Listed buildings and conservation areas
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?
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.
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?
Listing grades sort historic buildings for the list. They do not say the roof is dry or the wall is cracked. Condition ratings sort what the surveyor saw into the survey's own labels. A highly graded building can be in poor repair, and a modest grade can be well kept. Putting the grade into the rating column would mix Cadw's entry with the inspection. The survey describes defects. Cadw's published entry is the grade. Neither document does the other's job.
Ask the solicitor to confirm the Welsh list entry, and use the survey for the defects and the condition ratings actually given. Do not tell a lender the grade means no repair is needed, or that it means urgent work. Cadw explains the listing. The survey does not rewrite it. If work is planned, consent is a further question for the solicitor and the authority, not a number hidden inside the grade.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Why is the Cadw grade not one of your condition ratings?
- Which defects did you rate from what you saw, rather than from the list entry?
- Did you regrade the building, or leave the grade with Cadw's entry?
What are the typical next steps?
- Read the grade as listing and the numbers as condition.
- Ask the solicitor to confirm the Welsh list entry.
- Do not translate the grade into a rating 1, 2 or 3.
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
If the survey never mentions the grade, has the list entry changed?
No. Silence in the survey does not change Cadw's grade and does not make the grade a condition rating. The list entry still gives the grade. The survey still gives whatever condition ratings it gave. They remain different scales. Ask the solicitor for the entry rather than hunting the grade inside the ratings.
Can a rating 1 on the roof mean the building is unlisted?
No. A condition rating talks about the part that was rated. It does not remove a Welsh list grade and it is not that grade. Cadw explains listing. The survey explains condition. A favourable rating on one element leaves the list entry exactly where it was.