Leasehold

What should you do if a parking space or store on the lease plan cannot be found on site?

Tell the solicitor, and do not assume the survey has solved it. The surveyor reports what they could see. If a space or a store shown as demised on the plan was not there, or could not be identified, that is a mismatch between the plan and the ground. The survey does not redraw the lease plan.

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?

Lease plans and painted numbers do not always match. A bay may have been re-marked, a store may have been absorbed into a neighbour’s cage, or the door the plan suggests may not exist. The inspection can say the surveyor could not find it. It cannot declare that the demise has vanished, or that a different bay has been substituted, or that the seller’s key is the right one. Those are title and lease questions.

Walk the plan with the solicitor’s notes before you treat the space as included in the price you have agreed. A condition rating of the structure does not grant you a parking bay. If the surveyor found a store and rated the door, that rating is about the door they saw, not proof it is the store the lease describes. There is no RICS rule that awards the missing space to the buyer because the flat itself looked fine.

What should you ask your surveyor?

Which space did you look for, and what did you actually find?
Are you identifying the demise, or only commenting on condition?
What should the solicitor compare with the lease plan?

What are the typical next steps?

Send the solicitor the plan and the surveyor’s note side by side.
Do not pay for a bay the inspection could not locate until the papers identify it.
If a door was rated, keep that rating separate from the question of whether the room is yours.

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 rating 1 on the car park mean the bay is yours?

No. Rating 1 is condition. Ownership of a marked space is the plan and the lease.

What if the seller points at a different bay?

Note it and let the solicitor check. Pointing is not a variation of the lease.