Survey costs
The report lists an electrician and a drainage firm. Why is there no single published fee that covers both?
There is no such combined published fee because the electrician and the drainage firm are two later instructions, not a package RICS prices as one. Survey cost is variable, and there is no national tariff even for the home survey itself. Nothing in that guidance publishes a single figure that binds both specialists, or folds them into the Level 1, 2 or 3 fee you have already seen.
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?
The home survey can recommend both and still have finished its own job. A visual inspection does not safety-test the electrics and does not camera the drains. Those are the reasons the names appear. Each firm will quote the task you actually give them: an electrical report on stated circuits, a camera survey of stated runs, or something narrower. Their prices are theirs. Adding the two quotes together is your arithmetic, not a fee table the survey firm was obliged to print in the appendix.
Do not ask the surveyor to invent a bundled number, and do not treat the absence of one as a defect in the report. Level 1 sits toward the lower end of survey fees and Level 3 toward the higher end, with some bespoke survey services costing more, but those remarks are about the home survey, not about electricians and drain companies. Ask each specialist for a written price against a written scope. Pay two invoices if you commission two investigations. A survey that lists both names has not sold you either visit in advance.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Are the electrician and the drainage firm outside the fee I have already paid you?
- Will you avoid quoting a combined price you do not publish?
- Which of your recommendations are advice only, with no specialist retained?
What are the typical next steps?
- Ask the electrician and the drainage firm for separate prices.
- Do not look in the survey for a national combined fee.
- Write a scope for each before you compare their figures.
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 one company offers both trades, is there then a published fee?
No. Their quote would be their quote. It is still not a fee published as part of the home survey.
Does a Level 3 fee include the specialists because it costs more?
No. A higher survey fee is still the survey. It is not an electrician's invoice or a drain camera.