Choosing a survey level
A firm offers a desktop comment from the estate agent's photographs. Why is that not a Level 2?
Because a Level 2 is an inspection of the property, and a comment written from the estate agent's photographs is not that inspection. The firm has not walked the house. It has looked at pictures someone else took to sell it. Those pictures omit what the photographer did not like, and they cannot be opened, tapped or compared with a loft. Call the product a desktop remark if you want. Do not call it a Level 2.
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?
Photographs in particulars are framed to attract a buyer. They linger on kitchens and skip the parapet, the roof void and the back of the chimney. A surveyor who never attends cannot test that selection. They also cannot see movement by eye along a wall, feel a soft floor, or note a smell. A Level 2 exists so those limits of absence are replaced by a visit. A desktop comment keeps every one of them.
If the firm is honest about the limit, the paper may still be a conversation. It is not the survey you think you are buying when you say Level 2. Ask, before you pay, whether anyone will attend. If the answer is no, do not tell your solicitor or your lender that a Level 2 has been done. When you do instruct a Level 2, expect a visit and a report of what that visit could see, not a caption under the agent's album.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Will anyone attend the property, or is this only the agent's photographs?
- Which parts of a Level 2 cannot be done from those pictures?
- How will the paper be titled so it is not mistaken for a Level 2?
What are the typical next steps?
- Do not accept a desktop comment from agent photographs as a Level 2.
- Ask whether the fee includes a visit.
- Do not tell the lender a Level 2 exists if nobody attended.
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 photographs are recent, is the gap smaller?
No. Recent pictures are still pictures. They are not a Level 2 inspection, and they do not show what the agent chose to leave out.
If the firm is a surveying firm, does the desktop become Level 2?
No. The author does not change the method. Without an inspection of the property, the comment is not a Level 2, whatever the letterhead.