Choosing a survey level
You are buying with cash, so there is no lender valuation. Which document, if any, has rated the roof?
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.
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?
MoneyHelper describes a mortgage valuation as a thing for the lender, and says it is not a structural survey. A cash buyer simply never triggers that document. That absence is not a saving that includes a free condition report. It is a gap. You are free to skip a survey, but you should not tell yourself the roof has been rated by a process that never happened. If you do instruct a survey, choose the level for the building: Level 2 for a conventional home in reasonable condition and simple form, Level 3 if it is older, altered, unusual, or you plan major works.
If you wanted a lender's form for comfort, cash has not hidden one in the solicitor's file. Ask the solicitor what searches they are doing, and ask a survey firm for the inspection. Keep price, legal title and condition as three separate files. Only the survey file, once you have commissioned it, rates the roof. A valuation you never ordered is not sitting among those searches under another name.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which level is proportionate for this roof and this house?
- What will you not be able to rate even after the visit?
- Do you need a lender's form before you will inspect for a cash buyer?
What are the typical next steps?
- Accept that cash creates no rated roof report.
- Commission a home survey if you want ratings.
- Keep the survey separate from the solicitor's searches.
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 cash buyer's solicitor automatically order ratings?
No. The solicitor handles the legal work. Condition ratings come from a survey you instruct.
If the seller had a survey, has my roof been rated for me?
No. A seller's old report was written for someone else. Do not treat it as ratings prepared for you merely because you are paying cash.