Leasehold
Cladding is described and no external-wall form is mentioned. Has this visit carried out that external-wall assessment?
No. This visit has not carried out an external-wall assessment. Cladding is described, and no external-wall form is mentioned, so the inspection recorded what the outside looked like and stopped. A form of the kind some lenders ask for on flats with cladding is a separate product from a home survey, and it was not produced here. The survey has not opened the wall, has not classified the system in the way that form requires, and has not signed any external-wall certificate. Seeing cladding is not that assessment.
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?
Describing cladding means noting materials the eye could see: panels, render, or something the surveyor would not name more tightly. It does not include the cavity behind the panels, the insulation, the fire barriers or the way the system is fixed. Those are the sorts of points an external-wall assessment is meant to cover, on its own instruction and often with its own author. This report must not be photocopied into that role. The absence of a form in the pack is a paperwork gap the survey did not fill.
Ask your solicitor what external-wall paperwork, if any, the seller or the managing agent holds, and ask the lender what they actually require before they will proceed. Pass them this survey as a visual note only. Do not tell the lender an assessment has been done because cladding was described. If a form is produced later, it is a new document. It does not rewrite the home survey.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Was an external-wall form completed on this visit, or only a visual note?
- Did the survey open the cladding and inspect the cavity behind it?
- Is the lender's requirement being treated as already satisfied?
What are the typical next steps?
- Treat the cladding note as visual, not as an external-wall assessment.
- Ask the solicitor what wall paperwork the block actually holds.
- Do not tell a lender that a form was completed on this visit.
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 managing agent's email replace the missing form?
Only if the email is the form, or attaches it, and even then it is their document, not this survey. The visit did not carry out the assessment and did not mention a form because none was in the inspection. Ask the solicitor to check what the email really encloses. Do not paste it into the survey as if the surveyor signed it.
Can the surveyor name the cladding product from the street?
Sometimes a product is obvious, and often it is not. This report described cladding without an external-wall form, which means the system was not assessed and the wall was not opened. A street view cannot see insulation or barriers. Do not treat a guessed trade name as the assessment the question is about.