Electrics and gas
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?
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.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
Anti-vibration feet are a mounting detail. Their absence is something the eye can see if the unit is tight to the bracket. What the eye cannot see is how much the wall hums, how the neighbours hear it, or whether a planning permission even applies to this installation. The survey did not invent a noise limit or a distance to a boundary, because it measured neither. Approved Document L is energy guidance and not a certificate this visit issued. The bracket note stays a visual note about isolation, nothing more.
If noise or planning is your concern, ask your solicitor what consent papers exist and, separately, consider a specialist comment on the mounting. Neither of those is this survey. Tell a lender the feet were absent and that noise was not measured and planning was not decided. The survey also does not decide grant eligibility and must not quote a grant figure. Missing pads are not a grant finding and not a sound test.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Was noise from the air-source unit measured?
- Has any planning point about the bracket been decided?
- Are the missing feet being reported as a sound reading?
What are the typical next steps?
- Treat missing feet as a visual mounting note only.
- Do not report a noise result or a planning decision.
- Ask the solicitor what consent papers exist if planning concerns you.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
Does a steady bracket prove the unit cannot be heard indoors?
No. A bracket that looks firm says nothing about sound in the room or next door. The survey did not measure noise and did not decide a planning point. Vibration into the wall is possible and unmeasured. Do not invent a limit. The finding is only that anti-vibration feet were not seen.
Can the feet be added and the survey rewritten as a pass?
Adding feet would be later work, with its own record. It would not turn this visit into a noise test or a planning decision, neither of which was made. The survey should continue to say the unit sat hard on the bracket and that sound was not measured. A fitter's invoice is not a rewrite of that sentence.