Leasehold
The survey notes cladding and the management pack contains no EWS1. Has either document produced that form?
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.
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?
An EWS1 is a form about an external wall system, asked for by some lenders on some blocks. It is produced by a process aimed at the whole wall, not by a surveyor noting panels, render or timber boarding while they inspect one flat. Noting cladding is not producing an EWS1. The management pack is the agent's bundle of accounts, insurance and notices. If that bundle has no EWS1, you have learned the form was not enclosed. You have not learned that the block fails a test, passes a test, or never needed the form. There is no score in the survey to decode.
Ask your lender whether this building is one they want a form for, and ask the solicitor to ask the agent whether a form exists and simply was not copied. Do not send the survey back with a request to grade the wall A, B or anything else. The firm was not instructed to do that, and a flat inspection is not that instruction. Keep the cladding sentence as what it is: a prompt that the outside of the block was noticed and that the legal file still has a question open.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Is your cladding sentence an EWS1, or only an observation?
- Did the instruction include an external-wall form for the whole block?
- Which words should the solicitor show the lender without calling them a form?
What are the typical next steps?
- Ask the lender whether this block needs an EWS1.
- Ask the agent, through the solicitor, whether a form exists but was not copied.
- Do not treat a cladding note as a pass or a fail.
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 pack is silent, has the wall failed?
No. Silence is a missing paper. It is not a result, because no form was produced.
Can you demand the surveyor issue an EWS1 as part of the flat fee?
No. That form is a different instruction. Noting the cladding did not include it.