Can you ask the surveyor to change a rating 2 into a rating 3 so a price cut looks stronger?

What is the fuller explanation?

The mirror image of a seller shouting is a buyer who wants a scarier report before they speak to the agent. Both are pressure. The what to do now note advises the buyer to get written quotations before legal commitment when an element is rating 3. It does not advise you to collect rating 3s as tokens. A honest rating 2 can still be something you ask about, with a quote, if it matters to you. It does not become urgent because a discount would be convenient.

If the photographs and the number really do not match, ask the firm to reconcile them. That is a correction, not leverage. Your solicitor should send any proposal, based on quotations for work that was actually described. There is no RICS percentage attached to a rating, so manufacturing a 3 does not unlock one. If the house is no longer one you want on these findings, you can walk away before exchange without editing the PDF.

What should you ask your surveyor?

• Why is this element rating 2 rather than rating 3?
• What would need to be different for you to call it serious or urgent?
• Will you refuse a request to regrade it for negotiation?

What are the typical next steps?

1. Do not ask for a worse rating to strengthen a demand.
2. Use quotes for the defect as it is described.
3. Ask your solicitor to send any proposal, without an inflated number.

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

Which pages should you read next?

• What should you do if the agent tells the seller the survey was rating 2 when the element is rating 3?
• The only condition rating 3 is a close-boarded fence. Why is that a weak basis for a large cut in the price of the house?
• The survey says further investigation on the electrics and also NI. Should you book an EICR because that looks like the code FI?
• Guide: Should you renegotiate, or walk away?
• All UK home survey questions

Sources

• RICS: What to do now (consumer PDF linked from the RICS home survey guide)
• RICS: House surveys: the costs, types and benefits of an RICS home survey
• RICS: Description of the RICS Home Survey Level 3 (condition rating definitions)