Choosing a survey level
In a Scottish Home Report the energy section suggests more loft insulation and the single survey rates the roof covering 1. Why can both of those be true?
Both can be true because they answer different questions inside the Home Report. The energy section is about heat loss, and a suggestion of more loft insulation is an energy comment, not a verdict that the covering has failed. The single survey's 1 on the roof covering is that survey's condition comment on the covering itself. A covering can be in the state the single survey described and the loft can still be short of insulation. A Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to. It is not an English Level 2 you instruct yourself.
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 pack holds more than one kind of page. The single survey is the surveyor's inspection of condition. The energy report looks at how the dwelling performs. Buyers collapse the word roof so that any mention must fight the covering figure. It need not. Insulation sits in the loft. The covering is the outer coat. One can be acceptable as a covering while the other is a poor thermal layer. Do not invent a lifespan for the Home Report.
Read the energy suggestion as an energy suggestion and the covering figure as the single survey's comment on the covering. If you want advice beyond the Home Report, that is a further instruction, not a relabelling of the pack as an English Level 2. Ask the solicitor how this Home Report is being used in the purchase. Do not ask anyone to delete the insulation line because the covering was rated 1, or to worsen the covering because the loft is thin.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Are the energy comment and the roof-covering figure on different parts of the Home Report?
- Did the covering rating describe the outer covering rather than the loft insulation?
- Have you treated the Home Report as the Scottish product, not as an English Level 2?
What are the typical next steps?
- Read the insulation line and the covering figure as separate comments.
- Do not relabel the Home Report as an English Level 2.
- Ask the solicitor how this Home Report is being used.
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 you add loft insulation later, has the covering rating been wrong?
No. Adding insulation changes the thermal layer. It does not rewrite what the single survey said about the covering. The two comments were about different things on the day. A later quilt does not prove the covering figure was a mistake, and it does not turn the energy page into a condition rating.
Can you instruct yourself an English Level 2 and ignore the Home Report?
You are being pointed to a Scottish Home Report, which is not an English Level 2 you instruct yourself. Extra advice can be commissioned beside it. Extra advice does not rename the pack, and it does not delete either the energy suggestion or the single survey's comment on the covering.