Age and type of house
The chalet bungalow has rooms in the roof and the dormer cheeks are cracked. Why is that not an empty-loft question?
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.
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?
People file dormers under roof and then talk as if the only risk is a stain in a loft nobody enters. In this house the dormer makes the wall of the bedroom. A crack in the cheek can be the covering, the frame, or movement at the junction with the main roof. None of those is inspected by shrugging because a terrace would have left the space empty. The survey should describe the cracks as room fabric. It should not hide them in a loft paragraph that does not exist.
Ask a roofer or a builder who understands dormers to look at the cracked cheeks and say whether the covering, the frame or the junction needs work. That is a further look, not a sentence the survey has already designed. Tell your solicitor the rooms in the roof are part of the accommodation, so this is not a remote void. The home survey has not opened the cheeks and has not tested the frame inside them.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Are the cracked cheeks the walls of occupied rooms in the roof?
- Did you open any cheek, or only see the cracks on the face?
- Have you kept this out of any empty-loft wording?
What are the typical next steps?
- Describe the cracked dormer cheeks as walls of the rooms.
- Do not file them as an empty-loft issue.
- Ask a roofer or builder to look at the cheek covering and the junction.
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 loft hatch in the landing is dry, are the cheeks cleared?
No. A dry hatch is a different place. The cheeks are the dormer sides of the rooms, and they are cracked. The survey has not cleared those cracks by looking at a hatch. The hatch does not inspect the side wall of the dormer.
Does a crack in a cheek always mean the dormer is leaking?
Not always. A crack can be the covering or the frame rather than a leak. The survey saw the cracks and did not open the cheeks, so it has not chosen a cause. It has shown this is room fabric, not an empty loft.