Renegotiating or walking away
What goes wrong if you add every condition rating 2 into a single price demand?
You treat ordinary maintenance as if it were one urgent bill. Rating 2 means a repair or replacement that is not serious or urgent, and the property must still be maintained in the normal way. Several rating 2s are several jobs. They do not, under the RICS definition, add up into a rating 3 or into a percentage of the price. If you want money off, attach a quote to a specific job.
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?
A tired hallway, a cracked path and a roof that will need work in the next few years are not the same conversation as a leaning stack. Adding them into one round figure invites the seller to refuse all of it, including the item that mattered. It also double-counts work you were always going to do after you moved in, which is not what the definition calls urgent.
Separate the list. Price the few items you actually want the contract to deal with. Leave the rest as the maintenance RICS already said was normal. Your solicitor would rather send a short request than a spreadsheet that treats decoration as structure.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which rating 2 items, if any, would you still flag before we talk about money?
- Which are maintenance we should simply expect to own?
- Which rating 3 items should not be folded into the rating 2 list?
What are the typical next steps?
- Make a short list of items you might actually negotiate.
- Get a quote for those, not a single percentage for the whole report.
- Budget the remaining rating 2s as ownership, not as a discount.
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
Can many rating 2s ever matter more than one rating 3?
They can matter to your budget. They still do not change the definition. A stack of maintenance is not automatically urgent. Judge the jobs, not the count of boxes.
Should the seller repair every rating 2 before completion?
No. The definition calls rating 2 not serious or urgent. A seller may agree a particular item. They are not obliged by the rating itself.