
The secret gutter is the first place to look because it is blocked with moss, while the tiles in front of it look even. On a 1930s bay the gutter is a hidden channel behind the tiles, and a blockage there will overflow into the bay long before a slipped tile shows on the face. Even tiles do not clear moss out of that channel. The survey has recorded the blockage and the even covering in front. It has not cleared the gutter, and it has not seen the lining under the moss. The risk starts in the hidden gutter, not on the tidy slope.
Electrics
Vulcanised rubber cable is visible in the loft and the consumer unit is a modern board. What old wiring has the new board not retired?
Own page
The old wiring the new board has not retired is the vulcanised rubber cable still visible in the loft. A modern consumer unit can be fitted at the wall while rubber-insulated cable remains in the roof and still forms part of the installation. The survey has seen that cable and the newer board. It has not tested the circuits, and it has not decided that a board change rewired the loft. Cable buried in the walls was not opened up. The loft run is the old wiring this visit can name.
Electrics
Rewireable fuses still feed the garage and the house has an RCBO board. What of the garage installation was not tested?
Own page
The garage installation was not tested at all. Rewireable fuses still feed the garage while the house has an RCBO board, and those are two different arrangements. The survey has seen that the garage is still on rewireable fuses and that the house board is the newer type. It has not opened a test of the garage circuits, measured the earthing there, or produced an electrical installation condition report for that outbuilding. The house RCBOs do not extend the test to the garage.
Services
No carbon-monoxide alarm was seen near a gas fire. What gas-safety inspection has that absence not replaced?
Own page
The absence of a carbon-monoxide alarm has not replaced a gas-safety inspection of the fire. No alarm was seen near the gas fire, and that is a gap in warning equipment, not a test of the appliance. The survey has recorded that no alarm was seen there. It has not inspected the fire for combustion, flue condition, or ventilation, and it has not produced a gas-safety record. An alarm, even if one were later fitted, would still not be that inspection.
Services
The base of an oil tank is corroded and the bund was empty. What containment and what leak path were seen, and what fill level was not measured?
Own page
The containment seen was an empty bund, and the leak path seen was corrosion at the base of the oil tank. The bund held nothing on the day, so no captured oil was sitting in it, and the base of the tank itself is corroded. The survey has recorded those two things. It has not measured the fill level, so nobody can say from this report how much oil is in the tank. It has not proved an active leak, and it has not tested the tank shell beyond what was visible.
Services
LPG cylinders are stored in the cellar and the surveyor did not test the installation. What gas-safety inspection is still required?
Own page
A gas-safety inspection of the LPG installation is still required. The cylinders are stored in the cellar, and the surveyor did not test the installation. The survey has recorded the storage place and the limit. It has not checked regulators, pipework, or ventilation, and it has not decided the arrangement is acceptable. LPG is heavier than air, so a cellar is a poor place to keep cylinders, but that observation is not the inspection. The test the surveyor did not do is still outstanding.
Services
A back boiler is still piped to radiators and the seller says it is unused. What isolation of that boiler was not proved?
Own page
The isolation of the back boiler was not proved. It is still piped to the radiators, and the seller says it is unused. Piping that is still connected is what the survey could see. A seller's word that the boiler is unused does not show a capped gas supply, a disconnected flow and return, or a valve left shut and proved. The survey has not tested the gas and has not demonstrated isolation. Unused, in this note, is an unverified claim.
Services
A combi condensate pipe discharges into a rainwater hopper on an outside wall. What boiler-service record is separate from that visible pipe?
Own page
The boiler-service record is separate from the pipe you can see. The combi condensate discharges into a rainwater hopper on an outside wall, and that is a visible arrangement only. The survey has recorded where that pipe goes. It has not produced a service record, has not combustion-tested the boiler, and has not decided the hopper connection is a service. A service record would say when a registered engineer last attended the appliance. The hopper does not contain that history.
Services
A Rayburn flue passes through a cupboard that was full of stored items. What clearance around that flue was not measured?
Own page
The clearance around the Rayburn flue was not measured. The flue passes through a cupboard that was full of stored items, so the gap to those items and to the cupboard itself was not taken. The survey has recorded the flue route and the obstruction. It has not produced a figure for clearance, and it has not tested the flue for spillage or draw. Stored goods hiding the sides of a flue are why the measurement is absent, not a stand-in for it.
Electrics
The consumer unit is inside a cupboard behind hanging coats and the cover was not removed. What devices behind the cover were not identified?
Own page
The devices behind the cover were not identified. The consumer unit sits in a cupboard behind hanging coats, and the cover was not removed. The survey has seen an enclosure in that cupboard and the fact that coats blocked a clear look. It has not named the breakers, RCBOs, fuses, or main switch under the lid, and it has not tested any circuit. What is printed on the hidden devices remains unknown. A closed cover is not a schedule of the ways.
Electrics
The meter tails are fabric-covered and the rest of the board looks newer. What tails has the newer board not replaced?
Own page
The tails the newer board has not replaced are the fabric-covered meter tails. The rest of the board looks newer, but the tails between the meter and that board are still the older fabric-covered ones. The survey has seen that contrast. It has not tested the tails, has not decided the rest of the installation matches the new-looking board, and has not treated a neat lid as a rewire. The tails are the old part this note can point at.
Electrics
The immersion heater is fed from a plug and socket in the airing cupboard. What dedicated circuit has that arrangement not demonstrated?
Own page
No dedicated circuit has been demonstrated. The immersion heater is fed from a plug and socket in the airing cupboard, which is a plug-in arrangement, not proof of a fixed circuit of its own. The survey has seen the plug and socket. It has not traced the cable back to the consumer unit, has not identified a dedicated way, and has not tested the circuit. A plug in a cupboard is what was there. It is not a schedule saying the immersion has its own protected circuit.
Services
The tundish on an unvented cylinder was dry and the discharge route was not traced outside. What outlet is unverified?
Own page
The outlet that is unverified is the discharge to the outside. The tundish on the unvented cylinder was dry, and the route from that tundish was not traced out of the building. A dry tundish means no water was running through it on the day. It does not show where the pipe ends, or whether that end is a safe, visible outlet. The survey has recorded the dry tundish and the untraced route. It has not verified the outlet.
Services
A boiler flue terminal is at head height beside a path and no guard was fitted. What combustion test was not done, and what guard was simply absent?
Own page
No combustion test was done, and the guard that was simply absent is the guard on a flue terminal at head height beside a path. The survey has seen the terminal in that place and has seen that no guard was fitted. It has not analysed the flue gases, has not tested the burner, and has not decided the appliance is burning safely. The missing guard is a visible absence. The combustion performance is an untested separate matter.
Services
A solid-fuel stove stands close to a timber beam and no clearance was measured. What installation record is missing?
Own page
The installation record that is missing is a record of how this solid-fuel stove was installed and commissioned. The stove stands close to a timber beam, and no clearance was measured. The survey has seen the stove and the beam near it. It has not measured the gap, has not produced an installation certificate, and has not decided the distance is adequate. Closeness without a figure is the observation. The paperwork that would show who installed it, and to what standard, is not in the note.
Services
An air-source heat pump is bolted to a timber bracket on the wall and the bracket is soft. What support of that unit was not designed in the report?
Own page
The support that was not designed in the report is the support for this air-source heat pump. The unit is bolted to a timber bracket on the wall, and the bracket is soft. The survey has seen that fixing and the soft timber. It has not designed a replacement support, has not calculated the load, and has not decided a repair detail. Soft timber carrying a bolted unit is the observation. A design is what the report does not contain.
Electrics
An EV charger is supplied from the garage consumer unit and that unit was not opened. What capacity and what test are both outside the visual note?
Own page
Both the capacity and the test sit outside the visual note. The EV charger is supplied from the garage consumer unit, and that unit was not opened. The survey has seen a charger fed from that board. It has not assessed whether the board has spare capacity, has not named the protective device, and has not tested the circuit. An unopened garage unit cannot carry those two answers. The note stops at the supply route that was visible.
Drainage
The interceptor lid is seized and the chamber could not be opened. What of that drain is outside the inspection?
Own page
What sits outside the inspection is the inside of the interceptor and the drain beyond the seized lid. The lid could not be opened, so the chamber, the trap, and the pipes leaving it were not seen. The survey has recorded a seized lid and a chamber that stayed shut. It has not tested the drain, has not passed a camera, and has not decided the run is clear or blocked. A lid that will not lift is the limit. It is not a view of the drain.
Drainage
Roots are growing through a joint in the chamber and no tree was named as the source. Why should the survey not pick a culprit tree?
Own page
The survey should not pick a culprit tree because no tree was named and roots in a joint do not identify one. Roots are growing through a joint in the chamber, which shows that roots have reached that joint. It does not show which plant they came from. The survey has recorded roots at the joint and the absence of a named source. It has not excavated to a stem, has not identified a species, and has not decided that one tree is the cause.
Drainage
The alarm on a package treatment plant was flashing and the surveyor did not open the unit. What treatment quality was not observed?
Own page
The treatment quality that was not observed is the quality of the effluent this package plant is producing. The alarm was flashing, and the surveyor did not open the unit. A flashing alarm is a warning lamp. It is not a sample, not a clarity check, and not a measurement of how the plant is treating sewage. The survey has recorded the lamp and the closed unit. It has not observed treatment quality, and it has not decided why the alarm was on.
Grounds
The seller pointed at a drainage field in the paddock and the surveyor did not walk it. What soakage has not been seen?
Own page
The soakage that has not been seen is the soakage of the drainage field in the paddock. The seller pointed at it, and the surveyor did not walk it. Pointing is not an inspection of the ground. The survey has recorded that the field was indicated and not walked. It has not seen wet patches, ponding, odour, or the pipes, and it has not decided that the field is soaking away as it should. Unseen ground is unseen soakage.
Legal and neighbours
The only manhole is in the neighbour's garden and it was not lifted. What of the run under your lawn is unknown?
Own page
What is unknown is the run under your lawn. The only manhole is in the neighbour's garden, and it was not lifted, so the drain that would be seen from that chamber was not inspected. The survey has recorded the location and the closed cover. It has not seen the pipe under the lawn, its falls, its joints, or any blockage. Access sat next door. The length on your side of the boundary stays unknown.
Drainage
A downpipe appears to enter the same chamber as the foul drain and no dye was used. What connection has not been shown?
Own page
The connection that has not been shown is a connection from the downpipe into the foul drain. The downpipe appears to enter the same chamber as the foul drain, and no dye was used. Appearance is not a demonstrated join. The survey has recorded what it looked like and the missing test. It has not proved the rainwater and the foul meet, and it has not proved they are separate. Without dye, or an equivalent trace, the connection stays unshown.
Grounds
A willow stands nearer the bay than the other trees and a crack is in that bay only. What has the position not proved about the cause?
Own page
The position has not proved the cause of the crack. A willow stands nearer the bay than the other trees, and the crack is in that bay only. Nearness plus a crack in one place is a pattern worth taking seriously. It is not proof that the willow is the cause. The survey has recorded the position and the crack. It has not identified roots at the foundation, has not monitored the crack, and has not tested the soil. The cause remains unproved.
Grounds
A poplar stump is in the lawn and a crack has appeared in the nearest wall. Can the survey prove heave from the stump?
Own page
No. The survey cannot prove heave from the stump. A poplar stump is in the lawn and a crack has appeared in the nearest wall. Those are two facts. Heave would be the ground swelling after a tree stops drawing water, and proving it needs more than a stump and a crack near each other. The survey has not tested the soil and has not got dated readings of the crack. The stump has not been turned into a demonstrated cause.
Grounds
Sycamore roots have lifted the path and the house wall beside it is plumb. Why is the path not the foundation?
Own page
The path is not the foundation because it is the surface the sycamore roots have lifted, while the house wall beside it is plumb. A distorted path can sit on paving and fill without the wall having moved. The survey has recorded lifted paving and a plumb wall. It has not exposed the foundations, and it has not decided that the house has subsided with the path. The path is a ground-level finish. It is not the footing under the wall.
Grounds
The seller says the council allowed a crown reduction and no consent is in the pack. What tree-work permission has the survey not checked?
Own page
The survey has not checked the tree-work permission the seller says the council allowed. No consent is in the pack. A crown that looks reduced, and a seller's account of permission, are not a search of the council's tree records. The survey has recorded the claim and the missing paper. It has not confirmed a tree preservation order, a conservation-area consent, or any other permission. That check has not been done. The home survey has left that permission unchecked.
Grounds
Cut canes that look like knotweed are in a skip and no live stand was in the beds. What has the skip not proved about the ground?
Own page
The skip has not proved that knotweed is in the ground, and it has not proved the ground is clear. Cut canes that look like knotweed are in a skip, and no live stand was in the beds. A skip can hold debris brought from anywhere, and cut stems are not a growing plant mapped in the garden. The survey has recorded the canes and the absence of a live stand. It has not tested the soil and has not identified a stand in the beds.
Grounds
Bamboo is coming under the fence from next door and the survey names it as bamboo. What knotweed conclusion has that naming refused?
Own page
The naming has refused a conclusion that this plant is Japanese knotweed. Bamboo is coming under the fence from next door, and the survey names it as bamboo. That is an identification of bamboo, not of knotweed. The survey has not called the growth knotweed, has not found a knotweed stand, and has not dressed the neighbour's plant up as one. The knotweed conclusion that naming refuses is any finding that the bamboo is knotweed.
Grounds
A management plan in the pack has no plan drawing of where the stands were. What location has the survey not been able to check against the garden?
Own page
The location the survey has not been able to check is where the stands were. The management plan in the pack has no plan drawing of those stands. Without a drawing, the paper cannot be walked against the garden. The survey has the plan as a document and has the garden as it was seen. It has not been able to match a plotted position to a bed, a fence line, or a corner. The missing map is the missing check.
Grounds
Old canes show what look like injection marks and this year's growth was not seen. What treatment record has a mark on a cane not replaced?
Own page
A mark on a cane has not replaced a treatment record. Old canes show what look like injection marks, and this year's growth was not seen. A hole that resembles an injection is a mark on dead or old stem. It is not a document naming a contractor, a date, or a herbicide programme. The survey has recorded the look of the marks and the growth it did not see. It has not adopted those marks as proof that treatment was done, finished, or successful.
Grounds
The garden will be used by children and hogweed is on the boundary. What identification has the survey given, and what clearance contract has it not arranged?
Own page
The identification the survey has given is hogweed on the boundary. The clearance contract it has not arranged is any contract to remove or treat that plant. The garden will be used by children, which is a use you have in mind, not a job the survey has booked. The report names hogweed. It does not hire a contractor, does not specify a method, and does not manage how children use the boundary. Identification and a clearance contract are different things, and only the name was given.
Money
The valuation is below the price and the survey's worst note is a rating 2. Why can the lower figure exist without a rating 3?
Own page
The lower figure can exist without a rating 3 because the valuation and the home survey are different jobs. The valuation is below the price, and the survey's worst note is a rating 2. A mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. MoneyHelper draws that distinction. The figure is a lending valuation. The rating is a condition label in the report you instructed. Neither document has to copy the other. A shortfall does not need a rating 3 before it can be real.
Money
The lender mentions a retention about electrics and the survey did not test the wiring. Why is the retention not a finding the survey made?
Own page
The retention is not a finding the survey made, because the survey did not test the wiring. The lender mentions a retention about electrics. That is the lender's condition on the mortgage. It is not an electrical test result, and it is not a sentence this home survey reached by testing circuits. The survey was silent on a test because no test was done. A retention can be mentioned anyway. It does not become the survey's finding by being mentioned.
Money
You are buying with cash so there is no mortgage valuation. Why does that not turn the condition survey into a price?
Own page
It does not turn the condition survey into a price, because a condition survey was not instructed as a valuation and cash does not change that. There is no mortgage valuation. That means no lender has produced a lending figure. It does not mean the condition report now states what the house is worth. The survey describes condition for the instruction you gave. It has not produced a price. Buying without a mortgage leaves the price question unanswered, rather than answered by the defects.
After the survey
A builder's quote covers several items and only one of them is the rating 3 the survey named. Why should the whole quote not be sent as the cost of that one item?
Own page
The whole quote should not be sent as the cost of that one item. A builder's quote covers several items, and only one of them is the rating 3 the survey named. The other lines are other work. Sending the total as if it were the cost of that single finding pretends the survey priced the bundle and adopted every line. It did not. The survey named one item. The quote is the builder's list, and the list is wider than the finding.
After the survey
You agreed a price change and the engineer's letter then says the crack needs no work. What should happen to a reduction that was based on a repair the letter does not support?
Own page
The reduction should be revisited, because it was based on a repair the engineer's letter does not support. You agreed a price change, and the letter then says the crack needs no work. The reason you allowed for that repair has fallen away. The survey is not withdrawn, and the letter does not rewrite every other finding. What should happen is that the reduction tied to this crack is put back with the solicitor, rather than left in place as if the letter still required the work.
After the survey
You decide not to buy and you have the survey. Why does walking away not transfer that report to the next buyer as their instruction?
Own page
Walking away does not transfer the report to the next buyer as their instruction. You decide not to buy, and you still have the survey, because it was prepared for you. Keeping the copy does not make the next buyer the client who commissioned it, and it does not make the surveyor answerable to them on the back of your instruction. A later buyer who wants a report addressed to them needs their own instruction. Your decision to stop does not sign that for them.
Reading the report
A pool cover stayed on and the pool is NI. What water-tightness has that mark not ruled in or out?
Own page
The mark has not ruled water-tightness in or out. The pool cover stayed on and the pool is NI. NI means not inspected, not a pass. The shell, the waterline, and any lining were not seen, so the survey has not said the pool is water-tight and has not said it leaks. Rating 1 would mean no repair currently needed, and that rating was not given. A cover left on is the reason for NI. It is not a hidden pass on water-tightness.
Reading the report
The windows carry the document mark R and a condition rating 2. What extra papers is R pointing at, beside the rating?
Own page
R is pointing at papers about the windows, beside the condition rating, not at a second judgement of their condition. The windows carry the document mark R and a condition rating 2. Rating 2 means defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent. R is the document mark for papers you may be asked to request, such as guarantees or installation records. It is not rating 1, not a worse rating, and not a pass. The surveyor does not collect those papers. The solicitor asks for them.
Reading the report
One line is rating 1 and the next sentence asks for further investigation of a different element. Why must those two sentences not be merged?
Own page
Those two sentences must not be merged because they are about different elements. One line is rating 1, which means no repair currently needed for the element that carries it. The next sentence asks for further investigation of a different element. Folding them together would either hang an investigation on a line that does not ask for one, or pretend the other element had been given rating 1. The survey kept them apart. You should keep them apart. Each sentence belongs to the element it names.
Hazardous materials
Thermoplastic tiles in the porch were not sampled. Why must a visual note not declare them free of asbestos?
Own page
A visual note must not declare the porch tiles free of asbestos because they were not sampled. Thermoplastic tiles were seen, and seeing them is not a sample. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos, and a home survey does not sample it by looking. The survey has recorded the tiles and the fact they were not tested. It has not called them safe, and it has not called them unsafe. Free of asbestos is a laboratory answer. This note does not have one.
Roofs
Spray foam fills a dormer cheek and the main slopes are unfoamed. What tile or slate under that cheek can no longer be seen?
Own page
The tile or slate under the foamed dormer cheek can no longer be seen from inside. Spray foam fills that cheek, and the main slopes are unfoamed, so the main slopes are a different view. The cheek covering, its fixings, and the underside of the tile or slate there are hidden by the foam. The survey has recorded foam in the cheek and clear slopes elsewhere. It has not removed the foam and has not seen the covering that the cheek conceals. That hidden face is the one this note cannot describe.
Roofs
Foam was scraped off and nails and a film remain on the rafters. What face of the timber is still not fully visible?
Own page
The face of the timber that is still not fully visible is the rafter face that still carries nails and a film. Foam was scraped off, and those remains were left on the rafters. Where film and nail heads cover the wood, the surveyor cannot see the whole surface. The survey has recorded the remains. It has not cleared them, has not called the timber sound underneath, and has not treated a partial scrape as a full view of the wood.
Walls
Replacement ties are recorded on the rear elevation and the gable has no record. What has the rear certificate not said about the gable?
Own page
The rear certificate has not said the gable was tied. Replacement ties are recorded on the rear elevation, and the gable has no record. A certificate for one elevation speaks about that elevation. It does not silently include the gable, and it does not say replacement ties were installed there. The survey has recorded the rear record and the absence of a gable record. It has not tested the ties in the gable, and it has not treated the rear paperwork as a survey of the other wall.
Environment
A door barrier is in the garage and was not fitted to the frame. What seal was not shown on the day?
Own page
The seal that was not shown is the seal of the door barrier against the frame. The barrier is in the garage, and it was not fitted. A barrier in storage is a piece of equipment on the floor or against a wall. It does not demonstrate that it meets the frame, compresses, or holds. The survey has seen the barrier and the fact it was not fitted. It has not shown the seal, and it has not tested the opening against flood water.
Environment
The coal mining search mentions past workings and the surveyor saw no shaft cap in the garden. What has a quiet lawn not cleared?
Own page
A quiet lawn has not cleared the past workings the coal mining search mentions. The surveyor saw no shaft cap in the garden. That is an observation of the surface: no cap was seen. It does not cancel the search, does not prove there is no shaft, and does not say the workings are of no consequence. A Coal Authority search is a separate product from the home survey. The lawn can look ordinary and the search can still say what it says.
Roofs
The garage flat roof is a panel the surveyor says may be RAAC and it was not sampled. What investigation has been deferred?
Own page
The investigation that has been deferred is an investigation of the garage flat-roof panel. The surveyor says it may be RAAC, a form of concrete panel that IStructE says needs investigation, and it was not sampled. The survey has not investigated the plank and has not sampled it. It has not confirmed the material and has not cleared it. May be is the limit of the identification. The investigation that would settle it has been left to a later, competent look.
Structure and movement
Monitoring pins are fixed across a crack and no dated readings are in the pack. What movement have the pins not recorded?
Own page
The pins have not recorded the movement of the crack, because no dated readings are in the pack. Monitoring pins are fixed across the crack, which shows that someone marked it for measurement. Marks without dates and measurements do not show whether the crack opened, closed, or stayed still. The survey has seen the pins. It has not inherited a monitoring history that the pack does not contain. The pins are hardware. The record of movement is what is missing.
Grounds
A leylandii was felled and the seller thinks the new crack is heave. What soil test has not confirmed that?
Own page
No soil test has confirmed that the new crack is heave. A leylandii was felled, and the seller thinks the crack is heave. Felling a tree is a fact you can record, and a seller's theory is a theory. Heave would be ground swelling after the tree stopped drawing water, and confirming it needs a soil test this survey has not done. The crack is an observation. The mechanism is not. The soil under the wall has not been shown to be swelling, or even to be the sort of soil that heaves.
Structure
An underpinning drawing covers one bay and the crack the survey describes is on another wall. What of that other wall was not in the drawing?
Own page
Nothing of that other wall is in the underpinning drawing. The sheet covers one bay, and the crack the survey describes sits on a different wall, so the cracked length was never on the page. The survey has recorded the crack and the bay the drawing actually covers. It has not decided that the other wall was underpinned, monitored, or left out of the scheme. A bay that has been drawn and pinned is not a finding about masonry the sheet omits. The Association of British Insurers explains how subsidence can affect a home. This inspection has not treated the unmarked wall as repaired.
Money
The seller says a subsidence claim was closed and no schedule of repairs is attached. What work has the word closed not described?
Own page
The word closed has not described any repair. No schedule of repairs is attached, so the survey cannot say what was rebuilt, pinned, replastered, or simply watched and then filed. Closed is a status on a claim. It is not a list of work. The survey has recorded the seller's statement and the missing schedule. It has not decided that the damage was put right, and it has not decided that nothing was done. The Association of British Insurers explains what to do if subsidence happens. A closed file without a schedule still leaves the work itself undescribed.
Legal and neighbours
A party wall award is in a drawer and the survey describes a beam into that wall. Has the survey checked that the award covers the beam?
Own page
No. The survey has not checked that the party wall award covers the beam. It has described a beam going into that wall, and it has been told an award sits in a drawer. It has not read the award against the beam, the pockets, or the work the award actually authorises. GOV.UK explains that party wall procedures deal with notified building work, and an award is the written result of that process. A sentence in a home survey is not that check. The beam might sit inside the awarded work, outside it, or in a later job nobody has compared.
Electrics
The outbuilding has a plastic consumer unit and the house board is metal. What of the outbuilding circuits was not tested?
Own page
None of the outbuilding circuits were tested. The survey saw a plastic consumer unit in the outbuilding and a metal board in the house, and that contrast is visual only. It has not carried out an electrical inspection, has not tested the devices, and has not given the outbuilding circuits any code. The metal board in the house does not speak for the shed, the garage or the annexe. An electrical installation condition report is a different inspection from this visit. The home survey has not decided that the plastic unit is satisfactory, and it has not decided that it is unsatisfactory.
Walls
One sash cord is broken and the frame is firm. Why is that sash gear rather than a failed window?
Own page
It is sash gear because the cord has broken and the frame has not. A sash hangs on cords, pulleys and weights, and one broken cord stops that sash running true. The frame being firm means the survey has not called the joinery of the frame a failure. The defect named is the gear that carries the sash, not a rotten or racked window. The survey has recorded a broken cord and a frame that still feels sound. It has not condemned the whole window, and it has not specified a replacement frame. It has not written a new window into this note.
Walls
One sealed unit is misted and the frame around it is new. What has failed, the glass unit, and what of the frame was not condemned with it?
Own page
The sealed glass unit has failed, and the new frame was not condemned with it. Misting between the panes means the seal around that unit has broken down, so the glass unit is the failure. The frame around it is new, and the survey has not called that frame decayed, distorted or loose in the opening. The finding stops at the unit. A new frame can hold a unit that has already misted. The survey has recorded that split. It has not specified a new frame, and it has not said the other glazing in that frame has failed.
Walls
Render is cracked at one window corner and sound on the rest of the wall. Why should the whole elevation not be written up from that corner?
Own page
The whole elevation should not be written up from that corner because the rest of the wall was sound. The crack sits at one window corner, a point where render often splits as the opening moves a little. The survey has recorded that local crack and a wall that is otherwise sound. It has not decided that the elevation has failed, and it has not specified re-rendering the whole face from one corner. A crack at an opening is not a map of the wall. The survey has also not decided that the crack is harmless.
Damp
Tanking stops part-way up a basement wall and the plaster above it is marked. What height of wall was not covered?
Own page
The height of wall above the tanking was not covered. The system stops part-way up, and the plaster on that upper band is marked. The survey has recorded the stop line and the marks above it. It has not measured a guaranteed dry zone, and it has not decided whether the marks are salts, condensation, or water getting past the top of the tanking. Everything above the stop sits outside the covered height. The survey has not specified extending the system, and it has not said the covered part below the line is a proved success.
Walls
A former coal hole in the cellar wall is unsealed and daylight shows. What weather and what vermin path is that opening?
Own page
That unsealed coal hole is both a weather path and a vermin path into the cellar. Daylight shows through it, so the opening runs to the outside, and rain, blown rain and debris can use the same hole a coal chute once used. The survey has recorded an unsealed former coal hole with daylight at it. It has not measured how much water enters, has not found any animal, and has not decided that every damp mark in the cellar comes from this hole. The opening is the path. The rest of the cellar was not pinned on it alone.
Drainage
The cellar sump has a pump and no second pump was seen. What happens to that system in a power cut was not tested?
Own page
What happens to that sump in a power cut was not tested. The survey saw one pump and did not see a second. It has not switched the supply off, has not run a battery, and has not proved an alarm. A pump that needs mains power stops when the power stops, and water that would have been lifted can then rise in the chamber. The survey has not shown that this pump is wired that way, and it has not shown a backup either. The system with the power off remains untested.
Drainage
The lightwell drain is blocked with leaves and the basement wall beside it is damp. What local path is that drain, before anyone tank the whole room?
Own page
That drain is the local path for rain falling into the lightwell, and it should be understood before anyone tanks the whole room. Leaves are blocking it, so water can stand in the well against the basement wall, which is damp beside that point. The survey has recorded the blockage and the damp wall next to it. It has not camera-surveyed the drain, has not proved the damp has no other cause, and has not specified tanking. Lining the room would cover the inside while a blocked outlet still holds water against the outside. The local path is the drain.
Walls
The door sill is soft and the frame above it is hard. Which piece of timber has the survey called decayed?
Own page
The door sill is the piece the survey has called decayed. It is soft, which is the usual hand finding where wet rot has broken the timber down, and the frame above it is hard. The survey has not called the frame decayed. Wet rot follows timber that stays wet, and a sill takes the splash a frame above it may shed. Softness in the sill is the decay note. Hardness in the frame is why that piece was left out of it. The survey has not cut the sill open to map how far the softness runs.
Timber
Flight holes are in one stair string and the treads look clean. Why should the treads not be condemned with that string?
Own page
The treads should not be condemned with that string because they look clean and the flight holes are in the string. The survey has recorded holes in one stair string and treads that did not show the same attack. It has not called the treads wormed or decayed, and it has not opened either the string or the treads. Flight holes can be old exits left after the insects have gone. Holes in one piece are not a finding about the next piece. Condemning the treads would write up timber the inspection did not call.
Property types
A bungalow roof room is formed in the rafters and no collar was seen tying them. What spread of those rafters was not measured?
Own page
The spread of those rafters was not measured. The roof room is formed in the rafters of the bungalow, and no collar was seen tying them together. A collar is a horizontal member that helps stop the slopes pushing apart. Without one in view, the survey cannot say how far the feet have moved, or whether ceiling joists or another member do that job out of sight. The survey has recorded a roof room and no visible collar. It has not calculated the roof, has not measured spread, and has not decided that the rafters have pushed the walls out.
Legal and neighbours
The pack includes a consultation letter about the roof and the survey does not say which stage it is. Whose job is the stage?
Own page
Naming the stage of that consultation is the solicitor's job, not the survey's. The pack includes a letter about the roof, and the survey does not say which stage the letter is. A home survey can describe the roof it could see. It does not classify a landlord's consultation papers or decide how far that process has run. The stage has been left unidentified on purpose. The survey has not read the letter as a first notice, a set of estimates, or a later notice of reasons. Those labels belong to the lease papers.
Walls
One bolt is missing from a glass balcony balustrade and the surveyor did not load-test the glass. What test is outstanding?
Own page
The test still outstanding is a load test of the glass balustrade and of the fixings that hold it. One bolt is missing, and the surveyor did not load-test the glass. The survey has recorded the empty hole as something seen. It has not loaded the pane, and it has not decided that the bolts which remain are enough. A gap where a fixing should be is not a test result. Papers about building safety in a leasehold block are a separate pack from this visit. The home survey has not produced those papers, and looking at one bolt has not filled that gap.
Walls
Finished ground on a new plot sits above the damp-proof course along one wall. What bridge is that ground, and what snag about a scratched door has not dealt with it?
Own page
That finished ground is a bridge over the damp-proof course along one wall. Soil or paving sits above the course, so moisture can pass the barrier the course was there to provide. A snag about a scratched door has not dealt with that bridge. A scratch is a mark on a door. It does not lower the ground and it does not uncover the course. The survey has recorded high ground on one wall and has not treated a door scratch as the remedy. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. This survey does not open a claim.
Property types
The show-home kitchen is not the specification on your plot reservation. What of the show home did the survey of your plot not inspect?
Own page
The survey of your plot did not inspect the show-home kitchen as the kitchen you are buying. The show home is a different dwelling, and its kitchen is not the specification on your reservation. What the survey saw, it saw on your plot. It has not treated the show kitchen's units, appliances or layout as inspected parts of your home. It has not decided the reservation is wrong, and it has not decided the show home overrides it. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. This survey does not open a claim about either kitchen.
Choosing a survey
The single survey in a Home Report says it did not lift carpets. Why is that a limit of the inspection rather than a pass for the floors?
Own page
Not lifting the carpets is a limit of the inspection, not a pass for the floors. The single survey in the Home Report says the carpets stayed down, so the finishes hid whatever is underneath. Boards, joists and decking that stayed covered were not seen, and unseen is not the same as sound. A Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to. It is not an English Level 2 survey you instruct yourself. The sentence about carpets marks a limit. It does not award the floors a clean result. The report has not described a floor it did not uncover.
After the survey
You want a price change based on the EPC and the survey rated the same element 1. Why is the energy recommendation not the survey's defect?
Own page
The energy recommendation is not the survey's defect because the survey marked that element 1 and did not write it up as a repair. An energy performance certificate suggests ways to use less fuel. It is not this survey's list of defects. You can still want a price change from the certificate, but the survey has not supplied a defect to hang that change on. The element the certificate discusses was not called a failing element in the report. The survey has not adopted the energy recommendation as its own finding, and it has not turned the certificate into a condition verdict.
After the survey
You are minded to withdraw because a window is marked R for documents. Why is a request for papers not the same as a rating 3?
Own page
A request for papers is not a rating 3. The window is marked R for documents, which asks for paperwork about that window. It does not grade the window as needing serious or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. Rating 3 is the condition grade for defects that are serious or urgent, or both. R for documents is a request for papers, not that grade. The survey has not called the window a rating 3 by using R. You may still withdraw, but the reason would be missing papers, not a rating 3 defect.
Grounds
Knotweed is in the neighbour's hedge and not in your beds. What has the survey not been able to say about rhizomes under the fence?
Own page
The survey has not been able to say whether rhizomes run under the fence. The knotweed that was seen is in the neighbour's hedge, not in your beds, so the stems in view are on the neighbour's side. Rhizomes are the underground stems by which the plant spreads, and they are not visible from the hedge. The survey has recorded plants in that hedge and none in the beds. It has not dug, has not mapped roots, and has not decided that the fence stops the plant. GOV.UK guidance is about stopping knotweed from spreading.
Grounds
A stump in a conservation area is fresh and the seller says no consent was needed. What tree question has the survey not answered?
Own page
The survey has not answered whether consent was needed to cut that tree, or whether any consent was obtained. The stump is fresh, so a tree was removed recently, and it stands in a conservation area. The seller says no consent was needed. The survey has not checked a tree preservation order, has not read a conservation-area notice, and has not decided the seller is right. Historic England explains that listing covers the whole building, not a single feature, and it describes conservation areas as area designations. The survey does not grant consent. A fresh stump is not the paperwork.
Roof and rainwater
Solar fixings penetrate a flat roof and the surveyor could not see the seals from below. What weathering at those fixings is unverified?
Own page
The weathering seals at the solar fixings are unverified. The fixings penetrate the flat roof, and the surveyor could not see the seals from below. Collars, flashings and the sealant around each leg are what should keep rain out where metal passes through the covering. None of that was confirmed from the ceiling side. The survey has recorded penetrations it could not weather-check. It has not water-tested them, has not stood on the roof to see the seals, and has not decided that the roof leaks there. Unverified is not the same as failed, and it is not a pass for those fixings.
Structure
Gallows brackets are said to support a removed breast and they were not seen in the floor void. What support is unverified?
Own page
The support said to come from gallows brackets is unverified. A chimney breast has been removed, and brackets in the floor are said to carry what remains, but they were not seen in the floor void. The survey has recorded the claim and the empty view. It has not confirmed that the brackets exist, are fixed, or carry the masonry left above. It has not calculated the opening. Approved Document A is the building-regulations guidance on structure. This survey has not used it as a design check and has not produced a structural certificate. Brackets that were not seen are not proved support.
Electrics
An EICR in the pack is marked unsatisfactory and the survey did not retest. Why should you read the certificate rather than ask the survey to repeat its codes?
Own page
Read the certificate, because it holds the codes and the survey did not retest, so it cannot repeat them. The electrical installation condition report in the pack is marked unsatisfactory. That document, not the home survey, is the inspection which produced the observations and the codes. Asking the survey to repeat them asks for a test this visit did not do. The survey has noted that an unsatisfactory report is in the pack. It has not reissued the codes, has not cleared them, and has not ranked the observations. The certificate is the record. The home survey is not a second edition of it.
Services
A landlord gas record in the pack shows a date that has passed on the face of the form. What new check has the survey not commissioned?
Own page
The survey has not commissioned a new gas safety check. The landlord gas record in the pack shows a date that has already passed on the face of the form, so the paper itself is behind. Seeing that date is not a fresh inspection of the boiler, the meter or the other appliances. The home survey has not tested the gas, has not instructed a Gas Safe engineer, and has not produced a new record. The old form is still the old form. The check that has not been commissioned is the one that would replace it.
Drainage
The survey recommends a camera and you already have a recent video the surveyor did not watch. What has the home survey not reviewed?
Own page
The home survey has not reviewed that video. It recommends a camera because the buried drain was not seen, and a recent recording you already hold was not watched. A film the report does not discuss has not been assessed, however clear you think the run looks. The survey has not confirmed a clear bore, has not contradicted one, and has not adopted your own viewing. The recommendation stands as a limit of the inspection. It is not a comment on pictures the surveyor did not see. The home survey has not carried out its own camera survey either.
Roof and rainwater
Drips fall from the underside of the roofing felt and the tiles above look even. Why might that be built-up condensation rather than a tile leak?
Own page
Those drips might be built-up condensation rather than a tile leak, which is a distinction BRE has described. Moisture from the rooms can gather on the cold underside of roofing felt and fall in drips while the tiles above still sit even, with no slipped or missing piece to point at. The survey has recorded drips from the felt and an even tile line. It has not proved condensation, and it has not proved a leak. It has not set out a test that would decide between them. Even tiles make a simple hole in the covering less obvious.
Roofs
A cold roof has no eaves ventilation the surveyor could see and the felt is wet underneath. What air path is missing, and what leak has that not proved?
Own page
The missing air path is eaves ventilation into the cold roof, and the wet felt has not proved a leak. A cold roof is meant to have outside air moving through the void, often entering at the eaves. The surveyor could not see that path, and the underside of the felt was wet. Wet underlay can be condensation where air cannot cross the void, or it can be rain from a fault in the covering. The survey has recorded the missing vents and the wet felt. It has not proved a leak, and it has not proved condensation.
Walls
Map cracking covers the render of a no-fines house and no core was taken. What of the concrete behind the map was not tested?
Own page
The concrete behind the map-cracked render was not tested. No core was taken, so the no-fines wall was not sampled and was not sent for any check. Map cracking is a network of cracks in the render coat. The survey has recorded that pattern on a no-fines house. It has not tested the concrete behind the coat, has not described the material inside the wall, and has not decided that the wall has lost strength. The coat and the concrete are different layers. A map on the render is not a test of the wall it covers.
Walls
The seller names a Cornish repair scheme and no completion certificate is in the pack. What work has the name not verified?
Own page
The name has not verified that a Cornish repair was carried out, finished, or certified on this house. The seller names a scheme, and no completion certificate is in the pack. A name is not the work. The survey has recorded what was said and the missing certificate. It has not inspected repaired concrete as certified work, has not matched this house to a scheme register, and has not decided that the frame was rebuilt. Cornish construction is a particular non-standard type. Naming a repair scheme does not put that repair into the report as a fact.
Property types
The party wall of a timber-frame flat was not opened. What of the frame and the lining at that wall is outside the visual note?
Own page
The frame and the lining at that party wall are outside the visual note, because the wall was not opened. Studs, plates, insulation and the linings that make up a timber-frame party wall were not exposed. The survey has recorded a wall that stayed closed. It has not described the frame inside it, has not checked whether the lining runs through, and has not decided that the separation between the flats is complete. What you can touch on the face is only that face. The thickness of the unopened wall sits outside the note.
Property types
The oak sill of a historic frame is soft and the posts standing on it are hard. Which timber is the decay note about?
Own page
The decay note is about the oak sill, which is soft, and not about the posts, which are hard. The sill is the horizontal timber the posts stand on, and it is the piece that takes damp at the foot of a historic frame. The survey has called that sill. It has not called the posts decayed. Soft oak in the sill is the finding. Hard posts are why they were left out of it. The survey has not opened the joints to see whether softness has entered a tenon. The note names the sill.
Money
The budget includes a lift contract and the survey did not ride the lift as a test. What maintenance contract is an accounts line, not a condition rating?
Own page
The lift contract in the budget is an accounts line, not a condition rating of the lift. The survey did not ride the lift as a test, so it has not graded the machine, the doors or the shaft. A figure against a maintenance contract shows that the service charge budget expects a contract. It does not show that the lift is reliable, recently repaired, or in any particular condition. The survey has not turned that line into a judgement of the lift. The solicitor reads the accounts. The home survey does not convert a contract entry into a mechanical result.
Money
The agent says the ground rent is a peppercorn and the lease still contains a review clause. Has the survey read that clause, or is it for the solicitor?
Own page
The survey has not read that clause. Reading it is for the solicitor. The agent says the ground rent is a peppercorn, and the lease still contains a review clause. Both remarks can be true at once, and only the lease wording shows what a review may do. A home survey does not construe a lease. The survey has not checked the clause, has not compared it with the agent's remark, and has not decided that a peppercorn stays a peppercorn. The solicitor's reading is the one that matters. The agent's sentence is not a substitute for the document.
Legal and neighbours
Water enters from the flat above and the RTM company has just been formed. What company record has the survey of your ceiling not read?
Own page
The survey of your ceiling has not read the RTM company's records. Water is entering from the flat above, and the right to manage company has only just been formed. The articles, the membership and the papers that say who must repair the building were not read. The survey has recorded water at the ceiling. It has not decided that the new company has taken the repair on, has not read the articles. GOV.UK explains that an RTM company in a qualifying block of flats takes on management functions. A look at a ceiling has not shown that those functions include this leak.
Walls
No EWS1 is in the pack and the survey notes cladding. Has the absence of the form been filled by the surveyor's sentence?
Own page
No. The surveyor's sentence has not filled the absence of an EWS1. The pack contains no EWS1, and the survey notes cladding. A sentence that cladding is present, or even a short description of it, is not the external wall form that lenders ask for. The survey has recorded what it could see of the outside. It has not produced an EWS1, has not signed one, and has not assessed the wall system from a visual line. GOV.UK guidance for leaseholders on building safety is about the protections and the papers around them. This report has not replaced a missing form with a sentence.
Walls
A new window is not sealed to the reveal and daylight shows at the jamb. What weather joint is open, and what paint snag has not closed it?
Own page
The weather joint between the new window and the reveal is open, and a paint snag has not closed it. Daylight at the jamb means the gap between frame and wall runs through to the outside. The seal that should keep weather out of that joint is missing or incomplete. Paint on the frame or the reveal is a different item. Colour on a list does not fill a gap you can see through. The survey has recorded the open joint. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. This survey does not open a claim.
After the survey
You want a price change before the drain camera the survey asked for has been done. What pipe condition is that request still guessing?
Own page
The request is still guessing the condition of the pipe the camera has not seen. The survey asked for a drain camera because the buried run was not inspected, and that camera has not been done. A price change talked about now has to invent whether the pipe is clear, cracked, displaced or blocked. The survey has not chosen, and the price talk cannot honestly choose either. RICS material on what to do after a survey is about acting on findings you have. Here the finding is a request for a camera, not a described pipe. The condition being priced is still a guess.
Choosing a survey
You booked a Level 1 and you can already see a crack you wanted advice on. What repair advice does that product not set out to give?
Own page
A Level 1 does not set out to give repair advice on the crack you can already see. The product records condition within a limited scope. It does not set out a method, a specification, or a sequence for putting that crack right. Booking it, and being able to see the crack, does not enlarge it into a repair design. The survey can note that a crack is there. It has not advised how to repair it, has not settled the cause, and has not written a scheme. Repair advice is what the scope does not set out to give.
Environment
The flood map does not shade the house and a cellar sump is fitted. Why does a clear map not explain why the sump is there?
Own page
A clear flood map does not explain why the sump is there, because the map is not a history of this cellar. The GOV.UK long-term flood check shades areas for different kinds of flood risk. It does not say why a pump was fitted under this house. A sump can be there for groundwater, a spring, or water that has entered before, none of which an unshaded map explains. The survey has seen a sump and a map that does not shade the house. It has not measured a flood depth, has not tested the pump, and has not decided the sump is unnecessary.
Environment
The paper you have is a postcode-level radon indication. What reading in the living room has that paper not taken?
Own page
That paper has not taken a reading in the living room. A postcode-level indication is a picture of how radon likelihood looks across a district, drawn from maps, not from a detector in this house. Nothing on it is a measurement of the air you would sit in. The home survey has not tested radon either. It has not placed a detector and has not read one. UK radon maps, produced with the British Geological Survey, are that kind of area tool. They do not sample a living room. The reading the paper has missed is the one in that room.
Walls
Air bricks have been painted over so the holes are closed. What floor void has lost that air path?
Own page
The void under the suspended ground floor has lost that air path. The air bricks are painted over and the holes are closed, and those holes are what let outside air through the wall into the space under the boards. With the holes shut, the path is blocked. The survey has recorded painted air bricks. It has not measured moisture in the joists and has not called the floor decayed. Approved Document F is the guidance on ventilation. This visit has not applied it as a test of the void, and it has not proved the timbers are damp.
Services
The loft header tank is overflowing onto the insulation. What overflow pipe was not traced, and what drinking-water sample was not taken?
Own page
The overflow pipe from the header tank was not traced, and no drinking-water sample was taken. The tank is overflowing onto the loft insulation, so water is leaving the cistern and wetting the quilt instead of running to a visible outlet. The survey has recorded the spill and the wet insulation. It has not followed the overflow pipe to a terminal, has not found whether that pipe is missing, blocked or disconnected, and has not sampled the water. Wet insulation is a damp finding in the loft. It is not a test of whether the water is fit to drink.
Services
A boiler is fixed to the party wall and the neighbour's side was not seen. What flue path on their side is unknown?
Own page
The flue path on the neighbour's side of the party wall is unknown. The boiler is fixed to that wall, and the survey did not see the neighbour's side, so it cannot say where the flue runs, where it ends, or what openings it passes over there. The survey has recorded a boiler on the party wall. It has not entered the neighbour's room, has not commissioned a gas safety check, and has not decided the flue is safe or unsafe. The flue might cross the wall, rise in a stack, or discharge somewhere this visit never reached. That path is the unknown.
Roof and rainwater
A blister sits at the upstand of a flat roof and the field of the roof is smooth. Why is that a junction note?
Own page
It is a junction note because the blister sits at the upstand, where the flat-roof covering turns up against a wall or a kerb, and the field of the roof is smooth. The defect in view is at that turn, not spread across the general covering. An upstand is a common place for a blister or a weak bond, because the sheet changes direction there. The survey has recorded the blister and the smooth field. It has not cut the blister, has not proved that water is trapped in it, and has not guaranteed the rest of the roof. The note is the junction.
Roofs
The stack is gone and a vent tile remains in the slope. What redundant opening is that tile, and what support below was not the question?
Own page
That vent tile is a redundant opening left in the slope after the stack was taken away, and support below was not the question it answers. The tile once served a flue, or the hole where the stack passed the roof, and it remains in the covering after the masonry has gone. The survey has recorded a missing stack and a vent tile still in the slope. It has not decided the tile is weathertight, and it has not said how anything left below is carried. The tile does not answer it. The survey has not calculated that support.
Reading the report
The only rating 3 is a gutter joint and the internal walls are dry. Why is that still a rating 3 on the gutter, and not a damp diagnosis of the house?
Own page
It is still a rating 3 on the gutter joint because that joint needs serious or urgent repair, and the dry internal walls mean it is not a damp diagnosis of the house. Rating 3 is for defects that need repair, replacement or investigation and are serious or urgent, or both. A failed gutter joint can take that grade on the rainwater goods while the rooms stay dry. Dry plaster means the survey has not found damp inside from the joint. It has not diagnosed the house as damp. The rating sits on the gutter.
Reading the report
The basement is NI because the door was locked. What tanking or damp in that room must you not assume is absent?
Own page
You must not assume that tanking or damp is absent from that locked basement. The room is marked NI because the door was locked, and NI means not inspected, not a pass. Nothing inside was seen, so no judgement was made about tanking, damp staining or the floor. Rating 1 would mean no repair currently needed, and that rating was not given. A shut door is not a dry cellar. The survey recorded the limit of the visit. It has not cleared the basement.
Property types
The closet wing has a felt flat roof and the main roof is slate. Why should stains in the closet not be blamed on the slates first?
Own page
Stains in the closet should not be blamed on the slates first, because the closet wing has its own felt flat roof. That small roof sits over the closet, while the main covering is slate on a different slope. Marking on the closet ceiling is more likely to have crossed the felt above that room than to have come from slates further away. The survey has recorded both coverings and the stain. It has not opened the felt, and it has not proved which layer let water in.
Roof and rainwater
The hip iron is missing on a 1930s semi and the lowest hip tile has dropped. What is no longer holding that tile?
Own page
Nothing at the foot of the hip is now holding that lowest tile, because the hip iron is missing. On a 1930s semi the hip iron is the metal stay at the bottom of the hip that stops the lowest hip tile sliding down the slope. With the iron gone, that tile has dropped. The survey has seen the missing iron and the dropped tile. It has not checked every other hip tile for a loose bed, and it has not fitted a replacement iron.
Property types
The joist ends of an Edwardian porch are soft where they enter the wall and the tiles above are even. What decay is at the ends, not in the covering?
Own page
The decay is in the joist ends where they enter the wall, not in the tile covering above. The tiles are even, so the note is softened timber at the bearings, not a slipped or holed covering. Ends that go soft where they sit in masonry show that moisture has reached the timber at the wall. The survey has recorded those soft ends. It has not opened the wall to see how far the softness runs, and it has not condemned the tiles.
Roof and rainwater
Lead between a parapet gutter and the upstand is split and the asphalt field is intact. What joint is the leak path?
Own page
The leak path is the split lead between the parapet gutter and the upstand, not the asphalt field. The asphalt is intact, so the joint that has opened is the lead where the gutter turns up the wall. A split there lets water leave the channel at the upstand instead of staying in the gutter. The survey has recorded the split lead and the intact asphalt. It has not opened the build-up to see how far water has tracked, and it has not designed a new lead detail.
Drainage
A basement WC discharges through a pump and the pump was not run. What discharge has not been demonstrated?
Own page
The pumped discharge from the basement WC has not been demonstrated. The pan empties through a pump, and that pump was not run, so the survey has not shown that waste leaves the bowl, that the pump lifts, or that the rising pipe clears. What was recorded is the installation as seen. It is not a working test. A unit that sat quietly has not proved it will start when the WC is used. No drain test was carried out.
Grounds
A herbicide schedule lists visits and the last date has passed on the face of the page. What visit has the survey not confirmed took place?
Own page
The survey has not confirmed that the last listed herbicide visit took place. The schedule names visits, and the last date has already passed on the face of the page. A date on a programme is not proof the contractor attended, that herbicide was applied, or that the knotweed responded. The survey has read the paper. It has not stood on site for those visits, and it has not matched the schedule to what is growing.
Drainage
A crack in the wall lines up with a leaking drain joint the surveyor could see in a chamber. What cause has that alignment not proved on its own?
Own page
That alignment has not, on its own, proved the leaking drain joint caused the crack. A wall crack that lines up with a joint the surveyor could see leaking in a chamber is a clue, and it is worth taking seriously. It is not a finished cause. Movement can have other reasons, and a leak can exist without having washed out the ground under the wall. The survey recorded the line and the visible leak. It has not tested the drain and it has not proved the mechanism.
After the survey
The offer is in cash and the roof is rating 3. Why does paying cash not remove the need to read what the rating says about the roof?
Own page
Paying cash does not remove the need to read what the rating says about the roof, because the rating describes the covering and cash only describes the payment. The roof is rating 3. That mark is about the roof you would live under, not about a lender's condition that vanishes when there is no mortgage. A cash offer does not reinspect the tiles, the felt or the timbers. The survey has given the rating. It has not priced the work, and paying without a loan does not retire the paragraph.
Roofs
A communal aerial is fixed to the block roof and your flat survey did not go onto that roof. What of the roof fixings is outside the flat inspection?
Own page
The fixings of the communal aerial, and the roof they are fixed to, are outside this flat inspection. The aerial is on the block roof, and the survey of the flat did not go onto that roof. What was not seen is how the brackets are held, whether they have pierced the covering, and what the roof is doing around them. The survey has recorded an aerial on a roof it did not walk. It has not cleared those fixings and it has not inspected the block roof.
Services
The door-entry handset in the flat was dead and the surveyor did not test the block system. What communal equipment has not been commissioned by the report?
Own page
The communal door-entry equipment has not been commissioned by this report. The handset in the flat was dead, and the surveyor did not test the block system, so nothing has been shown about the entrance panel, the lock release, the cabling or the other handsets. A silent handset records that one unit did nothing on the day. It is not a test certificate for the shared equipment, and it is not a diagnosis of which part has failed.
Legal and neighbours
The pegs on a new plot do not sit where the plan in the reservation shows the boundary. What legal line has the survey not settled?
Own page
The survey has not settled the legal boundary. The pegs on the new plot do not sit where the reservation plan shows the line, so the ground and the drawing already disagree. A home survey can record that mismatch. It does not decide which line is the boundary, and it does not move the pegs. Title, the transfer plan and the reservation are for the solicitor. Looking at pegs does not complete that legal work.
Structure
A steel lintel in a new porch has no galvanising the surveyor could see and rust is starting. What corrosion protection is missing from that lintel?
Own page
The missing corrosion protection is galvanising on the steel lintel. No galvanising was visible, and rust is already starting on a lintel in a new porch. Bare steel in an outer wall will go on corroding once rust has begun. The survey has recorded the missing coating and the early rust. It has not measured how far the rust has eaten, and it has not opened a warranty claim. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey does not open a claim.
Property types
The loft hatch is there and the loft ladder is not fitted. What access has not been finished, and what insulation around the opening was still seen?
Own page
The loft access has not been finished: the hatch is there and the loft ladder is not fitted. What was still seen is the insulation around the opening, which could be recorded without the ladder being in place. A missing ladder is an unfinished way into the loft, not a finding that the quilt was absent. The survey has noted both facts. It has not fitted the ladder. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey does not open a claim.
Walls
A hard cement plinth has been cast against the base of a cob wall. What moisture path does that hard plinth set up for the cob above?
Own page
The hard cement plinth sets up a path that holds moisture against the cob and can drive it into the wall above. Cob needs to dry at its base. Cement cast against that base is dense, so water cannot leave the foot of the wall as it would through a more open finish. The survey has recorded the hard plinth against the cob. It has not proved how wet the cob already is, and it has not specified what should replace the plinth.
Walls
Galleting is missing from the joints of a flint wall and the flints themselves are still tight. What of the joint, not the stone, is the note?
Own page
The note is the missing galleting in the joints, not the flints. The flints are still tight, so the stone is not what the survey has faulted. Galleting is the small stones pressed into the mortar of a flint wall. Where those stones have gone, the joint is the open part: rain can sit in the mortar and the joint can weather back while the flints stay put. The survey recorded missing gallets and tight flints. It has not specified a repointing mix.
Roof and rainwater
Concrete tiles cover a Victorian roof that the neighbours still have in slate. What extra weight has the survey not calculated, and what consent has it not checked?
Own page
The survey has not calculated the extra weight of the concrete tiles, and it has not checked whether consent was obtained for the change. A Victorian roof that the neighbours still have in slate now carries concrete tiles, which are a heavier covering than the slate the roof was built with. The inspection can see the tiles. It cannot weigh them by looking, and it cannot say the rafters were sized for that load. It has also not searched the consent history.
Roof and rainwater
The lead valley beside a dormer is split and the dormer cheeks are dry. What length of valley is the defect?
Own page
The defect is the split length of lead valley beside the dormer, not the cheeks. The cheeks are dry, so the note is the valley running beside them, where the lead has split. A valley collects water from two slopes, and a split in that lead is a leak path along the length that has opened. The survey has recorded the split and the dry cheeks. It has not specified how much lead to renew, and it has not proved how far water has tracked under it.
Hazardous materials
A black pad sits under a stainless-steel sink and it was not sampled. Why must the survey not declare that pad free of asbestos?
Own page
The survey must not declare that pad free of asbestos, because it was not sampled. A black pad under a stainless-steel sink is often a bitumen sound-deadening layer, and buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos in materials of that kind. Looking at the colour does not identify it. The home survey has recorded an unsampled pad left in place. It has not had the material tested, and it has not called the pad safe or unsafe.
Walls
Filled drill holes run along the wall and stop short of a pier. What ties in that pier were not shown by the pattern?
Own page
The ties in that pier were not shown by the pattern of filled holes. The holes run along the wall and stop short of the pier, so the pattern records where someone drilled, not a tie inside the pier. A gap in the caps is a gap in the visible evidence. The survey has recorded that the pattern stops. It has not tested the wall ties, it has not opened the pier, and it has not proved the pier was tied or left untied.
Structure
A radon barrier in a new extension is torn where a pipe passes and no reading was taken. What continuity of the barrier was not proved?
Own page
The continuity of the radon barrier was not proved at the pipe. The membrane in the new extension is torn where that pipe passes, and no reading was taken, so the survey has not shown an unbroken sheet and has not measured radon. A tear at a penetration is a gap in the barrier as seen. It is not a radon result. The inspection recorded the damage. It did not test the air and it did not repair the seal around the pipe.
Walls
A closable flood air brick is seized and the cover would not move. What seal has not been shown to work?
Own page
The seal of that closable flood air brick has not been shown to work. The cover is seized and would not move, so the survey could not shut it and could not see it seat. A flood air brick is meant to be closed when water rises. A cover that will not move has not demonstrated that seal. The survey recorded the seizure. It has not tested how deep floodwater might come, and it has not proved the brick would keep water out.
Structure
The conservatory floor hides its base and no edge was exposed. What foundation under that floor was not seen?
Own page
The foundation under the conservatory floor was not seen. The floor hides the base and no edge was exposed, so the survey could not tell whether there is a proper foundation, a ground slab, or something slighter. What is unknown is the base itself. The inspection recorded the concealment. It has not assumed a foundation is missing, and it has not assumed one is adequate. The floor finish is not the foundation under it.
Services
A garden room is heated from the house boiler and the pipe run under the path was not exposed. What leak in that run is unknown?
Own page
Any leak in the pipe run under the path is unknown. The garden room is heated from the house boiler, and that run was not exposed, so the survey has not seen the pipes, the joints or the insulation beneath the path. What was recorded is that the room takes its heat from the house boiler. The buried length was not inspected. No gas test was carried out, and a warm room on the day does not prove the hidden pipes are sound.
Walls
One sash weight is missing and the other is still in the box. Why will that sash not stay up, and what of the frame was not the fault?
Own page
The sash will not stay up because one weight is missing, while the other is still in the box. A sash is balanced by a pair of weights. With one gone, the remaining weight cannot hold the sash where you leave it, so it drops. The frame was not the fault recorded here. The note is the missing weight, not a failed stile or a rotten outer frame. The survey has seen the empty side of the box. It has not rebuilt the balance.
Roofs
The sealed unit in a roof window is misted and the flashing was not seen from outside. What of the glass has failed, and what of the flashing is unverified?
Own page
The sealed unit has failed, and the flashing is unverified because it was not seen from outside. Mist between the panes is the glass itself: the seal has gone and moisture is in the cavity of the unit. That is a glazing failure. The flashing that weathers the window into the roof was not seen from outside, so the survey has not called it sound and has not called it split. Two parts, and only the glass has been judged.
Walls
Daylight shows under a new door and the mat was wet. What weather path is the gap, separate from the wall damp-proof course?
Own page
The gap under the new door is a weather path for driven rain, separate from the wall damp-proof course. Daylight shows under the door and the mat was wet, so water is crossing at the threshold. That is not the same mechanism as moisture rising through the wall past a damp-proof course. The survey has recorded the gap and the wet mat. It has not blamed the wall barrier, and it has not shown that the course itself has failed.
Walls
Render has been carried across a movement joint and has cracked on that line. What was the joint for?
Own page
The joint was there so the wall could move, and the render has been carried across it, so the render has cracked on that line. A movement joint is a designed break. When the finish bridges the break, the finish is what tears as the parts move. The crack on the joint line is the render failing to leave the joint free, not a random split in the middle of a bay. The survey recorded the bridge and the crack. It has not proved a structural failure of the wall.
Damp
A tanking guarantee in the pack shows a date that has passed on the face of the page. What current condition of the tanking has that old date not described?
Own page
That old date has not described the current condition of the tanking. The guarantee in the pack shows a date that has already passed on the face of the page, so the paper is outside the period it states. A lapsed date does not say the tanking is failing, and it does not say the tanking is still doing its job. The survey has recorded what the document shows. It has not tested the membrane and it has not renewed the guarantee.
Legal and neighbours
A coal hole cover sits in the public pavement outside a cellar. What ownership of that cover has the survey not decided?
Own page
The survey has not decided who owns the coal-hole cover. It sits in the public pavement outside the cellar, so it may go with the vault, with the highway, or with whatever the title and the highway authority say. Looking at a plate in the flags does not award ownership. The survey has recorded where the cover is. It has not read the title, and it has not established whose job the cover is.
Walls
The window board is soft and the sash above it is hard. Which timber is the decay note?
Own page
The window board is the timber in the decay note, not the sash above it. The board is soft and the sash is hard, so the survey has marked the shelf at the cill rather than the sliding sash. Softness there is decay in that piece. A hard sash means this note has not condemned the frame above. The survey has not lifted the board to see how far the softness goes, and it has not named a species of rot beyond the timber it could feel.
Timber
A fruiting body was seen in a cupboard and the adjacent floor was not opened. What spread beyond the cupboard is unmapped?
Own page
The spread of the fungus beyond the cupboard is unmapped. A fruiting body was seen inside it, and the adjacent floor was not opened, so the survey has not shown how far growth runs under the boards or into the joists. The fruiting body shows a fungus in that cupboard. It is not a plan of the outbreak. The inspection stopped at what could be seen without opening the floor next to it.
Roofs
Flight holes are in the sarking boards and the rafters beside them look clean. Why should the rafters not be condemned with the boards?
Own page
The rafters should not be condemned with the boards, because the flight holes are in the sarking and the rafters beside them look clean. Sarking is the boarding on the slope. Holes in those boards are an insect note on the boards. Clean rafters next to them are different timber, and the survey has not moved the attack from one to the other. The report records where the holes are. It has not probed every rafter and it has not called the roof structure infested.
Property types
The ceiling between a coach-house flat and the garage below was not opened. What separation in that ceiling is unknown?
Own page
The separation in the ceiling between the coach-house flat and the garage below is unknown. That ceiling was not opened, so the survey has not seen the joists, any lining, or whatever divides the garage from the home above. The build-up is what is unknown. The inspection recorded that it stayed closed. It has not assumed the separation is missing, and it has not assumed it meets a standard. An unopened ceiling is not a proved floor.
Roofs
A stay on a bungalow chimney is rusty and the stack is upright. What is the stay doing, and what lean of the stack has it not proved?
Own page
The stay is a metal brace for the bungalow stack, and its rust has not proved that the stack leans. The stack is upright. A stay exists because a chimney on a low bungalow roof stands tall in the wind, and the metal helps hold it. Rust is corrosion in that brace. The survey recorded a rusty stay and an upright stack. It has not tested the metal, and a plumb stack is not proof the stay is still at full strength.
Roofs
The wire netting is slack at the eaves of a thatched roof and tight at the ridge. What of the eaves coat was not measured?
Own page
The thickness of the eaves coat was not measured. The wire is slack at the eaves of the thatch and tight at the ridge, so the note is the loose netting over the eaves, not a measured depth of coat. Slack wire can mean the coat has settled or that the netting has stretched. The survey recorded the difference between eaves and ridge. It has not probed the thatch for thickness, and it has not said what repair the eaves need.
Money
Ground rent demands in the pack name a company the agent says has sold the freehold. Has the survey identified who should be paid?
Own page
No. The survey has not identified who should be paid the ground rent. Demands in the pack name a company the agent says has sold the freehold, so the paper and the agent's remark already conflict. A home survey does not trace the landlord and does not decide that the old company, or any new one, is the right payee. The inspection can note what the demands say. Who is entitled to the rent is a title question for the solicitor.
Money
The RTM pack includes a buildings-insurance schedule and the survey does not comment on the sum insured. Whose document is the schedule?
Own page
The schedule is the RTM pack's document, not a finding of the survey. The pack includes a buildings-insurance schedule, and the survey does not comment on the sum insured. The inspection has not checked whether that sum would rebuild the block, whether the risks match, or whether the policy is in force. It belongs with the right-to-manage papers. The survey has left the figure alone, which is not the same as approving it.
Property types
The new loft hatch has no catch and the insulation around it is complete. What of the hatch is unfinished, and what of the insulation was not the snag?
Own page
The unfinished part is the hatch, which has no catch, and the insulation was not the snag. The new loft hatch does not fasten, while the insulation around it is complete, so the quilt is present. A hatch without a catch is an incomplete fitting. Complete insulation is what was still seen and must not be written up as missing. The survey has kept the two apart. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey does not open a claim.
Money
You would rather hold a retention than cut the price, and the survey gives no figure. Who sets any retention sum?
Own page
The people who agree the contract set any retention sum, not the survey. You would rather hold money back than cut the price, and the report gives no figure. The survey describes condition. It does not calculate a retention, name an amount, or choose between holding money and reducing the price. A retention is a contract arrangement about money kept until work is done. Without a real sum and an agreement, the report cannot be made to supply one.
Choosing a survey
The Home Report includes photographs of the roof taken from the ground. What of the rear slope has a ground-level photograph not inspected from above?
Own page
The rear slope has not been inspected from above. The Home Report includes photographs of the roof taken from the ground, so those frames show what a camera at ground level could catch. A ground-level photograph has not walked the rear slope, has not lifted a covering, and has not seen what a ridge or a neighbour hides. The Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to. It is not an English Level 2 you instruct yourself.
Environment
A coal mining search is the only paper you have. What crack or tilt in the walls has that search not recorded?
Own page
The coal mining search has recorded no crack and no tilt in the walls, because it has not looked at the walls at all. It is a paper search, and it is the only paper you have. A Coal Authority search is a separate product from a home survey. It reports mining information for the area. It does not walk the house, measure a lean or photograph a crack. No building movement has been recorded because nobody has yet inspected the structure.
Walls
Decking has been built over the air bricks and the underfloor void was not entered. What air path to the joists is covered?
Own page
The air path to the joists is covered by the decking. The deck has been built over the air bricks, and the underfloor void was not entered, so the survey has not shown a clear route for air and has not seen the timbers those bricks should ventilate. Air bricks only work if they stay open to the outside. A deck across them blocks that path. The inspection recorded the cover. It did not enter the void and it did not test the joists.
Services
A boiler flue terminal sits close to an opening window and no measurement was taken. What gas-safety clearance check is still outstanding?
Own page
The gas-safety clearance check is still outstanding. The boiler flue terminal sits close to an opening window, and no measurement was taken, so the survey has not shown whether that position would satisfy a gas engineer. Looking close is not a pass and it is not a fail. No gas-safety inspection was carried out. The position was noted. The distance was not measured on this visit, and the appliance itself was not tested.
Roof and rainwater
Solar-reflective chippings are missing in one patch of a flat roof and the rest of the roof still has them. What of that patch of felt is now exposed?
Own page
That patch of felt is now exposed. Solar-reflective chippings are missing from one area, while the rest of the flat roof still has them. The chippings shade the felt. Where they have gone, the felt in that patch is the surface the weather reaches directly. The survey has recorded a bare patch, not a bare roof. It has not said the felt there has split, and it has not proved the membrane is sound under the chippings that remain.
Structure
The gathering above a fireplace is cracked where it passes through the loft and the stack outside is upright. What joint is the crack in?
Own page
The crack is in the gathering, where the fireplace narrows as it passes through the loft, not in a lean of the stack. The stack outside is upright. The gathering is the masonry in the roof space that funnels the flue toward the stack. A crack there is a crack in that gathering. The survey has recorded it. It has not proved the flue leaks smoke, and the upright stack has not proved the gathering is sound.
Roof and rainwater
A cast-iron ogee gutter is cracked at a joint and the fascia behind it is soft. What timber and what iron are both part of the note?
Own page
Both the cracked cast-iron ogee and the soft fascia behind it are in the note. The iron is cracked at a joint, so the gutter itself is split, and the fascia behind that joint is soft, so the board the gutter is fixed to has decayed. Water leaving the crack is a likely reason the timber is wet, and a soft fascia cannot be trusted to hold the iron. The survey recorded both. It has not specified a new length and it has not mapped every soft inch of the board.
Reading the report
The power was off and the electrics are marked NI. What test has that mark not failed, because it was not done?
Own page
That mark has not failed an electrical test, because no test was done. The power was off and the electrics are NI. NI means not inspected, not a pass. It also means the circuits were not failed. With the supply off, a live installation was not there to inspect in use, and a home survey does not produce an electrical installation condition report in any event. Rating 1, no repair currently needed, was not given. The electrics were not inspected.
Legal and neighbours
A coal cellar runs out under the pavement and the survey could see the vault. What highway right has that view not decided?
Own page
Seeing the vault has not decided any highway right. The coal cellar runs out under the pavement and the survey could see that vault, so the structure beneath the flags was visible from inside. Seeing it does not decide whether the highway authority has rights over the surface, whether the vault is in the title, or who maintains the pavement above. The survey recorded a vault under the pavement. It has not read the title and it has not determined a highway right.
Walls
A Crittall window is rusting at the cill and the opening light still shuts. What metal is failing, and what of the frame still closes?
Own page
The metal failing is the Crittall steel at the cill, where it is rusting, and the opening light still closes. Rust at the cill is corrosion of that steel, which is what the survey has recorded. The light still shutting means this note has not said the casement is jammed or that the whole frame has seized. The survey saw rust at the cill and a light that still shuts. It has not treated the steel, and it has not dismissed the rust as decoration.
Damp
The report mentions built-up condensation next to the underside of a cold flat roof. Has a drip the owner called a leak been tested, or only named?
Own page
Named, not tested. The drip the owner called a leak is recorded beside built-up condensation on the underside of a cold flat roof. BRE has described dripping of this kind as moisture that builds in the roof, rather than rain through the covering. A cold deck stays cold, so vapour from the rooms can gather and fall in drops. The survey has written down that pattern and the owner's word. It has not separated rainwater from condensation, and it has not decided which one is marking the ceiling.
Roofs
Nothing on the visit sampled spray foam, opened one dormer cheek only or tested the rafters still hidden on the main slope. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
The main-slope rafters, and the spray foam on them, have to stay undecided. Nothing on the visit sampled the foam. One dormer cheek only was opened, which is a side face of the dormer, not the main slope. Rafters still hidden on that slope were not tested. A look into one cheek does not show the timber, the fixings or the covering on the rest of the roof. The survey has recorded the limit of that opening. It has not decided that the hidden roof is sound, and it has not decided that it has failed.
Property types
The report places an intumescent strip, a missing cold-smoke seal and a flat entrance door in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The flat entrance door was looked at, an intumescent strip was seen or noted on it, and a missing cold-smoke seal was recorded as absent. None of that was a fire test. An intumescent strip is meant to swell in heat and close the gap at the edge. A cold-smoke seal is the brush or blade that should stop smoke while the door is still cool. Seeing a strip, and seeing that the smoke seal is not there, does not show how the door behaves in a fire. The survey has not certified the entrance door.
Legal and neighbours
Should a vision panel, seen beside the fire door to the shop below, be treated as a verdict on self-closing that nobody tested?
Own page
No. A vision panel beside the fire door to the shop below is glazing you can see through, not a test of self-closing. Nobody tested the closer. The panel lets a person see the shop side, or the stair, before the door opens. That is a feature of the leaf or of the screen next to it. It does not show that the door shuts itself, latches, or meets a fire-door check. The survey has recorded the panel beside that door. It has not decided that self-closing works, and it has not failed the door either.
Legal and neighbours
Where a report pairs an overhead closer with a floor spring, what stays open about a communal door that stands open?
Own page
What stays open is whether either device is actually closing the communal door, because that door stands open. An overhead closer is the box or arm at the head of the door. A floor spring is a closer set in the floor, with the leaf pivoting on it. Naming both does not say which is fitted, whether one has been disconnected, or why the door stands open. A door left standing open is not demonstrating self-closing. The survey has paired the two devices with that observation. It has not tested a closer.
Property types
The report places a pilaster, the shopfront cornice and a listed front in Wales the survey cannot consent in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The pilaster and the shopfront cornice could be inspected by looking. The listed front in Wales, and any consent to alter it, were named, not granted. A pilaster is the shallow column at the edge of the shopfront. The cornice is the projecting moulding across the top. Cadw is the listing body for Wales. The survey can describe cracks, open joints or lost detail in what it saw. It cannot consent to work on a listed front, and it has not done so. The paragraph records a look, and a limit. It has not decided that the front may be changed.
Services
The report mentions a calorifier next to a shared plant room. Has a system this flat's survey did not operate been tested, or only named?
Own page
Only named. A calorifier next to a shared plant room is a hot-water vessel, heated by a coil from a boiler or a communal circuit, and this flat's survey did not operate that system. The vessel, or the plant-room door, may have been seen. Nobody turned the plant on, proved the coil or traced how hot water reaches this flat. Looking at a calorifier is not a test of shared heating. The report has recorded the vessel and the room. It has not decided that the system works, and it has not decided that it has failed.
Services
Is a bathroom pod, together with the service void, any evidence on snagging access the pod skin blocks, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
Only a note of what was visible. A bathroom pod is a prefabricated bathroom set into the new house, and the service void is the space for pipes behind or under that unit. The pod skin is the finished face that blocks those pipes from view. Seeing the pod, and knowing a void sits behind it, is not evidence that snagging can reach the void. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. This survey has not opened a claim, and it has not judged the hidden pipework. The note stops at the skin.
Grounds
Should a mine-shaft cap, seen beside the rear lawn, be treated as a verdict on a Coal Authority search this visit was not?
Own page
No. A mine-shaft cap beside the rear lawn is a visible cover, not a Coal Authority search, and this visit was not that search. The cap may be concrete, metal or a raised slab in the grass. Looking at it records that something is there and how the lawn sits around it. It does not search mining records, does not say how deep any shaft is, and does not decide whether the cap is adequate. A Coal Authority search is a separate product from the home survey. The report has noted the cap. It has not cleared the ground and it has not condemned it.
Grounds
Where a report pairs an adit with the hillside drain, what stays open about water the home survey did not trace to a working?
Own page
The path of the water stays open, because the home survey did not trace it to a working. An adit is a near-horizontal mine opening, often a drainage mouth in a hillside. The hillside drain is the channel or pipe seen on the slope. Pairing the two records that both were mentioned. It does not show that water from the drain enters the adit, that the adit joins recorded workings, or that the flow is only surface rain. A Coal Authority search is a separate product from this visit. The survey has not decided where the water goes once it leaves view.
Structure
The report mentions a china-clay stain next to a granite lintel. Has concrete block the stain does not classify been tested, or only named?
Own page
Only named. A china-clay stain next to a granite lintel does not classify the concrete block beside it, and that block has not been tested. The stain is a surface mark. The lintel is a stone beam over an opening, a different material from the block. RICS guidance on the mundic problem is for surveyors in the south west. Cornwall Council describes a core test and does not provide it. A home survey does not drill cores or award Class A, B or C. The report named the stain and the lintel. It has not classed the block.
Structure
Nothing on the visit sampled a capped shaft, opened the Cornwall garden or tested a mundic class the cap does not provide. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
The mundic class has to stay undecided, because a capped shaft does not provide one. Nothing on the visit sampled the cap, opened the Cornwall garden, or tested the concrete of the house. A shaft cap is a cover over an old ground opening. Mundic is a question about certain concrete, and RICS guidance on it is for surveyors in the south west. Cornwall Council describes a core test and does not provide it. A home survey does not drill cores or award Class A, B or C. The cap and any class for the walls stay separate, and both are undecided as a test.
Grounds
What did the visit record about a knotweed barrier, about a lap joint at the path, and about growth the membrane edge might be missing?
Own page
The visit recorded a knotweed barrier, a lap joint at the path, and growth where the membrane edge might be missing. A barrier is a sheet meant to separate ground on one side from growth on the other. A lap joint is where two sheets overlap, and that overlap was noted at the path. Growth by an edge that looks uncovered is a visual record. It does not prove rhizomes pass the joint, and it does not prove the sheet is complete underground. The survey has not excavated the barrier and has not decided that the membrane works.
Structure
How should a buyer separate a concrete floor screed, a Cornwall bungalow and a mundic class that screed cores, if any, do not give the walls when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate them by what each one is. The concrete floor screed is a topping on the floor. The Cornwall bungalow is the house that screed sits in. A mundic class for the walls is something screed cores, if any, do not give. RICS guidance on the mundic problem is for surveyors in the south west, and it is not a floor finish standing in for the walls. Cornwall Council describes a core test and does not provide it. A home survey does not drill cores or award Class A, B or C. One note that mentions all three has not classed the wall block.
Structure
What did the visit record about the words possible mundic, about concrete-block walls, and about cores this home survey did not drill?
Own page
The visit recorded the words possible mundic, concrete-block walls, and the fact that this home survey did not drill cores. Possible mundic is a comment, not a laboratory result. The walls were seen as concrete block, which is why the comment comes up in the south west. RICS guidance on the mundic problem is for surveyors in that region. Cornwall Council describes a core test and does not provide it. A home survey does not drill cores or award Class A, B or C. The report has not turned the comment into a class.
Structure
Is a seller's memory of Class A, together with no laboratory letter in the pack, any evidence on a result the memory does not replace, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
Only a note of what was said, and of what is missing. A seller's memory of Class A, with no laboratory letter in the pack, is not the result the memory claims to recall. Class A would be an outcome of a testing route. RICS guidance on the mundic problem is for surveyors in the south west. Cornwall Council describes a core test and does not provide it. A home survey does not drill cores or award Class A, B or C. The survey can record that the letter was absent and that the seller used those words. It has not confirmed a class.
Choosing a survey
The report places a Level 2 instruction, concrete walls in Devon and a mundic procedure the level name does not include in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The concrete walls were there for a Level 2 visual inspection. The mundic procedure was only named, because that procedure is not included in the level name. Devon puts the house in the south west, where RICS guidance on the mundic problem is written for surveyors. Writing Level 2 on the instruction does not switch that procedure on. Cornwall Council describes a core test and does not provide it. A home survey does not drill cores or award Class A, B or C. The paragraph joins a product, a wall and a procedure. Only the visual look belongs to the visit.
Structure
Should cores from the garage only, seen beside the house wall of block, be treated as a verdict on a class that those cores do not give the dwelling?
Own page
No. Cores from the garage only are not a verdict on a class for the dwelling, even when they are mentioned beside the house wall of block. A garage is not the house wall. Samples from the garage, if they exist, speak to that garage concrete. They do not speak for the block of the dwelling. RICS guidance on the mundic problem is for surveyors in the south west. Cornwall Council describes a core test and does not provide it. A home survey does not drill cores or award Class A, B or C. This report has not classed the house wall.
Hazardous materials
The report mentions a suspected RAAC plank next to a link to a former classroom. Has sampling the home survey did not do been tested, or only named?
Own page
Only named. Sampling that the home survey did not do has not been tested. A suspected RAAC plank is a form of concrete panel that IStructE says needs investigation, and here it is named next to a link to a former classroom. The classroom link is a reason the question arose. It does not identify the material and it does not sample it. The survey has recorded a suspicion and the link. It has not investigated the plank, has not taken a sample, and has not decided that the panel is that material or some other concrete.
Roofs
Nothing on the visit sampled a 1970s flat-roof addition, opened a panel soffit or tested investigation IStructE describes and this visit did not start. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
Whether the 1970s flat-roof addition contains that material has to stay undecided. Nothing on the visit sampled it, opened a panel soffit, or started the investigation IStructE describes. The material in question is a form of concrete panel that IStructE says needs investigation. A decade and a flat roof are why the suspicion was written down. They are not an identification. The soffit, the underside, stayed closed, so the survey did not see what an investigation would look for. The report has named the limit. It has not decided the material or its condition.
Legal and neighbours
What did the visit record about no EWS1 form, about a balcony soffit, and about cladding the form, not the survey, is asked to record?
Own page
The visit recorded that no EWS1 form was in the pack, what the balcony soffit looked like from the available view, and that cladding is for the form, not the survey, to record. An EWS1 form is a separate paper about the external wall of certain blocks. The soffit is the underside of the balcony. A survey can describe stains, cracks or open joints if it can see them. That description is not the form. The survey has not written the cladding record the form is asked to hold, and it has not decided what the wall is made of.
Walls
Do one replaced cladding panel, together with a single bay, count as evidence on the rest of the elevation still original, or only as a note of what was visible?
Own page
Only as a note of what was visible. One replaced cladding panel in a single bay shows that this bay has a newer piece. It is not evidence that the rest of the elevation is still original, and it is not evidence that the rest matches the new panel. The other bays were not opened or sampled. A difference, or a match, at one bay stops at that bay. The survey has recorded the replacement it could see. It has not mapped the whole elevation, and it has not produced an EWS1 form for the wall.
Reading the report
The report places a balconette, a condition rating and a load the rating does not calculate in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The balconette was inspected as far as a visual visit allows, and a condition rating records that look. The load was only named, because a rating does not calculate it. A balconette is the shallow guard, or small platform, at an opening. Rating 1 means no repair currently needed. Rating 2 means defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent. Rating 3 means serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. None of those is a figure for the weight the metal or the fixings can carry. The survey has not calculated a load. The rating is not a structural proof.
Walls
Should a cavity barrier, seen beside cladding rails, be treated as a verdict on a detail the survey did not open?
Own page
No. A cavity barrier seen beside cladding rails is not a verdict on a detail the survey did not open. A cavity barrier is there to close the cavity against fire and smoke along a line the design relies on. Cladding rails are the metal or timber the panels hang from. Seeing a piece that looks like a barrier, next to those rails, records a glimpse. It does not show that the barrier runs the full line, meets the wall properly, or repeats on other floors. The survey did not open the detail. It has not decided that the fire stopping is complete.
Walls
Where a report pairs high-pressure laminate panels with the balcony deck, what stays open about combustibility a visual note does not test?
Own page
Combustibility stays open, because a visual note does not test it. High-pressure laminate panels are a sheet cladding, and the balcony deck is the floor beside them. Pairing the two says they were seen together. It does not say how either behaves in a fire, whether the deck matches the panels, or what an external-wall form would record. Looking at a surface cannot identify combustibility. The survey has named the panels and the deck. It has not fire-tested them, and it has not given either a fire classification.
Property types
Is a park-home chassis, together with the step bracket, any evidence on a pitch agreement the unit survey does not rewrite, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
Only a note of what was visible. A park-home chassis is the steel underframe of the unit, and the step bracket is the fixing that holds the steps to it. GOV.UK treats park homes as a special case when buying. Rust, a bent bracket or a sound-looking weld is a comment on the unit. It is not evidence about the pitch agreement, and this survey does not rewrite that agreement or set the pitch fee. The report has noted the chassis and the bracket. It has not decided the legal basis on which the home sits on the pitch.
Property types
The report places the skirting around a park home, a closed vent and the chassis the skirt is hiding in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The skirting and a closed vent were inspected from the outside. The chassis the skirt is hiding was largely named, because the skirt stands in front of it. Skirting is the panel run around the base of a park home. A vent in that run should let air under the floor, and a closed vent is one that was shut. GOV.UK treats park homes as a special case when buying. This unit survey does not set the pitch fee or replace the written agreement. The paragraph does not clear the hidden steel, and it does not rewrite the pitch terms.
Legal and neighbours
Where a report pairs a service-charge budget with balcony works, what stays open about a survey that does not audit the invoice?
Own page
Whether the money matches the work stays open, because the survey does not audit the invoice. A service-charge budget is an accounts paper for the block. Balcony works are a building item the survey may have seen as scaffold, a new deck or a line in the papers. Pairing them does not check the sums, the receipts or whether the lease lets the cost be recovered. The survey can describe the balcony it saw. It cannot audit a budget. The report has not decided that any figure is fair, complete or even tied to the defect in front of it.
Money
The report mentions a ground-rent review clause next to the lease the survey did not read. Has a price the report must not invent been tested, or only named?
Own page
Only named. A ground-rent review clause, set beside a lease the survey did not read, has not been tested, and a price the report must not invent has not been worked out. A review clause is wording that can change what is paid as time goes on. Because the lease was not read, the survey has not seen the dates, the method or whether this clause is the one in force. Naming it is not a calculation. The report has recorded that such words were mentioned. It has not decided what you would pay.
Legal and neighbours
Nothing on the visit sampled a reserve fund note, opened the lift motor room or tested a condition comment that is not the accounts. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
The lift, and the reserve that might one day pay for it, both have to stay undecided. Nothing on the visit sampled a reserve fund note, opened the lift motor room, or turned a condition comment into the accounts. A reserve fund note is a line in the service-charge papers, not a look at machinery. The motor room holds the lift gear, and its door stayed shut, so what is inside was not seen. A sentence about condition is not an audit of the fund. The survey has not decided that the reserve can meet future lift work.
Legal and neighbours
How should a buyer separate an RTM company, a leak in the common roof and who instructs the repair, which the survey does not decide when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate a legal body, a building defect and a decision the survey does not make. An RTM company is a right-to-manage company that can take on management of a qualifying block of flats. A leak in the common roof is a condition point, if it was seen. Who instructs the repair is not decided by that note. GOV.UK describes what an RTM company takes on. The survey does not apply that description as a ruling on your block. The report has not appointed the company, the landlord or you to give the order.
Legal and neighbours
Where a report pairs a flying freehold with the room over the passage, what stays open about support the survey can see and the title must still prove?
Own page
The legal right of support stays open, even where the survey can see the room over the passage standing. A flying freehold is a part of the property that projects over land belonging to someone else, here that room above the passage. The survey can record cracks, a slope or joists that look sound. Those observations are not the title. Support, and the right to enter the passage to repair, still have to be proved in the deeds. The report has paired the flying freehold with the room. It has not decided that the title contains the rights the structure seems to rely on.
Legal and neighbours
The report mentions a consultation notice for works next to the porch roof of the block. Has a notice that is not a condition report been tested, or only named?
Own page
Only named. A consultation notice for works is not a condition report, and it has not been tested as if it were one. The notice is a leasehold paper about proposed works. The porch roof of the block is a building element the survey may have looked at on its own: covering, flashings, stains. Putting the notice next to that roof does not turn the paper into findings, and it does not turn the findings into a checked account of the works. The survey has not audited the notice. It has not decided that the works match the porch.
Property types
How should a buyer separate a scratched sill, a new-build snag list and structure the scratch list is not when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Keep the scratch on the finish list, and keep structure off it. A scratched sill is damage to a finish, the window board or the outer sill, and a new-build snag list is where that sort of item is written. Structure is the frame, the walls and the roof, which a scratch list is not. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. Noting a scratch does not open a claim, and this survey has not opened one. The report has not treated the mark as a structural defect. It has left structure as a separate question.
Property types
What did the visit record about the show-home specification, about this plot, and about finishes the survey of this house did not find?
Own page
The visit recorded that a show-home specification is not this plot, and that finishes the survey of this house did not find were not inspected here. A show home is a dressed example used for selling. This plot is the house you are buying, with the kitchen, doors and surfaces actually fitted. Where a finish from the show literature was not found, the survey has not pretended it was there. Differences are not automatically defects. The report has separated the sales example from this building. It has not decided that every difference is a snag.
Roofs
The report places a missing truss clip, the loft of a new house and a warranty claim the missing clip does not itself open in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The missing truss clip and the loft of the new house were inspected. The warranty claim was only named, because the missing clip does not itself open it. A truss clip ties a roof truss down to the wall plate. Seeing that one is absent is a building observation. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey does not open a claim by recording the missing clip, and it has not opened one. The paragraph has not decided that cover applies. It has not decided that every other clip was checked beyond the loft view.
Reading the report
Should a rating 2, seen beside slipped creasing tiles, be treated as a verdict on a rating 3 the number 2 is not?
Own page
No. A rating 2 beside slipped creasing tiles is not a verdict that the defect is a rating 3. Rating 2 means defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent. Rating 3 means serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. Creasing tiles are the small weathering course, often under a coping, and slipped ones have moved in their bedding. The survey has applied rating 2 to that defect. It has not regraded it to rating 3. The number 2 should not be read as the number 3. NI means not inspected, not a pass, and that is a different mark from either number.
Reading the report
Where a report pairs an NI mark with a loft hatch screwed shut, what stays open about a roof space that mark does not pass?
Own page
The roof space stays open, because NI means not inspected, not a pass. The loft hatch was screwed shut, so the survey did not enter. Rafters, underfelt, insulation, tanks and any party wall in that space were not seen. A screw through the hatch is the reason for the mark, not a finding that the roof is dry or that it leaks. Rating 1, which means no repair currently needed, was not given to the unseen space. The report has paired the mark with the screwed hatch. It has not passed the roof, and it has not condemned it.
Reading the report
The report mentions a rating 1 next to tired paint. Has repairs the definition says are not currently needed been tested, or only named?
Own page
Named by the definition, not tested as a list of works. A rating 1 next to tired paint means no repair currently needed. Tired paint is a worn decorative finish. The rating says that wear is not, at present, a repair the condition scale is calling for. It has not tested a decorating schedule, and it has not decided that the paint must be renewed. Rating 2 would mean defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent, and that is not the mark written here. The survey has applied rating 1. It has not scheduled the decoration.
Reading the report
Nothing on the visit sampled a rating 3, opened words about further investigation or tested a repair price the rating does not print. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
The outcome of any investigation, and any cost, have to stay undecided. Nothing on the visit turned rating 3 into a laboratory sample, and nothing tested a repair price the rating does not print. Rating 3 means serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. The words about further investigation are part of that meaning. They are not a finished investigation, and they are not a priced list. The survey has given the rating. It has not chosen the repair, and it has not decided what the further look will find.
Reading the report
How should a buyer separate NI behind furniture, the bay window seat and timber the sofa was standing on when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate a limit, a place and a material you could not see. NI behind furniture means not inspected, not a pass. The bay window seat is where the sofa stood, and the timber under that seat is what the furniture covered. The survey has not looked at that timber, so it has not called it dry, decayed or in need of repair. Rating 1, meaning no repair currently needed, was not given to the hidden wood. The three belong together only as a gap. This report has not moved the sofa and has not inspected what it stood on.
Choosing a survey
What did the visit record about a Level 1, about a locked cellar, and about opening up the level does not include?
Own page
The visit recorded a Level 1 survey, a locked cellar, and that opening up is not part of that level. Level 1 is a visual overview. It does not include opening up, and a locked cellar was not entered, so the room below stays outside the inspection. The survey has not described tanking, damp or the cellar floor, because none of that was seen. It has recorded the lock and the limit of the product. It has not decided that the cellar is dry, and it has not decided that it is wet.
Choosing a survey
Is a Level 3, together with no drain camera in the quote, any evidence on a test the level name alone does not add, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
Only a note of what was visible, plus a note of what was not in the quote. A Level 3 is the most detailed of the RICS home surveys, and it is still not a drain camera. No camera in the quote means that test was not added. The level name alone does not put a camera down the pipes. Anything said about drains is limited to what could be seen without that camera. The survey has not camera-surveyed the drains, and it has not decided that the underground pipes are clear or blocked. Do not read the title as if the test had happened.
Choosing a survey
The report places a product still called a HomeBuyer, a Georgian terrace and whether that product is the one RICS describes for this house in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The Georgian terrace was inspected within the product that was instructed. The HomeBuyer name, and whether that product is the one RICS describes for this house, were named rather than settled. RICS says Level 2 was previously called a HomeBuyer Report, and describes Level 2 for conventional homes that are straightforward. A Georgian terrace is older and often altered, which is where RICS describes Level 3 if the buyer wants that depth. The paragraph does not itself decide the fit. The survey has not re-badged the report, and it has not tested whether a different level would have been the better instruction.
Choosing a survey
Should a score out of ten, seen beside a firm that is not using RICS condition ratings, be treated as a verdict on a scale this report must not pretend is rating 1, 2 or 3?
Own page
No. A score out of ten, from a firm that is not using RICS condition ratings, is that firm's own scale. It must not be treated as rating 1, 2 or 3. Those marks belong to the RICS condition scale, which this report is not using. A number out of ten can look precise and still mean only what that firm says in its own notes. The survey has not produced RICS condition ratings. The score does not become them by sitting in a similar place on the page. Do not translate the score into a scale the instruction did not use.
Choosing a survey
Where a report pairs the time on site with a thatched roof, what stays open about a duration the thatch does not turn into a guarantee?
Own page
What stays open is everything a duration cannot promise. Pairing time on site with a thatched roof records that the thatch was part of the visit, or part of why the visit took the time it took. It does not turn that duration into a guarantee of the coat, the ridge or the fixings. Thatch can hide a thin patch or a tired ridge the survey did not reach, and the minutes on site do not close those points. The survey has reported what it could see. It has not promised a life for the thatch, and it has not turned time into a warranty.
Choosing a survey
The report mentions the question of scope next to concrete block in the south west. Has cores you must ask about before you assume they are included been tested, or only named?
Own page
Only named. Cores you must ask about, before you assume they are included, have not been tested. The report puts a question of scope next to concrete block in the south west. That is a prompt to ask what the instruction covers. It is not a core test, and it is not a result. A visual home survey does not become a materials investigation because the walls are concrete block. The survey has named the scope question. It has not sampled the block, and it has not decided what the concrete contains.
Money
Nothing on the visit sampled a mortgage valuation, opened the front vault or tested a structural inspection the valuation is not. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
The front vault stays undecided, and so does any structural inspection, because a mortgage valuation is not that inspection. Nothing on the visit sampled the valuation as if it were a home survey, and nothing opened the front vault. MoneyHelper is clear that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. The visit serves the lender. It has not described the vault lining, the steps, or water held there. Those points stay open until a home survey that is instructed to look has reported. Do not merge the valuation figure with the vault.
Money
How should a buyer separate a lender retention, the survey fee you already paid and two different sums the report must not merge when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Keep the three sums apart. A lender retention is money the lender may hold back from the advance. The survey fee is what you already paid the firm for the report. They are different sums, and the report must not merge them into one figure. The inspection recorded defects. It did not calculate a retention, and it did not turn your fee into part of the lending. MoneyHelper treats a mortgage valuation as a different job from a structural survey. Neither document should add these sums together.
Money
What did the visit record about the fee for a Level 3, about a crack in a lintel, and about a builder's price the fee is not?
Own page
The Level 3 fee is the charge for the survey, not a price for the crack in the lintel and not a builder's quote. The visit recorded the crack as a condition item and recorded that a fee was discussed or charged for the Level 3. It did not record a builder's price, because that price is a different document the fee is not. No repair cost has been fixed. MoneyHelper's point that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey does not turn this Level 3 fee into either a valuation or a builder's tender.
Money
Is an EPC band, together with a solid wall, any evidence on a condition judgement the band is not allowed to be, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
An energy performance band, read with a solid wall, is only a note of an energy certificate and of a wall type. It is not evidence for a condition judgement, and the band is not allowed to stand as one. The survey, if it saw the wall, can record what was visible: solid construction, finish, staining. The band itself rates energy performance. It has not decided that the wall is sound, damp or defective. Those judgements stay with a home survey of condition, which this certificate is not.
Selling
The report places a loose newel, the seller's own viewing and a defect the seller's silence does not erase in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The loose newel was the thing inspected. The seller's own viewing, and the hope that silence erases a defect, were only named. A loose newel is a stair post that moves when it should be fixed. The report records that movement. It has not adopted the seller's private look as the inspection, and silence at a viewing does not rub the defect out. What the seller noticed, or did not mention, stays their account. The condition finding stays the loose newel.
Selling
Should a seller-commissioned report in England, seen beside the marketing pack, be treated as a verdict on a Scottish Home Report, which this is not?
Own page
No. A seller-commissioned report in England, sitting beside the marketing pack, is not a verdict on a Scottish Home Report, and it is not one. The Home Report is the Scottish product. It is not an English Level 2 the buyer instructs. This document was named as something the seller obtained. The marketing pack was named beside it. Neither paper was inspected as a Home Report, because this sale is not that product. Do not read an English seller's survey as if it decided a Scottish pack.
After the survey
Where a report pairs a split rainwater head with a wish to renegotiate, what stays open about a reason that is not automatically a decision to walk away?
Own page
A split rainwater head is a defect the report has recorded, not a decision to walk away. Where the head is split, water that should be collected can run down the wall instead. That is a reason you might renegotiate. It is not, by itself, a reason the purchase has ended. What stays open is your choice: repair, price, or leaving. The survey has not made that choice. It has named the split head and left the response undecided.
After the survey
The report mentions a rating 3 next to the choice to walk away. Has a compulsion the rating does not impose been tested, or only named?
Own page
A rating 3 was named next to the choice to walk away. The compulsion some readers expect from that rating has not been tested, because the rating does not impose one. Only the label and the choice were named. Walking away remains a decision for you. The report has not tried the purchase, and it has not found that you must withdraw. A condition label records the surveyor's view of a defect. It does not choose the house for you or close the transaction.
After the survey
Nothing on the visit sampled helical stitching already in the wall, opened a request for a structural engineer or tested a survey that has not become that engineer's report. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
Whether the helical stitching already in the wall is working stays undecided. Nothing on the visit sampled those bars, opened a request for a structural engineer, or tested the idea that this survey has become that engineer's report. It has not. Helical stitching is a repair method set into cracked masonry. Seeing the bars, or the filled slots, is not a test of the crack. The survey has not become an engineer's report, and it has not decided that the movement has stopped.
Money
How should a buyer separate a down valuation, the defect list and a price movement that is not itself a condition rating when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the three. A down valuation is the lender's figure coming in below the price you agreed. The defect list is what the home survey says about condition. A movement in price is a commercial result. It is not itself a condition rating. The report must not merge them. MoneyHelper is clear that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey, so the lender's figure is not the defect list written in money. The survey has not decided the price, and the price has not rewritten the defects.
Reading the report
The report places a Scottish repair category, an English buyer reading it and rating 3, which is a different scale in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The Scottish repair category was the item in the Home Report. Rating 3 was only named, and it belongs to a different scale. An English buyer reading the pack must not treat the Scottish category as that English rating. What was inspected, in the sense of this product, is the Scottish single survey inside the Home Report. The English label was not applied. The Home Report is the Scottish product. It is not an English Level 2 the buyer instructs. No lifespan has been added to either scale.
Legal and neighbours
Is a T-mark, together with the back fence, any evidence on a legal boundary the mark on a plan still needs a solicitor, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
A T-mark, together with the back fence, is only a note of a mark on a plan and of a fence that was visible. It is not evidence that settles a legal boundary. The mark on a plan still needs a solicitor. The survey saw the fence: its line, its condition, perhaps who seems to have maintained it. It has not decided the legal boundary, and it has not turned a printed T into ownership. Title is a documents question. The inspection recorded what it could see.
Grounds
The report places a tree preservation order, a crown over the roof and consent the survey does not grant in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The crown over the roof was inspected, in the sense that it was seen. The tree preservation order, and the consent the survey does not grant, were only named. A crown reaching the roof is a visible relationship between branches and covering. The survey can record overhang, staining or debris. It cannot grant consent to cut, and it has not checked that an order exists. Those are records and permissions. The paragraph names them so they are not mistaken for findings the visit decided.
Grounds
Should giant hogweed, seen beside the stream bank, be treated as a verdict on knotweed, which is a different plant?
Own page
No. Giant hogweed beside the stream bank is not a verdict on Japanese knotweed, because they are different plants. The survey saw hogweed, or growth consistent with it, at the bank. It has not decided that knotweed is present, and it has not cleared the bank of knotweed either. One invasive plant does not stand in for the other. The finding is limited to what was visible of the hogweed. Anything else on that bank stays untested by this identification.
Grounds
Where a report pairs bamboo with the fence line, what stays open about a spread the survey photographs and does not excavate?
Own page
Bamboo at the fence line was photographed. What stays open is the spread underground, because the survey does not excavate. Canes at the boundary show where growth is above ground. They do not show how far runners have gone under the fence, into either garden. The report has recorded the visible stand. It has not mapped the rhizomes, and it has not decided that the spread stops at the boards. That extent remains undecided.
Roofs
The report places stripped spray foam, nail-sick slates and a roof the stripping has not repaired in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
Stripped spray foam and nail-sick slates were inspected, in the sense that they were seen. The claim that stripping has repaired the roof was only named, and it is not what the visit found. Nail-sick slates are slates whose fixings have failed as the nails corrode, so the slates slip. Taking foam off the underside shows that condition. It does not replace nails or refix slates. The roof the stripping has not repaired remains unrepaired. The survey recorded the result. It did not mend it.
Hazardous materials
Should a pencilled RAAC note, seen beside a cupboard beam, be treated as a verdict on a plank the note does not sample?
Own page
No. A pencilled RAAC note beside a cupboard beam is not a verdict on a plank the note does not sample. The pencil records a suspicion. The survey has not investigated or sampled the plank. RAAC is a form of concrete panel that IStructE says needs investigation. A handwritten label does not carry out that investigation, and it does not decide that this beam or plank is the material. What the material is, and what should be done about it, stays undecided.
Property types
Nothing on the visit sampled a Cadw listing, opened a Welsh cottage or tested consent an English listing explanation must not invent. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
Whether this Welsh cottage is on the Cadw list, and what consent would follow, stays undecided. Nothing on the visit sampled a Cadw listing, opened the legal status of the cottage, or tested consent. An explanation written for listing in England must not be invented as if it decided the Welsh position. The survey saw the building. It has not checked Cadw's record, it has not graded the cottage, and it has not granted consent for works. Those points remain open.
Selling
Where a report pairs a knotweed letter with the seller's drawer, what stays open about a survey the letter does not replace?
Own page
A knotweed letter in the seller's drawer does not replace a survey. What stays open is the state of the ground now, which a letter does not inspect. The report paired the letter with the drawer. It has not tested the growth, has not dated a treatment by digging, and has not decided that the letter's account is complete. The letter is a document. The survey, or a specialist inspection, is a look at the site. One does not become the other.
After the survey
The report mentions a recommendation for a drain camera next to the price talk. Has a camera survey that has not happened yet been tested, or only named?
Own page
Only named. A recommendation for a drain camera, placed next to talk about price, has not been carried out. No camera survey has happened, so the drains have not been tested. The home survey did not become that camera visit by recommending it. Price talk does not create footage. What the pipes are doing, and whether a defect underground exists, stays undecided until a camera survey that has not yet happened is actually done and reported.
Money
How should a buyer separate a valuation retention, aimed at the roof and a condition survey the retention is not when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate a valuation retention aimed at the roof from the roof itself and from a condition survey. The retention, if the lender has set one, is a holdback in the mortgage offer. It is not a condition survey of the covering. The roof is the building element the holdback is aimed at. A home survey is the document that describes condition. The retention is not that survey. MoneyHelper is clear that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. Do not merge the holdback with a condition report.
Choosing a survey
What did the visit record about a Level 2 quote, about a Victorian terrace with a cellar, and about limits you should ask the firm to confirm before you instruct?
Own page
The quote for a Level 2 on a Victorian terrace with a cellar records an offer to do that survey, not the cellar's condition. Limits of what that Level 2 will and will not open still need the firm to confirm them before you instruct. The conversation has not entered the cellar, tested nothing in it, and has not decided access, headroom or whether stored goods will block it. A Victorian terrace often hides structure a Level 2 will only see in part. The quote has not settled those limits.
Choosing a survey
Is a short time on site, together with a large house, any evidence on a guarantee of thoroughness the clock does not give, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
A short time on site, even at a large house, is only a note of the clock and of what was visible. It is not evidence of a guarantee of thoroughness. The clock does not give that guarantee. A brief visit can miss a great deal, and a long one can still leave voids unseen. The survey has not certified that the hours were enough, and it has not certified that everything important was opened. Thoroughness is about access and scope, not a promise read off the time.
Reading the report
The report places red amber green labels, a non-RICS scorecard and RICS ratings 1, 2 and 3, which those colours are not in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
Red, amber and green labels were named on a non-RICS scorecard. They are not RICS ratings 1, 2 and 3, and they were not inspected as those ratings. RICS rating 1 means no repair is currently needed. Rating 2 means defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent. Rating 3 means a serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. NI means not inspected, not a pass. The colours do not carry those meanings. The scorecard was a different labelling. Nothing on the visit converted a colour into a RICS rating.
Choosing a survey
Should a HomeBuyer-style report, seen beside a cellar marked NI, be treated as a verdict on a building survey you have not commissioned?
Own page
No. A HomeBuyer-style report with a cellar marked NI is not a verdict on a building survey you have not commissioned. The letters record that the cellar was not inspected in this report. They are not a finding about the cellar's condition, and they are not a Level 3. The visit covered what that HomeBuyer-style scope actually entered. The cellar was marked out of it. You still do not have the building survey. Nothing in the NI mark decides what that other product would have said.
Choosing a survey
The report mentions an extra private survey next to a purchase in Scotland. Has the Home Report, which the extra visit does not replace been tested, or only named?
Own page
The extra private survey was named beside a purchase in Scotland. It has not replaced the Home Report, and the Home Report has not been tested into something else by that extra visit. The Home Report is the Scottish product. It is not an English Level 2 the buyer instructs. Only the fact of a further private survey was in front of this note. The pack remains the pack. Commissioning more looking does not retire it, and it does not convert the purchase into an English instruction.
Structure
How should a buyer separate concrete block, a house outside the area the RICS note maps and a reason to ignore deterioration the survey can still see when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate three things. Concrete block the survey can still see is one. A house outside the area the RICS note maps is another. A reason to ignore deterioration is not available from that geography. RICS guidance on the mundic problem is for surveyors in the south west. Being outside it does not wipe a crack, a crumbly face or a damp concrete section the visit recorded. The home survey does not drill cores or award Class A, B or C. Cornwall Council describes a core test and does not provide it. Visible deterioration stays a condition note.
Grounds
Where a report pairs a possible crown with under the decking, what stays open about ground the boards were not lifted to see?
Own page
A possible crown under the decking leaves the ground beneath undecided, because the boards were not lifted. The survey paired a suspicion with a covered surface. It photographed or noted what it could see at the edges. It did not see the soil the boards hide, so it has not confirmed a crown there and has not cleared that soil either. Japanese knotweed identification needs the growth that can actually be examined. Hidden ground stays hidden. The possible crown remains only possible.
Grounds
The report mentions dead canes next to a winter visit. Has growth the season means the survey might not see been tested, or only named?
Own page
Dead canes on a winter visit were seen. Growth that the season can hide has not been tested. It has only been named as a limit. Japanese knotweed dies back above ground in winter, so a survey at that time can find bare canes, or very little, and still not see the live crown and the summer stand. The report records the canes it found. It has not proved the plant has gone, and it has not proved how far it runs. The season's limit stays a limit, not a result.
Selling
Nothing on the visit sampled a split newel, opened the half landing or tested a repair the seller can point to without calling it nothing. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
A split newel at the half landing was not sampled, and the landing was not opened up. A repair the seller can point to stays a repair they can point to. It does not let the survey call the defect nothing. What stays undecided is whether that repair has stopped the movement. The visit recorded a newel that is split. It did not test the hidden fixing, and it did not accept an explanation as a substitute for the split it could see. Both the defect and the seller's account remain in view.
After the survey
How should a buyer separate a price discussion, one defective gutter and the rest of the report you should not ignore while you talk when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the price discussion, the one defective gutter, and the rest of the report. The gutter may be what you are talking about. The other findings do not pause while you talk, and they are not cancelled by a conversation about a single length of rainwater goods. The survey has not shrunk itself to that gutter. A price discussion has not cleared the pages you have not dealt with. Read the whole report while the gutter is in the conversation, or you will negotiate one defect and forget the others.
Reading the report
Do NI, together with a locked outbuilding, count as evidence on a pass the letters NI do not mean, or only as a note of what was visible?
Own page
No. NI, together with a locked outbuilding, is only a note that the outbuilding was not inspected. The letters NI do not mean a pass. On the RICS scale, NI means not inspected, not a pass. Rating 1 would mean no repair is currently needed, and that rating was not given, because the inside was not seen. The lock is why. Nothing in the shed, garage or store was graded. The survey recorded the limit. It did not decide the condition behind the door.
Choosing a survey
Where a report pairs spray foam already in the roof with the instruction, what stays open about what the firm will and will not open?
Own page
Spray foam already in the roof, named at the point of instruction, leaves open what the firm will and will not open. The foam is there. Whether the surveyor will cut it, lift it, or report only what can be seen around it has not been settled by mentioning it. The instruction has not yet decided that rafters, felt and nail heads under the foam will be seen. Those limits stay open until the firm states them. The foam itself has not been tested by a job that has not defined its access.
Money
What did the visit record about Buildmark, about an alteration after the warranty started, and about cover the survey must not promise?
Own page
The visit recorded Buildmark as the warranty product and recorded an alteration made after that warranty started. It did not record a promise of cover for the alteration. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey does not open a claim, and it must not promise that a later alteration sits inside the cover. Cover is read from the warranty documents. The inspection saw the alteration as a physical change. It has not decided that NHBC will or will not accept it.
Property types
Is a poorly fixed meter box, together with a new estate, any evidence on a structural defect the box is not, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
A poorly fixed meter box on a new estate is a note of a loose fitting that was visible. It is not evidence of a structural defect. The box is a small external housing. A gap, a missing screw or a lid that will not sit is a snag in that housing. It does not become a defect in the frame or the foundations because the house is new. The survey recorded what it could see at the box. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey does not open a claim, and it has not reclassified the box as structure.
Selling
The report places a seller in England, no survey commissioned and a duty Scotland's Home Report must not be copied onto this sale in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
A seller in England, with no survey commissioned, was the situation recorded as a fact of this sale. A duty to supply Scotland's Home Report was only named, and it must not be copied onto this sale. Nothing was inspected as a Home Report, because none exists here and this is not that product. The Home Report is the Scottish product. It is not an English Level 2 the buyer instructs. No English inspection found that this seller had failed a Scottish duty. The absence of a survey was named. The duty was named so it would not be imported.
After the survey
Should an engineer's visit still pending, seen beside a price already being argued, be treated as a verdict on facts the argument does not yet have?
Own page
No. An engineer's visit that is still pending is not a verdict on facts the price argument does not yet have. The argument can run. It does not create the findings. The survey has not become the engineer's report, and a visit that has not taken place has not been tested. Cause, adequacy of repair and whether the defect is progressive stay unknown until that visit is reported. Negotiating as if the letter already existed pretends the pending visit has happened. It has not.
Walls
Where a report pairs a note about fire breaks with cladding, what stays open about an EWS1 the note is not?
Own page
A note about fire breaks, paired with cladding, is not an EWS1. What stays open is the external wall the note has not assessed: whether fire breaks are present, continuous and of the sort that wall needs. The survey recorded a concern from what it could see, or from what it could not see. It has not completed an external wall form, and it has not tested the breaks. An EWS1 is a separate product. Lender questions that ask for that form are not answered by this sentence in a home survey.
Money
The report mentions a lender query next to spray foam. Has a refusal the query has not yet become been tested, or only named?
Own page
A lender query next to spray foam was named. A refusal has not been tested, because the query has not yet become a refusal. Only the query is in view. Spray foam in a roof prompts some lenders to ask questions. A question is not a decision, and this report has not recorded one. MoneyHelper's distinction, that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey, also means this survey does not invent lending criteria. Whether a lender will accept the foam stays undecided until that lender says so.
Hazardous materials
Nothing on the visit sampled RAAC guidance aimed at larger buildings, opened a house extension or tested a reason to skip a plank that looks like the material. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
There is no reason, from this visit, to skip a plank that looks like the material just because some RAAC guidance is aimed at larger buildings. The survey has not sampled the plank in the house extension, and it has not tested a reason to ignore it. RAAC is a form of concrete panel that IStructE says needs investigation. Guidance written for schools or other large buildings does not identify this plank and does not clear it. Whether the extension contains that material stays undecided.
Legal and neighbours
Where a report pairs a fire lobby with a house converted into flats, what stays open about compartmentation the lobby door was not tested for?
Own page
A fire lobby in a house converted into flats was seen. What stays open is the compartmentation the lobby door was not tested for. The survey can say a lobby and a door are there. It cannot say the door, its closer, its seals or the wall around it actually separate the flats in a fire. No fire test was done. The conversion's performance stays undecided. Seeing a lobby is a layout note. It is not evidence that the house was successfully compartmented.
Structure
Is a concrete chimney breast, together with brick outer walls, any evidence on a sample, if you commission one, that must name the breast separately, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
A concrete chimney breast, seen with brick outer walls, is only a note of what was visible. It is not a sample. If you commission a core test, that request must name the breast separately, because the brick walls are not the concrete element. The home survey does not drill cores or award Class A, B or C. RICS guidance on the mundic problem is for surveyors in the south west. Cornwall Council describes a core test and does not provide it. The breast has not been classed. The visit recorded two different materials and stopped there.
Selling
Nothing on the visit sampled a report written for the seller in England, opened a later buyer or tested reliance the later buyer does not automatically have. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
A report written for the seller in England does not automatically give a later buyer reliance on it. Nothing on this visit tested that reliance, and reading the paper does not create it. What stays undecided is whether the firm will extend reliance to you at all. The client was the seller. The findings are what that instruction produced. They are not, by themselves, your survey. A later buyer can be shown the PDF. Being shown it is not the same as being the person entitled to rely on it.
After the survey
How should a buyer separate an engineer's letter, the asking price and a survey rating the letter does not rewrite when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the engineer's letter, the asking price and the survey rating. The letter is a specialist comment on the defect it was asked about. It does not rewrite the survey rating. The asking price is the figure under discussion. Changing what you hope to pay does not edit the rating, and the letter does not become a new grade for the whole house. The survey left its rating as it left it. Use each paper for the job it actually did. None of the three replaces the others.
Money
What did the visit record about a mortgage valuation, about a crack, and about the Level 3 that would describe the crack and that this valuation is not?
Own page
The mortgage valuation recorded a valuation, and it may have noted a crack. It did not record the description a Level 3 would give, because this valuation is not that Level 3. MoneyHelper is clear that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. A crack mentioned in passing is not a diagnosis of cause, direction or repair. Those are the sorts of points a Level 3 is instructed to describe. They stay undescribed here. The valuation has done its own job and has not done the other one.
Reading the report
Do rating 3, together with a loose parapet stone, count as evidence on serious or urgent repair, which is the RICS sense of that rating, not a price, or only as a note of what was visible?
Own page
Yes. Rating 3, together with a loose parapet stone, is the surveyor's judgement of a serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. That is the RICS sense of the rating. It is not a price. The loose stone was what was visible: an element at the edge of the roof that is not securely in place. The rating records the seriousness. The survey has not costed the work and has not turned the stone into a bill. Read the rating as condition. Read any later quote, if you obtain one, as a separate document.
Grounds
The report places a rhizome, ground beside the path and an excavation this survey did not do in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The rhizome, where it was visible, was the thing that could be inspected. The ground beside the path was the place. An excavation was only named, because this survey did not do one. A rhizome at the edge of a path is not a map of how far Japanese knotweed runs. The report recorded a piece of the plant, or what appeared to be one, at the surface. It has not dug the ground, has not traced the run, and has not cleared the rest of the garden. Extent stays undecided.
Roofs
How should a buyer separate spray foam, carried across where the party wall should be and fire stopping the foam may be covering when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the spray foam, the line where the party wall should be, and the fire stopping the foam may be covering. The foam was seen running across that line in the loft. The stopping, if it lies under the foam, was not seen and was not tested. The survey has not confirmed that a barrier is present, continuous or missing. It has recorded that foam crosses the place you would expect the party separation to show. Fire performance of that junction stays undecided. The three things must not be written as one fact.
Hazardous materials
What did the visit record about a plank end, about the bearing, and about a nib the ceiling lining is hiding?
Own page
The visit recorded the plank end and the bearing only as far as they could be seen, and a nib hidden by the ceiling lining. That is a limit of inspection, not a decision that the panel sits properly on its support. A home survey has not opened the lining, sampled the plank or investigated the bearing. RAAC is a form of concrete panel that IStructE says needs investigation. A mark or a guessed span does not settle the hidden end. What stays open is the length of support and whether a specialist must look once the cover is dealt with.
Structure
Do crumbling block, together with a south-west bungalow, count as evidence on a class letter crumbling is not, or only as a note of what was visible?
Own page
Crumbling block on a south-west bungalow is a note of what was visible, not evidence for a class letter. Crumbling is not a Class A, B or C result, and a home survey does not award those letters. The visit did not drill cores and did not test the concrete. RICS guidance on the mundic problem is for surveyors in the south west. Cornwall Council describes a core test and does not provide it. What the survey has decided is only that the surface looked broken. What it has not decided is the concrete type or any class.
Selling
The report mentions a thatch ridge age next to the seller's memory. Has a survey observation the memory is not been tested, or only named?
Own page
The thatch ridge age sitting next to the seller's memory has been named, not tested. A survey observation is not the memory, and the memory has not been checked against the coat. The visit can record what the ridge looks like now and that a figure or a story was offered. It has not decided when the ridge was last worked, how thick the coat still is, or whether the seller's date is right. Treat the age as an untested label beside a visual note.
Money
How should a buyer separate a return visit, because a room was locked and a second fee the first report may not include when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate three things: the locked room, a return visit, and a second fee the first report may not include. The survey recorded that a room was locked, so that part was not inspected. It has not decided the condition of the unseen room, and it has not decided that a second visit is included in the original instruction. MoneyHelper treats a mortgage valuation and a home survey as different jobs. Neither fee is a price for rooms nobody could enter. Ask what a return visit would cover before you assume it is free.
Reading the report
What did the visit record about the letters NI, about a part of the house, and about not inspected, which RICS does not define as a pass?
Own page
The visit recorded the letters NI against a part of the house, and those letters mean not inspected. RICS does not define NI as a pass. The survey has decided only that this element was not inspected. It has not decided that the part is free of defects, and it has not given it a condition rating. Rating 1 means no repair currently needed. Rating 2 means defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent. Rating 3 means serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. NI is none of those.
Choosing a survey
Is the energy report, together with inside a Scottish Home Report, any evidence on the single survey, which is the other document in the pack, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
The energy report inside a Scottish Home Report is not evidence about the single survey. They are different documents in the same pack. The energy report comments on energy performance. The single survey is the survey document a purchaser is pointed to in Scotland. Neither one is an English Level 2 that you instruct yourself. The pack has not decided that a good energy note means the single survey found no defects, and a home survey you might still want in England is a separate product. Read each document for what it actually covers.
Legal and neighbours
The report places a balcony, a demise the lease plan was not in the surveyor's bag and repairing duty the survey should not invent in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The balcony was inspected only as far as the surveyor could see it. The demise was merely named, because the lease plan was not in the surveyor's bag. Repairing duty was also only named: the survey should not invent who must repair. The visit has not decided that the balcony is demised with the flat, and it has not decided whether the landlord, the leaseholder or someone else must pay for work. Condition comments on what was visible stay separate from those legal labels.
Drainage
Should a new estate drain, seen beside a camera suggested later, be treated as a verdict on Buildmark, which the suggestion does not claim on?
Own page
No. A new estate drain seen from the surface, with a camera only suggested for later, is not a verdict on Buildmark. The suggestion does not claim to be one. The survey recorded what was visible of the drain run and that a camera was not used. It has not tested the underground pipes, and it has not opened a warranty claim. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The home survey does not decide whether that product responds, and it does not start a claim.
Walls
Where a report pairs render on a carrier board with a flat elevation, what stays open about the insulation behind the board, which render hides?
Own page
What stays open is the insulation behind the carrier board, which the render hides, and everything else in that build-up on the flat elevation. The report paired a rendered carrier board with the elevation it could see. It has not decided what sits behind the board, whether any insulation is present, or how the wall is fixed back to the frame. A home survey does not open render to sample the layers. The visible coating is not a verdict on the concealed insulation or on fire performance of the external wall.
Roofs
The report mentions foam removed last month next to rafters now visible. Has the covering's underside, which the removal does not let you pretend was inspected last year been tested, or only named?
Own page
The covering's underside has been named in today's conditions, not tested as it was last year. Foam removed last month means the rafters are now visible, and that is all the visit could use. The survey has not decided what the underside looked like while the foam was still there, and it has not tested timber that was hidden then. Removal does not let anyone pretend last year's roof void was inspected. What remains open is the history of the foam, any damage it left, and how a lender will read a roof that once had it.
Hazardous materials
Nothing on the visit sampled a stain, opened a plank soffit or tested a diagnosis of RAAC the stain colour does not make. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
The diagnosis has to stay undecided, and so do the cause of the stain and the condition of the plank soffit. Nothing on the visit sampled the stain, opened the soffit or tested a diagnosis of RAAC. Stain colour does not make that diagnosis. A home survey has not investigated or sampled the plank. RAAC is a form of concrete panel that IStructE says needs investigation. The report can record a mark on a surface. It cannot decide that the panel is this material, or that it is not, from paint and a colour.
Structure
What did the visit record about rust on a chassis, about behind the skirting of a park home, and about the written agreement, which rust does not rewrite?
Own page
The visit recorded rust only where the chassis could be seen, and it recorded that skirting hides the rest of a park home frame. It did not read the written agreement, and rust does not rewrite that agreement. The survey has not decided how far the corrosion goes, and it has not set the pitch fee. GOV.UK treats a park home as a special case when buying. The survey of the unit does not replace the written agreement. Hidden steel and the site terms both stay outside this note.
Services
Do stack noise, together with a flat in a converted house, count as evidence on a defect in the flat below, which this inspection did not enter, or only as a note of what was visible?
Own page
Stack noise in a flat in a converted house is only a note of what was heard where the surveyor stood. It is not evidence of a defect in the flat below, which this inspection did not enter. The survey has not decided that the stack is leaking, blocked or badly jointed. Sound through a pipe is a clue, not a finding about rooms that were closed. Condition downstairs stays outside this report, whatever the pipe sounded like on the day.
Grounds
What did the visit record about a herbicide sticker, about the fence, and about a treatment programme the sticker does not prove was finished?
Own page
The visit recorded a herbicide sticker and its place by the fence. It did not record a finished treatment programme, because a sticker does not prove the work was completed. The survey has noted what was visible. It has not decided that Japanese knotweed is absent, present or under a managed plan. A label can be left after one visit or after many. The home survey did not dig the border and did not check a contractor's papers. The programme, if there is one, stays unproved.
Selling
The report mentions a missing newel cap next to a seller preparing the house. Has a small item that is still a real note if a survey records it been tested, or only named?
Own page
The missing newel cap has been named, not tested as a failure of the stair. It is still a real note if a survey records it. The visit saw that the cap was off the newel while the seller was preparing the house. It has not decided that the flight is unsafe, and it has not decided that the gap is only cosmetic. Preparation does not erase the observation. The report records the day of the visit, not the house the seller hopes to show later.
Money
How should a buyer separate the valuation fee, the survey fee and two instructions MoneyHelper treats as different jobs when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the valuation fee, the survey fee, and the two instructions MoneyHelper treats as different jobs. The valuation is for the lender. The home survey is the inspection you instruct for your own information. A mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. Paying one fee has not been decided to cover the other, and the valuation has not been decided to be a survey. Read each instruction for what it buys. Do not invent a combined price or a lender rule that is not written in your papers.
Roofs
What did the visit record about Delabole scantle slates, about the catslide over the scullery outshot, and about the secret gutter behind that slope?
Own page
The visit recorded Delabole scantle slates where they could be seen, the catslide over the scullery outshot, and a secret gutter behind that slope. Those are visual notes. The survey has not decided that the slates are fixed soundly, that the catslide is weathertight, or that the hidden gutter is clear. A ground view and a loft glimpse do not lift slates or clear a concealed channel. What stays open is the bedding, the laps and the gutter the catslide hides from the scullery side.
Roofs
Is a mansard cheek of rag slate, together with the London roof on the street front, any evidence on the lead saddle where the cheek meets the slope, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
A mansard cheek of rag slate, together with the London roof on the street front, is only a note of what was visible. It is not evidence on the lead saddle where the cheek meets the slope. The survey saw the slate and the front roof as far as access allowed. It has not decided that the saddle is sound. That piece of lead can be small, high and partly hidden. Naming the coverings does not test the junction. The saddle remains a separate detail.
Roofs
The report places purpose-made hip tiles on a gambrel, the half dormer and the mitred hip on the opposite corner in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The purpose-made hip tiles were inspected only as far as they could be seen. The half dormer was inspected for the face and cheeks that were in view. The mitred hip on the opposite corner was merely named if the view of it was poorer, and the paragraph should be read with that limit. The survey has not decided that all three are sound. Sharing a paragraph means they were discussed together. It does not mean each junction was opened or tested.
Roofs
Should bonnet hip tiles, seen beside a swept valley, be treated as a verdict on the laced valley on the rear slope?
Own page
No. Bonnet hip tiles seen beside a swept valley are not a verdict on the laced valley on the rear slope. The survey recorded the hip tiles and the swept valley as details in view. It has not decided that the laced valley is sound, clear or built the same way. A swept valley and a laced valley carry the courses differently. Seeing one does not inspect the other. The rear slope stands on its own note, which may be no more than a distant look.
Roofs
Where a report pairs creasing tiles with the verge beside the stack, what stays open about an undercloak that has dropped?
Own page
What stays open is the dropped undercloak beside the stack, and whether the verge is still supported once that course has moved. The report paired creasing tiles with the verge it could see. It has not decided that the tiles are holding the edge, that the undercloak can be left, or that water is entering at the stack. A ground view can show a gap or a sag. It cannot rebuild the verge or test the bedding. The creasing tiles and the fallen undercloak are related, but neither has been given a repair verdict.
Roofs
The report mentions a tilting fillet next to pantiles at the eaves. Has sprocketed rafter feet been tested, or only named?
Own page
Sprocketed rafter feet have been named, not tested. The report mentions a tilting fillet next to pantiles at the eaves, which is the detail that often sits over those feet. The survey has recorded the fillet and the pantiles it could see. It has not decided that the sprockets are sound, rotten or even fully present. A fillet is a piece of timber or mortar that lifts the last course. Naming it is not a test of the rafter ends hidden behind the fascia.
Roofs
Nothing on the visit sampled double Roman tiles, opened a dry ridge system or tested hip irons that are no longer fixed. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
What has to stay undecided is the fixing of the double Roman tiles, the inside of the dry ridge system, and the hip irons that are no longer fixed. Nothing on the visit sampled the tiles, opened the ridge or tested those irons. The survey can say a hip iron looks loose or missing from the ground. It has not decided why, whether the hip tiles are restrained, or whether the dry ridge is complete. Those three limits stay open until someone with proper access looks at them.
Roofs
How should a buyer separate Ludlow interlocking tiles, the exposed verge and a mortar bed used as the only ridge fixing when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the Ludlow interlocking tiles, the exposed verge, and the mortar bed used as the only ridge fixing. They share a paragraph because they were seen on the same roof. The survey has not decided that the tiles interlock as they should, that the verge is restrained, or that a mortar-only ridge is adequate. Each is a visual note. None was opened or tested. Read them as three limits, not as one combined verdict on the covering.
Roofs
What did the visit record about Collyweston stone slates, about the porch roof, and about lime torching seen from the loft?
Own page
The visit recorded Collyweston stone slates on the slopes that were in view, the porch roof as a separate small covering, and lime torching only where the loft let the underside be seen. It has not decided that the stone slates are well fixed, that the porch matches the main roof, or that the torching is complete. Lime seen from a hatch is a glimpse of the underside. It is not a map of every bay, and it is not a test of the stone above.
Roofs
Do Horsham stone slabs, together with the aisle slope, count as evidence on counter battens that may be holding water, or only as a note of what was visible?
Own page
Horsham stone slabs on the aisle slope are only a note of what was visible. They do not count as evidence that counter battens are holding water, or that they are clear. The survey saw the slabs as far as it could, and it may have seen battens from the loft. It has not decided how the counter battens are fixed or whether water sits on them. Heavy stone on a low aisle is a covering note. The drainage path behind it was not tested.
Roofs
The report places pennant stone slates, the lean-to and a mouse loft boarded across the eaves in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
Pennant stone slates were inspected only on the faces that could be seen. The lean-to was inspected as a separate roof where it was in view. The mouse loft boarded across the eaves was named, and the boarding means the eaves void behind it was not inspected. The survey has not decided that the stone is sound, that the lean-to matches it, or that the closed eaves are dry. One paragraph collects three limits. It is not one inspection of everything named.
Roofs
Should fibre-cement slates, seen beside a bungalow ridge, be treated as a verdict on sarking boards the hatch does not reach?
Own page
No. Fibre-cement slates seen beside a bungalow ridge are not a verdict on sarking boards the hatch does not reach. The survey recorded the slates it could see from outside and whatever the hatch actually opened onto. It has not decided the condition of boards beyond that reach, and it has not decided that the ridge view describes the underlay. Sarking the surveyor could not get to remains not inspected. The slates are a covering note only.
Roofs
Where a report pairs an eyebrow dormer with block-ridge thatch, what stays open about the liggers under the coat?
Own page
What stays open is the liggers under the coat, which an eyebrow dormer and a block ridge do not expose. The report paired those two visible features. It has not decided that the liggers are sound, present all the way along, or free of decay. Block-ridge thatch is a finished shape on the outside. The eyebrow is a raised swell over a window. Neither is a view of the timber rods under the straw or reed. The survey has named the coat it could see and left the liggers unresolved.
Roofs
The report mentions a lead saddle next to the thatched chimney. Has parget along the ridge been tested, or only named?
Own page
Parget along the ridge has been named, not tested. The report mentions a lead saddle next to the thatched chimney, which is a different detail at the stack. The survey has recorded the saddle as far as it could be seen and has recorded that parget was spoken of or glimpsed along the ridge. It has not decided that the lime coat is intact, stuck or complete. The saddle does not prove the parget, and the parget note does not prove the saddle is weathertight.
Roofs
Nothing on the visit sampled hung tiles, opened a jettied gable or tested weatherboard hidden behind the tiles. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
The fixing of the hung tiles, the timber of the jettied gable, and the weatherboard hidden behind the tiles all have to stay undecided. Nothing on the visit sampled the tiles, opened the jetty or tested that hidden board. The survey can describe the tile face and the overhang it could see. It has not decided that the boards are dry, decayed or still continuous. A jettied gable puts framing and cladding out over the wall below. The tiles are a screen. What they cover was not reached.
Roof and rainwater
How should a buyer separate a box gutter, the butterfly roof and a split rainwater head when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the box gutter, the butterfly roof that drains into it, and the split rainwater head at the outlet. The survey has placed three linked parts of one drainage path in one paragraph. It has not decided that the gutter is clear, that both slopes of the butterfly fall correctly, or that the split head still catches the outlet. Each can fail on its own. A visual note of the arrangement is not a water test of the whole path.
Roof and rainwater
What did the visit record about a swan neck, about an ogee gutter, and about the stop end over the bay?
Own page
The visit recorded a swan neck, an ogee gutter and the stop end over the bay as rainwater details it could see from the ground. It has not decided that the swan neck is clear, that the ogee holds water, or that the stop end is sealed. The three pieces were identified. They were not water-tested. A stop end that looks present can still be cracked, and a swan neck can be blocked out of sight. The bay is the location, not a finding that the window below is dry.
Roof and rainwater
Is a water butt, together with the downpipe shoe, any evidence on overflow soaking the plinth, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
A water butt together with the downpipe shoe is only a note of what was visible. It is not evidence that overflow is soaking the plinth, and it is not evidence that the plinth is dry. The survey saw the butt and the shoe. It has not run the pipe, measured the butt, or decided where water goes when the butt is full. A shoe that stops short of the gully, or a butt with no diverter overflow, can wet the base of the wall. That mechanism was not tested on the day.
Roof and rainwater
The report places holderbat clips, a cast-iron stack and a PVC gutter fixed on the listed front in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The holderbat clips and the cast-iron stack were inspected as far as the ironwork could be seen on the listed front. The PVC gutter was inspected as a modern fitting fixed on that same front, not as something the survey approved. All three were seen rather than merely named, but only externally. The survey has not decided that the clips are original, that the stack is sound inside, or that the plastic gutter is acceptable on a listed building. Listing covers the whole building. The survey does not grant consent.
Roofs
Should a dentil course, seen beside the eaves soffit, be treated as a verdict on a bargeboard soft at the fly-end?
Own page
No. A dentil course seen beside the eaves soffit is not a verdict on a bargeboard soft at the fly-end. The survey recorded the dentil course along the eaves and, separately, softness at the fly-end of the bargeboard. It has not decided that the soffit is sound because the dentils look intact, and it has not decided how far the soft timber goes. One is a brick detail. The other is a timber board at the verge. They were near each other in the report. They are not the same finding.
Roofs
Where a report pairs a stone kneeler with the parapet coping, what stays open about the parapet gutter behind it?
Own page
What stays open is the parapet gutter behind the coping, which a stone kneeler does not reveal. The report paired the kneeler with the coping it could see from the ground or a nearby window. It has not decided that the gutter is lined, clear or falling to an outlet. The kneeler is the stone that stops the coping at the verge. The coping is the cap on the parapet. The channel on the roof side of that wall stayed out of that view.
Roofs
The report mentions a secret gutter next to the abutment to the neighbour's slope. Has debris the binoculars could not shift been tested, or only named?
Own page
Debris the binoculars could not shift has been named, not tested. The report mentions a secret gutter next to the abutment where this roof meets the neighbour's slope. The survey has recorded that a hidden channel is there and that debris appears to sit in it. It has not cleared the gutter, has not decided how deep the silt is, and has not decided that water is entering at the abutment. Binoculars identify. They do not excavate.
Hazardous materials
How should a buyer separate asbestos-cement slates, the detached garage and a coating nobody has sampled when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the asbestos-cement slates, the detached garage they cover, and a coating nobody has sampled. The survey has named all three. It has not sampled the slates or the coating, and looking does not identify asbestos. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain it. The visit has not identified the coating, and it has not tested the garage structure. Keep the material question, the outbuilding and the unsampled coating as three open items.
Roofs
What did the visit record about diminishing courses of stone slate, about the farmhouse ridge, and about nail sickness the loft lamp did not prove?
Own page
The visit recorded diminishing courses of stone slate on the slopes in view, and the farmhouse ridge as the line those courses run toward. It recorded nail sickness only as a concern the loft lamp did not prove. The survey has not decided that the fixings have failed, because the lamp did not show the nails. It has not decided that the ridge mortar is sound. Diminishing courses describe the laying pattern. They are not a test of every peg or nail under the stone.
Roofs
Do club tiles, together with the swept valley, count as evidence on mortar fillets used instead of lead, or only as a note of what was visible?
Own page
Club tiles together with the swept valley are only a note of what was visible. They do not count as evidence that mortar fillets were used instead of lead, unless the report says those fillets were actually seen. The survey has not decided that lead is absent, and it has not decided that mortar is doing the valley's work. Club tiles are a shaped tile in the courses. A swept valley is a way of turning those courses. The material in the bed stays unproved if it was only inferred.
Roof and rainwater
The report places sprockets, the fascia line and wet rot in the tilting fillet in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
Wet rot in the tilting fillet was inspected where the surveyor could reach or see the decayed timber. The fascia line was inspected as the board run that was visible. The sprockets were named as the rafter ends associated with that eaves, and they were not fully inspected if they sit behind the fascia. The survey has not decided that every sprocket is rotten because the fillet is, and it has not decided that the fascia is sound along its whole length. One paragraph holds three different depths of look.
Roofs
Should counter battens, seen beside the eaves ventilator, be treated as a verdict on a gap packed with insulation?
Own page
No. Counter battens seen beside the eaves ventilator are not a verdict on a gap packed with insulation. The survey recorded the battens it could see and a ventilator at the eaves. It has not decided that the gap is clear, blocked or packed, unless the report says the packing was actually in view. A ventilator grille on the outside does not prove a path through the insulation. The home survey has not tested airflow. What stays open is whether that gap still lets the slope breathe.
Roofs
Where a report pairs missing lime torching with the loft side of the slates, what stays open about snow dust on the ceiling joists?
Own page
What stays open is how the snow dust on the ceiling joists got there, and whether missing lime torching on the loft side of the slates is the path. The report paired those observations. It has not decided that snow blew in because the torching is gone, and it has not decided that the slates above are failed. Dust on joists shows fine material settled inside. Missing torching shows a gap in an old mortar coat. The link between them was not tested.
Roofs
The report mentions mouse boarding next to the eaves void. Has whether ventilation still reaches the slope been tested, or only named?
Own page
Whether ventilation still reaches the slope has been named, not tested. The report mentions mouse boarding next to the eaves void. The survey has recorded that boarding and the void it relates to. It has not measured a path for air, and it has not decided that the slope is ventilated or choked. Mouse boarding is a close board at the eaves, traditionally to stop birds and to support the edge. It can also close the very gap a later ventilator was meant to use. The visit did not test which of those is true here.
Roof and rainwater
What did the visit record about a missing stop end, about the party-wall gutter, and about water crossing into next door's loft?
Own page
The visit recorded a missing stop end on the party-wall gutter, and it recorded the risk that water can cross toward next door's loft. It did not inspect next door, and it did not watch water make that crossing. The survey has decided that the stop end is missing where it looked. It has not decided that next door is already wet, and it has not decided who must alter the gutter. A party-wall gutter is a shared channel. The missing end is a visible gap in it. The neighbour's loft stays outside this inspection.
Roofs
What did the visit record about a midfeather, about the gather above the fireplace, and about the flue the surveyor did not look up?
Own page
The visit recorded the midfeather and the gather above the fireplace only as far as they could be seen in the room. It recorded that the flue was not looked up. The survey has not decided that the midfeather is intact for the full height, that the gather is clear, or that the flue is safe to use. A home survey does not camera a flue and does not sweep it. What stays open is everything above the point the eye stopped, including whether the two sides of the breast still divide properly.
Roofs
The report places old parging, the flue and a liner that was not confirmed in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
Old parging was inspected only where it could be seen, usually at the fireplace opening. The flue was named and not inspected internally. The liner was merely named as not confirmed. The survey has not decided that a liner is absent in the whole stack, and it has not decided that the old parging is continuous or safe. Putting the three in one paragraph shows they were considered together. It does not mean each was examined to the same depth.
Roofs
Should a cracked fireback, seen beside the throat, be treated as a verdict on soot in the gather?
Own page
No. A cracked fireback seen beside the throat is not a verdict on soot in the gather. The survey recorded a crack in the fireback and soot where the gather could be seen. It has not decided that the soot explains the crack, that the gather is blocked, or that the flue above is sound. The fireback is the lining of the fire opening. The throat is the narrowing just above it. Soot there is residue in view. Each observation stands, and neither was turned into a flue test.
Roofs
Where a report pairs a register plate with a blocked vent, what stays open about the unused flue behind it?
Own page
The unused flue behind that plate stays an open question. A register plate closes the fireplace opening, and the vent in it is there so the unused flue can still breathe. Pairing the plate with a blocked vent records the fitting as it was seen, including a vent shut by paint, a blank or debris. The survey has not swept the flue, looked inside it, or decided whether soot, debris or condensation sits behind the plate. It has not decided that the flue can stay sealed, and it has not found an appliance still using it.
Roofs
The report mentions a cracked pot next to a tilted cowl. Has a terminal guard that is loose been tested, or only named?
Own page
The loose terminal guard has only been named, not tested. A cracked pot and a tilted cowl are separate visual notes beside it. A terminal guard is the mesh or cage on the pot, and loose means the report saw it unsecured, not that anyone pulled the fixing or checked it would stay put. The survey has not decided the pot must come down, has not decided the cowl is failing, and has not load-tested the guard. The flue itself was not swept.
Structure
Nothing on the visit sampled a corbelled breast, opened the hearth trimmer or tested joists notched around the hearth. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
The corbel, the hearth trimmer and the notched joists all stay undecided. Nothing on the visit sampled the corbelled breast, opened the trimmer, or tested the joists notched around the hearth. A corbel is the brickwork that steps out to carry the breast where the stack reduces. The trimmer frames the hearth in the floor, and notches cut joists to clear that hearth. The survey has recorded the limits of the visit. It has not decided those timbers are sound, and it has not decided the corbel is cracked or intact inside.
Property types
How should a buyer separate an inglenook, a bread oven and the timber lintel over the opening when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the inglenook, the bread oven and the timber lintel as three different pieces of fabric. The inglenook is the large fireplace recess. The bread oven is the smaller chamber beside it, often with its own small opening. The timber lintel is the beam across the main opening, not the recess and not the oven. The survey has named all three together. It has not probed the lintel ends, dated which part is original, or decided that any of them has failed. Listing covers the whole building, and this visit does not grant consent to alter any of the three.
Roofs
What did the visit record about open joints in the flaunching, about the tallest pot, and about rain running down the flue?
Own page
The visit recorded open joints in the flaunching, named the tallest pot by sight, and described rain running down the flue as a path rather than a measured leak. Flaunching is the mortar crown that beds the pots and sheds water off the stack. Open joints are gaps in that mortar. The tallest pot is the one that stood highest as seen, not a height that was measured. The survey has not decided how much water enters, has not tested the flue lining, and has not said the pot must be reset.
Roofs
The report places stepped lead flashings, the stack abutment and a soaker course that stops short in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The stepped lead flashings and the stack abutment were inspected as far as they could be seen. The soaker course that stops short was named from the exposed end, not turned out slate by slate. Stepped flashings are the visible lead steps cut into the abutment. Soakers sit under the slates and only show at an end or a gap. The survey has not water-tested the junction, has not decided the roof leaks because the course stops short, and has not specified new lead. Concealed soakers remain unchecked.
Roofs
Should a haunched pot, seen beside a stack that leans, be treated as a verdict on whether the lean is in the photographs only?
Own page
No. A haunched pot beside a leaning stack is not a verdict that the lean is only in the photographs. Haunching is extra mortar shaped around the pot to throw water off the crown. The lean is a separate note that the stack does not look plumb. Mortar around a pot does not prove a camera trick, and it does not prove the brickwork has moved. The survey has not plumbed the stack, has not measured any lean, and has not decided the chimney is unsafe.
Damp
Where a report pairs distemper over limewash with the pantry wall, what stays open about salts the meter was not asked to map?
Own page
The salts on that pantry wall stay unmapped. The report pairs distemper over limewash with the wall, which records the coatings that were seen. Distemper and limewash are both traditional breathable finishes, and salts can sit in or on them without a map of where the crystals are. The meter was not asked to map those salts, so their type, their spread and whether they are pulling moisture from the air stay open. The survey has not decided the cause is rising damp, and it has not prescribed a tanking treatment.
Damp
The report mentions anaglypta over woodchip next to a cold external corner. Has mould the lining paper is hiding been tested, or only named?
Own page
The mould the lining paper may be hiding has only been named, not tested. Anaglypta over woodchip is two layers of lining paper at a cold external corner, which is a classic cold spot. The report mentions that build-up. It does not mean anyone lifted the paper, sampled a spot, or proved mould is active behind it. The survey has not decided the corner is the cause, has not identified a species of mould, and has not said the paper must come off.
Hazardous materials
Nothing on the visit sampled a textured coating, opened the loft hatch surround or tested sampling that a home survey does not do. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
Whether the textured coating or the loft hatch surround contains asbestos stays undecided. Nothing on the visit sampled the coating, opened the hatch surround, or carried out the sampling a home survey does not do. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos, and looking does not identify it. The survey has not named the material in the coating or in the surround. It has not said the coating should be disturbed, and it has not seen the lining behind the hatch frame.
Property types
How should a buyer separate lath and plaster, a ceiling rose and a crack that follows the laths when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the lath and plaster, the ceiling rose and the crack that follows the laths. Lath and plaster is the ceiling build: timber strips with plaster keyed between them. The rose is an ornament, often at the centre, and it is not the field of the ceiling. A crack along the laths is a line in that plaster, commonly where the keys have let go. The survey has named the three together. It has not opened the ceiling, and it has not decided that the rose will fall or that a joist has failed.
Damp
What did the visit record about a picture rail and dado, about a salt band below the rail, and about whether the tide mark is damp or old decoration?
Own page
The visit recorded the picture rail and dado as mouldings, a salt band below the rail as a deposit that could be seen, and left open whether the tide mark is damp or old decoration. A rail and a dado are horizontal trims. A salt band is a crust or a line, not a cause. The survey has not decided on rising damp, has not mapped moisture through the wall, and has not said the decoration is a live tide rather than an old paint line. The mark stays unexplained.
Damp
Is the cornice, together with a bathroom with no extract, any evidence on condensation tracking along the plaster, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
It is only a note of what was visible, not evidence that condensation is tracking along the plaster. The cornice is the mould where wall meets ceiling. A bathroom with no extract is a room without a fan. Naming them together records both facts. The survey has not measured humidity, has not traced a path along the cornice, and has not decided that steam is marking the plaster. It has not tested the ventilation, and it has not specified a fan.
Walls
The report places stipple render, the north elevation and moisture trapped behind the texture in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The stipple render and the north elevation were inspected as surfaces that could be seen. Moisture trapped behind the texture was named, not measured. Stipple is a thrown or patterned face, and the north elevation is which wall it is on. Trapped moisture would sit in or behind that coat, and the coat was not opened. The survey has not cored the render, has not proved water is held there, and has not decided the texture must be removed.
Property types
Should mathematical tiles, seen beside a timber frame, be treated as a verdict on brickwork the tiles are imitating?
Own page
No. Mathematical tiles beside a timber frame are not a verdict on the brickwork they imitate. The tiles are clay, hung so they look like brick headers, usually on battens over the frame. Seeing them next to timber describes that cladding. It does not mean a brick wall stands behind them, because imitating brick is the point of the tiles. The survey has not opened the frame, has not decided the timber is sound, and has not treated the face as real brickwork.
Walls
Where a report pairs knapped flint with galleting in the joints, what stays open about spalling the survey did not pick out?
Own page
The spalling the survey did not pick out stays open, flint by flint. Knapped flint is split to show a face, and galleting is the small stones packed into the wide joints. The report pairs those finishes as they were seen. It does not schedule every flint that is shelling, so individual spalls remain unlisted. The survey has not decided the wall is failing. Listing covers the whole building, and this visit does not grant consent to repoint or rebuild the face.
Walls
The report mentions a cob wall next to a hard cement plinth. Has damp held at the base been tested, or only named?
Own page
Damp held at the base has only been named, not tested. A cob wall is an earth wall, and a hard cement plinth is a dense skirt against its foot. The report puts those two side by side. It does not give moisture readings through the cob, and it does not show that water is actually held there. The survey has not decided the plinth must come off. Listing covers the wall, and this visit does not grant consent to cut it back.
Walls
Nothing on the visit sampled ashlar with rustication, opened the ground-floor front or tested an open joint over the window head. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
The open joint over the window head, and what it does to the wall behind, stays undecided. Nothing sampled the ashlar or its rustication, opened the ground-floor front, or tested that joint. Ashlar is dressed stone in regular blocks. Rustication is the sunk joint or the textured margin. The survey has recorded those limits. It has not followed a water path, has not decided the head is leaking, and has not granted consent to rake or refill the joint.
Walls
How should a buyer separate vermiculated stone, the porch piers and a face that looks decayed because it was carved that way when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the vermiculated stone, the porch piers and the look of decay. Vermiculation is carving of wandering grooves, cut so the face looks eaten. That look is the design, not a finding that the stone has failed. The porch piers are the supports that carry the finish. The survey has named the three together. It has not probed the piers, has not decided they are unsound, and has not granted consent to recut or replace the stone. Listing covers the whole porch.
Walls
What did the visit record about tuck pointing, about a ribbon of white putty, and about the stopped joint behind it?
Own page
The visit recorded tuck pointing as the finish, the ribbon of white putty where it could be seen, and the stopped joint behind only where that ribbon no longer hid it. Tuck pointing sets a narrow ribbon, often lime putty, into a joint that has been stopped and coloured to match the brick. Where the ribbon remains, the joint behind was covered. The survey has not decided the whole elevation has failed, and it has not granted listed consent to rake the pointing out.
Walls
Do penny-struck joints, together with the side passage wall, count as evidence on rain driven into the struck edge, or only as a note of what was visible?
Own page
They are only a note of what was visible, not evidence that rain is driven into the struck edge. Penny-struck joints are a narrow joint profile, historically finished with a coin, seen here on the side passage wall. The survey recorded that profile. A struck edge can catch water, but this visit did not spray the wall, trace a leak, or decide that rain is entering there. The note is the joint. It is not a weathering test.
Walls
The report places a gauged brick arch, the fanlight head and a slight sag in the voussoirs in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The gauged brick arch and the fanlight head were inspected as masonry and joinery that could be seen. The slight sag in the voussoirs was named as the look of the curve, not measured. Gauged work is soft brick rubbed to fine joints, and voussoirs are the wedge-shaped units. The survey has not calculated a deflection, has not opened the arch, and has not decided that it is failing. A slight sag in the wording is an appearance, not an instrument reading.
Damp
Should limewash, seen beside modern masonry paint, be treated as a verdict on blisters on a cottage front?
Own page
No. Limewash beside modern masonry paint is not a verdict on the blisters. Limewash lets vapour through. Many masonry paints let much less through, and blisters where they meet can have more than one cause. The survey saw both coatings and the blisters. It has not tested the build-up of coats, has not decided the paint is trapping the limewash, and has not said either coat should come off. Listing covers the front, and this visit grants no consent to strip it.
Timber
Where a report pairs feather-edge weatherboarding with the sole plate, what stays open about a wet board the paint is bridging?
Own page
What stays open is the wet board the paint is bridging, and the sole plate behind the lowest boards. Feather-edge weatherboarding is tapered boards lapped on the frame. Paint can seal those laps so a wet board cannot shed or dry, and it can hide softness. The sole plate is the timber at the foot. The survey paired the boards with that plate. It did not lift a board, did not test the plate, and has not decided there is decay.
Walls
The report mentions waney-edge boards next to a blocked vent gap. Has staining on the sheathing been tested, or only named?
Own page
Staining on the sheathing has only been named, not tested. Waney-edge boards are the outer cladding, with the natural edge of the board left on. A vent gap behind that cladding is there so the cavity can breathe, and the report says that gap is blocked. The sheathing is the layer behind the cavity. The survey did not open the boards, did not sample the stain, and has not decided the sheathing is wet or decayed.
Walls
How should a buyer separate a string course, an open joint and a damp patch on the bedroom lining below when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the string course, the open joint and the damp patch on the bedroom lining. A string course is a projecting band on the outside wall. An open joint is a gap in that band or beside it. The patch is an internal mark below, on the lining. The survey has named the three in one place. It has not shown that the joint feeds the patch, has not water-tested the course, and has not decided the cause of the mark inside.
Property types
What did the visit record about a blocked window-tax opening, about the stair landing, and about a vent the bricks have closed?
Own page
The visit recorded a blocked window-tax opening as brick filling an old window, recorded it at the stair landing, and recorded that the bricks have closed what could have been a vent. Window tax left many houses with openings built up in brick so they read as blank windows. The survey has described that fabric. It has not measured fresh air on the landing, has not decided the stair is short of ventilation, and has not said the opening should be unblocked.
Damp
Is a salt-glaze air brick, together with paint across the holes, any evidence on the underfloor void it should serve, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
It is only a note of what was visible, not evidence about the underfloor void. A salt-glaze air brick is a glazed clay ventilator, and paint across the holes blocks the face that was seen. The brick should serve the space under the floor, but this visit did not get into that void and did not test airflow. The survey has not decided the floor timbers are damp or dry. Paint on the holes is not a survey of the void.
Property types
Should crown glass panes, seen beside a bedroom sash, be treated as a verdict on a modern unit someone has already swapped?
Own page
No. Crown glass beside a bedroom sash is not a verdict that someone has already swapped in a modern unit. Crown glass is old spun glass, often slightly curved or seeded, set in the sash. A later-looking pane is a different appearance. The survey can describe that contrast. It has not dated the glass, has not decided a replacement happened, and has not granted listed consent to change any pane. Looking at a bedroom sash is not a history of the glazing.
Property types
Where a report pairs spiral balances with the staff bead, what stays open about a sash that will not stay open?
Own page
What stays open is why the sash will not stay open. Spiral balances are spring tubes in the frame, used instead of cords and weights. The staff bead is the planted bead on the room side that holds the inner sash. A sash that drops may have a tired spring, a painted-in edge, or a bead that grips too hard. The survey paired the fittings. It has not renewed the balances, has not decided which cause it is, and has not serviced the window.
Property types
The report mentions a loose parting bead next to the meeting rails. Has daylight through the closed sash been tested, or only named?
Own page
Daylight through the closed sash has only been named, not tested. A loose parting bead is the thin bead between the two sashes, seen unfixed beside the meeting rails, which are the rails where the sashes close on each other. A line of light is something the eye can notice. It is not a measured gap, a draught test, or a decision that the sash has failed. The survey has not decided the bead is the cause of the light, and it has not priced or specified a repair.
Property types
Nothing on the visit sampled an espagnolette, opened a broken cockspur or tested a casement that latches on one side only. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
Whether the espagnolette is engaging, why the cockspur is broken, and why the casement latches on one side only all stay undecided. Nothing sampled the locking bar, opened the broken cockspur, or tested that one-sided latch. An espagnolette is a bar with bolts up the edge of the sash. A cockspur is the handle fastener. The survey has named the ironmongery. It has not decided the casement is insecure, and it has not decided the sash is twisted.
Property types
How should a buyer separate ferramenta saddle bars, a leaded light and cements the survey did not test when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the ferramenta saddle bars, the leaded light and the cements. Ferramenta are the iron bars, and saddle bars are the horizontal bars the leaded panel is tied to. The leaded light is the glass held in lead. The cements are the material in the leads, and the survey did not test them. The three are one window and three findings. The visit has not decided the panel must be re-leaded, and it has not granted listed consent for that work.
Property types
What did the visit record about lead cames, about quarry glass, and about a buckle in the panel?
Own page
The visit recorded lead cames as the strips holding the glass, quarry glass as the small panes, and a buckle as a bow in the panel seen by eye. Cames are the H-section leads. Quarries are the small diamond or rectangular panes. A buckle is the panel leaving the flat. The survey has not decided the lead is tired through, has not pressed the panel as a test, and has not specified re-leading. It has not granted listed consent to rebuild the light.
Damp
Do secondary glazing, together with an unvented sash box, count as evidence on condensation trapped in the cavity between the glasses, or only as a note of what was visible?
Own page
They are only a note of what was visible, not evidence of condensation trapped between the glasses. Secondary glazing is an extra pane or frame set inside the sash. An unvented sash box means the frame or the space was recorded without a vent. The survey saw those two things. It did not open the cavity between the glasses, did not wipe it as a test, and has not decided that condensation is trapped there. No humidity was measured.
Property types
The report places a shutter box, folded panel shutters and rot in the lining the boxes cover in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The shutter box and the folded panel shutters were inspected as far as they could be seen or folded out. Rot in the lining the boxes cover was named from signs at the edge, not from a lining that was fully opened. A shutter box is the casing beside the window. Panel shutters fold into it. The survey has not mapped how far any softness runs. It has not decided the shutters have failed, and it has not granted listed consent to strip the boxes.
Property types
Should Crittall W20 frames, seen beside top-hung hoppers, be treated as a verdict on rust at the bottom rail?
Own page
No. Crittall W20 frames beside top-hung hoppers are not a verdict on rust at the bottom rail. W20 is a slim steel window section. Hoppers are the small lights hinged at the top. Seeing the suite and those hoppers describes the windows. Rust at the bottom rail, where water sits, can thin the steel out of sight of a glance. The survey has not measured section loss, has not opened a joint, and has not decided the frames must be replaced.
Property types
Where a report pairs Georgian wired glass with a borrowed light over the stair, what stays open about a crack the wire is holding?
Own page
What stays open is whether a crack the wire is holding still leaves a reliable pane over the stair. Georgian wired glass has a mesh cast into the pane. A borrowed light is an internal window, here over the stair, taking light from another room. The wire can keep cracked glass in the frame so the pane has not fallen. The survey has not impact-tested it, has not decided the pane is a sound screen, and has not said it must be replaced.
Property types
The report mentions a tilt-and-turn window next to a night vent. Has a trickle vent painted shut been tested, or only named?
Own page
The trickle vent painted shut has only been named, not tested. A tilt-and-turn window can tilt inwards and also turn open, and a night vent is a small vent position or a separate night ventilator beside it. Paint across a trickle vent is a visual note that the slot is skinned over. The survey has not measured airflow, has not decided the room fails any ventilation expectation, and has not said the window gear is at fault.
Property types
Nothing on the visit sampled float glass, opened a missing draught bead or tested a rattle the survey heard and did not price. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
What the float glass is, what the missing draught bead lets past, and what the rattle means all stay undecided. Nothing sampled the glass, opened the missing bead's rebate, or tested the rattle the survey heard and did not price. Float glass is flat modern glass, if that is what the pane is. A draught bead is the seal or bead that closes a gap. The survey has not costed the rattle, has not found its cause, and has not decided the pane must be replaced.
Property types
How should a buyer separate a multipoint lock, a thumb-turn cylinder and a door that meets the frame only at the catches when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the multipoint lock, the thumb-turn cylinder and the way the door meets the frame. A multipoint lock shoots bolts at several places. A thumb-turn cylinder is turned from the inside rather than only by a key. The door meeting the frame only at the catches means contact is at those points, not along the edge. The survey has named the three. It has not security-tested the door, has not decided the leaf is distorted, and has not said the lock has failed.
Property types
What did the visit record about a night latch, about a rim lock, and about a mortice that does not throw?
Own page
The visit recorded a night latch and a rim lock as face-fixed hardware, and a mortice whose bolt does not throw. A night latch springs shut as the door closes. A rim lock is fixed on the face of the door. A mortice sits in the edge, and not throwing means the bolt was not seen to project. The survey has not stripped the locks, has not decided why the mortice stands idle, and has not carried out a locksmith's test of the set.
Property types
Is a quadrant stay, together with a fitch fastener, any evidence on a casement stay arm that is bent, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
It is only a note of what was visible, not evidence that explains a bent casement stay arm. A quadrant stay is the arm that runs in a quarter-circle track. A fitch fastener is a two-part casement fastener. Naming them records the ironmongery. It does not show why a stay arm is bent, does not load-test the arm, and does not test the fastener. The survey has not decided the stay has failed, and it has not specified new ironmongery.
Property types
The report mentions a panic bolt next to a push pad. Has the rear escape door from a maisonette been tested, or only named?
Own page
The rear escape door from the maisonette has only been named, not tested. A panic bolt is gear that is meant to release when the door is pushed. A push pad is the pad you push to operate it. The report mentions them side by side. The survey has not operated an escape trial, has not decided the door opens freely, and has not said the door meets any fire or escape rule. Naming the hardware is not a test of the route.
Property types
Nothing on the visit sampled a letter plate, opened an old knocker or tested a draught the brush has not stopped. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
The draught path through the letter plate, the fixing of the old knocker, and how far the brush fails all stay undecided. Nothing sampled the letter plate, opened the knocker, or tested the draught the brush has not stopped. A letter plate is the flap in the door. A knocker is the striker on the face. The brush is the seal that was meant to close the gap. The survey has named them. It has not measured the draught, and it has not decided a new plate is required.
Structure
What did the visit record about a coal plate, about a pavement light, and about the vault under the front path?
Own page
The visit recorded a coal plate, a pavement light, and the vault under the front path as features that could be seen, not as a tested structure. A coal plate is the iron cover over a coal chute. A pavement light is the glazed panel in the path. The vault is the cellar space beneath. The survey has not measured water entry, has not decided who owns the pavement, and has not assessed the strength of the vault. Damp at those frames was not proved.
Property types
Is a stallboard, together with the stall riser, any evidence on a shopfront console bracket, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
It is only a note of what was visible, not evidence about a shopfront console bracket. A stallboard is the sill or board at the base of the shop window. The stall riser is the solid panel below the glass. A console bracket is a separate support, often under the fascia. Seeing the lower panel does not inspect the bracket, does not explain it, and does not decide it is sound. Listing covers the whole building, shopfront included, and this visit grants no consent to alter it.
Property types
Should a curtail step, seen beside a loose newel, be treated as a verdict on the handrail tenon?
Own page
No. A curtail step beside a loose newel is not a verdict on the handrail tenon. A curtail step is the decorative bottom step that curls. The newel is the post at that end, and loose means it was felt to move. The handrail tenon is the joint where the rail enters the newel, and it was not opened. The survey has not decided the tenon has failed, has not decided the curtail is structural, and has not specified a stair repair.
Property types
Where a report pairs balusters with a winder, what stays open about gaps a child could pass?
Own page
What stays open is the size of the gaps, and what they mean, where balusters meet a winder. Balusters are the spindles. A winder is the tapered tread that turns the stair. On that taper the space between spindles can change from one end of the tread to the other. The survey paired the two. It has not measured each opening, has not applied a child-safety rule as a pass or fail, and has not decided the stair is unsafe.
Structure
The report mentions a cantilevered stone stair next to the soffit. Has a crack at the wall embedment been tested, or only named?
Own page
A crack at the wall embedment of a cantilevered stone stair has been named, not tested. The report places that stair next to the soffit and notes the crack where the stone goes into the wall. A home survey does not load the tread, open the masonry, or decide whether the crack is old, moving, or only a joint. Historic England explains that listing covers the whole building, stair included. The survey does not grant listed building consent. The sentence is an observation. It has not cleared the embedment and it has not specified a repair.
Timber
How should a buyer separate a dragon beam, the jetty post and decay where the beam enters the wall when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate three different things. A dragon beam is the diagonal timber in the corner of a jettied frame, the jetty post is the post that carries the overhang, and decay where the beam enters the wall is a condition note at that junction only. Sharing a paragraph does not mean each member was opened, and it does not mean the post is decayed because the beam end might be. The survey can name the carpentry it saw. It has not tested timber hidden in the wall, and it has not decided that the jetty is failing.
Structure
Is a crown post, together with the collar, any evidence on a peg the conversion has cut, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
It is only a note of what was visible. A crown post and a collar are roof timbers the surveyor could name. Together they are not evidence that the conversion has cut a peg. A peg is a small timber fixing, and a cut peg is a particular alteration. Unless the report describes a severed peg, the sentence is carpentry identification, not a finding that someone has cut the joint. The survey has not taken the joint apart, and it has not decided that the conversion weakened the roof.
Structure
The report places a cruck blade, an aisle post and a resin repair at the foot in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The cruck blade and the aisle post were identified where they could be seen, and the resin repair at the foot was seen as a repair already in place. None of the three was tested. Resin over the foot means the timber inside that repair was not exposed, so the survey cannot say the blade or the post is sound underneath it. Naming the cruck and the aisle post records the frame. It does not inspect the hidden foot, and it does not approve the resin as a successful repair.
Timber
Where a report pairs brick nogging with an oak frame, what stays open about a gap where the nogging has shrunk?
Own page
What stays open is everything a gap does not prove by itself. Brick nogging is the infill between oak studs, and a gap where that brick has shrunk away from the timber is a joint the survey could see. The visit has not decided whether the gap is only old shrinkage, whether rain can pass through it, or whether the oak at the joint is decayed. It has not opened the gap. Pairing the nogging with the frame names the wall. It does not close the question of the joint.
Timber
The report mentions a sole plate next to the sleeper wall. Has wet rot the floorboards cover been tested, or only named?
Own page
Wet rot that the floorboards cover has been named, not tested. The report places a sole plate next to the sleeper wall, the usual damp junction at the bottom of a timber ground floor, but the boards were not lifted over that rot. A home survey cannot say how far the timber has softened while the boards still hide it. The sole plate and the sleeper wall were identified as far as they could be seen. The covered rot was not probed, and it has not been shown to be either slight or extensive.
Structure
What did the visit record about a barrel vault, about the area steps, and about tanking nobody peeled back?
Own page
The visit recorded a barrel vault and the area steps as things that could be seen, and it recorded tanking that nobody peeled back. The vault is the curved cellar construction. The area steps are the external stair down to it. The tanking is a lining left in place, so the face behind that lining was not inspected. The survey has not decided that the vault is dry, that the steps are keeping water out, or that the tanking is working. It has described what was in view. The hidden side of the lining stays unknown.
Structure
Is a vault grating, together with the lightwell, any evidence on leaves sitting on the glass, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
Leaves on the glass were a sighting, not a test, and the vault grating and lightwell do not turn that sighting into evidence of what the leaves are doing. The grating and the well explain where the surveyor looked. If leaves were sitting on the glass, that is what was visible. The visit did not lift the grating, did not clear the glass, and did not decide that the leaves are causing damp in the vault. The sentence records the cover that was in view. It is not a drainage verdict.
Damp
The report places scullery quarry tiles, a hollow sound and a damp floor the meter was not used on in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The quarry tiles were seen, and a hollow sound was heard, so those two were inspected by eye and by ear. The damp floor was not inspected with a meter, because the report says the meter was not used. A hollow sound can mean a loose tile or a void beneath it. It is not a moisture reading. Naming a damp floor without using the meter leaves that damp untested. The survey has not decided how wet the floor is. One paragraph mixes a sighting, a sound and a test that did not happen.
Damp
Where a report pairs parquet blocks with the kitchen, what stays open about cupping beside the dishwasher?
Own page
What stays open is the cause of the cupping and how far it goes. Parquet blocks beside a dishwasher can lift at the edges when they take up moisture, and the report pairs those blocks with the kitchen. The survey has seen the distorted blocks. It has not pulled the machine out, has not tested the waste, and has not decided that the dishwasher is leaking rather than the floor being damp from somewhere else. Cupping is a shape in the timber. It is not a leak test, and it is not a decision that the blocks must be replaced.
Damp
The report mentions a sheet floor covering next to chipboard by the sink. Has swelling the covering is bridging been tested, or only named?
Own page
Swelling that the sheet floor covering is bridging has been named, not tested. The report puts that covering next to chipboard by the sink. Chipboard swells and weakens when it gets wet, and a sheet laid over it can hide the raised edge. The survey did not lift the sheet and did not decide how far any swelling runs. The sink is the location of the note. It is not a test that the waste is leaking. The bridged board stays an unopened observation.
Damp
How should a buyer separate granolithic, the old scullery and a crack at the gully when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the material, the room and the crack. Granolithic is the hard cement-and-stone floor finish, the old scullery is where that floor was seen, and the crack at the gully is the break in the finish beside the drain. Mentioning them together does not mean the granolithic has failed across the room, and it does not mean the gully was flow-tested. The survey has named the floor and recorded a crack. It has not decided the cause, and it has not tested the drain under the gully.
Damp
What did the visit record about a magnesite floor, about salt deposits, and about a basement the covering is stuck to?
Own page
The visit recorded a magnesite floor, salt deposits on it, and a basement covering that is stuck down. Magnesite is an old jointless floor that can hold moisture and show salts at the surface. Those salts were something the surveyor could see. The covering was not lifted, so the floor it is stuck to was known only at edges or where salts had come through. The survey has not tested what the salts are, has not decided why they are forming, and has not called the basement dry underneath.
Property types
Should a bullnose, seen beside the bottom stair, be treated as a verdict on a loose nosing?
Own page
No. A bullnose seen beside the bottom stair is the rounded end of that step, not a verdict on a loose nosing. The survey can name the profile because it was visible. Looseness is a different point: whether the nosing moves, is split, or has lost its fixing. Unless the report records that movement, the bullnose has not decided the nosing is loose, and it has not decided the nosing is firm. A shape is not a test of the fixing. The bottom step has been identified. It has not been cleared.
Structure and movement
The report mentions helical bars next to a stitched crack. Has movement the stitch does not date been tested, or only named?
Own page
Movement that the stitch does not date has been named, not tested. Helical bars beside a stitched crack show that someone has already tied that crack. The bars do not say when the crack opened, whether the wall has moved since the stitch, or whether the cause is still active. A home survey sees the repair and the line of the crack. It does not monitor the wall over time. It has not decided that stitching means the movement has stopped. The date of any movement is outside what the bars can prove.
Services
How should a buyer separate microbore pipework, a cold radiator and sludge the survey did not flush when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Keep the three apart. Microbore pipework is the narrow pipe the survey could see, a cold radiator is a radiator that was cold when it was checked, and sludge is a blockage the survey did not flush, so it was not shown. Narrow pipe is easier to block, but a cold radiator can also be air, a shut valve or a pump that was not running. The survey has not decided that sludge is the cause. It has named the pipe, noted the cold radiator and recorded that no flush was done.
Services
What did the visit record about a primatic cylinder, about the header tank, and about a single-feed arrangement the survey named but did not test?
Own page
The visit recorded a primatic cylinder, a header tank and a single-feed arrangement, and it recorded that the arrangement was named rather than tested. A primatic cylinder is an older single-feed indirect cylinder that relies on an internal air seal to keep heating water and tap water apart. The surveyor could see the cylinder and the header. They did not test that air seal, did not run the taps as a performance check, and did not decide that the seal is still holding. Identification is not a working test.
Services
Is a discharge pipe, together with the unvented cylinder tundish, any evidence on where that pipe actually ends, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
No. A discharge pipe seen with the unvented cylinder tundish is not evidence of where that pipe actually ends. The tundish is the open break in the safety discharge, and it shows only the part the surveyor could look at. The pipe may continue to a gulley, a stack or a place the visit never reached. The survey did not trace the end, did not test the safety valves, and has not decided that the termination is suitable. The sentence is a note of what was visible.
Services
The report places a one-pipe circuit, the furthest radiator and heat the survey did not run in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The one-pipe circuit and the furthest radiator were identified by sight, as far as the pipes and the radiator could be seen. The heat was not inspected, because the survey did not run it. A one-pipe layout serves radiators in series, so the far radiator can run cooler when the system is working, but that effect was not checked. Naming the circuit is not a temperature reading. The survey has not decided the far radiator is cold, and it has not decided the layout is performing as it should.
Services
Should a gravity circuit, seen beside the bathroom towel rail, be treated as a verdict on a pump that may not serve it?
Own page
No. A gravity circuit seen beside the bathroom towel rail is not a verdict on a pump that may not serve that rail. Gravity circulation moves water by heat rather than by a pump, and a towel rail can sit on that circuit or on a pumped zone. Seeing the pipes does not show which it is, and it does not show whether a pump elsewhere serves the rail. The survey has named a gravity arrangement. It has not tested the pump, and it has not decided that the rail is off the pumped circuit.
Services
Where a report pairs a column radiator with a seized lockshield, what stays open about balancing nobody carried out?
Own page
What stays open is the effect of a seized lockshield, because nobody balanced the system. A column radiator paired with a valve that will not turn means that radiator cannot be adjusted from that valve. Balancing is the job of setting flows so each radiator gets its share, and the survey did not do it. The visit saw the radiator and the seized valve. It has not decided that other rooms are starved, and it has not decided that freeing this one valve would cure the heating. The balance of the circuit remains unknown.
Electrics
The report mentions a skirting heater next to the bedroom circuit. Has a test the visual survey did not make been tested, or only named?
Own page
The test was not made. It has only been named as something the visual survey did not do. A skirting heater next to the bedroom circuit was seen, not electrically tested. Looking at a heater and at the circuit that seems to serve it does not show whether the cable, the connection or the control is sound. The survey has not decided the heater is safe, and it has not decided it is faulty. A visual note is not an electrical installation condition report. The circuit remains untested.
Services
Nothing on the visit sampled a thermal store, opened the blending valve or tested hot water the taps were not run long enough to judge. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
The outlet temperature, the blending valve and the condition of the thermal store have to stay undecided. Nothing on the visit sampled the store, opened the blending valve, or ran the taps long enough to judge the hot water. A thermal store holds heat, and the blender mixes it down before it reaches a tap. The survey could name the equipment if it was visible. It has not decided that the store is hot enough, that the blender is sticking, or that the water at the tap is acceptable. Those points were not tested.
Hazardous materials
How should a buyer separate hair-felt lagging, the old cylinder and a covering that looking does not identify when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the lagging, the cylinder and the limit of looking. Hair-felt lagging is the old wrapping on the cylinder, the cylinder is where that wrapping sits, and a covering that looking does not identify cannot be called asbestos or cleared of it by eye. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos. The survey has not sampled this lagging and has not decided what it is made of. It has not called the covering safe, and it has not called it unsafe. The three names are not one test result.
Services
What did the visit record about a cast-iron radiator, about a dripping valve, and about floorboards stained under it?
Own page
The visit recorded a cast-iron radiator, a dripping valve and floorboards stained under that drip. Those are three things that could be seen. The drip shows water was leaving the valve at the time, or that a wet valve was still wet. The stain shows water has reached the boards before. The survey did not test the heating pressure, did not probe the boards, and has not decided how far any damp timber extends. It has described a leak at a valve and a mark on the floor. It has not measured either.
Services
Is a magnetic filter, together with the boiler return, any evidence on sludge the canister was not opened to show, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
No. A magnetic filter on the boiler return is not evidence of the sludge inside it, because the canister was not opened. The filter and the return show where the surveyor was looking. Sludge that would have been visible in the canister was not shown. The visit recorded a fitting. It did not capture debris, did not judge how dirty the system is, and has not decided that the filter is full or empty. The sentence is a note of what was visible, not a look inside the pot.
Services
The report places a powerflush sticker, the boiler cupboard and papers the solicitor does not yet have in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The powerflush sticker and the boiler cupboard were inspected by eye. The papers the solicitor does not yet have were not inspected at all. A sticker on a cupboard is not the certificate, the invoice or the report of a flush, and it does not show that the work was done well or even done. The survey has seen a label in a cupboard. It has not seen the papers, has not verified a flush, and has not decided the heating system is clean. The paragraph mixes two sightings with a document that was absent.
Services
Should a mid-position valve, seen beside the airing cupboard, be treated as a verdict on a zone that may not be moving?
Own page
No. A mid-position valve seen beside the airing cupboard is not a verdict on a zone that may not be moving. The valve is the motorised fitting that should send water to heating, hot water, or both. Seeing it records the type and the place. It does not show that the spindle turns, that a zone is receiving water, or that the valve has seized. The survey has not operated the valve and has not decided any zone is stuck. A location is not a movement test.
Services
Where a report pairs an indirect cylinder with the immersion heater, what stays open about a thermostat the survey did not turn?
Own page
What stays open is whether the thermostat works, because the survey did not turn it. An indirect cylinder is heated by the boiler through a coil, and the immersion heater is the electric backup in the same vessel. Pairing them names the arrangement. It does not show that the thermostat switches the immersion, that the element heats, or that the boiler coil is clear of scale. The survey has not made those tests. The cylinder and the heater were identified. The control was left untried.
Services
How should a buyer separate an open flue, a back boiler and ventilation to the cupboard when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the flue, the appliance and the air. An open flue takes combustion air from the room and sends products up a flue. A back boiler is the appliance, often behind a fire. Ventilation to the cupboard is the air path into that space, which is a different thing from the flue itself. The survey has named all three. It has not tested the flue, has not tested combustion, and has not measured whether the cupboard has enough air. It has not decided the arrangement is safe or unsafe. The names are not a gas test.
Services
What did the visit record about a room-sealed condensing boiler, about the plume, and about a terminal pointing at the neighbour's door?
Own page
The visit recorded a room-sealed condensing boiler, the plume from it, and a terminal pointing at the neighbour's door. A room-sealed boiler takes its air from outside, and the plume is the visible vapour a condensing boiler gives off. The direction of that plume and the place the terminal points were seen. The survey did not test combustion, did not measure the plume, and has not decided that the terminal is wrongly placed. It has described a boiler and where the outlet points. It has not safety-checked the appliance.
Drainage
What did the visit record about a cassette-style toilet, about a macerator, and about a pumped run the survey did not switch on?
Own page
The visit recorded a cassette-style toilet and a macerator as fittings that could be seen, and it recorded that the pumped run was not switched on. A macerator chops waste and a pump pushes it through a small pipe. Because the pump was not run, the survey has not decided that the unit works, that the run is clear, or where that run actually discharges. The appliances were identified. The pumped operation was not tested. Nothing in the note is a drainage test.
Drainage
The report places a Belfast sink, a bottle trap and a waste that falls the wrong way in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The Belfast sink and the bottle trap were inspected where they could be seen. The waste that falls the wrong way was judged by eye, not by running water, so it was looked at rather than tested. A bottle trap is the compact trap under the sink, and a wrong fall means the waste slopes back toward the sink or lies flat. The survey has not flow-tested that pipe and has not decided the sink will not empty. Boxed-in lengths, if any, were only named. The paragraph is not a drainage test.
Drainage
Should a butler sink, seen beside a stub stack, be treated as a verdict on an air-admittance valve painted over?
Own page
No. A butler sink seen beside a stub stack is not a verdict on an air-admittance valve that has been painted over. The sink is the fitting. The stub stack is the short soil pipe. The valve is a separate device that lets air into that pipe, and paint can stick it shut. Seeing the sink does not show whether the valve can open. The survey has not tested the valve and has not decided that it has seized. The three things should not be folded into one result.
Drainage
Where a report pairs an anti-siphon trap with the basin, what stays open about gurgling the surveyor heard once?
Own page
What stays open is what one gurgle means. An anti-siphon trap under the basin is a trap meant to keep its water seal if pressure in the waste pipe fluctuates. The survey paired that trap with the basin and recorded a gurgle heard once. One noise does not show that the seal was lost, that it will happen every time, or that the stack ventilation is at fault. The survey has not repeated the test and has not inspected the stack. The gurgle stays a single observation.
Drainage
The report mentions a washing-machine standpipe next to the under-sink waste. Has a connection into the wrong stack been tested, or only named?
Own page
A connection into the wrong stack has been named, not tested. The report places a washing-machine standpipe next to the under-sink waste and describes a connection that appears to enter the wrong stack. Nobody dyed the pipe, ran a camera, or proved where the water goes. The standpipe and the nearby waste were seen. The route called wrong was not demonstrated. The survey has not decided the machine will discharge into the wrong drain, and it has not cleared the connection either.
Drainage
Nothing on the visit sampled a grease trap, opened the flat over a former cafe or tested a drain the trap lid was not lifted. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
The inside of the grease trap, the old cafe use, and the drain beneath the unlifted lid all have to stay undecided. Nothing on the visit sampled the trap, opened up the flat's history over a former cafe, or tested the drain, because the lid was not lifted. A grease trap is there to hold fat before it enters the drainage. The survey has not seen the contents, has not decided the trap still serves this flat, and has not decided who must maintain it. The lid stayed down. That is the limit.
Drainage
How should a buyer separate a backdrop, the last manhole and a drop the cover was too heavy to judge when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the backdrop, the last manhole and the drop you could not see. A backdrop is the vertical drop that lets a higher drain join a deeper chamber. The last manhole is where that arrangement was said to be. The cover was too heavy to lift, so the drop itself was not judged. The survey has named the chamber type and the place. It has not inspected the backdrop, has not watched the flow, and has not decided the drop is broken or sound. Weight of the cover is the limit, not a result.
Drainage
What did the visit record about failed haunching, about broken benching, and about flow the survey did not dye-test?
Own page
The visit recorded failed haunching and broken benching as things that could be seen in the chamber, and it recorded that the flow was not dye-tested. Haunching is the concrete around a pipe where it enters the chamber. Benching is the shaped concrete that should turn the flow through the invert. Those defects were visual. The survey did not put dye or water through the run, so it has not decided where the flow escapes, or whether the broken concrete is letting sewage out. The chamber was looked at. The pipes were not proved.
Drainage
Is a rodding eye, together with a sealed cap, any evidence on a run nobody rodded, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
No. A rodding eye with a sealed cap is not evidence about a run nobody rodded. It is only a note of what was visible. A rodding eye is an access fitting, and a sealed cap means it was not opened. The survey saw the fitting and the cap. It did not rod the drain, did not look up the pipe, and has not decided the run is clear or blocked. The eye proves there is a place someone could have rodded. It does not prove anyone did, and it does not describe the pipe beyond the cap.
Drainage
The report places a cesspit, no outlet on the far side and emptying the survey could not date in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The cesspit and the far side with no outlet in view were inspected as far as they could be seen. The emptying was not inspected, because the survey could not date it, so that part is only a name for missing information. A cesspool, which is what a cesspit is, holds sewage and is emptied. It is not a septic tank and not a treatment plant, both of which are different because they discharge. The survey has not proved there is no outlet beyond the side it saw, and it has not decided the tank was emptied recently or long ago.
Drainage
Should an interceptor trap, seen beside the fresh-air inlet, be treated as a verdict on a stopper that is missing?
Own page
No. An interceptor trap seen beside the fresh-air inlet is not a verdict on a stopper that is missing. The trap and the inlet are the old fittings at the boundary between the house drain and the sewer side. A stopper is the cap that should sit in that trap. Seeing the arrangement does not test what a missing stopper is doing, and it is not itself the proof of the absence. If the report says the stopper is gone, that is a separate visual note. The survey has not tested the drain.
Drainage
Where a report pairs pitch-fibre pipe with the lawn run, what stays open about deformation a camera has not yet seen?
Own page
What stays open is the shape of the pitch-fibre pipe under the lawn, because a camera has not yet seen it. The report pairs that material with the lawn run. Pitch-fibre pipe can deform as it ages, but deformation on the hidden length has not been inspected. The survey may have recognised the material at a chamber. It has not filmed the lawn run, has not decided the pipe has collapsed, and has not decided it is still round. The pairing is a reason to look. It is not the look.
Drainage
The report mentions salt-glaze clay pipes next to a displaced joint. Has roots the cover lift did not follow been tested, or only named?
Own page
Roots beyond the displaced joint have been named, not tested. The report puts salt-glaze clay pipes next to a joint that has shifted, which is something that could be seen when a cover was lifted. The roots the cover lift did not follow were not traced along the pipe. The survey has seen a displaced joint in a clay drain. It has not decided how far any roots go, whether they caused the shift, or whether the run is leaking. The joint is a sighting. The roots remain an unfollowed name.
Drainage
Nothing on the visit sampled a cured-in-place liner, opened a short patch or tested the rest of the run still unlined. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
The bond of the liner, the short patch and the rest of the run that is still unlined have to stay undecided. Nothing on the visit sampled the cured-in-place liner, opened that patch, or tested the unlined pipe. A cured-in-place liner is a lining formed inside a drain. A short patch means only a length was lined. The survey has not decided the patch is stuck, has not decided the original defect stopped at the patch, and has not seen the condition of the pipe still bare. The repair was named. It was not examined.
Environment
How should a buyer separate attenuation crates, under the new drive and a store the survey could not open when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the crates, the drive and the store that was not opened. Attenuation crates are buried boxes meant to hold rainwater under the new drive and let it out slowly. The survey could not open that store, so silt, outlets and how much space is left were not seen. The crates were named, the drive is where they are said to be, and the closed store is the limit. The visit has not decided the crates are working. It has not measured flood depth. A long-term flood-risk check is a separate product from this inspection.
Environment
What did the visit record about a swale, about the bottom of the garden, and about whether it is a soakaway or a flood route?
Own page
The visit recorded a swale at the bottom of the garden, and it did not decide whether that swale is a soakaway or a flood route. A swale is a shallow planted channel. The surveyor could see the dip and where it sits. They did not test how water soaks in, did not follow the channel off the site, and did not measure flood depth. The note is the feature that was visible. GOV.UK's long-term flood-risk check is a separate product. This inspection has not carried it out and has not labelled the swale.
Drainage
Do permeable paving, together with a silted joint, count as evidence on water the hardstanding no longer takes, or only as a note of what was visible?
Own page
No. Permeable paving together with a silted joint is only a note of what was visible. It is not evidence that the hardstanding no longer takes water. Permeable paving is meant to let water through open joints or voids. Silt in a joint can reduce that, but the survey did not run water, did not test infiltration, and has not decided the paving has failed. The silt was seen. The performance was not. Do not promote a dirty joint into a drainage result the visit never produced.
Environment
Should a culvert, seen beside the lawn, be treated as a verdict on a grill the survey could see and not enter?
Own page
No. A culvert seen beside the lawn is not a verdict on a grill the survey could see and not enter. The culvert is the covered watercourse or pipe. The grill is the screen at the opening. Seeing both records that they exist and that the inside was not entered. The survey has not decided the grill is blocked, clear or adequate, and it has not measured flood depth. GOV.UK's long-term flood-risk check is a separate product. This visit has not carried it out and has not judged the pipe beyond the bars.
Environment
Where a report pairs the riparian bank with an ordinary watercourse, what stays open about maintenance the home survey does not assign?
Own page
What stays open is who must maintain the bank, because the home survey does not assign that duty. The report pairs the riparian bank with an ordinary watercourse, which records the bank and the stream that were seen. It does not decide that you would be the riparian owner, what work the channel needs, or who should do it. The visit has not measured flood depth. GOV.UK's long-term flood-risk check is a separate product and does not assign maintenance either. The condition of the bank in view is a note. The responsibility stays outside the survey.
Environment
The report mentions a demountable flood barrier next to the front threshold. Has a product the survey did not deploy been tested, or only named?
Own page
The barrier was recorded, not trialled. A demountable flood barrier beside the front threshold was recorded as a product on site. The survey did not fit it across the opening, check the seals or measure any flood depth. A government flood-risk check is a separate product from this inspection and was not carried out here. Seeing the barrier does not show that it matches the threshold, that the fixings are sound, or that water would be held back. The report notes what was visible. It has not decided that the barrier works.
Drainage
Nothing on the visit sampled a reed bed, opened the treatment plant or tested a discharge the sample point was locked. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
The reed bed, the treatment plant and the discharge all stay undecided. Nothing on the visit sampled the bed, opened the plant or tested a discharge, and the sample point was locked. A reed bed and a package or other treatment plant are not the same unit, and neither is a cesspool, which only holds sewage until it is emptied. The survey can say the sample point could not be used. It has not judged water quality, plant condition or whether the bed is still doing any work.
Drainage
How should a buyer separate a package treatment plant, a silent alarm and electrics the survey did not test when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Keep the three apart. A package treatment plant is a packaged unit that treats sewage, a silent alarm is only a note that no sound was heard, and the electrics were not tested. Silence is not a failed plant and it is not a sound plant. The survey did not open the unit, did not run the alarm and did not inspect the electrical supply to it. A cesspool, which only stores sewage for emptying, is a different thing again. Nothing in the sentence has been decided as working or failed.
Structure and movement
How should a buyer separate a willow, a heave crack and the drain run under the canopy when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the tree, the crack and the drain. A willow under whose canopy a drain runs can dry clay and, after felling or heavy pruning, the ground can swell, but this survey has not shown that the crack is heave. It also has not tested the drain. The visit recorded a willow, a crack described in heave terms, and a drain line under the canopy. Those are three observations. None of them has been proved to be the cause of the others.
Structure and movement
Do monitoring pins, together with paint over the crack, count as evidence on readings this survey did not take, or only as a note of what was visible?
Own page
Pins plus paint are not readings. Monitoring pins and paint over a crack show that someone marked the crack and later decorated. They are not the readings this survey did not take. No width change, no dates and no direction of movement were measured on this visit. Paint can hide the edges, so the crack's present shape is partly concealed. The report records pins and paint. It has not decided that movement has stopped, continued or never been real.
Structure
Where a report pairs a Tarran bungalow with an open panel joint, what stays open about a frame the joint does not fully show?
Own page
The frame behind the joint stays open. A Tarran bungalow is a non-standard system, and an open panel joint shows a gap at the edge of a panel, not the frame, the fixings or the reinforcement the joint does not fully reveal. The survey recorded the system name and the open joint it could see. It has not opened the panel, has not tested the frame and has not decided that the bungalow is sound or unsound because one joint is open.
Structure
The report mentions an Arcon bungalow next to a stanchion foot. Has cladding still covering the other posts been tested, or only named?
Own page
The covered posts were not tested. An Arcon bungalow is a non-standard steel-framed type, and the report places a stanchion foot next to that name. Cladding that still covers the other posts was not opened and was not tested. One visible foot does not describe the bases, the stanchions or the fixings still hidden. The survey recorded the system and the foot it could see. It has not decided that the frame is corroded or that the covered posts are sound.
Hazardous materials
Nothing on the visit sampled a Phoenix house, opened asbestos-cement panels or tested identification by eye the survey must not claim. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
Whether those panels contain asbestos stays undecided, and so does their condition behind the surface. Nothing on the visit sampled a Phoenix house, opened asbestos-cement panels or proved an identity by looking. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos, and a home survey does not identify it by eye. The report can note the house type and the panels as they appeared. It has not named the material and it has not decided what should be done with the sheets.
Structure
How should a buyer separate a Spooner house, the corner post and repairs with no papers in the pack when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the house type, the post and the paperwork. A Spooner house is a non-standard timber system, the corner post is one member the survey could see or partly see, and repairs with no papers in the pack are an absence of proof, not a description of what was done. The visit has not opened the frame, has not tested the post and has not confirmed any repair. Three mentions in one paragraph are not one finding that the frame has been put right.
Structure
What did the visit record about a Uni-Seco house, about the party panel, and about a neighbour's repair this survey did not copy?
Own page
It recorded what could be seen from this side only. A Uni-Seco house is a non-standard system, the party panel is the panel on the shared line, and a neighbour's repair was not copied because this survey did not inspect next door and did not adopt that work as evidence. The visit can note the system and the panel face available from this plot. It has not decided that the neighbour's repair matches this house, or that the panel is sound because someone else did work.
Structure
Is an aluminium bungalow frame, together with the ring beam, any evidence on corrosion the internal lining hides, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
Hidden corrosion is not shown here. An aluminium bungalow frame and its ring beam were recorded as construction the survey could name or partly see. They are not evidence of corrosion hidden by the internal lining, because that lining was not removed. Aluminium can corrode where it stays damp or where it meets other metals, but this visit did not expose those faces. The report notes the frame and the beam. It has not decided that hidden metal is sound or pitted.
Roofs
The report places woodwool slabs, a roof deck and a span the slabs' name does not prove in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The slabs and the deck were inspected only as far as they could be seen, and the span was merely named. Woodwool slabs used as a roof deck were recorded from the surfaces available, usually the soffit or an edge. The name of the slab does not prove how far it spans, what supports it or whether it has lost strength. The survey has not load-tested the deck and has not opened the build-up. Seeing the product is not a structural calculation.
Walls
Should foamed-slag blocks, seen beside the party wall, be treated as a verdict on a sound path the survey did not test?
Own page
No. Foamed-slag blocks seen beside the party wall are a note of a masonry material, not a verdict on a sound path. The survey did not test sound insulation, did not measure a wall build-up and did not open the party line to see ties, cavities or linings. Lightweight blocks can be part of a wall that transmits noise, or part of a wall that does not, and looking at the face does not choose. The blocks were recorded. Acoustic performance stays untested.
Walls
Where a report pairs clinker blocks with the inner leaf, what stays open about ties the endoscope was not used to see?
Own page
The wall ties stay completely open. Pairing clinker blocks with the inner leaf records a block material on the inside skin. It does not show the ties, because an endoscope was not used and the cavity was not inspected. Clinker blocks do not prove that ties exist, that they are stainless, or that they have corroded. The survey named the inner leaf it could recognise. It has not tested ties and it has not decided cavity-wall stability from the blocks.
Walls
The report mentions a breeze pier next to a widened opening. Has a lintel the pier is not been tested, or only named?
Own page
The lintel was not tested. A breeze pier beside a widened opening is a block pier. It is not a lintel, and it has not been tested as one. Widening an opening moves load to whatever spans the gap and to the piers at the sides. The survey saw the pier. It did not prove that a lintel exists, what it is made of, or whether it bears properly. The pier was recorded. The beam across the opening stays untested.
Walls
Nothing on the visit sampled a large-panel joint, opened aged sealant or tested reinforcement the sealant line does not expose. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
The joint, the sealant and the reinforcement all stay undecided. Nothing on the visit sampled a large-panel joint, opened aged sealant or tested reinforcement, and the sealant line does not expose the steel or the fixings behind it. Large-panel homes are a non-standard concrete form. Aged mastic is a surface. The survey can describe the joint it saw. It has not decided that panels are tied, that reinforcement is sound, or that the seal still keeps weather out.
Electrics
Nothing on the visit sampled a bell-wire chase, opened the drawing-room plaster or tested a circuit the chase is not. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
Anything inside the chase, and every circuit, stays undecided. Nothing on the visit sampled a bell-wire chase, opened the drawing-room plaster or tested a circuit, and a chase is not a circuit. Old bell wiring can sit in a shallow channel behind plaster, sometimes alongside later cables that nobody has traced. The survey can note a chase line if one was visible. It has not identified the conductors, has not tested electrics and has not decided the installation is sound.
Structure and movement
What did the visit record about the front step, about a boot-scraper plinth, and about a crack that may be the step and not the bay?
Own page
It recorded the front step, the boot-scraper plinth and a crack that may belong to that step rather than to the bay. Those are visual notes. A boot scraper often sits on its own small plinth built against or into the step, and that plinth can crack, tilt or part from the bay without the bay wall itself having moved. The survey has not monitored the crack and has not opened the step. It has not decided that the bay is subsiding because a line shows at the scraper.
Walls
Nothing on the visit sampled a coal-bunker wall, opened horizontal crack lines or tested ties the bunker wall does not prove have failed in the house. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
Whether wall ties have failed in the house stays undecided, and so does the bunker wall itself. Nothing on the visit sampled a coal-bunker wall, opened horizontal crack lines or tested ties. A bunker is a small masonry box, often damp and stained, and cracks there do not prove the house walls have the same tie failure. The survey recorded marks on the bunker. It has not investigated ties in the dwelling and it has not sampled concrete or metal.
Electrics
How should a buyer separate a plastic consumer unit, no EICR in the pack and circuits a visual note has not tested when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the box, the missing paper and the untested circuits. A plastic consumer unit is a visual note of the enclosure, no EICR in the pack means no electrical installation condition report was among the documents, and a visual note has not tested any circuit. The surveyor has not certificated the electrics. Plastic does not mean the wiring has failed, and it does not mean it is satisfactory. Three mentions are three limits, not one electrical result.
Electrics
What did the visit record about cloth-wrapped tails, about the meter cupboard, and about a test the surveyor is not there to certificate?
Own page
It recorded cloth-wrapped tails and the meter cupboard only as far as they were visible, and it recorded that testing for a certificate was not this surveyor's job. Tails are the conductors between the supply head and the consumer unit. Cloth wrapping is an old finish the eye can note. It is not a test of insulation resistance, polarity or the condition of the conductor under the cloth. The cupboard was seen. No electrical certificate was produced.
Electrics
Do rubber-insulated cable, together with a loft junction box, count as evidence on live testing that was not in the instruction, or only as a note of what was visible?
Own page
Live testing was never instructed. Rubber-insulated cable and a loft junction box were seen, and they are not evidence of a live test. Rubber insulation perishes and a junction box can hide loose or untaped conductors, but those are reasons for an electrician, not results already obtained. The survey recorded the cable type and the box it could see. It has not tested the circuit and has not certificated the loft wiring.
Electrics
The report places bonding conductors, pipes under the bath and a continuity test the covers stayed on for in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The bonding conductors and the pipes under the bath were inspected only where they could be seen. The continuity test was merely named, because the covers stayed on and the test was not done. Bonding is the green-and-yellow or bare link meant to join metalwork. Seeing a clamp is not measuring continuity. The survey can say what was visible under the bath. It has not tested the conductors and has not certificated the electrics. Pipes, clamps and a test are three different things in that paragraph.
Electrics
Should an RCD sticker, seen beside the consumer unit, be treated as a verdict on a trip test the sticker is not?
Own page
No. An RCD sticker beside the consumer unit is a label, not a verdict on a trip test. The sticker is not the test. This survey did not press the button, did not measure trip time and did not certificate the device. Labels are stuck on by installers, owners and sometimes by nobody you can identify. The visit recorded that a sticker was there. It has not decided that the RCD works, that it protects the circuits you care about, or that it has ever been tested.
Hazardous materials
Is a riser panel, together with the common stair, any evidence on asbestos management the flat survey does not write, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
Management of the block is not written by this flat survey. A riser panel on the common stair was seen during the flat inspection. It is not an asbestos management record. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos, and looking at a panel does not identify it. The report can describe the panel and the stair. It has not sampled the sheet, has not read a management plan into existence and has not decided how the block is run.
Services
Where a report pairs a lead pipe with the kitchen stop tap, what stays open about a water test the survey did not take?
Own page
Water quality stays open, and so does how much of the supply is still lead. The report pairs a lead pipe with the kitchen stop tap as something seen, not as a sample. The survey did not take a water test. A visible lead pipe at the tap does not measure what comes out of it and does not map the buried main. The inspection recorded the pipe it could see. It has not decided that the drinking water is affected or unaffected.
Environment
The report mentions a radon sump next to a fan that was off. Has a level the survey did not measure been tested, or only named?
Own page
No radon level was measured. A radon sump beside a fan that was off is equipment noted on the visit, not a reading. The survey did not run the fan to produce a figure. A sump and a fan are parts of a mitigation system that may or may not be doing anything while the fan is stopped. The report records the hardware and that the fan was off. It has not tested a level and it has not decided the house is protected.
Environment
Nothing on the visit sampled a radon membrane, opened the join at the extension or tested continuity looking cannot prove. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
The membrane, the join and its continuity all stay undecided. Nothing on the visit sampled a radon membrane, opened the join at the extension or tested continuity, and looking cannot prove that a sheet is complete. An extension is a common place for a new slab to meet an old one. The survey can note that a membrane was mentioned or partly seen. It has not measured radon and it has not decided that the barrier runs unbroken under the new floor.
Environment
How should a buyer separate a flood door, the survey day and a barrier that was not put in place when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the product, the day and the missing deployment. A flood door is a door designed to resist water when it is shut in its seals. The survey day is one visit, not a flood. A barrier that was not put in place was not tested. The report can say a flood door exists and that no barrier was deployed while the surveyor was there. It has not measured flood depth and it has not decided that the opening would hold water.
Walls
The report mentions rows of filled drill holes next to the gable. Has new ties the holes suggest but do not prove been tested, or only named?
Own page
The holes were recorded, not a tie test. Rows of filled drill holes next to the gable can be left by a wall-tie replacement, by other fixings or by a failed start. The survey did not test the ties, did not see them in the cavity and did not prove that new ties are there. The pattern was noted. It has not been turned into a guarantee that the gable is tied or that the work was finished.
Walls
Nothing on the visit sampled cavity bead, opened a buried air brick or tested the underfloor void the bead may have reached. What has to stay undecided?
Own page
Whether cavity bead has blocked the underfloor void stays undecided. Nothing on the visit sampled the bead, opened a buried air brick or tested the void the bead may have reached. Bead is a cavity-fill material. An air brick is the vent path to the floor void. If fill has spilled into that path, the survey has not shown it. The report notes the possibility and the limits. It has not inspected the void and it has not tested wall ties.
Walls
How should a buyer separate a boot lintel, rust at the toe and the cavity the rust stain does not open when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the lintel shape, the stain and the closed cavity. A boot lintel is a concrete lintel with a toe that projects over the outer leaf. Rust at that toe is a stain the survey could see. The cavity behind the stain was not opened, so the stain does not show whether a steel edge, a tie, a tray or the concrete itself is involved. The report records shape and stain. It has not tested ties and it has not diagnosed the rust.
Structure and movement
What did the visit record about a diagonal crack, about a drain joint below it, and about an insurance claim this inspection is not?
Own page
It recorded a diagonal crack and a drain joint below it as things noted on site, and it recorded that this inspection is not an insurance claim. The crack is a pattern associated with movement, but pattern is not a cause. The joint was not tested. No camera survey, no water test and no monitoring were done. The survey has not decided that the drain caused subsidence, and it has not accepted, rejected or valued any claim. Those decisions sit outside the report.
Structure and movement
Is a stump, together with an upward crack, any evidence on heave the stump's presence does not prove, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
The stump does not prove heave. A stump and an upward crack were recorded, and they are not evidence that the ground has swelled. Heave is soil swelling, often after a tree that was drying clay is removed. This survey did not test the soil, did not date the felling and did not monitor the crack. The report notes the stump and the crack direction. It has not decided the mechanism at all.
Structure and movement
The report places a tapered gap, a new door head and settlement as against shrinkage the gap does not name in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The tapered gap and the new door head were inspected as visible features. Settlement, set against shrinkage, was merely named, because the gap does not name the cause. A tapering gap over a new head can be the frame, the packing, ordinary shrinkage of materials, or movement of the opening. The survey saw the gap and the head. It has not monitored the opening and it has not decided between settlement and shrinkage. Cause stays an open label, not a finding.
Hazardous materials
How should a buyer separate a soffit board, a pre-2000 eaves and drilling the survey must not suggest you do when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the board, the age and any idea of opening it up. A soffit board on a pre-2000 eaves can be one of several sheet materials, and buildings from before 2000 can contain asbestos. Looking does not identify which sheet this is. The survey must not suggest drilling as a way to identify it. The report can note the soffit and the age of the eaves. It has not sampled the board and it has not decided what the sheet is.
Hazardous materials
What did the visit record about vinyl floor tiles, about black adhesive, and about a sample the survey did not take?
Own page
It recorded vinyl floor tiles and black adhesive as materials seen, and it recorded that no sample was taken. Black adhesive under old thermoplastic or vinyl tiles is a classic place people worry about asbestos, but worry is not identification. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos, and looking does not identify it. The survey noted tiles and adhesive. It has not analysed either, and it has not decided what the backing contains.
Hazardous materials
Is a flue panel, together with the airing cupboard, any evidence on an identity looking does not settle, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
Looking has not named this panel. A flue panel in the airing cupboard was seen, and it is not evidence of an identity, because looking does not settle whether the panel contains asbestos. Airing cupboards often have a sheet on or beside the flue or the cylinder. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos. The survey recorded the panel and the place. It has not sampled the sheet and it has not named the material.
Environment
The report places a cellar, tanking and a radon sump mentioned together and two different systems the sentence does not merge in one paragraph. Which of those were inspected, and which were merely named?
Own page
The cellar was inspected only as far as it could be seen. Tanking and the radon sump were named as two different systems the sentence does not merge, not as one tested installation. Tanking is a moisture barrier. A radon sump is a soil-gas measure. The survey did not measure radon, did not test the tanking and did not prove the systems connect. What was seen in the cellar stays a visual note. Performance of either system was not decided.
Walls
The report mentions a tie bar next to a bowing gable. Has restraint the bar suggests and does not measure been tested, or only named?
Own page
Restraint was not measured. A tie bar beside a bowing gable suggests that someone tried to restrain the wall, but the survey did not test that restraint. A bow is a shape. A bar is a rod, usually with plates. Neither reading tells you the tension in the bar, whether it is still engaged, or how far the gable is out of plane. The report records the bow and the bar. It has not measured movement and it has not tested wall ties.
Damp
Do trickle vents, together with paint, count as evidence on mould that sealing the vents can worsen, or only as a note of what was visible?
Own page
Painted vents are not a mould test on their own. Trickle vents and paint on or over them were seen. They are not a measurement of what happens if the vents are sealed. Trickle vents are the small background openings in many windows. Paint can clog or close them. The survey recorded that condition. It has not measured humidity, has not proved a mould mechanism and has not tested the ventilation of the room.
Legal and neighbours
Should missing fire stopping, seen beside the party loft wall, be treated as a verdict on a gap into next door's roof?
Own page
No. Missing fire stopping beside the party loft wall is a note of what this side showed, not a verdict on a gap into next door's roof. The survey could see this loft. It did not enter the neighbour's roof, did not trace the party wall through the ridge and did not fire-test anything. A gap, a missing quilt barrier or an open eaves void on this side is incomplete evidence of the far side. The absence was recorded. The neighbour's roof was not.
Drainage
What did the visit record about a crust on a septic tank, about no emptying ticket, and about a volume the cover glance does not measure?
Own page
It recorded a crust seen on a septic tank, the absence of an emptying ticket, and the fact that a glance at the cover does not measure volume. A septic tank is not a cesspool. A cesspool only holds sewage until it is emptied, while a septic tank is meant to settle solids and let liquid flow on. The survey did not measure sludge depth and did not test the outlet. Crust, missing ticket and unknown volume stay three limits, not a capacity result.
Walls
How should a buyer separate a bulge, the party wall in the loft and a neighbour's alteration this side did not open when all three are mentioned together?
Own page
Separate the shape, the wall and the unseen work next door. A bulge in the party wall in the loft was noted from this side. A neighbour's alteration was not opened and was not inspected. The bulge may be the wall itself, a lining, or the effect of something done next door, and this visit cannot see that something. The survey recorded a distortion on this side. It has not decided the cause and it has not entered the neighbour's roof.
Electrics
Is a meter box, together with no key on the day, any evidence on equipment marked unseen, not passed, or only a note of what was visible?
Own page
It is a note that the equipment was unseen, not a clearance. A meter box with no key on the day could not be opened, so the survey marked what is inside as not inspected. Unseen is not the same as accepted. The outside of a locked plastic or metal box says nothing about the meter, the tails or the head. The report records the limit. It has not tested electrics and it has not decided the equipment is satisfactory.
Electrics
Should an immersion switch, seen beside no visible bonding, be treated as a verdict on a test that still was not done?
Own page
No. An immersion switch seen beside an absence of visible bonding is not a verdict on a test that still was not done. The switch is a local control for the cylinder heater. Not seeing a bonding conductor nearby is a visual limit, not a continuity result. The survey did not test the circuit, did not measure bonding and did not certificate the electrics. Hardware and a missing view are not the electrical test the instruction did not include.
Structure
What did the visit record about a steel stanchion, about one open corner, and about the three elevations still clad?
Own page
It recorded a steel stanchion at one open corner, and it recorded that the other three elevations are still clad. The open corner is the only place the frame was available to see. Cladding on the remaining elevations hides the stanchions, the bases and the fixings. The survey has not projected the visible corner around the house and has not tested the hidden steel. One opened corner is a limited view. The clad elevations stay uninspected behind their skin.
Services
The report mentions a lead main next to the front path. Has drinking water the survey did not sample been tested, or only named?
Own page
Only the pipe was named, not a water test. A lead main beside the front path was recorded as a supply pipe the survey could see or reasonably identify at that point. Drinking water was not sampled. A lead pipe in the ground does not measure what reaches the tap and does not show whether the lead continues under the house. The report notes the main. It has not tested the water and it has not decided the supply is affected or clear.
Services
The controller shows a weather-compensation curve that the surveyor did not adjust. Has the heating design been approved?
Own page
No. The weather-compensation curve has not been approved as a heating design. The surveyor saw it on the controller and did not adjust it. A curve only sets how flow temperature should follow the outdoor sensor. Seeing that line does not show the emitters were sized to the rooms. This visit did not log temperatures or open a commissioning record. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is a grant route in England and Wales, not a sign-off of this curve. Approved Document L is guidance for building work, and this survey does not issue a building-regulations certificate.
Damp
A Victorian slate damp-proof course is bridged by a new path. Has the survey proved rising damp, or only the bridge?
Own page
Only the bridge. A Victorian slate damp-proof course covered by a new path is something the survey can see. The slate is meant to interrupt moisture climbing the wall, but only if it stays clear of the ground. A path built above that line wets the masonry higher up, so plaster can mark whether or not the slate itself has failed. A damp patch, even with a surface reading, does not by itself prove water is rising from below the course. The report records the bridge. It has not diagnosed rising damp.
Choosing a survey
On the phone the surveyor sounded relaxed about a crack that the PDF then flags. Which version do you rely on?
Own page
Rely on the PDF. A relaxed remark on the phone is not the report. The written survey is the document that can be read again by you, your solicitor and a lender. A calm tone may mean the crack is ordinary for the age of the house, or that it needs watching rather than panic. It does not delete a flag, a photograph or a recommendation that was printed. Where the call and the PDF differ, the PDF stands. If a sentence is unclear, ask for a written clarification. Do not treat the phone call as a second, softer survey.
Walls
Cavity fill is claimed in a random-stone wall that may not have a cavity. What has the survey not confirmed about the construction?
Own page
The survey has not confirmed that a cavity exists, that it was filled, or that the fill is the product claimed. Random stone is often solid or of uncertain build-up, with facing stones, mortar and rubble rather than two leaves and a clear gap. A seller's claim of cavity insulation does not create that gap. This visit did not open the wall, use a borescope or sample any fill. Stone outside and plaster inside do not show the core. The report can note the claim and the wall it could see. It has not confirmed the construction.
Services
A cellar sump pump was never switched on. Why is a dry pit today not proof the pump runs?
Own page
A dry pit shows the sump was empty on the day, not that the pump runs. The surveyor did not switch it on, did not raise the float and did not time a discharge. A cellar can look dry because the weather was quiet, because someone emptied it, or because groundwater was low. The power supply, the non-return valve and the outlet were not proved by an empty hole. A government flood-risk check is a separate product and was not this inspection. The report records a pump that was not operated. It has not decided the pump will cope when the pit fills.
Roofs
Spray foam covers the underside of the slates. What damp in the timber can the survey no longer see?
Own page
The survey can no longer see damp on the faces the foam covers. That includes the underside of the slates, any sarking against them, and the tops and sides of rafters where the foam is bonded. Staining, soft grain or a drip on those surfaces is hidden. The surveyor did not cut the foam away and did not test the timber beneath it. A dry-looking foam skin is not a dry rafter. The report can describe the foam and the wood still visible at the edges. It has not decided the concealed timber is sound.
Structure
The extension is in Wales. Why is an English approved document the wrong rule to treat as the Welsh building regulation?
Own page
Because this extension is in Wales, and an English approved document is not the Welsh building regulation. Each nation publishes its own guidance, and a familiar-looking extension does not make the English text the rule on this plot. An English approved document guides work in England. Treating it as the standard for a Welsh extension uses the wrong document. The survey can describe what it saw. It does not decide whether Welsh building regulations were met, and it does not issue a building-regulations certificate.
Drainage
A pumped rising main is said to join the public sewer at the lane. Was the connection seen, or only described?
Own page
Only described. The pumped rising main said to join the public sewer at the lane was not followed to that joint. The survey can note a pump, a chamber or a visible length of pipe. The connection in the lane, and the buried run between, were not seen. A seller's account is not a drainage test. This visit did not run the pump, dye the line or lift every cover up to the lane. The report records a description. It has not confirmed the connection.
Timber
A tiled bathroom sits on a timber floor that was not opened. What of the joists under the tray is unknown?
Own page
The joists under the tray are unknown in the ways that matter. The surveyor saw a tiled bathroom and did not open the floor, so the joists, the deck and the underside of the shower tray were not examined. Tiles can hide a soft tray, a failed seal or timber that has been wet for a long time. A firm floor underfoot is not proof of sound joists. No board was lifted and no ceiling below was opened. The report notes a concealed bathroom floor. It has not decided the joists are dry or free of decay.
Legal and neighbours
The map line and the garden wall do not coincide on the plan the agent supplied. Has the survey decided who owns the strip between them?
Own page
No. The survey has not decided who owns the strip between the map line and the garden wall. The agent's plan is a drawing, not a ruling on title. Walls often fail to sit on the line a plan suggests. The mismatch may be a thick printed line, a later wall, or a real difference on the ground. The surveyor can record that they do not coincide. Measuring a gap does not award the land. Ownership is for the solicitor, using the title plan, not a conclusion of this inspection.
Environment
A radon test in the pack is from another year and the fan was off. What of the present level was not measured?
Own page
The present radon level was not measured. A test from another year, taken with the fan off, is an old result under different conditions. It does not record the level in the house now, with the fan as it stands, the vents as they are, and the rooms as they are used. This survey did not place detectors and did not run a radon test. A map and a previous report are separate from a current measurement. The older paper is not this year's reading. The report can note that paper and the fan. It has not measured the present level.
Hazardous materials
The soffit may be asbestos cement. Why should you not drill it to help the next survey?
Own page
Do not drill it. A soffit that may be asbestos cement can release fibres if it is drilled, cut or broken, and the next survey does not need a fresh hole. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos. Looking at a soffit does not identify the fibres, and it does not make a coating safe or unsafe if it is left alone. Sampling, where it is justified, belongs with an asbestos survey that can control dust, not with a buyer's drill. This report has not sampled the soffit. Drilling it would damage the sheet the next inspection should find intact.
Walls
Plastic caps from an old borescope survey are still in the mortar. Has this home survey repeated that tie inspection?
Own page
No. This home survey has not repeated the tie inspection. Plastic caps in the mortar show that someone bored the wall in the past. They do not show that a camera was used on this visit. The surveyor did not borescope the cavity and did not report a new view of the ties, the insulation or the cavity width. Old caps can sit over holes for years. They are not a current test. What the earlier person saw is unknown unless that report is in the pack. This inspection records the caps only.
After the survey
You want to snag after completion. Why does the home survey you commission before completion not become the warranty claim?
Own page
Because a home survey and a warranty claim are different products. The survey you commission records condition for you. It does not open a claim and it does not bind the warranty body. NHBC describes Buildmark as a ten-year warranty and insurance product. A snagging list you raise after completion still has to go to the builder or the warranty body under that product's own process. The survey can help you see defects. It is not the claim form, and the surveyor does not lodge it. Completion does not convert the report into a warranty notification.
After the survey
Nothing in the report orders you to walk away. Who actually makes that decision?
Own page
You do. The report describes condition, risk and further enquiries. It does not order you to walk away, to renegotiate or to carry on. That choice sits with you, using the survey, your solicitor's view of the contract, and what you can take on. A flagged defect is not an instruction to withdraw. A calm report is not an instruction to stay. Nobody in the PDF has authority over the purchase. Read what was found, notice what is still unknown, and decide yourself.
Grounds
Running bamboo is coming up through the patio pointing. Has the survey excavated the rhizome?
Own page
No. The survey has not excavated the rhizome. Running bamboo in the patio pointing was recorded at the surface. Slabs were not lifted and the underground stems were not traced. Shoots in the joints show the plant is present and vigorous enough to break the pointing. They do not map the rhizome under the patio, or say whether it has reached a foundation, a drain or the boundary. This is a visual note of bamboo, not a dug investigation. The report has not decided how far the rhizome runs.
Roofs
A secret valley behind the parapet was not seen from the ground. Which rainwater path is still unknown?
Own page
The rainwater path along that secret valley is still unknown. A valley hidden behind a parapet cannot be judged from the ground, and this survey did not see it from a higher point or from a void that opens onto it. What remains unknown is whether the valley gutter is blocked, split, flat or actually discharging as it should. Outlets and the junctions with the slopes were not in view. The report can say the valley exists and was not inspected. It has not decided that rain from those slopes reaches a working outlet.
Roofs
Soakers remain where a stack was taken down. Has the covering been opened to see if those soakers still hold water?
Own page
No. The covering has not been opened. Soakers left where a stack was removed are metal the survey could see, or infer, at the old chimney position. They were not peeled back. Boarding, felt or slates beneath them were not examined for a path that still lets water in. Redundant soakers can still work, can be split, or can sit over a hole that was never properly weathered. This visit did not water-test them and did not lift the covering. The report notes the leftover soakers. It has not decided they keep the rain out.
Grounds
You walked the garden and saw no shaft. Why is that walk not the GOV.UK check for coal mining?
Own page
A walk is not a mining check. Seeing no shaft in the garden means no open shaft was obvious on that stroll. It does not search recorded coal workings, mine entries or older coal-mining reports. GOV.UK's mining check and a coal mining report are separate products from the home survey and from your own look at the lawn. Many entries are capped, filled or simply not visible at the surface. The survey, even if the grounds were walked, did not carry out the official check. The report has not decided the plot is clear of coal-mining risk.
Electrics
An electric-vehicle charger is wired into a consumer unit that was not opened. Has this visit produced an electrical certificate?
Own page
No. This visit has not produced an electrical certificate. The charger was seen as equipment wired into a consumer unit, and that unit was not opened. A home survey does not test the circuit, does not take the cover off and does not issue an electrical condition report or a certificate for the charger. Cables into a closed unit do not show the protective device, the connections or any notification. The report can note the charger and the unopened unit. It has not certified the electrical work.
Reading the report
Rating 2 is on a weathered parapet coping. Why is that not the same as urgent repair?
Own page
Because rating 2 means defects that need repairing or replacing but are not serious or urgent. A weathered parapet coping can be worn, open-jointed or tired and still sit in that category when the surveyor has not called the repair serious or urgent. Rating 3 is the marker for a defect that is serious, urgent, or both, and that needs repair, replacement or investigation. Rating 2 is not a dismissal, and it is not a rating 3 written softly. The coping needs repair in ordinary time. The report has not called it an emergency and has not added a lifespan.
Grounds
The survey says knotweed is in the garden and does not give a distance to the house. Why must you not invent a metre rule the report did not write?
Own page
Because the report did not measure a distance and did not write a metre rule. Japanese knotweed in the garden is the finding. Adding a figure the surveyor left out invents a precision the inspection did not use. A number remembered from somewhere else is not a sentence in this PDF. The survey does not become more accurate because a buyer supplies a round figure. Knotweed is reported on the plot without a stated gap to the wall. Use that wording. Do not invent the gap.
Walls
Mastic has fallen out of a prefab panel joint. Has the inside of that joint been seen?
Own page
No. The inside of the joint has not been seen. Missing mastic is an outside finding. The sealant that should close the gap between prefabricated panels has fallen away, so the joint is open to the weather at the face. The surveyor did not open the joint, remove a panel or inspect the hidden edge, the fixing, or whatever sits behind the mastic line. Whether water has already crossed that joint is unknown. The report records failed sealant at the face. It has not decided the concealed joint is dry or sound.
Structure
A post-war solid floor has heaved and the report mentions possible sulfate. Has a concrete sample been taken?
Own page
No. A concrete sample has not been taken. The survey records a post-war solid floor that has heaved, and it mentions possible sulfate as a cause that is not proved. Sulfate can affect some slabs and the material beneath them. It is not something a home survey confirms by looking. Heave can also come from the ground, from a failed drain, or from the way the slab was built. This visit did not drill the concrete and did not test the fill. The floor shape was seen. The chemistry was not.
Legal and neighbours
The lease mentions forfeiture. Why must the survey not be asked to explain that remedy?
Own page
Because forfeiture is a lease remedy, not a defect a survey can explain. It is the landlord's route, in the circumstances the lease sets out, to bring that lease to an end. A home survey looks at the flat. It does not interpret remedies, notices or the steps a landlord must take. Asking the surveyor to explain forfeiture asks for advice the report was not instructed to give. Your solicitor reads the clause. The survey, even if it noticed the word, has not advised you on what the remedy means.
Legal and neighbours
A cowl oversails the boundary. Has a Party Wall Act notice already been served by this inspection?
Own page
No. This inspection has not served a Party Wall Act notice. A cowl that oversails the boundary was recorded as a physical fact: part of this building projects past the apparent line. Noticing that projection is not a notice under the Act, and the surveyor was not appointed to serve one. Whether the Act applies, whether the cowl is a trespass, and whether an older notice exists are legal points. The report can describe the cowl and the apparent oversail. It has not started any statutory process and has not decided the boundary.
Structure and movement
The joint between a newer extension and the older house is open. Is that movement in the new part, the old part, or still undecided?
Own page
Still undecided. An open joint between a newer extension and the older house shows the two parts are not behaving as one piece. It does not say which side moved, whether they were never tied, or whether shrinkage or settlement opened a junction that was always a joint. The survey did not expose the tying, did not monitor the gap and did not see the foundations. The report records an open joint. It has not allocated the movement to the new part or the old part, and it has not ruled movement out.
Services
The heat pump for this flat sits on the communal roof the surveyor did not access. What of that unit was not inspected?
Own page
The outdoor unit, and everything that can only be seen on that roof, was not inspected. The surveyor did not get onto the communal roof, so the casing, the mounts, the pipe connections at the unit, the condensate route and the roof covering under the feet were not viewed. A label in the flat, or a pipe in a riser, is not the machine. The report can note that a heat pump is said to serve this flat and that the roof was out of reach. It has not judged the unit or how it bears on the shared roof.
Legal and neighbours
This cellar runs on under next door's hall. Why is that a title question as well as a damp note?
Own page
Because a cellar that continues under next door's hall may cross the title, not only the line of a damp patch. The survey can note the vaults, the moisture and the fact that the space appears to run beyond this house. It cannot decide who owns the underground room, whether this title includes it, or what rights the neighbour has. Damp in the cellar is a condition finding. The extra length under the hall is a question of legal extent. Both should be recorded. Only the solicitor can match the cellar to the plan.
Reading the report
A rating 3 photograph names no room. What can a builder not price from that image alone?
Own page
A builder cannot price a defined repair from that image alone. Rating 3 means a defect that is serious, urgent, or both, and that needs repair, replacement or investigation. The photograph shows something the surveyor rated at that level, but with no room named it does not say where in the house the defect is. A builder cannot tell the extent, the access or whether the frame is the whole problem. The written words locate it, if they name the place. The picture by itself is not a schedule and not a price.
Grounds
Canes have been cut to stumps along the fence. Does a winter visit with no leaf prove the plant has gone?
Own page
No. Cut stumps and a winter visit with no leaf do not prove Japanese knotweed has gone. The plant is often cut back, and the crown and rhizome stay in the ground when the canes are shortened and the leaves have died away. A winter survey records what is above ground that day: stumps along the fence, not a cleared site. The survey did not excavate and did not test the soil. A missing green leaf is the season, not proof of eradication. The report has not decided the plant is dead.
Services
Refrigerant lines of a split system are unlagged across the garden. Has the refrigerant charge been weighed?
Own page
No. The refrigerant charge has not been weighed. Unlagged pipes across the garden are a visual defect: the lines between the indoor and outdoor parts of a split system are bare. Missing lagging can let those pipes gain or lose heat and can leave the copper exposed. It does not say how much refrigerant is in the circuit. This visit did not fit gauges and did not weigh a charge. The survey records bare lines. It has not tested the heat pump and has not decided the charge is correct.
Damp
A wet plaster patch sits inside a wall that is said to be cavity-filled. Has the survey separated a leak from saturated insulation?
Own page
No. The survey has not separated a leak from saturated insulation. A wet plaster patch inside a wall said to be cavity-filled shows damp at that patch. It does not show whether rain is crossing the wall, whether fill is holding water, whether a gutter is leaking, or whether the plaster is simply cold. This visit did not open the wall, sample the insulation or trace a leak with finishes removed. The report records damp plaster and a claim of fill. It has not chosen the mechanism.
Money
The energy certificate band is high and the survey lists roof repairs. Why can both be true?
Own page
Because they answer different questions. An energy certificate band is a modelled rating built from standard assumptions about the dwelling. A home survey lists defects the surveyor saw, including roof repairs, from a look at the building. A high band can sit beside slipped coverings, tired flashings or a valley that needs work, because the certificate is not a roof inspection and the survey is not an energy model. Neither paper cancels the other. The survey has not recalculated the band. The certificate has not denied the defects.
Walls
The report asks for a borescope of the wall ties and none was used on the day. Has that further look already happened?
Own page
No. The further look has not happened. The report asks for a borescope of the wall ties, and none was used on the day, so the recommendation is still open. A sentence that requests a camera inspection is not the inspection. This home survey did not see the ties in the cavity and did not complete the further look it asked for. The brickwork and the written request are what you have. Until a borescope survey is done and written up, the tie question the report raised is unanswered.
Property types
The brochure draws a porch this plot does not have. Which paper describes the building you are actually buying?
Own page
The paper that describes this plot, not the brochure picture of a porch the plot does not have. A sales brochure is marketing. It often shows a house type or an optional extra that was never built here. The building you are buying is the one on the ground, read with the contract plan, the specification for this plot and any written variations. The home survey describes the condition of what was there. It does not turn a drawn porch into a defect the warranty has accepted. NHBC describes Buildmark as a ten-year warranty and insurance product, and this survey has not opened a claim.
Reading the report
The report says its photographs are illustrative. Why is one picture of a crack not a schedule of every crack?
Own page
Because an illustrative photograph is an example, not an inventory. The report uses one picture to show the sort of crack it is discussing. It does not claim the camera recorded every crack, every length or every room. A schedule would list places and extents so each one could be watched or repaired. One image cannot do that, and the word illustrative says not to pretend it has. Ratings elsewhere still carry their RICS meanings for the items they are attached to. They do not turn a sample photo into a complete crack map.
Grounds
A root barrier at the patio is lapped backwards along one edge. Has anyone tested whether roots can pass that lap?
Own page
No. This visit did not test whether roots can pass the backwards lap. A root barrier at the patio was seen with one edge lapped the wrong way. That is a visual fault in the joint, not a test. The survey did not dig the barrier out or look for roots crossing that edge. Roots might be held, or they might pass. The inspection has not shown which. The report records the lap and has not tested it.
Walls
The pack describes cavity fill placed against a timber frame. Why is that not the same job as filling a masonry cavity?
Own page
Because a timber frame and a masonry cavity are different walls, and fill against the frame is not the same job as filling the gap between two masonry leaves. Masonry cavity fill is aimed at the space between brick or block skins. A timber frame has studs, a sheathing face and usually a cavity meant to drain. The pack says fill was placed against the frame. This survey has not opened the wall, has not confirmed that description and has not treated the work as an ordinary masonry fill.
Structure
A loft beam bears on a single-skin wall. Has anyone calculated that bearing?
Own page
No. This survey has not calculated that bearing. A loft beam sitting on a single-skin wall was seen as an arrangement: the beam end lands on a wall only one leaf thick, with no calculation of the load, the bearing or the capacity of that leaf. Single-skin masonry is a slender support. Whether it is adequate depends on span, load and condition, which a visual note does not compute. The report records how the beam sits. It has not produced calculations and has not decided the wall is strong enough.
Services
The agent says an MCS installer fitted the heat pump. The certificate was not in the surveyor's papers. What has not been checked?
Own page
The MCS certificate has not been checked. It was not in the surveyor's papers, and the survey has not verified any registration. An agent saying an MCS installer fitted the heat pump is a claim, not a document. This visit did not confirm the installer, the commissioning date or that a certificate exists. It did not test heat-pump efficiency. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is a grant route in England and Wales. The survey does not decide eligibility and must not quote a grant figure. Approved Document L is guidance, not a certificate this report issues. The unchecked item is the certificate the agent named.
Services
The magnetic filter on the heat-pump return is packed with black sludge. Has the visit flushed the circuit or only seen the pot?
Own page
Only the pot was seen. The magnetic filter on the heat-pump return is packed with black sludge, and that is what the survey recorded. The visit did not flush the circuit, did not drain the system and did not clean the filter. Sludge in the pot shows debris has collected there. It does not measure what remains in the emitters, any buffer or the heat exchanger, and it is not a water test. The report notes a dirty magnetic filter. It has not flushed anything and has not decided the rest of the circuit is clear.
Structure
A rear extension has no plans in the pack. Can the survey reconstruct whether building regulations were applied?
Own page
No. The survey cannot reconstruct whether building regulations were applied. A rear extension with no plans can be described as it stands: what it is built from, how it joins the house, and what defects show. That description does not recreate an application, a drawing or an approval the pack does not contain. The survey does not issue a building-regulations certificate. Missing drawings are a paperwork gap. They are not a puzzle the surveyor solves by looking at the walls and then declaring that regulations were followed or ignored.
Roofs
A blister in the felt was not opened. Is it a leak, trapped vapour, or still unnamed?
Own page
Still unnamed. A blister in the felt was seen and was not opened, so the survey has not called it a leak or trapped vapour. Blisters can form when air or moisture is held between layers, and they can also sit over a path that lets rain in. Cutting one is a destructive check this visit did not do. From the surface the surveyor can note size, position and whether the felt nearby is split or holding water. Those clues do not choose the cause. The report records an unopened blister. The cause remains unnamed.
Structure and movement
The report mentions clay and a bay that has dropped. Has a soil sample or a root identification been taken?
Own page
No. Neither a soil sample nor a root identification has been taken. The report mentions clay and a bay that has dropped. That records movement and names ground as context. Clay can shrink as it dries, and roots can add to that drying. Mentioning those ideas is not a laboratory result. This visit did not bore the soil, test its moisture or identify a root. The dropped bay is a structural observation. The mechanism in the ground remains unproved.
Services
The pack mentions glycol in a slinky trench for a ground-source array. Did the home survey excavate or test that brine circuit?
Own page
No. The home survey did not excavate the slinky trench and did not test the brine circuit. The pack mentions glycol in a ground-source array, which is a description of fluid in buried pipes. That fluid is not verified by reading a sentence. The trench was not opened, the liquid was not sampled and the pressure was not tested. This visit did not measure heat-pump efficiency. The report can note what the pack claims. It has not confirmed the array, the fluid or that the circuit is intact.
Structure and movement
The bay is pulling away from the main wall and the bay foundation was not seen. What is still only a gap?
Own page
The separation is still only a gap. The bay pulling away from the main wall was seen at the junction. The bay foundation was not seen, so this visit does not know whether that base has dropped, whether the main wall has stayed put, or whether the bay was never tied. What you have is an open junction above ground. You do not have a foundation inspection or a cause. The report records the gap and the unseen base. It has not turned the gap into a diagnosed failure.
Services
A desuperheater is labelled on the cylinder and the hot taps were not run for long. Has domestic hot water been tested?
Own page
No. Domestic hot water has not been tested. A desuperheater labelled on the cylinder means a label says that device should help the heat pump warm stored water. The hot taps were not run for long, so the survey did not check how the store behaves, whether it recovers, or whether the labelled part actually heats it. No sample was taken. This visit did not test heat-pump efficiency. The report can note the label and the brief use of the taps. It has not tested domestic hot water.
Walls
Pebbledash on a 1930s semi sounds hollow at the front corner. Has the render been tapped over the whole elevation?
Own page
No. The render has not been tapped over the whole elevation. Hollow-sounding pebbledash at the front corner means that spot, where it was tapped, sounds detached. It does not map the rest of the front, and it says nothing systematic about the sides or the rear. A home survey samples surfaces it can reach. It does not sound an entire elevation on a grid. The report notes hollow render at the front corner. It has not decided how far the loss of bond extends.
Services
A buffer cylinder is named and the cylinder-stat was not seen. What has the survey not confirmed about how the heat pump stores heat?
Own page
The survey has not confirmed how the heat pump stores heat. A buffer cylinder is named, so something calls a vessel a buffer, but the cylinder-stat was not seen. Without that stat the survey cannot confirm the control that should govern the store, or whether the buffer is wired as the name suggests. A glimpse of pipework is not a control. This visit did not test heat-pump efficiency and did not decide the store works. Storage remains a name plus a stat that was not found.
Structure
A competent-person certificate exists for the windows and the frames are rotten. Why does the certificate not describe today's condition?
Own page
The certificate does not describe today's rotten frames because it records the installation route, not the timber now. A competent-person certificate is one route to building-regulations compliance when the windows were put in. The survey does not issue that certificate and has not rechecked the work. Rot is a condition finding from this visit. The paper does not refresh itself as the wood decays, and it does not call the frames sound today. Keep the certificate for the solicitor. Read the rot as a separate defect the certificate never claimed to describe.
Drainage
A rodding eye for the extension drain sits inside a cupboard and was not lifted. What of that run was not proved clear?
Own page
The extension run served by that rodding eye was not proved clear. The eye sits in a cupboard and the cover was not lifted, so nothing was rodded through it and no camera was put down that branch. The survey records the access point. It does not show that the pipe beyond the eye is open, connected or free of silt. Clearance of that run is unproved. Other drains, if any were seen, are a different length of pipe from this one.
Timber
Wet rot is at the window sill only. Why has the survey not condemned the floor joist behind it?
Own page
The floor joist has not been condemned because the wet rot that was found is in the window sill, and the joist behind it was not seen. Wet rot is decay in timber that stays damp. Finding it in the sill identifies that piece. It does not, by itself, show that a separate joist under the floor is soft, reduced or even damp. The survey limits the finding to the timber it could reach. The joist remains unopened and undecided.
Environment
A radon sump was built into the extension slab and the fan is missing. What of the system is incomplete, and what level has not been measured?
Own page
The fan is the incomplete part, and no radon level has been measured in the extension. A sump in the slab is a void meant to collect soil gas so a fan can draw it away. With the fan missing, that extraction is not in place. The survey saw the sump arrangement and the absence of the fan. It did not test the air and it did not measure a radon level in the room. A map of radon risk is a different product and was not a reading taken here.
Hazardous materials
A post-war bungalow has a garage roof that looks like asbestos cement. Has the survey sampled it by looking?
Own page
No. The survey has not sampled the garage roof by looking at it. A sheet that looks like asbestos cement was recorded as a likeness, not as a laboratory sample. Buildings built or refurbished before 2000 can contain asbestos, and a post-war bungalow sits in that age. Appearance does not identify the fibres and does not clear them. The visit did not take a piece away for analysis. Looking is not sampling, and the report has not decided what the sheet contains.
Roof and rainwater
A stone trough gutter holds silt. Has it been shown to discharge, or only seen full of silt?
Own page
It has only been seen full of silt. Discharge has not been shown. A stone trough gutter was recorded holding debris, and nobody ran water through it to an outlet on this visit. A full trough does not prove the outlet is open, and it does not prove the outlet is blocked. The survey can say the trough contains silt. It cannot say the gutter discharges. Clearance and a working fall remain untested.
Services
A stove stands on a hearth that was not measured. Why is the installation not signed off by this visit?
Own page
The installation is not signed off because the hearth was not measured. The stove was seen standing on a hearth. Clearances, hearth construction and how the appliance meets the opening were not measured, so this visit cannot sign the installation off. A home survey does not commission a stove and does not replace an installer certificate. The report records an unmeasured hearth. It has not decided that the installation complies, and it has not decided that it fails a dimension.
Grounds
A circular concrete cap in the patio might be a shaft cap. Has the home survey decided what is underneath it?
Own page
No. The home survey has not decided what is underneath the circular concrete cap. It might be a shaft cap, and it might be something else, such as a sealing eye or an old feature in the patio. The visit recorded a cap. It did not lift it, excavate beside it or identify a shaft. A GOV.UK mining check and a coal mining report are separate products from this inspection. Neither was carried out by the home survey, and no subsidence claim has been opened.
Drainage
The property is in Scotland and has a septic tank. Why must you not apply England's general binding rules as if they were the Scottish rule?
Own page
You must not apply them because England's general binding rules are not the Scottish rule for this tank. The property is in Scotland. Copying an English discharge regime onto it treats the wrong system as if it were local law. The survey recorded the septic tank it could see. It has not decided compliance with Scottish controls and it has not applied the English rules. A Home Report is the Scottish selling product. It is not an English Level 2 or Level 3, and it does not convert those English rules into Scottish ones.
Services
The rising main at the stopcock looks like lead and no water sample was taken. What has not been tested?
Own page
The drinking water has not been tested. The rising main at the stopcock looks like lead, and that is a visual note about the pipe. No water sample was taken, so the survey has no result for lead in the water you would drink. Looking at the metal is not a laboratory test. The report has not said the water meets or misses any standard. The untested thing is the water, not a hidden length of pipe the visit never opened.
Drainage
Liquid was seen in a sample chamber and was not sent to a laboratory. What treatment standard is unproved?
Own page
Every treatment standard is unproved. Liquid was seen in a sample chamber and was not sent to a laboratory, so there is no result for the quality of that liquid. The survey can say the chamber held liquid. It cannot say the discharge meets the standard the plant was meant to reach. A treatment plant is not a cesspool, which only holds sewage until it is emptied, and it is not the same vessel as a simple septic tank. None of those distinctions was turned into a lab result here.
Money
The lender wants a retention until the roof is repaired. Has your survey set that retention, or has the lender?
Own page
The lender has set the retention. Your home survey has not. A retention is the lender holding back part of the loan until the roof is repaired. That decision sits in the mortgage offer, not in the condition report. MoneyHelper describes a mortgage valuation as a check for the lender, not a structural survey. A down-valuation is the lender's figure, not a defect list written by the home survey. The survey can describe the roof. It has not chosen the holdback and it has not priced the repair.
Selling
You repaired the gutter after the buyer's survey. Why does that repair not edit the PDF they already have?
Own page
The repair does not edit the PDF because that file is the record of the inspection, and the gutter was repaired afterwards. The report describes the gutter as it was on the day of the visit. A later repair is new work. It does not rewrite sentences already issued, and it does not change the date on the PDF the buyer already holds. The survey has not revisited the gutter and has not issued a fresh report. The old PDF stays the account of that visit.
Services
An oil tank has no bund and serves the boiler. Has the survey pressure-tested the oil line?
Own page
No. The survey has not pressure-tested the oil line. The tank has no bund and it serves the boiler, which is a visual note about secondary containment and about what the tank feeds. A bund is a catcher for leaks at the tank. Its absence does not test the pipe between tank and boiler. The line was not pressured, traced under floors or proved tight. The report records an unbunded tank. It has not signed the oil installation off and has not found a leak by test.
Structure and movement
The seller says the crack over the door opens each summer. Does one winter visit confirm that pattern?
Own page
No. One winter visit does not confirm that the crack over the door opens each summer. The survey saw the crack as it was on that day. The seller's account of a seasonal pattern is a statement, not a measurement across seasons. A single visit cannot watch the crack open in summer and ease in winter. The report records the crack that was present. It has not adopted the seasonal account as a proved pattern, and it has not monitored movement.
Legal and neighbours
The seller mentions a right-to-buy lease that this inspection did not read. Which repairing duties are still unread?
Own page
All of the repairing duties in that right-to-buy lease are still unread. The seller mentioned the lease and this inspection did not read it, so the survey cannot say what the leaseholder must repair, what the landlord must repair, or how the windows, the roof and the structure are split. A mention in conversation is not the document. Those duties sit in the lease. Until it is read, every repairing obligation in it remains unknown. The survey has not guessed a split.
Reading the report
A box tells you to ask your legal adviser about the boundary. Has the surveyor drawn where the legal boundary lies?
Own page
No. The surveyor has not drawn where the legal boundary lies. The box tells you to ask your legal adviser, which is a referral, not a plan of the legal line. The visit can note fences, walls and hedges it could see. Those physical features are not the boundary on the title. The survey has not mapped ownership and has not decided the line. The question in the box belongs with the solicitor and the title plan.
Services
An air-source unit is fixed to a listed rear wall. Has the survey consented that fixing?
Own page
No. The survey has not consented the fixing of the air-source unit to the listed rear wall. Listing covers the whole building, not a front facade alone, so the rear wall is part of the listed building. Consent is a decision for the planning authority. The visit recorded that a unit is fixed to that wall. It has not granted listed building consent, has not checked that consent exists, and has not approved the brackets, the penetrations or the pipework.
Walls
A stainless-steel tie certificate names the front elevation only. What of the gable does that paper cover?
Own page
Nothing of the gable. The certificate names the front elevation only, so that paper covers the front it names and does not cover the gable. Stainless-steel ties recorded on one wall are not evidence about the ties in another wall. The survey has not tested the gable ties, has not opened the gable cavity, and has not stretched the certificate sideways. The gable remains outside that document. What the paper covers is the front elevation alone.
Property types
The brochure shows a porch the plot does not have. Has the survey treated the brochure as the specification that was built?
Own page
No. The survey has not treated the brochure as the specification that was built. The brochure shows a porch and the plot does not have one. The visit records the plot as it stands, without that porch. Sales artwork is not a specification and not a warranty schedule. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product where that policy applies. The survey does not open a claim and has not decided that a porch was promised in the contract.
After the survey
The investigation the survey asked for is still outstanding. Why is a price cut today negotiating without the fact that investigation would add?
Own page
A price cut today is negotiating without the fact because the investigation the survey asked for has not reported. The visit could not settle the extent, which is why it asked for that further look. Until the result exists, there is no finding to attach a change of price to. You would be bargaining on the gap itself. The survey has not costed a repair and has not suggested a figure. The missing fact is the investigation's conclusion, and it is still outstanding.
Reading the report
Rating 1 is on decorations that look tired. Why does RICS still call that no repair currently needed?
Own page
RICS still calls it no repair currently needed because that is what rating 1 means, and tired paint is not a defect that needs repair. Rating 1 is no repair currently needed. The decorations look worn, which is ordinary ageing of a finish, not a failure of the element underneath. The survey has seen the tired paint and has still given rating 1. It has not said the surface must be redecorated as a repair, and it has not added a lifespan to the paint.
Grounds
A herbicide log has two visits and then stops. Has the survey decided the treatment programme is finished?
Own page
No. The survey has not decided the treatment programme is finished. The herbicide log has two visits and then stops, which is an incomplete record, not a completion certificate. Two attendances do not show that a plan ran its course or that the knotweed is gone. The visit saw a log that ends. It did not watch the treatment, did not dig for rhizome and has not declared the programme closed. Finish is unproved.
Roofs
A BISF house is named and the roof truss was only seen from the hatch. What of the steel frame upstairs was not inspected?
Own page
The steel frame of the upper storey, beyond what a hatch can show, was not inspected. A BISF house is a steel-framed system. From the hatch the survey could see a limited part of the roof structure. It could not see the stanchions in the upstairs walls, the connections hidden by linings, or corrosion behind cladding. Those parts of the frame were not inspected. The name BISF is not a claim that the whole upstairs frame was examined. The unseen steel stays unseen.
Reading the report
Rating 2 sits beside a sentence that names a roofer. Which part is the rating, and which part is the extra sentence?
Own page
The rating is the rating 2. The extra sentence is the one that names a roofer. Rating 2 means defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent. That grade is the rating. The sentence beside it is advice about a trade who might do the work. It is not a second rating, not an appointment of a firm, and not a quote. The survey has not made the roofer's name into the condition grade. Read the digit as the rating and the trade as the extra words.
Grounds
Decking covers the spot where a knotweed crown was previously drawn. Has this survey lifted the boards?
Own page
No. This survey has not lifted the boards. Decking covers the spot where a knotweed crown was previously drawn, and the boards stayed down. The crown was not exposed on this visit. An earlier drawing is not an excavation done today, and it does not prove the crown is still there or has gone. The survey records the covering. It has not seen the ground beneath, has not dug for rhizome and has not decided what remains under the deck.
Structure
The neighbour calls this a Cornish unit. Has the survey adopted that name from the street, or only from what it could see?
Own page
The survey has not adopted the neighbour's name from the street. A Cornish unit is a named concrete system, and that label belongs only where the construction seen on site supports it. This inspection records what it could see. A call from next door is not that seeing. If the panels or the frame were not visible, the survey has not promoted the nickname into an identification. The street name stays hearsay. The report should not be read as having adopted it.
Walls
Polystyrene dust lies on the path under a line of filled holes. Does the dust prove the cavity is fully filled?
Own page
No. The dust does not prove the cavity is fully filled. Polystyrene dust under a line of filled holes shows that bead material was handled at those holes. It does not show that every part of the cavity received it. Voids over windows, at reveals and in corners can stay empty while dust falls outside. The survey saw debris and filled holes. It did not open the cavity and has not mapped the fill. A full fill is unproved.
Legal and neighbours
Fence panels are missing along a new plot. Why is that a boundary snag rather than a structural failure of the house?
Own page
Missing panels are a boundary snag because they leave a gap in the plot enclosure, not a failure of the house. The walls, frame and foundations of the dwelling are a different question, and this finding does not say those have failed. The survey records incomplete fencing. It has not diagnosed structural failure. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product where that policy applies. The survey does not open a claim. A fence does not carry the house.
Structure
A barn conversion hangs a mezzanine from an old truss and no calculation is in the pack. Which load path is unverified?
Own page
The load path from the mezzanine into the old truss, and from that truss onward, is unverified. The conversion hangs a floor from a truss that belonged to the barn roof, and no calculation is in the pack. The survey can see the connection that is visible. It cannot see a design showing the truss and its supports can carry a floor. That path is the one left unverified. The visit has not calculated it and has not approved it.
Drainage
A grease trap remains from when the room was a cafe. Has it been proved still connected to the foul drain?
Own page
No. The grease trap has not been proved still connected to the foul drain. It remains from when the room was a cafe, which explains why it is there. The survey saw the trap. It did not dye-test it or camera the foul drain. The trap could be connected, capped or abandoned. None of those was proved. The report records a leftover fitting. A live connection to the foul drain is unproved.
Timber
A growth in the cellar might be dry rot and it was not sampled. Why is a photograph not an identification?
Own page
A photograph is not an identification because it only records appearance. The cellar growth might be dry rot and it was not sampled, so the survey has not named the fungus. Other growths can look similar in a picture. The photo is a visual note. It is not a laboratory result. The survey has not identified the growth with certainty and has not mapped any spread from it. Doubt remains the finding.
Money
The auction pack contains a survey addressed to a previous bidder. Why can you not treat that report as your own instruction?
Own page
You cannot treat it as your own instruction because it is addressed to a previous bidder, not to you. You did not appoint the surveyor and you are not the named client. MoneyHelper describes a mortgage valuation as a check for the lender, not a structural survey. Whatever this pack contains, it is not a survey you instructed. Reading someone else's report does not make it yours. A survey in your name has not been commissioned by the fact the file was printed in the pack.
Walls
Fishtail ties are named for an Edwardian cavity that was not opened. What is that name based on?
Own page
The fishtail name is not based on a tie seen in an opened cavity. The wall was not opened, so no tie was taken out or photographed in place. Fishtail ties are a traditional shape linked with walls of that age. Here the name is an inference from the Edwardian construction, not a finding from a seen tie. The survey has not confirmed the metal or that fishtails are what this cavity holds. The basis is the age of the wall, not an opening.
Services
The boiler card names a different plot number. Has the warranty or this survey confirmed the boiler that belongs to this plot?
Own page
No. The card names a different plot number, and neither that paper nor this survey has confirmed the boiler for this plot. The visit records the mismatch. It has not matched the appliance on the wall to a schedule for this address. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product where that policy applies. The survey does not open a claim and has not decided which boiler any policy covers. Confirmation is missing.
Drainage
The seller emptied the cesspit the day before the survey. Why does an empty tank not show you how it performs?
Own page
An empty tank does not show performance because it was emptied the day before, so the visit saw a holding tank just cleared. A cesspit holds sewage until it is emptied. It does not treat sewage as a septic tank or a treatment plant does. Empty, it hides how fast it fills and whether the chamber stays tight in use. The survey records an emptied tank. It has not seen a working level and has not judged how the cesspit performs.
Roofs
A lead roll on a small flat stops short of the drip. Which weather edge is unfinished?
Own page
The drip is the unfinished weather edge. The lead roll on this small flat stops short of it, so the lower edge where water should fall clear is not finished by that roll. A drip throws rain off the flat. Stopping short leaves that edge incomplete. The survey saw the gap between the end of the roll and the drip. It has not water-tested the flat. The unfinished part is the drip, not a joint higher up the slope.
Structure
A garage is now a bedroom and the only window is a small high light. Has a fire-escape test been carried out?
Own page
No. A fire-escape test has not been carried out. The garage is now a bedroom and the only window is a small high light, which the survey saw and did not test as a way out. It did not measure the opening against a regulation. The survey does not issue a building-regulations certificate. Using a former garage as a bedroom raises an escape question this visit has not answered. The high light is a description. It is not a passed test.
Structure
One double-glazed pane is misty and the others are clear. Has the survey failed every window in the house?
Own page
No. The survey has not failed every window. One double-glazed pane is misty and the others are clear. Mist inside the unit means that seal has failed. The clear panes were not given the same fault. The visit records the one misty pane. It has not condemned the other windows, has not failed their frames, and has not said the rest will mist. The finding is a single failed unit. The others remain as they were seen.
Roofs
A crack in a fibreglass covering runs into the upstand. Has that joint been water-tested?
Own page
No. That joint has not been water-tested. A crack in the fibreglass runs into the upstand, and the survey saw the crack. Seeing it is not a hose test of the joint. The upstand is the turned-up edge of the covering. The crack meeting it means the break arrives at that detail. The visit records the line of the crack. It has not shown how much water passes, and it has not shown that the joint stays dry.
Structure and movement
A concrete stitch shows at one corner and no underpinning drawing is in the pack. What of the foundation was actually seen?
Own page
Only the concrete stitch on the face of one corner was seen. The foundation was not. No underpinning drawing is in the pack, so there is no design, depth or length of foundation work to read. The stitch is a repair visible in the wall. It is not a view of the footing. What was actually seen is that stitch. The foundation itself stays unseen, and nothing in the papers describes it.
Reading the report
The limitation says snow covered the flat roof. Why is that sentence not a rating 1 for the covering?
Own page
That sentence is not rating 1 because it is a limitation. Snow covered the flat roof, so the covering was not inspected. NI means not inspected, not a pass. Rating 1 means no repair currently needed, and that is a judgement on something seen. The snow hid the covering, so no such judgement was made. The sentence explains why. It does not award rating 1 and it does not call the flat sound underneath.
Structure
The conservatory base has pulled away from the house wall. Has the survey designed a new foundation?
Own page
No. The survey has not designed a new foundation. The conservatory base has pulled away from the house wall, and the visit records that gap. A foundation design needs the ground, the loads and a drawing. None of that was done. The survey has not specified a new base or underpinning. The separation is a movement record. It is not a design. The finding stops at the pull-away that was seen on this visit.
Services
An expansion vessel on the heating side of the heat pump has no charge written down. Was the vessel pressure tested?
Own page
No. The vessel was not pressure tested. It is on the heating side of the heat pump and no charge is written down, so the pre-charge was neither recorded nor tested. The survey saw the vessel and a blank where a figure might have been. It did not fit a gauge and did not decide the vessel is correctly charged. There is no pressure result. The missing test is the whole of the answer.
Structure
A boot lintel is cracked at the nib. Has the boot been exposed to see how far the crack runs?
Own page
No. The boot has not been exposed, so the run of the crack is unknown. The lintel is cracked at the nib, the visible toe under the outer leaf. The boot is the part that turns back into the wall, and it stays hidden. The survey saw the crack at the nib. It did not open the cavity or the inner face to follow it. The visible break is recorded. How far it continues into the boot was not seen.
Roofs
Soakers are missing where a lean-to meets the wall. Have the flashings been lifted to prove the gap?
Own page
No. The flashings have not been lifted. Soakers are missing where the lean-to meets the wall, and that was noted without opening the junction. Soakers are the pieces that should interleave with the covering. The cover flashing dresses over them. Leaving it in place means the gap behind has not been proved by lifting. The survey records missing soakers on this visit. It has not opened the flashing to show the void underneath.
Services
The air vent on a buffer vessel is dripping. Is that drip from the domestic water or from the heating circuit?
Own page
The survey has not shown which. The air vent on the buffer vessel is dripping, and that drip was seen. The visit did not trace the pipes or sample the water, so it has not proved domestic water or heating water. A buffer normally sits on the heating side, but this inspection did not confirm the circuit by test and did not rule out a cross-connection. The drip is established. Which circuit it comes from is not.
Roofs
Felt is torn around a squirrel nest. Has daylight through that tear been confirmed from outside?
Own page
Daylight through that tear has not been confirmed from outside. The felt is torn around a squirrel nest, so there is a hole in the underlay, but nobody lined that hole up with sky from the tiles. The survey can record the tear and the nest. It has not lifted the covering or matched the rip to a gap above. Squirrels can tear felt while the covering still looks intact from the ground. The report records the damage it could see. It has not decided that rain is already coming through that exact tear.
Services
Two fires in neighbouring houses are said to share one flue. Have both connections been traced?
Own page
Both connections have not been traced. A claim that two fires in neighbouring houses share one flue is a story about the route, not a survey that followed both appliances into the stack. This visit could see only what was open on this side. It did not enter next door, did not smoke-test the flue and did not confirm a shared gathering. Sharing a flue can be a serious combustion risk if it is true. The survey has not decided that the fires do share, or that they do not.
Structure and movement
The mining report mentions withdrawal of support and the home survey found no crack. Do the two documents cancel each other?
Own page
The two documents do not cancel each other. Withdrawal of support in the mining report is mining and legal wording. The home survey found no crack on the day, which is a note about the fabric it could see. GOV.UK's mining check and a coal mining report are separate products from the inspection of the house. No crack today does not erase the support wording, and that wording does not invent a crack. A coal-mining subsidence claim is not something the surveyor opens by default.
Electrics
Trailing wires are noted and the caveat says this is not an electrical installation condition report. Which document do you still not have?
Own page
You still do not have an electrical installation condition report. Trailing wires were noted by eye, and the caveat says this visit is not that electrical report. Looking at loose conductors is not a test of circuits, earthing, polarity or the consumer unit. The survey has not decided that the installation is safe or unsafe. An electrician's condition report is a different document, and it was not produced here. The wires are a visual limitation, not a completed electrical inspection.
Choosing a survey
A friend in England calls your Scottish single survey a Level 3. Why is the Home Report a different product even though someone walked the house?
Own page
A Home Report is the Scottish product, not an English Level 3, even though someone walked the house. The single survey sits inside that Scottish pack. An English Level 3 is a different instruction, with a different name, used in a different market. Walking the rooms does not rename the paper. How long a Home Report remains current is not something to invent from an English survey. What you have is the Scottish product described in the pack, not an English Level 3 under another label.
Services
A lead pipe rises to the kitchen tap. Has the survey tested the drinking water?
Own page
The drinking water has not been tested. A lead pipe rises to the kitchen tap, and that was recorded as pipework the survey could see. A home survey does not sample the water from that tap and does not send it to a laboratory. Seeing a lead supply is not a result for the water you would drink. The report names the pipe. It has not decided that the water is acceptable or unacceptable. Do not sand, scrape or cut the lead to try to confirm the metal.
Grounds
A willow was stump-ground and the roots were not dug out. Why can a dry summer not rule heave out?
Own page
A dry summer cannot rule heave out, because the willow roots were left after the stump was ground. Heave is upward movement when a clay soil takes water back after roots stop drawing moisture. A dry season shows the ground is still dry, not that it will never wet up again. Stump grinding takes the stump down. It does not dig out the root system that may still be in the clay. The survey saw that situation. It has not monitored levels and has not proved or ruled out heave.
Roof and rainwater
The gutter oversails the boundary and drops onto next door's shed. Has the survey created a legal right for that gutter?
Own page
The survey has not created a legal right for that gutter. The gutter oversails the boundary and drops onto next door's shed, which is what could be seen. A right to keep a gutter over a boundary, or to discharge onto a neighbour's shed, lives in deeds and in any neighbour arrangement. The home survey does not grant that right. It can describe the oversail and the fall of water. It has not decided the arrangement is lawful, agreed or disputed.
Roofs
A Georgian parapet gutter is lead and was seen from a dormer. Has the survey welded or tested that lead?
Own page
The lead was neither welded nor tested. A Georgian parapet gutter of lead was seen from a dormer, which is a viewpoint, not a trial of the seams. Listing covers the whole building, and the survey does not grant listed building consent for any work to that gutter. A look from a dormer does not show every welt, drip or outlet, and it does not decide the lead is sound. The report records the material and the limited view. Do not scrape or cut the lead to test it.
Roofs
Loft quilt is laid over recessed downlighters. Why is that a fire note this visit has not metered?
Own page
It is a fire note because the loft quilt is laid over recessed downlighters, so heat from those lamps has nowhere open to go, and this visit has not metered anything. Covering fittings that are not meant to be covered can let heat build in the ceiling. The survey could see the quilt over the lights. It took no temperature reading and tested no circuit. The note is a visible risk, not a meter result, and it has not decided that a fire is imminent or that the lamps are suitable to bury.
Services
A three-port valve beside the heat pump was not turned. What of the hot-water path is still unknown?
Own page
The hot-water path through that three-port valve is still unknown. The valve beside the heat pump was not turned, so the survey did not see whether it sends heated water to the cylinder, to the heating circuit, or to both. A three-port valve is a diverter, and a still actuator does not prove the port it would open. Efficiency of the heat pump was not measured. The unmoved valve is a limit of the inspection, not a pass of the hot-water route.
Damp
Staining shows only behind a wardrobe on an outside wall. Why is that pattern closer to condensation than to a failed damp course, and why is it still unproved?
Own page
The pattern is closer to condensation because the stain shows only behind a wardrobe on an outside wall, where air cannot circulate and the cold surface can wet the plaster. A failed damp-proof course more often leaves a tide along the base of the wall, not a patch hidden only by furniture. It is still unproved. The survey did not monitor the spot, did not sample salts and did not open the wall. One stain on one day is a pattern, not a result that names the cause.
Choosing a survey
You are choosing between Level 2 and Level 3 on a house with an uncertificated loft conversion. What question about scope should you ask before you instruct?
Own page
Ask what each level will and will not inspect in the uncertificated loft conversion before you instruct. Level 2 is aimed at a conventional house and reports mainly on what is visible without a more extensive look at concealed structure. Level 3 is the more detailed survey, used where the building is older, altered or complex. Missing papers mean nobody has yet shown how this loft was built. Neither level has inspected this house until you instruct one. The scope question is the one to settle first.
Walls
The seller mentions a cavity-insulation guarantee and it is not in the pack. Does the survey create that guarantee?
Own page
No. The survey does not create a cavity-insulation guarantee. The seller mentions one, and it is not in the pack, so the document was not read and its terms were not checked. A home survey can note a cavity where it is visible and can record that a guarantee was claimed but missing. It does not issue, extend or verify that guarantee. You still need the paper itself. A sentence in the report is not the insurer or the installer standing behind the fill.
Environment
A flood barrier was in the garage and was not fitted on the day. Has the survey tested it or replaced a flood-risk check?
Own page
The survey has not tested the barrier and has not replaced a flood-risk check. The barrier was in the garage and was not fitted on the day, so seals, fixings and the fit to any opening were not tried. A government flood-risk check is a separate product from the home survey. Seeing a barrier in storage is not a measurement of flood depth and not a map result. The report records an unused product. It has not decided that the house would stay dry.
Reading the report
Rating 3 and the words urgent investigation are on the same chimney line. Does the rating itself appoint the person who will investigate?
Own page
No. The rating does not appoint the person who will investigate. Rating 3 means a defect needing serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. The words urgent investigation on the same chimney line say that investigation is needed. They do not name a contractor, open an instruction or choose a specialist. The survey has flagged the chimney. Someone still has to be asked to do the investigation. The rating is a condition grade, not an appointment letter.
Grounds
A rhizome crosses the benching inside a manhole. Has the drain that root has entered been camera-surveyed?
Own page
The drain has not been camera-surveyed. A rhizome crosses the benching inside a manhole, which is a root seen in the chamber, not a filmed run of the pipe it may have entered. The survey records what was visible in the open manhole. It has not mapped how far the rhizome goes and it has not tested the drain. A camera survey would be a separate instruction. This visit did not do it, so the pipe beyond the benching stays unseen.
Structure
A post-war PRC house is said to have a repair certificate and the certificate was not read. What has the survey not confirmed?
Own page
The survey has not confirmed that a repair certificate exists, what it covers, or that the repairs match the concrete. A post-war PRC house is a non-standard precast concrete form. Someone said a certificate exists. It was not read, so the system named, the parts said to be repaired and any concrete left in place were not checked against that document. The visit can describe concrete it could see. It has not sampled the concrete and has not confirmed a completed repair scheme.
Legal and neighbours
The survey is silent on how many years are left on a shared-ownership lease. Where does GOV.UK's warning about extending below 80 years belong, and why is it not a survey finding?
Own page
The warning belongs with the lease papers and the solicitor, not as a finding of this survey. The survey is silent on how many years are left, so it has not counted the term of this shared-ownership lease. GOV.UK warns that extending a shared-ownership lease can be much more expensive below 80 years. That is general guidance. It is not a calculation for this flat and it is not a defect the inspection found in the building. Ask the solicitor for the term. The survey did not read it.
Drainage
A reed bed is said to follow the septic tank and it was not walked. Has the survey sampled the discharge?
Own page
The discharge has not been sampled. A reed bed is said to follow the septic tank, and the bed was not walked, so the plants, the outlet and any liquid leaving the system were not seen. A septic tank and a treatment plant are different, and a cesspool only holds sewage until it is emptied. A reed bed is a further stage people describe after a tank. The survey records the claim and the unwalked bed. It has not tested water quality and has not decided the system works.
Money
The fee quotation says a reinstatement cost is excluded. Why must a later rebuild remark not be treated as if it had been instructed?
Own page
A later rebuild remark must not be treated as a reinstatement cost, because the fee quotation excluded that work. A reinstatement cost is an assessment of rebuilding for insurance, and it was not instructed. A casual comment about rebuilding, written afterwards, is not the excluded service and should not go to an insurer as if it had been calculated. MoneyHelper is clear that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. Neither of those products fills a gap the quotation left open.
Selling
As seller you think rating 3 on the chimney is harsh. Does sending a photo cancel the buyer's report?
Own page
Sending a photo does not cancel the buyer's report. You may think rating 3 on the chimney is harsh. A photograph can show a detail from one angle on one day. It does not replace the inspection the buyer instructed, and it does not rewrite that surveyor's condition note. The buyer's report stands as the opinion from their visit. Your photo is further material you can pass to your own adviser. It is not an erasure of their document.
Walls
Remedial resin ties are in one wall and several washers are missing. Has any tie been pull-tested?
Own page
No tie has been pull-tested. Remedial resin ties are visible in one wall and several washers are missing, which is a record of fittings the survey could see. A pull test is a separate trial of whether a tie holds in the masonry. Missing washers mean those plates were not there. They do not prove the resin bond, the depth in the wall or the state of any other elevation. The survey has not tested the ties. It has noted an incomplete-looking set on one wall only.
Structure
A hairline crack follows a plasterboard joint in a new house. Has movement of the frame been proved?
Own page
Movement of the frame has not been proved. A hairline crack that follows a plasterboard joint is a crack along a taped joint in the lining. That can be shrinkage or slight movement in the board itself. It is not a measurement of the timber or steel frame shifting. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey does not open a claim. The visit recorded the crack line. It has not monitored the frame and has not decided the structure has moved.
After the survey
A structural engineer is still due. Why is completing before that visit a choice this survey has not made for you?
Own page
Completing the purchase before that visit is your choice, and this survey has not made it for you. A structural engineer is still due, so their opinion is not in the report. The survey records what it found and what it could not decide. It does not tell you to finish the purchase before the engineer attends, and it does not tell you to wait. That decision sits with you and your solicitor once you have understood the limits. The engineer's conclusion has not been written in advance.
Walls
Perpend weeps are covered by a later render coat. Has the render been raked out to prove the weep is shut?
Own page
The render has not been raked out. Perpend weeps covered by a later render coat were seen as joints the coat crosses. Raking the render out would be opening work, and it was not done, so the survey has not proved that each weep is fully shut or that a cavity tray still drains behind the coat. The note is that the outlet is covered. It is not a test of the wall ties and not a view inside the cavity. Whether the weep still works stays open.
Services
The show home has a heat pump and the plot you are buying has the pipe tails only. Has Buildmark or the survey confirmed your plot's machine?
Own page
Neither Buildmark nor the survey has confirmed the machine on your plot. The show home has a heat pump. The plot you are buying has pipe tails only, so the unit was not there to inspect. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey does not open a claim and does not turn a show-home appliance into the appliance for your plot. What was seen is tails. Efficiency was not measured, because there was no machine on this plot to run.
Money
A forum suggests a fixed percentage off for any rating 3. Why is that not what the survey has calculated?
Own page
The survey has not calculated a price reduction at all. A forum suggestion of the same fixed cut for every rating 3 is someone else's formula. It is not a sum in this report. The survey describes condition. It does not price a negotiation, and it does not apply one deduction to every element that carries that grade. What you discuss on price comes from quotes and from what you will accept, with your solicitor. Do not treat a forum rule as the survey's arithmetic.
Drainage
The distribution-box lid is buried and was not found. What of the soakaway split is still unknown?
Own page
How the flow splits toward the soakaway is still unknown. The distribution box is the chamber that divides liquid into the arms of a drainage field, and its lid is buried and was not found. The survey did not open that box, did not see the outlets and did not camera the arms. A split that cannot be seen cannot be called even, blocked or intact. The report records a missing lid. It has not mapped the field. A septic tank and a treatment plant are different, and a cesspool only holds sewage until it is emptied.
Money
The valuation comments on damp and your survey says the wall was dry on the day. Why do you keep both documents rather than pick one?
Own page
Keep both, because they answer different questions. The valuation comments on damp as part of the lender's valuation. A down-valuation, if the lender has made one, is the lender's figure, not a defect list written by the home survey. Your survey says the wall was dry on the day it was inspected, which is a condition note from that visit. MoneyHelper is clear that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. Dry on one day does not delete the valuation comment, and the valuation does not rewrite the survey.
Roofs
The only outlet sits in the middle of a pond. Has that outlet been proved blocked?
Own page
The outlet has not been proved blocked. The only outlet sits in the middle of a pond on the roof, which shows water standing around it. Standing water can mean the outlet is high, slow, blocked or simply sitting in a hollow in the deck. The survey saw the pond. It did not rod the outlet, lift the covering or run a controlled test. Ponding is the defect that was visible. A blockage is one possible cause, and it has not been proved.
Roofs
A flue passes through the party wall into next door's loft, which was not entered. What of the gathering was unseen?
Own page
The gathering on the far side of the party wall was unseen. The flue passes into next door's loft, and that loft was not entered, so the surveyor could not see how the flue is gathered, supported or jointed beyond the wall. A gathering turns the smoke passages into the flue. What is on this side is not the whole route. The report records the crossing and the closed loft. It has not decided the flue is safe, shared properly or lined.
Services
The outdoor unit stands close to the boundary with next door. Has the survey applied a permitted-development test?
Own page
No permitted-development test was applied. The outdoor unit stands close to the boundary with next door, which is a visual note of position, not a planning judgement. Permitted development is a legal test with its own conditions, and this visit did not measure it or apply it. The survey has not invented a boundary distance or a noise limit. It saw that the unit is near the line. It has not decided the siting is lawful, unlawful or in breach of a condition.
Damp
The conservatory base covers an air brick of the house. Has the subfloor ventilation that remains been judged adequate?
Own page
The subfloor ventilation that remains has not been judged adequate. The conservatory base covers an air brick of the house, so that inlet is bridged or blocked by the new base. Other air bricks, if they exist, were not measured as a system, and the underfloor void was not proved still vented. Losing that opening is clear. Whether what is left is enough was not judged, because the void and the remaining path were not fully seen. The survey records the covered brick. It does not pass the subfloor.
Reading the report
A caveat says services were not tested. Why is a tidy boiler cupboard not a pass under that caveat?
Own page
A tidy boiler cupboard is not a pass, because the caveat says services were not tested. Paint, labels and a clear floor are not a test of the boiler, the gas, the flue or the controls. The survey can describe what was visible. Under that caveat it has not passed the installation and has not failed it by measurement. A neat appearance does not cancel the sentence that no test was done. You still do not have a service engineer's report. The orderly cupboard is not that report.
Drainage
The tank has no outlet and the survey calls it a cesspool. Has anyone proved how often it is emptied?
Own page
Nobody on this visit has proved how often it is emptied. The tank has no outlet, and the survey calls it a cesspool because a cesspool holds sewage and is emptied, unlike a septic tank or a treatment plant, which are different and have an outflow. Calling it a cesspool from what was seen is a description, not an emptying record. The survey did not see a log, an invoice or a tanker. Frequency stays unknown. The survey only records what was seen.
Services
The survey notes a monobloc air-source unit but never a flow temperature. Has the efficiency of that heat pump been measured?
Own page
The efficiency has not been measured. The survey notes a monobloc air-source unit and never a flow temperature, so the water leaving the machine was not read. Efficiency needs measured temperatures and known running conditions, and none of that was taken. The unit was identified from what could be seen. Its performance was not. The survey does not turn a nameplate into a test result, and it has not decided the heat pump is efficient or inefficient.
Damp
A boot-scraper recess in the front step directs water at the wall. Has that recess been shown to wet the cellar?
Own page
The recess has not been shown to wet the cellar. A boot-scraper recess in the front step directs water at the wall, which is a path the survey could see at the step. It has not been traced through the masonry into the cellar, and the cellar was not shown to be wet from that recess rather than from somewhere else. The detail is a likely wetting point at the front wall. A link to damp below remains unproved until the water is followed or staining matches it.
Structure and movement
A Leylandii stump sits in the border and an upward crack is in the plinth. Has the survey proved heave?
Own page
The survey has not proved heave. A Leylandii stump in the border and an upward crack in the plinth are two observations placed near each other. Heave would be the ground rising as clay re-wets after a tree that was drying it is reduced or gone. A stump plus a crack that runs upward is a pattern worth investigating. It is not a level survey over time, and it is not proof the crack came from swell rather than shrinkage, settlement or old movement. Cause stays open.
Reading the report
A ladder was set at one eaves only. What of the far slope stays outside that look?
Own page
The far slope stays outside that close look. A ladder at one eaves shows the covering, flashings and gutter on the side where it stood. The opposite slope, and valleys or hips that fall away from the ladder, were not reached. A glance across the ridge is not the same as standing at the other eaves. The report should be read as a limited roof inspection. The unseen slope has not been passed as sound, and defects there may simply not be in the notes.
Roofs
The extension's flat roof is ponding and the survey saw it from a bedroom window. Has the deck been opened?
Own page
The deck has not been opened. The extension's flat roof is ponding, and that pond was seen from a bedroom window, which is a view of the surface only. Ponding shows water lying on the covering. It does not show the deck, the insulation or the boards beneath, and the covering was not cut. The survey has not decided whether the structure under the pond is wet, decayed or still sound. The limit is the window viewpoint and the unopened roof.
Structure and movement
A door binds at the head rather than at the latch. Why is that not yet proof the lintel has dropped?
Own page
Binding at the head is not yet proof the lintel has dropped. A door that catches at the head rather than at the latch can be the door, the frame or the lining, not the beam above. Binding at the latch often means the leaf has dropped on its hinges. Binding at the head can mean swelling, a tight frame or a slightly racked opening. A dropped lintel would need a pattern in the masonry as well, not one tight spot. The survey noted where the door binds. It has not proved the lintel has moved.
Reading the report
The report lists clearing gutters under normal maintenance. Has that line turned the gutters into a rating 3?
Own page
No. Listing clearing gutters under normal maintenance has not turned the gutters into a rating 3. Rating 3 means serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. Normal maintenance is upkeep a buyer should expect, and writing it down does not change that into rating 3. Rating 2 would mean defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent. Rating 1 means no repair is currently needed. Read the rating beside the element if you need the grade. The chore list is not an upgrade.
Services
A heat meter on the communal network was not read. Has this flat's heat use been calculated?
Own page
This flat's heat use has not been calculated. The heat meter on the communal network was not read, so no figure for this flat was taken. A communal network supplies more than one home, and an unread meter leaves this flat's consumption unknown. The survey saw that a meter is there. It did not take a reading and did not turn a blank display into a bill. Use of heat by this flat stays outside the report.
Roofs
A 1960s eaves has a cracked undercloak. Has the fascia behind that undercloak been called rotten, or only hidden?
Own page
The fascia has only been left hidden, not called rotten. A 1960s eaves with a cracked undercloak shows a cracked strip at the tile edge. The fascia behind that undercloak was not exposed, so the timber was not seen and was not described as decayed. A crack can let weather toward the board. It is not, by itself, rot in the timber. The survey records the crack and the hidden fascia. It has not decided the board has failed, and it has not sampled the undercloak material.
Structure
A certificate in the pack names the rear windows only. What of the front frames does that paper ignore?
Own page
That paper ignores the front frames. A certificate that names the rear windows only does not cover the front frames, their glass or how those openings were installed. Competent-person schemes are one route to building-regulations compliance, not the only route. The survey does not issue the certificate and has not verified that this paper matches a register. The front frames sit outside the wording. They may still be fine, or not. This document does not say. The survey's look at them is a visual note, not that certificate extended forwards.
Roofs
The survey states an assumption about insulation depth because the loft was not entered. Is that assumption a measurement?
Own page
No. The assumption is not a measurement. The survey states an assumption about insulation depth because the loft was not entered, so the quilt was not seen and was not measured. An assumption is a stated stand-in so the report can be read with that limit in mind. It is not a depth taken with a tape. If the loft is later opened, the real depth may be different. The report is telling you the figure was not observed. Do not quote it as a taped thickness.
Services
An anti-vibration mat under the outdoor unit is crushed flat. Has noise been measured?
Own page
Noise has not been measured. The anti-vibration mat under the outdoor unit is crushed flat, which means the pad no longer has its thickness. A crushed mat can stop isolating the machine from the base. The survey saw the flattening. It did not meter sound and it did not state a noise limit. The condition of the mat is a visual defect. The noise of the unit, and whether the mat still does its job, stays unmeasured. Do not invent a decibel figure or a boundary distance from a flattened pad.
Services
The brine manifold is inside a locked garage the surveyor did not enter. Which part of the ground array remains unseen?
Own page
The brine manifold and the ground array beyond it remain unseen. The manifold is inside a locked garage the surveyor did not enter, so valves, gauges and the pipes leaving toward the loops were not inspected. A ground-source system circulates brine through those buried loops. The trenches and the collectors were not exposed. The survey can say the garage was locked. It has not judged the array, has not measured efficiency and has not decided the ground loops are intact.
Structure and movement
Underpinning pins show at the front and no design is in the pack. Has the survey certified that underpinning?
Own page
No. Pins at the front show that underpinning was done, and this survey has not certified it. No design is in the pack, and the visit did not match those pins to drawings, calculations or a completion record. Metal at the base of the wall is a sign of a past scheme, not a sign-off of depth, sequence or whether movement has stopped. The report notes the pins and the missing design. It leaves the adequacy of the underpinning undecided.
Structure
A maisonette sits over a void that was not entered. What of the floor structure is not inspected?
Own page
The floor structure that can only be seen from the void is not inspected. The maisonette sits over a space the surveyor did not enter, so the underside of that floor, the joist ends, the bearings and any hangers or cuts in that void were not seen. Finishes in the rooms above hide the same timbers from the other direction. The survey can describe the floor only as far as those finishes allowed. It has not inspected the structure over the void.
Legal and neighbours
The neighbour's scaffold stands on this roof and no licence is in the pack. Has the survey granted that right?
Own page
No. The survey has not granted the neighbour any right to stand scaffold on this roof. The scaffold was there, and no licence for it is in the pack. A home survey records that burden on the covering. It does not issue a licence, a party wall award or permission to leave the scaffold in place. GOV.UK explains party wall procedures for notifiable work. Those procedures are not a permit signed by the surveyor on this visit.
Structure
A listed window has been replaced and no consent is in the pack. Has the survey granted that consent?
Own page
No. The survey has not granted consent for the replaced window. Listing covers the whole building, and a new window in a listed house is still part of that listed building. No consent is in the pack. The visit can record that the window has been replaced and that the consent paper is missing. It cannot give listed building consent, and it has not decided the replacement was authorised. The inspection does not fill that gap.
Damp
Replacement sashes have no trickle vents. Has the survey decided they meet ventilation requirements for the work?
Own page
No. Replacement sashes with no trickle vents have not been decided to meet the ventilation requirements for the work. The visit recorded that the vents are absent. Approved Document F is ventilation guidance for building work, and this survey does not issue a building-regulations certificate. Missing vents are a visual fact. No airflow was measured. Whether this installation needed background vents, and whether some other provision was accepted, is not settled by the report.
Walls
Only a Cornwall extension is built in concrete block. Why does a visual note still not award a mundic class?
Own page
A visual note still does not award a mundic class because a home survey does not drill cores or award Class A, B or C. Only the Cornwall extension is described as concrete block, and that description is what the eye could see. The visit did not test the concrete. RICS guidance on the mundic problem is for surveyors in the south west, and Cornwall Council describes a test it does not carry out on this visit. The note records blockwork. It does not attach a class.
Reading the report
The survey says it relied on a third-party damp report from two years ago. Has this visit repeated that damp test?
Own page
No. This visit has not repeated that damp test. The survey says it relied on a third-party damp report from two years ago, which means it is pointing at someone else’s findings, not redoing them. NI means not inspected, not a pass, so a test that was not repeated is not a pass from today. Rating 1 means no repair currently needed, and reliance on an old report does not establish that. The damp question stays where the older report left it.
Grounds
A raised sleeper bed covers the spot where a crown was reported. What of that crown is now hidden?
Own page
The crown itself, and the ground it was reported in, is now hidden. A raised sleeper bed covers that spot, so the survey could not see the crown, the soil under the timbers, or any rhizome and regrowth beneath the bed. What remains visible is the bed, not the plant part that was previously named. The report records the cover. It has not inspected the crown and has not decided the plant has gone.
Structure
A prefabricated concrete panel joint is open on a post-war house. Has the survey named the system or tested the concrete?
Own page
No. The survey has neither named the system nor tested the concrete. An open joint in a prefabricated concrete panel on a post-war house was recorded as a gap the eye could see. Many different systems used panels of that era, and an open joint does not identify which one this is. The visit did not sample the concrete or the reinforcement. The report notes the joint. Naming and testing remain undone.
Roofs
A plank in a link roof is labelled possible RAAC and was not sampled. What must you not claim from that label alone?
Own page
You must not claim that the plank is confirmed as RAAC, that it has failed, or that it is sound. The label says possible RAAC, and the plank in the link roof was not sampled. A home survey has not investigated it. RAAC is a form of concrete panel that needs investigation, and a label is not that investigation. The report can record the wording and the fact nothing was taken from the plank. It has not identified the material.
Walls
A Victorian rear wing is single-skin brick. Has that wing been treated as if it were the cavity-walled main house?
Own page
No. The Victorian rear wing has not been treated as if it were the cavity-walled main house. The report records single-skin brick, which is a different wall: one leaf, with no cavity to drain or to insulate in the way the main house might. Approved Document A is structural guidance for building work, and this survey does not issue a building-regulations certificate. The wing stays described as it was seen, not redesigned as the front wall.
Drainage
The report cannot say where the private drain becomes a public sewer. Is that a water-company search or a survey finding?
Own page
It is a water-company search, not a survey finding the visit could make. The report cannot say where the private drain becomes a public sewer because that change of responsibility is not written on the ground in a way a home survey can decide. The surveyor can record chambers that were seen and say the transfer point was not established. A drainage and water search, or the sewer map the water company holds, is the separate product that addresses the public sewer.
Reading the report
The subfloor hatch has been tiled over. Why must the joists below stay in the not-inspected column?
Own page
The joists below must stay not inspected because the subfloor hatch has been tiled over and was not opened. The surveyor does not break finishes to create access. Suspended-floor timbers, their ends, the sleeper walls and the ventilation under that floor were not seen. A continuous tile surface is a closed door, not a view of the joists. The report can describe the floor finish. It has not inspected the timber underneath.
Legal and neighbours
A hedge is being treated as the boundary and it was not measured. Why can the survey not award that hedge to either house?
Own page
The survey cannot award the hedge to either house because a hedge is not a measured legal boundary and this one was not measured. People may treat the hedge as the line, but title is a documents question. The visit can describe a hedge on the ground. It cannot decide which owner it belongs to, where the legal line sits inside it, or that the growth and the boundary are the same thing. No award of the hedge was made.
Environment
A radon map colour was quoted for a different postcode. Why is that colour still not a measurement taken in this house?
Own page
That colour is still not a measurement taken in this house because it belongs to a different postcode and because a map is not a reading in these rooms. UKradon maps, produced with the British Geological Survey, show indicative radon potential by area. They do not sample the air here. Quoting the colour for another postcode is the wrong area as well as the wrong kind of evidence. No radon measurement was made on this visit. The survey has not decided the level in this house.
Walls
The house is on the coast and the report mentions possible tie corrosion without opening the cavity. What test has not been done?
Own page
The test that has not been done is any inspection of the ties inside the cavity. The house is on the coast and the report mentions possible tie corrosion, but the cavity was not opened and no tie was seen. Coastal air can make corrosion a fair thing to consider. It is not a test. The survey has not found failed ties and has not cleared them. Possible corrosion stays a concern written without a look at the metal.
Legal and neighbours
The road up to the plot is described as not yet adopted. Has this survey decided who will mend it?
Own page
No. This survey has not decided who will mend the road. The road up to the plot is described as not yet adopted, which is a status, not a ruling on liability. Adoption is a matter for the highway authority and the developer’s agreements. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey does not open a claim and has not decided whether any warranty speaks to this road. Who mends it stays outside the report.
After the survey
You have a builder's quote for a rating 3 lintel. Why is the quote, not the rating number, the figure to discuss with the seller?
Own page
The quote is the figure to discuss because it is a sum for the work, and the rating number is not. A rating 3 on the lintel is the surveyor’s condition label for that defect. It does not price the repair, name the builder or approve the method. The quote is what a builder has offered to do the job for, so that is the figure you can put in a conversation with the seller. The survey has not checked the quote and has not turned the rating into money.
Services
The strainer on the heat-pump circuit was left in place. What debris, if any, is still unknown?
Own page
Any debris held inside the strainer is still unknown, because the strainer on the heat-pump circuit was left in place and was not opened. The visit did not clean the mesh, sample what it had caught, or say the basket was empty. Debris downstream of a choked mesh is also unknown, since the mesh itself was not seen. The survey records a strainer that stayed shut. It has not decided the circuit water is clear or dirty.
Health
Mould sits on a lintel above a trickle vent that is shut. Has humidity been measured?
Own page
No. Humidity has not been measured. Mould sits on a lintel above a trickle vent that is shut, and the visit recorded those two things: the growth and the closed vent. It did not measure humidity, air temperature or moisture in the air, and it did not run a test that would explain the mould. A shut vent is a clue that background air may not be entering there. The survey has not decided whether the mould is condensation, a leak, or something else.
Choosing a survey
You instructed a Level 3 and the seller refused the loft. Why do the written limitations still govern, whichever level you paid for?
Own page
The written limitations still govern because every home survey is limited by the access that was actually given. You instructed a Level 3, and the seller refused the loft, so the loft was not inspected. Level 3 is the more detailed standard home survey, but it is not a power to open a hatch the seller has refused. The fee buys the inspection that was possible under the terms. It does not erase a limitation the report has printed about that loft.
Walls
Blown fibre is packed inside the electricity meter box. What does that say about cavity fill, and what does it not prove about the ties?
Own page
It says cavity fill is present at least where the electricity meter box opens into the wall. Blown fibre packed in that box is insulation that has reached an opening cut into the cavity. It does not prove the fill is complete, even, or dry through the rest of the walls, and it proves nothing about the ties. The ties were not seen and were not tested. The survey records fibre at the meter. It has not inspected the cavity or the metal that should tie the leaves.
Drainage
A tanker ticket dates from a previous summer. Why is that ticket not proof the tank is sized for this house?
Own page
That ticket is not proof of size because it only shows a tanker attended in a previous summer. It does not measure the tank, say how full it was, or show the tank matches this house and the way you would use it. A cesspool holds sewage and is emptied. A septic tank and a treatment plant are different, and the ticket does not by itself say which is in the ground. The survey records the paper it was shown. It has not sized the tank.
Money
The lender's panel valuer and your surveyor are different people. Why does a comment in the valuation not edit your home survey?
Own page
A comment in the valuation does not edit your home survey because the panel valuer and your surveyor are different people doing different jobs. MoneyHelper makes clear that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. The valuation is for the lender. Your home survey is the report you instructed. One sentence in the valuation cannot rewrite, delete or add findings in the other document. Each report stands as its author left it.
Selling
The seller lifted a carpet after the surveyor had left. Why does that later photograph not rewrite the limitation already printed?
Own page
That later photograph does not rewrite the limitation because the carpet was lifted after the surveyor had left. The report records what was inspected at the visit, including any limit where floor coverings stayed down. A picture taken afterwards is new evidence from someone else, at another time. It can be useful information. It is not an amendment of the printed limitation, and it does not pretend the surveyor saw the floorboards.
Drainage
Mushroom caps of a soakaway show in the lawn and were not lifted. What chamber, if any, sits under them?
Own page
No chamber can be named, because the mushroom caps were not lifted. They show in the lawn as the vents or markers of a soakaway, and what sits under them was not seen. There may be a chamber, a rubble-filled arm, or only a vent on a pipe. The survey did not establish which. It records the caps. It has not described a chamber beneath them and has not inspected the soakaway.
Money
A lender's letter asks about knotweed and the valuation is silent. Has either document identified the plant in the garden?
Own page
No. Neither document has identified the plant in the garden. The lender’s letter asks about knotweed, which is a question, not a finding that the plant is there. The valuation is silent, which is an absence of comment, not an identification and not a clearance. MoneyHelper is clear that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. Silence in it is not a survey of the beds. Neither paper has named Japanese knotweed in this garden.
Services
Underfloor loops are said to sit in the screed and none were traced. Were the loops confirmed as continuous?
Own page
No. The loops were not confirmed as continuous. Underfloor loops are said to sit in the screed, and none were traced, so the visit did not follow a pipe from one end to the other or prove an unbroken circuit. A statement that loops are in the floor is a claim about something hidden. The survey records the claim and the limit. It has not verified continuity, and it has not tested how the circuit performs.
Reading the report
Staining is called historic. What would a wet day still need to show before that word could be revisited?
Own page
A wet day would still need to show something current at the same stain before that word could be revisited. Historic means the mark looked old and inactive when the surveyor saw it, not that it can never wet again. What would reopen it is a present sign: the mark darkening in rain, a drip, fresh salts, or a moisture check finding the fabric wet rather than a dry tidemark. The survey has not booked that second look. The word stands for this visit only.
Legal and neighbours
The house is in Northern Ireland and the extension has no papers. Why can this survey not invent an English approved-document sign-off?
Own page
This survey cannot invent that sign-off because the house is in Northern Ireland and the extension has no papers. Approved Documents are English guidance for building work. They are not a certificate this visit can write, and they are not a substitute for the missing Northern Ireland papers. The report can describe the extension it saw and the absence of documents. It has not issued building-regulations approval, English or otherwise, and it must not pretend an English sign-off exists.
Structure and movement
Three monitoring studs are fixed across a crack and this was a single visit. Can the survey draw a movement graph?
Own page
No. The survey cannot draw a movement graph from this single visit. Three monitoring studs are fixed across a crack, so the report can record that the studs are there and where they sit. A graph needs repeated measurements over time. One attendance gives one moment, or none if the studs were not read. It cannot plot whether the crack is opening, closing or still. The survey has not produced a movement history.
Legal and neighbours
The lease plan puts the garden fence on a different line from the fence outside. Has the demise been redrawn?
Own page
No. The demise has not been redrawn. The lease plan puts the garden fence on a different line from the fence outside, and the survey records that mismatch. It does not vary the lease, move the legal boundary, or decide which line is the demise you would buy. The fence on the ground is a fact of the visit. The line on the plan is a fact of the document. The report has not merged them into a new demise.
Structure
The loft stair looks tight and headroom was not measured. Is a visual note a building-regulations test?
Own page
No. A visual note is not a building-regulations test. The loft stair looks tight, and headroom was not measured, so the survey has no figure to set against any requirement. Approved Document A is structural guidance for building work, and this visit does not issue a building-regulations certificate. Tightness to the eye is a prompt. It is not a pass and it is not a fail. The report records an unmeasured impression of the stair.
Legal and neighbours
A drain runs under both gardens and no sharing agreement is in the pack. Has the survey created that agreement?
Own page
No. The survey has not created that agreement. A drain runs under both gardens, and no sharing agreement is in the pack. The visit can note the line it could infer from covers or from what it was told. It cannot invent a deed, decide who maintains the pipe, or grant a right to drain across the other garden. The missing agreement stays missing. The report records a shared-looking run and an empty file.
Services
Flexible hoses at the outdoor unit are perished. Were they pressure-tested, or only looked at?
Own page
They were only looked at. Nothing on the circuit was pressurised. Flexible hoses at the outdoor unit are perished, and that is a visual note of cracking, softening or wear the eye could see. They were not pressure-tested. The visit did not prove a leak, measure remaining life, or test the refrigerant circuit. The survey records deteriorated hoses. It has not decided how close they are to failing and has not signed the circuit off as tight.
Walls
No cavity tray is visible over the extension abutment. Has the survey opened the wall to prove it is missing?
Own page
No. The survey has not opened the wall to prove the tray is missing. No cavity tray is visible over the extension abutment, which means none could be seen at that junction. A tray can sit inside the cavity and show only as weepholes, and those too can be hidden by the abutment. Not visible is not the same as proved absent by opening up. The report records what could not be seen. It has not cut the wall to confirm a void where a tray should be.
Structure
The loft is used as a bedroom and no building-control certificate is in the pack. Has the survey issued that approval?
Own page
No. The survey has not issued that approval. The loft is used as a bedroom and no building-control certificate is in the pack. Use of the room does not create a certificate, and a home survey does not issue one. Approved Document A is structural guidance for building work. It is not a sign-off this visit can write. The report can describe what it saw of the loft. It has not approved the conversion.
Drainage
The conservatory sits over the line of the foul drain and the cover is now inside a cupboard. What cannot be rodded easily?
Own page
The foul drain under the conservatory cannot be rodded easily from that cover. The conservatory sits over the line, and the cover is now inside a cupboard, so the chamber is boxed in by joinery and by the building above the pipe. Rodding needs a clear, reachable opening in line with the run. This one is obstructed. The survey did not rod the drain and did not camera it. It records an impractical access, not a clear pipe.
Reading the report
No access is recorded to the understairs cupboard. Why must you not describe the electrics in that cupboard as satisfactory?
Own page
You must not describe those electrics as satisfactory because no access is recorded to the understairs cupboard, so they were not seen. NI means not inspected, not a pass. Satisfactory would read as rating 1, which means no repair currently needed, and that label cannot be applied to a cupboard that was not opened. The survey did not test the electrics. The report’s no-access note is the finding. Anything inside stays unknown.
Structure and movement
The floor slopes and there is no crack in the wall. Why is the slope not, by itself, a diagnosis of subsidence?
Own page
The slope is not, by itself, a diagnosis of subsidence because a sloping floor without a crack is only a shape. Subsidence is ground movement affecting the building, usually read from a pattern of cracks, distortion and a cause, not from fall in the boards alone. Floors slope from original construction, from timber sag, or from settlement that finished long ago. The survey records the slope and the lack of a wall crack. It has not diagnosed subsidence and has not investigated the ground.
Structure
An Edwardian bay has a crack at the junction with the main wall. Has the foundation under the bay been seen?
Own page
No. The foundation under the bay has not been seen. An Edwardian bay has a crack at the junction with the main wall, and the visit recorded that crack. It did not excavate beside the bay, so the depth, the type and the condition of whatever the bay sits on are unknown. Bays often meet the main house on a different base, and the junction is a common place for a crack. The survey has not decided the bay is subsiding. It has noted a crack above an unseen foundation.
Reading the report
The report says to monitor a crack. Why is that sentence not a monitoring regime already under way?
Own page
That sentence is not a monitoring regime already under way because it is advice, not a diary. The report says to monitor a crack. It does not show studs being read, dates being kept, or figures being compared. Rating 1 means no repair currently needed, and this sentence is not that clearance. NI means not inspected, not a pass: a recommendation to look again is not an inspection of movement already completed. Nothing in the wording starts the measurements.
Walls
The inner leaf is aircrete block where a socket was cut out. Does that offcut identify the whole house construction?
Own page
No. That offcut does not identify the whole house construction. The inner leaf is aircrete block where a socket was cut out, which is one hole in one wall. Extensions, party walls and older leaves can be different materials. The outer leaf was not named by that offcut, and the ties were not seen. The survey records aircrete at the socket. It has not mapped every wall and has not inspected the cavity.
Structure
Lead cames are cracked on a stair window. Has a decision been made that every leaded light must be replaced?
Own page
No. No decision has been made that every leaded light must be replaced. Lead cames are cracked on a stair window, and the survey recorded that window. Cracked cames can let glass loosen and can let water in at that light. Other leaded lights in the house were not, by this note, ordered out. The report describes the cracks it saw. It has not specified wholesale replacement, and it has not issued a building-regulations certificate for new windows.
Walls
A bulge is described and no plumb figures are in the report. What measurement is missing?
Own page
The missing measurement is a plumb reading, or another measured offset, showing how far the wall stands out of vertical. A bulge is described, and no plumb figures are in the report, so the shape has been seen but not sized. Without a figure you cannot compare the bulge later or say how large it is. The survey records the distortion it could see. It has not quantified it and has not, from numbers it does not have, diagnosed the cause.
Reading the report
The roof covering was viewed through binoculars from the garden. Why is that not the same as walking the slopes?
Own page
It is not the same because binoculars from the garden are a distant view, and walking the slopes is a close one. The covering was seen from the ground, enlarged by the glasses, not underfoot. Distant viewing misses hairline defects, the far slope, hidden valleys and the way a slate sits when you are on it. The survey records the limit. It has not inspected the covering as if the slopes had been walked, and it has not cleared the roof.
Services
A sheet of defrost ice lies on the path under the outdoor unit. Is that ice proof the refrigerant circuit has failed?
Own page
No. That ice is not proof the refrigerant circuit has failed. A sheet of defrost ice on the path under the outdoor unit shows that melt water from a defrost cycle reached the ground and froze. Defrost is a normal function that sheds water off the coil. The visit did not test the refrigerant circuit, did not check the charge and did not measure performance. The survey records the ice. It has not diagnosed a leak, a failed compressor or a loss of charge.
Structure
Crittall metal windows are bowing on a 1930s semi. Has the survey decided they must all be replaced?
Own page
No. The survey has not decided they must all be replaced. Crittall metal windows are bowing on a 1930s semi, and the visit recorded that bowing where it saw it. Bowing can be distortion of the steel, failed hinges or local corrosion, and those do not all end in a new window. Other frames in the house may differ. The report describes the windows it found to be bowing. It has not ordered a full replacement and has not issued a building-regulations certificate.
Services
A ground-source borehole cap is set in the driveway. Did the visit inspect the hole, or only the cap?
Own page
Only the cap. A ground-source borehole cap is set in the driveway, and the visit inspected that surface fitting, not the hole beneath it. The surveyor did not enter the borehole, measure its depth, test the ground loop or sample what seals it. What is below the cap is unknown from this attendance. The report can say a cap is there and where it sits. It has not certified the ground array and has not inspected the hole.
Reading the report
The file you received is watermarked as a draft. Which sentences are you entitled to treat as the finished opinion?
Own page
You are not entitled to treat any sentence in that watermarked file as the finished opinion. A draft can still be rewritten, cut or re-rated before anyone issues it. Rating 1 means no repair currently needed. Rating 2 means defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent. Rating 3 means serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. NI means not inspected, not a pass. Those are RICS meanings for a finished report. The watermark shows this copy has not been issued as that opinion.
Grounds
Only dead winter canes are visible. Why is a winter visit a weak moment to say the stand has gone?
Own page
Dead winter canes are not proof the stand has gone. Japanese knotweed dies back above ground in winter and leaves brown stems while the rhizome stays in the soil. A winter visit can record those canes and little else. Leaves and fresh shoots, which help show the plant is alive, are missing. The survey has seen dead canes only. It has not decided the stand is dead, treated, or cleared. Brown stems are seasonal remains, not a clearance certificate.
Structure
Steel shows at the eaves of a system-built house and nowhere else. What of the stanchions stays hidden?
Own page
The stanchions inside the walls stay hidden. Steel visible only at the eaves of a system-built house is the frame where it meets the roof edge. It does not show the uprights, their bases, any coating, or the fixings buried behind cladding. The survey recorded the exposed steel it could see. It has not opened the wall and has not decided that hidden stanchions are sound because the eaves look tidy. Corrosion lower down would not show in that glance.
Money
A staircasing quote is clipped to the shared-ownership lease. Why has the survey not checked that price, and why is GOV.UK's warning about an extension below 80 years a different sum?
Own page
The survey has not checked that staircasing quote, because pricing a further share is not the home survey. A figure clipped to the shared-ownership lease is someone else's paper. GOV.UK warns that extending a shared-ownership lease can be much more expensive below 80 years. That warning is about buying extra years on the lease. Staircasing is the price of a larger share. They are different sums. Neither has been calculated here, and the home survey is not a valuation of either bill.
Hazardous materials
A flat-roof link might contain a RAAC plank and the soffit was not opened. Has the survey sampled the plank?
Own page
No. The survey has not sampled the plank. A flat-roof link that might contain RAAC was noted, and the soffit was not opened. RAAC is a form of concrete panel that needs investigation. A closed soffit does not identify the panel, show its bearings, or test it. The visit recorded a possibility and a lack of access. It has not decided that RAAC is present, and it has not decided that the link is free of it.
Property types
The skirting in a park home is soft. Why does that note leave the pitch agreement untouched?
Own page
Soft skirting is a condition note on the unit, and it leaves the pitch agreement untouched. The survey recorded decay, or at least softness, in that timber inside the park home. The survey of the unit does not set the pitch fee and does not replace the written agreement. A soft board does not rewrite site rules, assignment, or what the site owner may charge. The report has described a skirting. It has not decided the pitch.
Walls
Helical ties are recorded on the front elevation only. Has the rear wall been declared sound because the front was repaired?
Own page
No. The rear wall has not been declared sound. Helical ties recorded on the front elevation show a repair on that face only. They do not show that the rear wall was opened, that its ties were counted, or that the same work was done there. This visit did not test wall ties on either elevation. A finished front is not a certificate for the wall whose ties were never seen. The rear elevation remains an open question.
After the survey
A snagging list from the site manager sits beside the home survey. Why are those not the same document?
Own page
They are not the same document because they are different jobs. A snagging list from the site manager is the builder's own list of finish items. A home survey is an independent inspection with its own limits. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey does not open a claim under it, and the snagging list does not either. Side by side, the papers stay separate. The survey has not adopted the site manager's list as its findings.
After the survey
The engineer's visit is next week and you are tempted to complete tomorrow. What fact would you be buying without?
Own page
You would be buying without the engineer's finding. The visit is next week, so the structural opinion the survey left outstanding does not exist yet. Completing tomorrow would fix the decision on a home survey that still says further investigation is awaited. The diary entry is not that investigation. The survey has not supplied the engineer's conclusion, and it has not decided the defect is minor because an appointment is booked. That missing conclusion is the fact the purchase would not yet include.
Grounds
Buddleia is growing out of a mortar joint. Why must that plant not be written up as Japanese knotweed without an identification?
Own page
Because buddleia is not Japanese knotweed, and it must not be written up as knotweed without an identification. A woody plant in a mortar joint can lever masonry apart, and that is a wall defect of its own. It is not a licence to rename the plant. This note records buddleia growing from the joint. The survey has not identified knotweed, and it has not decided the two plants are the same.
Roofs
BRE has described dripping that is built-up condensation rather than a leak. Why has this survey not decided which one this drip is?
Own page
This survey has not decided which one this drip is. BRE has described dripping that can be built-up condensation rather than a leak, and a single drip does not separate the two. The visit recorded water or staining where it was seen. It did not run a test that splits condensation inside the build-up from a failed covering, and it has not claimed which mechanism is wetting this ceiling. Both can leave a drip. The cause stays open.
Roofs
A sedum roof was not walked. What of the waterproofing under the plants is unseen?
Own page
The waterproofing under the plants is unseen. A sedum roof carries a living cover over the membrane, the outlets and any protection layer beneath. Not walking it means the survey did not part the plants, check laps, or see whether the membrane is intact. The visit recorded the green cover from where it could be viewed. It has not decided that the waterproofing is sound because the sedum looks even and established from a distance.
Roofs
A shared stack was reflaunched on this side only. What of the neighbour's flues was not inspected?
Own page
The neighbour's flues were not inspected. Reflaunching on this side of a shared stack renews the mortar around pots on this roof only. It does not open the neighbour's flues, show their liners, or show whether their pots and flaunching are sound. The survey recorded the new work it could see on this side. It has not decided that the shared stack is in good order for both houses. Their condition is simply unknown from this side.
Grounds
GOV.UK lets you check whether a property is affected by coal mining. Why does walking the garden not complete that check?
Own page
Walking the garden does not complete that check. GOV.UK's mining check, and a coal mining report, are separate products from the home survey. A walk records what is visible: uneven ground, a cover, or disturbed soil if those things show. It does not search official mining records, and it does not reveal old workings that leave no mark on the lawn. The survey has not decided the property is clear of coal-mining risk because the garden looked even.
Services
An immersion heater is the backup for the heat pump and the consumer unit was not tested. What electrical point remains open?
Own page
The electrical point that remains open is the untested supply to the immersion and the consumer unit that feeds it. The survey saw an immersion heater described as the backup for the heat pump. It did not test the consumer unit, the immersion circuit, or the controls that would bring the heater on. Seeing the cylinder does not show the wiring is safe or that the heater will run if the pump stops. That backup stays electrically unproved.
Selling
You are selling a house in Wales. Why is there no Scottish-style duty to hand the buyer a Home Report?
Own page
There is no such duty because a Home Report is the Scottish product, and a sale in Wales does not carry that Scottish requirement. You are not obliged to hand the buyer a Home Report. A survey you commission while selling in Wales is a private instruction. It is not an English Level 2 or Level 3 restyled as a Scottish pack. The inspection, if you order one, is yours. It is not a Home Report the buyer can demand in that form.
Drainage
The sample chamber of a treatment plant was dry. Has the visit decided the plant is not treating sewage?
Own page
No. A dry sample chamber has not decided that the plant is not treating sewage. A treatment plant is not a septic tank, and neither is a cesspool. A cesspool holds sewage and is emptied. A septic tank and a treatment plant work in different ways. The survey recorded what was seen: a dry chamber on the day. It did not test a discharge, and it has not decided the plant has failed or that it is treating sewage properly.
Money
The report mentions a reinstatement figure. Why is that figure not the price you have agreed to pay the seller?
Own page
That reinstatement figure is not the price you have agreed to pay the seller. It is a rebuild number for insurance, aimed at what it might cost to reconstruct the building, not a market price for the house as it stands. MoneyHelper explains that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. A down-valuation, if a lender later makes one, is the lender's figure, not a defect list written by the home survey. None of those numbers is your agreed price.
Selling
The seller intends to stay in every room during the inspection. What can that do to the parts that can be seen?
Own page
It can shrink the parts that can be seen, because furniture stays put, hatches may stay closed, and the surveyor may not linger in an occupied room. A seller who remains throughout is present for the visit. The inspection then covers what is already open, not what would need moving, lifting or time alone to reach. The report should record those limits. Presence in the room is not the same as access to the parts that presence blocks.
Roofs
A purlin is cut where a dormer cheek was formed. Has a calculation for that cut been seen?
Own page
No calculation for that cut has been seen. A purlin helps carry the rafters, and cutting it where a dormer cheek was formed interrupts that line. The survey recorded the cut where it could be seen. It has not seen a structural calculation, a design for how the load was picked up, or a building-regulations approval for the alteration. The visit has not decided the cut is adequate because the dormer is still standing.
Drainage
The estate drain is not yet adopted and the survey saw one chamber. What adoption question is still with the solicitor?
Own page
Whether the estate drain will be adopted, and on what terms, is still with the solicitor. The survey saw one chamber. It did not test the drain, map the whole run, or decide that the sewers are public. Adoption is a question about who will own and maintain the pipe once the estate is finished. One open chamber does not answer it. The report can describe the chamber that was seen. The adoption question stays in the legal papers.
Structure
A staff bead hides the timber sill. Why can nobody call that sill sound?
Own page
Nobody can call that sill sound because the staff bead is hiding the timber that would show decay. The bead closes the frame against the sill, so the face, the joint and any soft grain behind it stay covered. The survey recorded the bead, not a probed sill. A painted or tight-looking edge is the moulding, not the timber underneath. The visit has not decided the sill is dry, and it has not decided it is rotten. The timber itself was not seen.
Services
The indoor fan-coil for a split-system heat pump is in the loft, which was not entered. What part of the system is still unseen?
Own page
The indoor fan-coil, its pipework and its condensate route in the loft are still unseen. A split system puts an outdoor unit outside and a fan-coil indoors. The loft was not entered, so the survey did not see the coil, the insulation on the pipes, or where condensate is meant to go. An outdoor unit, even if it was seen, does not stand in for that indoor half. The survey has not decided the system is complete.
Damp
The solum under a 1930s suspended timber floor was not entered. What ventilation and debris are still unknown?
Own page
The path of ventilation through the void, and any debris on the solum, are still unknown. A 1930s suspended timber floor sits on joists over that ground surface. Not entering the void means the survey did not see whether air from the air bricks actually crosses it, whether those openings are blocked on the inside, or whether rubble is piled against the timbers. The visit recorded the limit. It has not decided the floor is dry or well ventilated.
Choosing a survey
You are considering a Level 1 on a house that already has a loft room. What of that room is a Level 1 unlikely to open up?
Own page
A Level 1 is unlikely to open up how that loft room was built. It is a more limited inspection than a Level 2 or a Level 3. On a house that already has a loft room, it will usually record finishes, obvious cracks and services where they are already visible. It is unlikely to lift linings, enter residual voids beside the cheeks, or trace how the roof timbers were cut and trimmed. The hidden frame of the conversion would stay largely undescribed.
Services
The outdoor weather sensor sits in the shade of a porch. Has the survey decided the control curve is wrong?
Own page
No. Shade on the outdoor weather sensor has not decided that the control curve is wrong. The sensor is there to read outside conditions for the heat pump controls. Sitting under a porch may make that reading differ from air in the sun, but the survey did not log temperatures, did not test the curve, and did not measure output. The visit recorded where the sensor is fixed. It has not decided the controls are faulty or that the curve should be rewritten.
Walls
Render sounds hollow and was not opened. Is that sound a detached coat, an empty cavity, or still only a sound?
Own page
It is still only a sound. Hollow render that was not opened has not been shown to be a detached coat, and it has not been shown to be an empty cavity. A tap can suggest the coat has left the wall, a void behind a patch, or simply a hard skin over a different backing. Without opening, the survey cannot say which. It recorded the hollow note. The cause stays unopened, and no mechanism has been chosen.
Choosing a survey
The house is large and the firm quotes a short visit. What should you ask about time on site before you compare fees?
Own page
Ask what that short visit is meant to cover on this large house, and which survey level the time assumes, before you compare fees. A lower fee with less time can be a narrower inspection rather than the same job at a kinder price. Ask which roofs, outbuildings and voids are included, and what will be marked as not reached if the time runs out. The survey has not started. Time on site is part of the instruction, not a footnote to the fee.
Structure
No safety-glass mark is visible in a door side screen. Has the glass been proved to be ordinary annealed glass?
Own page
No. The absence of a safety-glass mark has not proved the side screen is ordinary annealed glass. Marks can be missing, worn, or printed on a face the survey could not read. The visit recorded that no mark was visible in that screen. It did not test the glass and it did not decide its type. A missing stamp is not a laboratory result. The survey has not decided the screen is unsafe, and it has not decided it is safety glass.
Drainage
A pipe the seller calls grey water discharges into a ditch. Has that flow been sampled?
Own page
No. The flow has not been sampled. A pipe the seller calls grey water, discharging into a ditch, was recorded as a visible outlet. The survey did not test the liquid, did not trace the pipe back to a particular fitting, and did not decide the flow is only from baths and basins. A seller's name for the pipe is not a sample result. The visit has not decided the discharge is clean, foul, or permitted.
Timber
A window board is soft and the joist ends nearby were not probed. Why must the board not stand in for those joists?
Own page
A soft window board must not stand in for those joists because it is a finish piece, not the floor structure. Softness shows decay where the board was touched. The joist ends nearby were not probed, so their condition is unknown. Moisture that reached the board may also have reached the joists, or it may have stopped at the window. The survey cannot tell which. It recorded the soft board and the lack of a probe. It has not decided the joists are rotten, and it has not decided they are sound.
Reading the report
Services are marked NI and the surveyor still photographed the consumer unit. Does the photograph cancel the NI mark?
Own page
No. The photograph does not cancel the NI mark. Services were marked NI because they were not inspected, and a picture of the consumer unit is not a test. Rating 1 means no repair currently needed. Rating 2 means defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent. Rating 3 means serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. NI means not inspected, not a pass. The camera recorded a view. It did not turn that view into one of those ratings.
Grounds
Cut canes are piled as green waste beside the compost. Why is leaving them there not a finished removal?
Own page
Leaving cut canes beside the compost is not a finished removal. Japanese knotweed can persist from rhizome in the soil, and cut stems piled as green waste only show that someone cut and stacked material. They do not show the ground was cleared, that the waste left the site under a controlled method, or that the stand has died. The survey recorded the pile. It has not decided the plant has been removed, and it has not decided the compost is unaffected.
Roofs
The roof void is marked not inspected because the hatch was screwed shut. What of the rafters has not been seen?
Own page
The rafters inside that void have not been seen. A hatch screwed shut kept the surveyor out of the roof space, so the slopes, the underfelt, the purlins and the rafter feet were not inspected. Tiles viewed from outside, if they were viewed, are not a sight of those timbers. The report marks the void not inspected. It has not decided the rafters are sound because the covering looked even from the ground.
Structure and movement
The floor falls toward the place a chimney breast was removed. Have the joists been proved to be resupported?
Own page
No. The joists have not been proved to be resupported. A floor that falls toward the place a chimney breast was removed shows a slope at that line. It does not show a beam, a hanger or a calculation holding the joist ends that used to bear on the breast. The survey recorded the fall and the missing breast. It has not opened the floor, and it has not decided the joists are properly supported.
Structure
The door to the loft room is held open with a hook. Has that door been fire-tested, or only seen?
Own page
The door has only been seen. A hook holding the loft-room door open is a fitting the survey could look at. It is not a fire test. The visit did not test the door, did not treat a label as a certificate, and has not decided how the door would perform in a fire. Whether this opening needs a fire-resisting door is a building-regulations question. The survey does not issue that certificate. The report records the hook and the door as seen.
Structure and movement
A cracked drain joint is noted near a stepped crack. Has the survey shown the drain caused the movement?
Own page
No. The survey has not shown that the drain caused the movement. A cracked drain joint noted near a stepped crack is two observations placed near each other. The visit did not test the drain, did not excavate, and did not show that leaking water washed out the ground and moved the wall. Movement can have other causes. Nearness is not a mechanism. The report has not decided the drain is to blame.
Roofs
A lead valley was left in place. What of the boards beneath the lead is unseen?
Own page
The boards beneath the lead are unseen. The valley was left in place, so the survey did not turn the metal back and did not see the timber boards, any sarking, or the fixings under it. A lead valley can look continuous from above while the boards beneath are soft or damp. The visit recorded the lead as left down. It has not decided those boards are sound, and it has not decided they have decayed.
Roofs
A pot was removed and the flaunching is open. Has the survey swept the flue or only seen the top?
Own page
The survey has only seen the top. It has not swept the flue. A pot removed and flaunching left open shows a hole at the stack head. The visit did not brush the flue, did not camera it, and did not decide whether it is clear, lined or blocked lower down. Rain can enter an open crown. The report records the missing pot and the open mortar. It has not decided the flue is safe to use, and it has not decided it is redundant.
Walls
Window reveals feel cold after cavity fill and nothing was opened. Has a cavity closer been confirmed?
Own page
No. A cold window reveal has not confirmed a cavity closer. After cavity fill, a cold patch at the reveal can suggest missing insulation, a gap at the jamb, or simply a solid edge that was always colder. Nothing was opened, so the survey did not see a closer, the fill beside the frame, or the ties. The visit recorded the cold feel. It has not decided the closer is missing, and it has not decided it is present.
Reading the report
The garage is NI because it was locked. Why is an absent rating not a statement that the garage is sound?
Own page
An absent rating is not a statement that the locked garage is sound. NI means not inspected, not a pass, and no condition rating was given because the door stayed locked. Rating 1 means no repair currently needed. Rating 2 means defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent. Rating 3 means serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. None of those was applied to the garage. The blank is the lock. It is not a clean result you can borrow from the house.
Reading the report
The cellar is NI because the pavement grating was bolted down. What tanking below that grating must you not assume is absent?
Own page
You must not assume that tanking below the bolted grating is absent. The cellar is NI because that grating stayed shut, so the space under it was not inspected. NI means not inspected, not a pass. Rating 1 means no repair currently needed. Rating 2 means defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent. Rating 3 means serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation. Unseen tanking might be there or it might not. The report has not decided either way, and absence was not proved.
Walls
Loose beads have spilled into the eaves void. Has anyone measured how much fill remains inside the cavity?
Own page
No. Nobody on this visit measured how much fill remains inside the cavity. Loose beads in the eaves void show that some insulation has left the wall and gathered where the roof meets the wall plate. A spill is not a volume. The survey did not open the cavity, did not test the wall ties, and did not decide the wall is still fully filled or partly empty. It recorded beads where they had spilled. The amount still inside stays unknown.
Services
The heat-pump isolator is inside a locked meter cupboard. Was the electrical isolation even seen?
Own page
No. The electrical isolation was not seen. The heat-pump isolator sits inside a locked meter cupboard, so the survey could not look at the switch, the labels, or how the supply is cut. An outdoor unit in view is not the isolator. The visit recorded the lock. It has not decided the isolation is suitable, and it has not tested the electrics. The survey does not issue a building-regulations certificate for the installation.
Roofs
The dormer cheeks on a loft conversion were only seen from the landing. What of the covering was not inspected?
Own page
The outside covering of the dormer cheeks was not inspected. Seeing the dormer from the landing shows the indoor face of the lining. It does not show the cladding, the underlay, the flashings or the junction with the main roof. The survey recorded that indoor limit. It has not decided the covering is weathertight because the landing plaster looked dry, and it has not described a covering it did not see. Outside access was not obtained.
Services
A fan-coil condensate pump in a bedroom cupboard was not run. Where might that water go if the pump has failed?
Own page
If the pump has failed, condensate can back up in the tray and overflow into the cupboard, into the ceiling below, or along whatever overflow route exists, and this visit did not find that route. The survey did not run the pump, so it has not seen the path and has not decided the pump works. A fan-coil produces water as it runs. An untested pump leaves the destination unknown. The report records that the pump was not operated. It has not traced a leak that did not occur during the inspection.
Services
An empty glycol top-up bottle stands by the ground-source manifold. Has the brine strength been measured?
Own page
No. The brine strength has not been measured. An empty glycol top-up bottle by the ground-source manifold shows a container, not a test. Glycol is added to the ground loop so the brine is protected in cold weather. An empty bottle can mean it was used, that it is leftover, or that it is unrelated. The survey did not sample the loop and did not decide the mixture is weak or strong. The visit recorded the bottle. The brine stays untested.
Structure
A 1960s boot lintel shows a crack at the bearing. Has the survey calculated the load on it?
Own page
No. The survey has not calculated the load on the boot lintel. A boot lintel is a concrete lintel with a toe that projects to carry the outer leaf, and a crack at the bearing was recorded where that end sits on the wall. The visit did not measure the loads above, did not design a replacement, and has not decided the crack means the lintel has failed. It has flagged the crack at the bearing. The calculation is still absent.
Services
The heat-pump controller was sitting in holiday mode. Does that screen prove the system cannot heat the house?
Own page
No. Holiday mode on the screen does not prove the system cannot heat the house. It shows the controller was left in a setback setting when the surveyor looked. The visit did not switch the heat pump to normal heating, did not measure output, and did not decide the unit is faulty. A mode can be changed by the occupant. The report records the screen that was showing. It has not decided the house cannot be heated, and it has not decided the plant is in good working order.
Services
Both a small biomass boiler and a heat pump are named in one plant cupboard. Has the survey serviced either appliance?
Own page
No. The survey has not serviced either appliance. Naming a small biomass boiler and a heat pump in one plant cupboard records that both were present to be seen. It is not a service, a flue test, or a check that they can run together. The visit did not strip either appliance down and did not decide that either is safe or efficient. Two nameplates in one cupboard are an inventory. They are not a maintenance visit.
Walls
A wasp nest fills a cavity and was not opened. What of the ties behind the nest is unknown?
Own page
The ties behind the nest are unknown. A wasp nest filling the cavity was recorded and was not opened, so the wall ties that should cross that void were never seen. Looking at the outer leaf does not test ties, and a nest left in place blocks even that limited view of the cavity. The survey has not decided whether those ties are present, sound, corroded or missing. The nest is a note of what was visible. It is not a report on the metalwork behind it.
After the survey
You want this inspection to open a Buildmark claim. Why is that something the visit cannot do?
Own page
The visit cannot open a Buildmark claim because a claim is not an inspection. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product, and this survey does not lodge a claim, pick a policy stage or decide that a defect is covered. The visit records what it could see of the house. Starting a claim is a separate step with the warranty provider, using their forms and the policy papers. Asking the surveyor to open the claim asks for a job the inspection was never instructed to do.
After the survey
The drain has not been filmed and you cannot carry an unknown. Is walking away the survey's decision or yours?
Own page
Walking away is your decision, not the survey's. The drain has not been filmed, so the run, the joints and any hidden break stay unknown, and the report has not decided that you must leave the purchase or stay in it. A survey records limits and what it could see. It does not choose whether an unfilmed drain is a risk you can carry. That choice sits with you, with your solicitor and with any lender, once you have understood what was not inspected.
Grounds
The survey says the climber might be bindweed rather than knotweed. Has a laboratory identification been made?
Own page
No laboratory identification has been made. The survey says the climber might be bindweed rather than Japanese knotweed, which is a visual doubt, not a laboratory result. Leaves and growth habit can look alike, especially when the plant is not in flower, and this visit did not send a sample away. The report has not decided which plant is growing. Guidance on invasive plants has not been applied as a finding, because the species itself is still unconfirmed.
Roofs
The report cannot tell a warm flat roof from a cold one. Why does that matter before you treat a drip as a leak?
Own page
It matters because a drip can be a leak or built-up condensation, and the two are not the same job. The report cannot tell a warm flat roof from a cold one, so it has not decided which construction is overhead or which mechanism is wetting the ceiling. A warm roof places insulation above the deck. A cold roof places insulation below it, with a void that is meant to be ventilated. Dripping can be condensation rather than water coming through the covering. This visit has not claimed which roof this is.
Legal and neighbours
An RTM company runs the block and the roof leaks. Has the survey decided the company must repair it?
Own page
No. The survey has not decided that the right-to-manage company must repair the leaking roof. An RTM company may take on management functions, but whether this leak is that company's job depends on the lease and on what was actually handed over. The inspection recorded a leaking roof. It did not construe the lease, did not see the company's records, and did not order anyone to do the work. Responsibility for the roof stays a legal question. It is not a finding of this visit.
Drainage
A septic tank is described and the soakaway could not be found. What part of the system is still unknown?
Own page
The soakaway, and the route effluent takes after the tank, is still unknown. A septic tank is described, but the soakaway that should take liquid from it could not be found, so the trenches and the ground they discharge into were not seen. A septic tank and a treatment plant are different things, and a cesspool only holds sewage until it is emptied. The survey recorded the tank it could describe and the missing soakaway. It has not mapped the rest of the system or decided that it works.
Money
The lender mentions a retention until a timber report arrives. Why can your surveyor not delete that retention?
Own page
Your surveyor cannot delete the retention because it belongs to the lender, not to the home survey. The lender has said it will hold part of the advance back until a timber report arrives. That is a condition of the loan. It is not a sentence in this inspection that the surveyor can strike out. A mortgage valuation is not a structural survey, and a retention is the lender's own control on the money. This visit can describe timber risk. It cannot cancel what the lender has set.
Selling
The seller says the heat pump was serviced and cannot find a date. Does the home survey fill that gap?
Own page
No. The home survey does not fill the gap of a missing service date. The seller says the heat pump was serviced and cannot find a date, and the inspection did not find a sheet, a dated sticker or any other record that would replace that missing paper. A look at the unit is not a service history. The survey has not decided when the pump was last attended, who attended it, or what was done. The date stays unknown until a document turns up.
Services
An oil line is buried under a patio and was not traced. Which leak path is untested?
Own page
The buried oil line under the patio is the untested leak path. The pipe was not traced, so joints, corrosion and any weep into the ground or the patio base were not seen and were not pressure-tested. A home survey does not test an oil line by looking at slabs. Staining, a smell or a dead patch of plants would be clues only, and none of those was turned into a test here. The report notes that the line is buried and untraced. It has not decided that the line is tight, or that it is leaking.
Walls
Cladding is described and no external-wall form is mentioned. Has this visit carried out that external-wall assessment?
Own page
No. This visit has not carried out an external-wall assessment. Cladding is described, and no external-wall form is mentioned, so the inspection recorded what the outside looked like and stopped. A form of the kind some lenders ask for on flats with cladding is a separate product from a home survey, and it was not produced here. The survey has not opened the wall, has not classified the system in the way that form requires, and has not signed any external-wall certificate. Seeing cladding is not that assessment.
Structure and movement
Glass tape across a crack is dated in the seller's handwriting. Is that tape a monitoring record the surveyor owns?
Own page
No. Glass tape dated in the seller's handwriting is not a monitoring record the surveyor owns. It is a mark the seller, or someone for them, put across the crack. The survey did not set the tape, did not measure movement over time, and did not adopt that date as its own datum. A dated strip can show that someone looked on a day they wrote down. It does not show the width then, whether the crack has moved since, or that a proper monitoring regime was followed.
Legal and neighbours
A Section 20 pack includes scaffolding dates for the roof. Why do those dates not describe the condition of the covering, and why must you not invent a money threshold?
Own page
Those scaffolding dates describe a programme, not the condition of the roof covering. A Section 20 pack that lists when scaffold is due does not say whether the tiles, the felt or the deck have failed, and the notice is not a condition rating. The survey has not inspected the covering by reading a timetable, and it has not calculated anyone's share of the work. Do not invent a money figure for what the notice might mean for you. Dates tell you a timetable someone has written. They do not survey the roof.
Legal and neighbours
A loft ladder is screwed to the party wall. Has anyone checked whether that fixing sits inside this demise?
Own page
No. Nobody on this visit checked whether the loft-ladder fixing sits inside this demise. The ladder is screwed to the party wall, the wall shared with the neighbour, and the survey did not read the lease plan against the wall thickness or decide whose structure the screws enter. A fixing can sit in your loft and still bite into a wall the neighbour has an interest in, or into structure the freeholder controls. The inspection recorded the screws. It has not decided the legal line.
Roofs
A roof light was added in a conservation area. Why is listing of the building a different question from area controls, and why has the survey decided neither?
Own page
Listing and conservation-area controls are different questions, and the survey has decided neither. A roof light added in a conservation area can raise area controls even when the house is not listed, and if the house is listed the listing covers the whole building, not a front wall only. This visit did not check the statutory list, did not confirm the area designation, and did not grant any consent. The roof light was recorded as an alteration. Whether it was lawful stays outside the survey.
Services
The cylinder is labelled a thermal store and the agent calls it a heat-pump cylinder. Which name did the survey actually verify?
Own page
The survey verified neither name. The cylinder is labelled a thermal store, and the agent calls it a heat-pump cylinder, but the inspection recorded those words without opening the vessel or matching a data plate that would settle the point. A thermal store and a cylinder built around a heat pump are not the same piece of kit. The visit did not decide which description is right. The name on the case and the name in the particulars both remain unverified.
Damp
A pram store under the common stair is damp and was only seen from the doorway. What structure above it is unopened?
Own page
The structure above the pram store is unopened. The store is damp and was only seen from the doorway, so the soffit of the common stair, the floor over the store and any beam or slab in that zone were not examined from inside the cupboard. The survey did not enter, did not lift finishes, and did not trace whether the damp rises from the floor, tracks from the stair, or comes through the wall. A view from the door records staining and a limit. It has not named the wet construction overhead.
Choosing a survey
The Level 1 report is short because the product is a basic inspection. Why do its limitations still matter on a house with a closed loft?
Own page
The limitations still matter because a short Level 1 report is a basic inspection, not a brief version of a fuller survey. A closed loft is exactly the sort of space that product does not open, so the roof timbers, the tank, the insulation and any staining above the ceiling stay outside what was inspected. A short write-up can feel as if little was wrong. It can equally mean little was seen. The survey has not decided the condition of that closed space. The limits are part of the result.
Walls
A cavity brush is visible at the eaves and insulation is piled against it. Has anyone checked the vents below are still open?
Own page
No. Nobody has checked that the vents below the cavity brush are still open. A brush is visible at the eaves and insulation is piled against it, which can close the air path the brush and the vents are meant to protect. The survey saw the brush and the piled insulation from the access it had. It did not confirm airflow, did not pull the insulation back, and did not decide that the eaves can still ventilate. A brush is a stop for insulation. It is not proof the vents underneath are clear.
Roofs
A secret gutter behind a parapet could not be reached. Which overflow path is untested?
Own page
The overflow path from the secret gutter is untested. A secret gutter behind a parapet could not be reached, so the channel, the outlet and the route water would take if that outlet blocked were not seen working. Secret gutters sit out of ordinary view, between a roof slope and a wall or parapet, and they fail quietly until water comes over a weak point into the building. The survey recorded that it could not get there. It has not decided that an overflow works, or where water would go if the gutter fills.
Services
An open fire is boarded up and no vent was seen in the board. Has the room's air supply been tested?
Own page
No. The room's air supply has not been tested. An open fire is boarded up and no vent was seen in the board, so a former opening has been closed without an obvious air inlet in that panel. The survey did not measure airflow, did not test for combustion gases, and did not decide that the room is short of air or safely ventilated. Closing a fire can also leave the flue without a route for air if the flue itself was not vented. The missing vent is a visual note. It is not an air test.
Grounds
The agent calls a concrete cap in a flowerbed a mine entry. Has this inspection identified it from a mining report?
Own page
No. This inspection has not identified the concrete cap from a mining report. The agent calls a cap in a flowerbed a mine entry, and the survey only recorded a concrete feature in the soil. A mining check and a coal mining report are separate products from the home survey, and neither was carried out on this visit. Concrete in a bed can be a cap, a base or something else. The report has not decided it is a mine entry, and it has not opened a coal-mining subsidence claim.
Structure
A polycarbonate lean-to has no building-control paper in the pack. Has permitted development been decided?
Own page
No. Permitted development has not been decided. A polycarbonate lean-to has no building-control paper in the pack, and the survey did not apply planning rules, did not measure the addition against any allowance, and did not issue a building-regulations certificate. Permitted development is a planning question. Building-control paper is a regulations question. They are not the same decision. The inspection recorded a lean-to and the absence of papers. It has not decided the structure was permitted, exempt, or built to the standard for the work.
Drainage
The washing machine wastes into a surface-water gully. Has a dye test proved a misconnection?
Own page
No. A dye test has not proved a misconnection. The washing machine wastes into a surface-water gully, which is an arrangement that can send foul water toward a rainwater system, but the survey did not put dye through the machine, did not film the drain, and did not trace where that gully discharges. A hose sitting in a gully is not a test of the pipe beyond it. The report notes the connection as found. It has not decided the gully is misconnected, or correctly linked to a foul drain.
Structure
The sole plate of a timber frame is close to the ground and was not probed. What decay has not been confirmed?
Own page
Decay in the sole plate has not been confirmed. The sole plate of the timber frame sits close to the ground and was not probed, so softness, moisture and any rot inside the timber were not measured. A sole plate is the horizontal timber the frame stands on, and ground damp can reach it when the gap to soil is small. The survey recorded the level and the lack of a probe. It has not decided the plate is decayed, and it has not decided it is sound. Closeness to the ground is a risk note, not a diagnosis.
Structure
An orangery lantern is glazed and no competent-person certificate is in the pack. Why is the missing paper not the only question the frames raise?
Own page
The missing paper is not the only question the frames raise. An orangery lantern is glazed and no competent-person certificate is in the pack, so one route to building-regulations compliance is simply not documented. Competent-person schemes are one route, not the only route, and the survey does not issue that certificate. A missing certificate does not describe the frames, the glazing bars or how the lantern meets the roof. The visit recorded the lantern and the absent paper. It has not decided the lantern was built correctly or incorrectly.
Drainage
A macerator serves an en-suite and the small-bore run was not traced. What happens to that waste is still whose question?
Own page
What happens to that waste is still your question, not a result the survey has closed. A macerator serves the en-suite and the small-bore run was not traced, so the pump, the narrow pipe and the point where it joins a larger drain were not followed. A macerator cuts waste and pushes it along a small pipe that can be long and full of bends. The survey saw the unit. It did not test the pump, did not trace the pipe, and has not decided where the waste goes or whether that route is sound.
Roofs
Sprockets at the eaves are soft. Has that softness been followed into the rafter feet?
Own page
No. The softness in the sprockets has not been followed into the rafter feet. Sprockets are the short timbers that kick the eaves out beyond the wall, and they were soft where they could be reached. Softness there can stop at the sprocket, or it can continue into the rafter end that sits toward the wall plate. The survey did not open the eaves lining far enough to see that junction, and it did not probe the rafter feet. The sprockets are a finding. The rafters behind them remain unchecked.
Roofs
A parapet gutter drains the flat roof and the outlet was not seen from above. What blockage has not been ruled out?
Own page
A blockage of the outlet has not been ruled out. A parapet gutter drains the flat roof and the outlet was not seen from above, so the sump, the downpipe head and any debris in that throat were not inspected. Parapet gutters are boxed channels at the edge of a flat roof. If the outlet blocks, water can rise over the covering or find a weak point in the lining. The survey recorded the gutter and the unseen outlet. It has not decided the outlet is clear, and it has not decided it is blocked.
Grounds
A local booklet mentions a pit nearby. Why is that booklet not the official coal-mining search?
Own page
A local booklet is not the official coal-mining search. A booklet that mentions a pit nearby is local colour or history, not the mining report drawn from the coal authority's records, and it is not the separate mining check either. Those products stand apart from this home survey, which did not carry them out and did not place the booklet's pit against this house. The survey has not identified a mine entry and has not opened a subsidence claim. The booklet can prompt a proper search. It does not replace one.
Walls
The lender asks whether the wall ties were tested. Why is a look at the outer leaf not that test?
Own page
A look at the outer leaf is not a wall-tie test. The lender asks whether the ties were tested, and on this visit they were not: the surveyor looked at the outside face and did not use a tie detector, did not open the cavity, and did not report a count or a condition of ties. Cracking or a bulge in the outer leaf can suggest trouble, but those signs are not the test the lender is asking about. The survey has not decided the ties are sound or failed. It has only recorded the surface.
Walls
Hairline cracks are in the new render. Has the survey proved structural movement?
Own page
No. The survey has not proved structural movement. Hairline cracks in the new render are a surface note on a new plot, and fine cracks in fresh render can come from shrinkage as the coat cures, from a joint behind it, or from movement. This visit did not monitor the cracks, did not open the render, and did not decide a cause. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey does not open a claim and does not sort the cracks into a warranty stage. Movement is not proved.
Structure and movement
The lintel over a widened kitchen opening looks dropped and was not exposed. Has the bearing been measured?
Own page
No. The bearing has not been measured. The lintel over a widened kitchen opening looks dropped and was not exposed, so the ends, the bearings and the amount of wall still supporting them were not seen. A dropped head can mean the lintel has rotated, the bearings have crushed, or the eye is reading a sloping soffit. The survey recorded the appearance. It has not measured how far each end sits into the masonry, and it has not decided the opening is failing or that it is adequate.
Roofs
Slipped tiles on a mansard were seen from a window across the street. What of the fixings was not handled?
Own page
The fixings were not handled at all. Slipped tiles on a mansard were seen from a window across the street, which is a distant view of the slope, not a hands-on check of nails, clips or nibs. A mansard is a steep roof face, and a slipped tile can hide a failed fixing or a wider loss of hold. From across the street the survey could see displacement. It could not lift a tile, feel a batten, or decide how the tiles are fixed. The slip is noted. The fixing condition is unknown.
Structure
The breast has gone and a corbel remains in the alcove. Has the masonry above that corbel been checked for support?
Own page
No. The masonry above that corbel has not been checked for support. The breast has gone and a corbel remains in the alcove, a projecting piece that used to help carry the breast. Taking the breast away can leave weight from the stack still relying on whatever remains. The survey saw the corbel. It did not open the floors or the stack, did not trace the load path, and has not decided that the masonry above is supported or that it is not.
Structure and movement
The crack is wider at the bottom than the top. Why is that pattern a clue and still not a finished diagnosis of heave?
Own page
The pattern is a clue, not a finished diagnosis of heave. The crack is wider at the bottom than the top, a shape often linked with upward movement rather than a crack that opens more toward the top. Swelling ground, a removed tree or a change in soil moisture can produce that pattern, and so can other causes that only look similar. The survey recorded the taper. It did not monitor the crack, did not test the soil, and has not decided that heave is what happened here.
Legal and neighbours
The freeholder is absent and the roof needs work. Why can this inspection not compel that freeholder to repair?
Own page
This inspection cannot compel an absent freeholder to repair the roof. The freeholder is missing and the roof needs work, but a survey records condition. It does not serve notices, apply to a tribunal, or order anyone to do the work. Making a repair happen depends on the lease, on who is obliged to repair, and on legal steps your solicitor would have to advise where a landlord cannot be found. The visit can say the roof needs work. It has not created a power to make the freeholder do it.
Drainage
The alarm beacon on a package plant is unplugged. Does an unplugged beacon mean the plant has been working?
Own page
No. An unplugged beacon does not mean the plant has been working. The alarm beacon on a package treatment plant is unplugged, so the warning was disconnected when it was seen. The survey did not plug it in, did not test the alarm circuit, and did not sample the plant. A package plant treats sewage. It is not a cesspool, which only holds sewage until it is emptied, and it is not the same as a septic tank. An unplugged beacon means the alarm was not in service. It does not show that the process has been working.
Walls
Butterfly ties were seen only in a pier the seller has already taken down. What of the standing walls was never opened?
Own page
The standing walls were never opened, so their ties are unknown. Butterfly ties were seen only in a pier the seller has already taken down, which is a demolished fragment, not a sample of the walls that still carry the house. Butterfly ties are a twisted wire form, and finding them in rubble shows what that pier contained. It does not show the spacing, the metal or the condition of ties in the walls left standing. The survey did not open those walls and did not test them. The fallen pier speaks only for itself.
Walls
Old borescope holes sit only at damp-course level. Why can those holes not speak for the ties on the upper floors?
Own page
Those holes cannot speak for the ties on the upper floors. Old borescope holes sit only at damp-course level, so someone once looked, or drilled, near the base of the wall, not at the storeys above. Ties can differ by height, by age and by how wet each band of the cavity has been. A low-level hole does not describe the metal higher up. This survey did not make the holes, did not look through them, and did not test the upper ties. The holes are old marks. They are not a result for the floors overhead.
Services
The survey mentions legionella in the same sentence as the heat-pump cylinder. Has a water-hygiene sample been taken?
Own page
No. A water-hygiene sample has not been taken. The survey mentions legionella in the same sentence as the heat-pump cylinder, which is a risk note about stored water, not a laboratory result. No sample was drawn from the cylinder, the taps or the shower, and the visit did not decide that bacteria are present or absent. A heat-pump cylinder can store warm water that needs proper control, but this inspection did not test that control and did not record temperatures. The sentence flags a topic. It is not a hygiene certificate.
Walls
Lath and plaster is bulging on an Edwardian ceiling. Has the survey pulled the laths down?
Own page
No. The survey has not pulled the laths down. Lath and plaster is bulging on an Edwardian ceiling, so the coat is coming away from the timber laths, or the laths are losing their hold, and the visit recorded that bulge from below. It did not strip the ceiling, did not test each lath, and did not decide how much of the coat is still keyed. A bulge can be a hollow patch or a wider area close to dropping. The survey notes the distortion. It has not opened the ceiling to prove the extent.
Structure and movement
An old insurance letter records a cash settlement and the crack is still open. Has anyone checked that repairs were part of that settlement?
Own page
No. Nobody on this visit checked that repairs were part of that cash settlement. An old insurance letter records a cash settlement and the crack is still open, so money was paid at some point and the damage is still visible. A cash settlement can be paid instead of the insurer doing the repairs, which means the crack may never have been stitched or pointed afterwards. The survey saw the letter and the open crack. It has not audited the claim file and has not decided that the settlement included completed repairs.
Structure
A FENSA-style certificate is mentioned for the windows and the paper was not seen. Why is a competent-person scheme only one route, not proof the survey inspected the frames?
Own page
A competent-person scheme is only one route to building-regulations compliance, and it is not proof the survey inspected the frames. A FENSA-style certificate is mentioned and the paper was not seen, so the survey has not verified a registration and has not issued a certificate of its own. It is not the only route: a building-control application is another. The visit did not treat a named scheme as the sole lawful path, and it did not open the frames or decide the installation. The missing paper and the uninspected frames are separate limits.
Walls
A tie bar crosses a bowing gable and nobody checked its tension. What restraint has not been measured?
Own page
The restraint of the tie bar has not been measured. A tie bar crosses a bowing gable and nobody checked its tension, so the rod may be tight, slack or doing nothing, and the survey did not say which. A tie bar is meant to hold a bulging wall back toward the rest of the building, usually with plates on the face. Seeing the bar and the bow records that someone once tried to restrain the gable and that the wall is still out of plane. It does not measure the force in the bar. That restraint is unmeasured.
Roofs
A chimney apron is tucked under the slates the wrong way. Has that detail been water-tested?
Own page
No. That detail has not been water-tested. A chimney apron is tucked under the slates the wrong way, so the metal that should dress over the slates below the stack appears to run underneath them, which can lead rain back under the covering. The survey saw the arrangement from the access it had. It did not run water over the apron, did not lift the slates, and has not decided how much rain the detail lets in. The back-tuck is a visible fault of detailing. It is not a measured leak test.
Services
Heat-pump condensate discharges into a rainwater hopper. Has the survey decided that connection is acceptable?
Own page
No. The survey has not decided that the connection is acceptable. Heat-pump condensate discharges into a rainwater hopper, so water the unit makes as it runs is being tipped into a rainwater fitting the survey has not proved suitable. The visit saw the pipe and the hopper. It did not trace the hopper's outlet, did not watch the discharge in freezing weather, and did not issue a building-regulations certificate for the arrangement. Acceptability stays undecided. The note is the connection that was seen, not a pass.
Services
The air-source unit sits hard on the wall bracket with no anti-vibration feet. Has the survey measured noise or decided a planning point?
Own page
No. The survey has not measured noise and has not decided a planning point. The air-source unit sits hard on the wall bracket with no anti-vibration feet, so the machine bears on the bracket without the resilient pads often used to cut vibration into the wall. The visit recorded that contact. It did not measure sound, did not record vibration, and did not decide whether planning or any condition turns on the detail. Do not treat the missing feet as a noise reading. None was taken.
Money
The mortgage valuation never mentions the heat pump. Why has that silence not cleared the installation?
Own page
Silence in the mortgage valuation has not cleared the heat pump. MoneyHelper treats a mortgage valuation as distinct from a structural survey: it is the lender's figure for security, not a defect list and not a service of the heating. If the valuer never mentions the pump, the pump was not reported. That is an absence, not a test that was passed. The home survey is the condition report. The valuation's quiet line does not show the unit was inspected, still less that it works.
Selling
The seller offers to open the screwed hatch after you have the report. Does that later opening rewrite the NI mark already printed?
Own page
No. A later opening does not rewrite the NI mark already printed. That mark records the visit as it happened: the screwed hatch stayed shut and the space behind it was not part of the inspection. A seller who offers to open it afterwards is offering a new event, not an edit of the sentence in the report. Unless the surveyor is instructed again and issues a revised note, the printed limit stands. The later look is not, by itself, part of this inspection.
Reading the report
The boiler age is written as the seller's comment. Why is that not a reading of the data plate?
Own page
The boiler age is the seller's comment, not a reading of the data plate. The report attributes the figure to the seller, so the number was not taken from the maker's label, or at least was not written as if it had been. A data plate carries the maker's year, model and serial. Repeating what the seller remembers does not confirm any of those. The survey has not tested the boiler and has not done gas safety work. Gas Safe registration is the regime for that work. The comment is a remark, not a plate reading.
Walls
An external-wall form is already in the pack. Why has this home survey not renewed or reissued it?
Own page
This home survey has not renewed or reissued the external-wall form because it is not that form. A form already in the pack was produced under its own instruction, often for a lender's questions about the block. The survey can note that the paper exists. It does not sign it again, does not update its date, and does not turn a visual look at one flat into a fresh external-wall assessment. The form stands or fails on its own wording. This report has not replaced it.
Services
Underfloor heating manifolds are connected to the heat pump and none of the loops were balanced on the visit. What was not commissioned?
Own page
The underfloor loops were not commissioned. Manifolds connected to the heat pump were seen, and none of the loops were balanced on the visit, so flow on each loop, the actuators and the settings that make the system match its design were not set or checked. Commissioning is the installer's task of proving those circuits. The survey does not do it. Approved Document L is energy-performance guidance for building work. This visit has not issued a building-regulations certificate, and it has not tested heat-pump efficiency.
Damp
A Victorian coal hole grating lets water onto the cellar steps. Has the survey tanked that wall or only seen the stain?
Own page
The survey has only seen the wetting, not tanked that wall. A Victorian coal-hole grating lets water onto the cellar steps, which is a path for rain onto the stair and the masonry beside it. The visit can record the grating, the water, and staining on the steps or the wall. Tanking is a barrier system applied to keep moisture out. It was not installed on this inspection, and a home survey does not carry it out. The path was observed. The wall was not waterproofed by the report.
Choosing a survey
The sale is a traditional auction. Why does the timing of the survey have to be before the hammer, unlike a private treaty purchase?
Own page
The survey has to be in hand before the hammer because a traditional auction usually binds the buyer when the hammer falls. There is no later stage, of the kind a private treaty purchase has after an offer is accepted, in which you can still walk away quietly once the report arrives. If you bid without the survey, you take the building on the auction conditions. Conditional auctions can differ, and the solicitor reads those conditions. The point is when the bid becomes the deal, not how long the inspection itself takes.
Walls
Partial-fill batts are sagging where a socket was removed. Has the survey seen the rest of the cavity?
Own page
No. The rest of the cavity has not been seen. Partial-fill batts are sagging where a socket was removed, which is one opening in the inner leaf. That hole shows the insulation at that point has slumped. It does not show the other bays, the head of the wall, or whether batts elsewhere are missing, wet or still tight. A socket cut-out is not a cavity survey. The visit did not endoscope the wall and did not test the ties. Energy Saving Trust guidance on cavity insulation is general. This note is local.
Environment
A flood vent is blocked by decking. Has anyone shown how water would cross that vent?
Own page
No one on this visit has shown how water would cross that vent. The flood vent was seen blocked by decking, which is a record of an obstruction, not a demonstration of flow. The survey did not lift the decking, did not run water at the opening, and did not measure any flood depth. A government flood-risk check is a separate product and was not this inspection. Seeing the blockage does not prove what a flood would do at the wall. The path across the vent stays untested.
Roofs
Foam was stripped last month and the nail heads are now visible. Has this survey inspected the covering as it was before the foam?
Own page
No. This survey has not inspected the covering as it was before the foam. It sees the roof as it is now, after last month's strip, with nail heads visible. Those nails are today's evidence, not a view of the covering while the foam still hid it. The visit cannot rewind the strip. It can comment on timbers and fixings now in sight. It has not judged the roof in its foamed state, and it has not recovered whatever the foam was covering at the time.
Reading the report
Rating 3 asks you to obtain quotations. Why is the rating itself not one of those quotations?
Own page
The rating is a condition mark, not a quotation. Rating 3 means defects that are serious and/or need to be repaired, replaced or investigated urgently. The number tells you the urgency of what was seen. It does not price the work, name a contractor, or write a builder's specification. The survey has not calculated a cost and has not produced one of the quotations it asks you to obtain. Obtain those figures from people who price the repair. Do not treat the rating as if it were already the quote.
Grounds
A skip beside the house holds pieces that look like knotweed rhizomes. Have they been identified in a laboratory?
Own page
No. The pieces in the skip have not been identified in a laboratory. They look like knotweed rhizomes, which is a visual suspicion, not a lab result. The survey did not take a sample from the skip, did not send material away, and has not decided that the load is Japanese knotweed. GOV.UK's concern with this plant is about not causing it to spread. Looking into a skip is not that test. The pieces stay unidentified. Do not treat the load as confirmed knotweed, or as cleared, on appearance alone.
Walls
A concrete-repair certificate names the front elevation of a PRC house. What of the rear columns did that paper certify?
Own page
Nothing of the rear columns, if the certificate only names the front elevation. A concrete-repair certificate is a paper about the work it describes. Naming the front limits it to that face. The rear columns sit outside that wording unless the paper expressly includes them. PRC means precast reinforced concrete. The survey can record what the certificate says and what cracking or old repairs it can see. It has not tested the reinforcement, and it has not stretched a front-elevation certificate across the back of the house.
Structure
An RSJ over a knocked-through reception has no padstone in any photograph. What bearing is still unverified?
Own page
The end bearing of the RSJ is still unverified. Photographs show a steel over the knocked-through reception and no padstone, so the way each end sits in the wall was not recorded. A padstone is a block meant to spread the steel's load into the masonry. Absence from the photographs is not proof that no padstone exists, and it is not proof the bearing is sound. The survey has not opened the wall at either end. It has not confirmed the bearing, and it has not issued a building-regulations certificate for the opening.
Drainage
The report says a drain camera is outside the scope of this inspection. Has the pipe run been filmed?
Own page
No. The pipe run has not been filmed. The report says a drain camera is outside the scope of this inspection, which means the visit did not include a camera pass through the pipes. What a home survey can record is limited to what that inspection includes, such as chambers if any were opened, and only as the text describes them. A camera survey is a separate instruction. Stating that it sits outside scope is the finding. It is not a film of the run, and it is not a clear bill of health for the underground pipes.
Timber
Strands are reported in a cellar and no fruiting body was present. Why is the strand note not a finished identification?
Own page
The strand note is not a finished identification because strands without a fruiting body do not settle the fungus. The survey reports strands in the cellar and records that no fruiting body was present. Several decay fungi can leave strands, and a name such as dry rot needs more than a thread on its own. The note describes what was seen. It has not named the species, has not sampled the timber, and has not mapped how far any growth runs. Treat the sentence as unfinished.
Legal and neighbours
T-marks appear on the title plan and the fence on the ground leans the other way. Which document decides the boundary?
Own page
Neither the lean of the fence nor the home survey decides the boundary. The title register and plan, read with any deeds they refer to, are the documents that deal with it. T-marks can relate to who maintains a boundary feature where the register says so. A fence that leans the other way is a physical fact the survey can record. It does not rewrite the plan. Title plans often show a general boundary rather than an exact line, which is a reading for the solicitor. The survey has not adjudicated ownership.
Structure and movement
A structural engineer is recommended for the crack and no engineer is named. Who has not yet been instructed?
Own page
The structural engineer has not yet been instructed. The report recommends one for the crack and names nobody, so the sentence is advice, not an appointment. No engineer has inspected the crack under that advice, and the surveyor has not become that engineer by making the referral. Cause, whether movement is ongoing, and what should be done all stay open. Further investigation is a new instruction. Until someone is appointed and reports, the crack has a recommendation beside it and no engineer's conclusion.
Legal and neighbours
The lease numbers a parking bay that is not marked on the ground. What use of that bay is still unproved?
Own page
The right to use that numbered bay is still unproved on the ground. The lease gives the bay a number, but nothing marks that number on the tarmac, so the survey cannot point to the rectangle the lease means. A home survey records the mismatch. It does not allocate spaces, does not interpret the demise, and does not prove that a particular unmarked area is yours. The solicitor compares the lease plan with what is painted or used on site. Until that match is made, use of the bay remains a paper right without a proved location.
Legal and neighbours
Joists are pocketed into the party wall and the pockets were not opened. What was not seen inside the wall?
Own page
The joist ends inside the pockets were not seen, nor the bearing they sit on, nor any rot or gap within the wall. The joists are described as pocketed into the party wall, and the pockets were not opened, so the inspection stopped at the face. A pocket can hide a decayed end even when the timber in the room looks fair. The survey has not cut into the party wall. It has not served a notice and has not written an award. What lies inside the wall at those bearings stays unknown.
Roofs
Ridge mortar has dropped into the loft. Is the ridge still fixed?
Own page
The ridge has not been shown to be still fixed. Mortar that has dropped into the loft is bedding that has left the ridge, so some of the material that held the ridge units is now debris on the boards. The survey can record the fallen mortar and the ridge it could see from outside or from the loft. It has not tested the fixing of each unit, has not lifted the ridge, and has not proved that whatever mortar remains still holds it. Fallen bedding is a defect to note. It is not a certificate that the ridge remains secure.
Money
A Coal Authority subsidence claim is a separate process from the home survey. Who inspects that claim, and why is it not your surveyor by default?
Own page
The Coal Authority inspects a coal-mining subsidence claim, not your home surveyor. GOV.UK's mining check and a coal mining report are separate products from the home survey, and a claim to the Authority is a further process again. The surveyor describes the building on the day of the visit. The surveyor does not open that claim by default, does not decide that mining caused the damage, and does not run the Authority's investigation. The condition report stays a condition report. The claim has its own inspectors.
Roofs
Pigeon droppings cover the loft boards. Why is cleaning them not a structural look at the rafters underneath?
Own page
Cleaning is not a structural look at the rafters, because the visit does not wash the loft and the boards are not the rafters. Droppings covering the boards mean the board surface under them was hidden, so the survey could not see that surface. Removing the mess would be a cleaning task, not the inspection already carried out. Even a clean board is the boarding, not a verdict on the rafters that carry the roof. The report records the obstruction. It has not inspected the timbers the droppings concealed.
Roofs
A flue passes through thatch and no lining paper is in the pack. Has the inside of that flue been inspected?
Own page
No. The inside of that flue has not been inspected. A flue passing through thatch was noted from what could be seen outside the flue, and no lining paper is in the pack. The survey does not travel the inside of a flue, does not sweep it, and does not confirm a lining that no certificate supports. Thatch around a flue is a separation question the papers would need to answer. Their absence leaves the lining unverified. Seeing the thatch and the stack is not an internal inspection of the flue.
Structure and movement
A coal-subsidence claim form is in a drawer and the walls look straight. Has the survey decided the claim was justified?
Own page
No. The survey has not decided the claim was justified. A claim form in a drawer is an old paper, and walls that look straight are a visual note of today. Straight masonry does not prove a past coal-subsidence claim was well founded, and it does not prove the claim was wrong. The survey has not read the Coal Authority file, has not compared old damage with the present walls, and does not decide mining claims. GOV.UK's mining check remains a separate product. The form and the straight walls are not a verdict.
Structure and movement
Movement is described at the conservatory base and not at the main house. Has the house therefore been cleared of subsidence?
Own page
No. The house has not been cleared of subsidence. Movement is described at the conservatory base and not at the main house, which means that is where the survey saw it. A conservatory often sits on its own base and can move without the same pattern appearing on the main walls. Silence about the house is not a subsidence investigation, not monitoring, and not a cause. The survey has not said the house will stay still. It has located the movement it found. Clearing the house would be a stronger claim than the report makes.
Services
A takeaway extract rises past the bedroom window of the flat above. Has the survey tested that flue or the flat's fire door?
Own page
No. The survey has tested neither that flue nor the flat's fire door. It has noted that a takeaway extract rises past the bedroom window. That is a route observed from the flat or from outside, not a test of the duct, the fan, the fire stopping or the door to the common parts. A home survey of one flat does not commission the kitchen below and does not fire-test doors. Grease, smell and fire separation stay unmeasured. The note is a flag. It is not a test certificate for either item.
Legal and neighbours
A bathroom extends over the neighbour's passage and the ceiling under it was not seen. What support is unverified?
Own page
The support of the bathroom floor over the neighbour's passage is unverified. The room extends over that passage, and the ceiling under it was not seen, so the joists or beams that carry the floor were not inspected from below. The bathroom above can look ordinary while the bearing is hidden. The survey has not opened the ceiling and has not calculated the support. It has not decided that any particular statute applies and has not served a notice. What holds that floor up remains an open question.
Drainage
An old clinker soakaway is mentioned as collapsed. Did the survey dig it out, or only repeat what the seller said?
Own page
The survey did not dig the soakaway out. An old clinker soakaway is mentioned as collapsed, which is a mention, not an excavation. Clinker soakaways are old filled pits that took outflow onward from a tank. Digging one up is not part of a home survey, so the collapse has not been seen below ground. Unless the text says debris was visible at the surface, the words are an account, commonly the seller's. A soakaway is not the tank. The survey has not proved the pit.
Money
A drain camera will cost extra. Why is that cost not hidden inside the home survey fee you have already been quoted?
Own page
That cost sits outside the fee because a drain camera is a different instruction from the home survey you were quoted. The quoted fee pays for the inspection that was agreed, at the level that was agreed. It does not silently include every specialist the report might later recommend. A camera pass needs its own contractor, its own access and its own price. MoneyHelper makes a related distinction: a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. In the same way, a home survey is not a filmed drain survey. The recommendation names the gap. It does not prepay it.
Reading the report
A photograph of a stained ceiling has no sentence under it. Has the stain been diagnosed because it was pictured?
Own page
No. The stain has not been diagnosed because it was pictured. A photograph shows the ceiling as it looked on the day. Without a sentence under it, the report has not given the mark a cause, a rating, or a next step. The picture is evidence that something was seen. It is not, by itself, a finding that the mark is a leak, condensation, or an old repair. Ask what the photograph was meant to support. Until a sentence ties it to a defect, the stain remains illustrated and unexplained.
Grounds
Canes lean over the fence from next door and none were found in this soil. What was not dug on this side?
Own page
The soil on this side was not dug. Canes lean over the fence from next door, and none were found in this soil at the surface. That is a look at growth above ground, not an excavation of this garden. Rhizomes can cross a boundary below the surface without a cane showing on this plot. The survey has not identified the canes in a laboratory and has not cleared this ground. GOV.UK's concern is about not causing Japanese knotweed to spread. Absence of canes in view is not a dig, and it is not a clearance.
Structure and movement
The visit was in a dry summer on a clay site. Why can the survey not say the ground will not heave when the tree is gone?
Own page
The survey cannot say the ground will not heave. A dry summer visit on clay shows the site in a dry state, not the state after the tree is removed. Clay that a tree has dried can swell when moisture returns, and heave is that swelling. The visit did not monitor ground moisture, did not model the tree, and did not predict later seasons. Desiccated ground on the day is a condition of the visit. It is not a promise that removing the tree will leave the house still. The report should not be read as that promise.
Services
An entryphone is noted at the common door. Has that door been fire-tested?
Own page
No. The common door has not been fire-tested. An entryphone noted at that door is a record of a release system, the handset or the button, not a test of the door leaf, the closer, the seals or the glazing. Fire performance is a different inspection from noticing how a guest is buzzed in. The survey did not time a closer, did not check cold-smoke seals, and did not certify the door. The entryphone can work while the door is still untested. Treat the note as a device seen, not as a fire certificate.
Reading the report
The garage is marked not applicable and the shed is marked NI. Why are those two marks not interchangeable?
Own page
They are not interchangeable because they answer different questions. Not applicable on the garage means there is no garage element to inspect or to rate, so the form is refusing to score something that is not there. NI on the shed means a shed exists and was not inspected. NI means not inspected, not a pass. Swapping the marks would either invent a garage or pretend the shed had been judged. Rating 1 would mean no repair is currently needed, and neither of these marks says that. Read each mark against the element it sits on.
Services
Radiators are fed by microbore from the heat pump. Has anyone checked whether those small pipes can carry the flow?
Own page
No. Nobody on this visit checked whether those small pipes can carry the flow. The survey can see that radiators are fed by microbore from the heat pump. That is a description of the pipework in view. It is not a flow test, a balancing exercise, or a check that the emitters suit the pump. The survey has not measured efficiency. Approved Document L is energy-performance guidance for building work, not a result for these pipes. This visit has not issued a building-regulations certificate. The carrying capacity of the microbore stays untested.
Damp
The bin-store roof throws water onto a wall of the flat. Has that splash been shown to be the cause of damp indoors?
Own page
No. The splash has not been shown to be the cause of damp indoors. The bin-store roof throws water onto a wall of the flat, which is an outdoor wetting path the survey could see. Water on the brick is not, by itself, proof of a stain or a moisture reading inside. Other causes, such as a leak above, a bridged course or condensation, are not excluded by the splash. The survey records the roof detail. It has not traced indoor damp back to that water by a test that isolates the source.
Drainage
A cracked septic baffle was seen by torch rather than by camera. Why is that look not a drainage survey?
Own page
A torch look is not a drainage survey because it only shows the baffle the light reached. The cracked septic baffle was seen from the chamber, not by a camera through the pipes. That records a crack in a part of the tank. It does not film the inlet, the outlet or the ground beyond. A septic tank is not a treatment plant, and it is not a cesspool, which only holds sewage until it is emptied. The survey has not jetted the system and has not sampled a discharge. The crack is a visual note. The drainage survey remains undone.
Services
A low-loss header sits between the heat pump and the radiators and no label was read. What mixing of the two circuits was left untested?
Own page
The mixing of the two circuits was left untested. A low-loss header sits between the heat pump and the radiators so those circuits can run at different flows, and no label on it was read. Without that label the survey has not recorded the maker or the settings. It did not measure flow on either side and did not check whether the circuits stayed separated as designed. The header was seen. How the two sides mix, or whether they mix too much, stays unknown. Efficiency was not tested, and no building-regulations certificate was issued.
Structure
An egress hinge on a bedroom window is painted over. Has the clear opening been measured?
Own page
No. The clear opening has not been measured. An egress hinge on a bedroom window is painted over, so the survey could see that paint is clogging the ironmongery. It did not free the hinge, did not swing the window through an escape position, and did not measure the clear opening that would remain. Escape from a bedroom is a building-regulations question. The survey does not issue that certificate and has not checked this window against it. Painted ironmongery is a condition note. It is not a measured opening.
Roofs
Fallen torching lies on the loft boards. Has it been rebedded, or only seen as debris?
Own page
It has only been seen as debris. Fallen torching on the loft boards is mortar that has dropped from the underside of the tiles. The survey records the pieces where they lie. It has not rebedded them, has not pointed the tiles from above, and has not restored anything. Old torching was a mortar layer under the tiles, used before modern underlays were common. Debris on the boards shows that layer has been lost in places. It does not show that anyone has put it back. The covering at that point stays as found.
Reading the report
Floor coverings were left down and the limitation says so. Does a rating on the skirting boards include the boards underneath?
Own page
No. A rating on the skirting boards does not include the floorboards underneath. The limitation says the coverings were left down, so the boards they hide were not inspected. A condition rating applies to what was inspected. The skirtings could be seen at the edge of the room, and any mark on them is about those skirtings. It does not reach under the carpet or other covering. NI means not inspected, not a pass, which is the honest status of the hidden boards. Do not stretch the skirting rating across them.
Roofs
Tiles at the crown of a gable are cracked. Has the verge been rebuilt?
Own page
No. The verge has not been shown to have been rebuilt. Tiles at the crown of the gable are cracked, which is a condition note about those tiles. A crack does not record a past rebuild of the verge, and the visit did not rebuild anything. The survey can see the damaged crown and the verge as they stand. It has not lifted the verge tiles, has not checked the barge along its length, and has not found paperwork for a rebuild. Cracked tiles remain cracked tiles. They are not a completion record.
Environment
A bat access tile is noted. Has an ecology survey been carried out?
Own page
No. An ecology survey has not been carried out. A bat access tile was noted as a product in the covering, which means the survey saw a tile of that kind. Noting it does not confirm that bats use the roof, does not count roosts, and does not amount to an ecology survey. The home survey is a condition inspection of the building. It does not license work on a roost and it does not replace a bat survey if work is later proposed. The tile is a fitting that was seen. Whether bats are present stays undecided.
Services
Defrost water from the outdoor unit is dripping off the condensate tray onto the path. Is that a leak from the heating circuit?
Own page
No. On this visit, dripping off the condensate tray is not a leak from the heating circuit. Defrost water is moisture the outdoor unit sheds when it clears ice, and it is meant to leave by that tray. Seeing it miss the tray and wet the path shows a disposal fault in the condensate route. It does not show that heating water is escaping. The survey did not pressure-test the circuit and did not decide efficiency. Treat the drip as tray overflow until a heat-pump engineer says the sealed circuit itself is losing fluid.
Services
A Boiler Upgrade Scheme letter is in the pack and there is no service sheet. Which of those papers is not a condition report?
Own page
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme letter is not a condition report, and the missing service sheet is not one either. The letter is a grant-route paper. GOV.UK describes that scheme as a grant toward a heat pump or a biomass boiler in England and Wales, not in Scotland or Northern Ireland. The survey does not decide eligibility and has not turned the letter into a verdict on the machine. There is no service sheet in the pack, so there is no maintenance record there either. The condition report is the home survey, which has not serviced the pump.
Services
An acoustic enclosure surrounds the heat pump and was not opened. What of the unit itself was actually seen?
Own page
The unit itself was largely unseen. An acoustic enclosure surrounds the heat pump and was not opened, so the survey saw the box, the pipes entering it, and whatever edge remained in view. It did not see the fan, the coil, the connections inside the box, or a data plate hidden by the cover. The enclosure is a housing. It is not the machine. The survey has not measured noise, has not checked efficiency, and has not verified any registration. What was actually seen is the outside of the enclosure, not a proper view of the heat pump within it.
How this index is organised
- Question, cluster, intent
- Each entry has a buyer question, a cluster such as Damp or Roofs, and an intent. Almost all are informational. A few about fees are marked commercial in the underlying data. We do not show intent as a badge because it is for machines, not for the decision in front of you.
- Target URL, answer, sources, last reviewed
- The target URL is a guide, a tool, the glossary, or one of the 3200 standalone question pages. The answer above is the same words as on that page. Sources sit on the destination. Last reviewed 24 October 2026.