Survey costs
The house is large and the firm quotes a short visit. What should you ask about time on site before you compare fees?
Ask what that short visit is meant to cover on this large house, and which survey level the time assumes, before you compare fees. A lower fee with less time can be a narrower inspection rather than the same job at a kinder price. Ask which roofs, outbuildings and voids are included, and what will be marked as not reached if the time runs out. The survey has not started. Time on site is part of the instruction, not a footnote to the fee.
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?
Large houses simply contain more elements: more roof, more windows, more ground, sometimes more than one staircase or wing. A short visit has to leave some of that to a passing look or to a limitation. Firms can differ in what they include inside a quoted time, so two fees are comparable only when the coverage matches. Asking after you have paid is late. The question belongs in the instruction, beside the level of survey and the address.
Put the questions in writing: time on site, level, outbuildings, roof access, and what happens to parts not reached. Your solicitor does not need a guessed duration, and you should not invent one. When the report arrives, read the limitations against what the firm said it would cover. Do not treat the cheapest short visit as the equivalent of a longer inspection of the whole house. Compare like with like, or do not compare the fees at all.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What level of survey is the short visit meant to be?
- Which outbuildings and roof areas are included in that time?
- What will be recorded as not reached if time runs out?
What are the typical next steps?
- Ask in writing what the short visit will and will not cover.
- Compare fees only where level and coverage match.
- Read the eventual limitations against the time that was quoted.
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
Should you ask who will be on site, not only for how long?
Yes. Ask whether the person inspecting is the person who will write the report, and whether a large house is being split between people. The survey has not started, so this is an instruction question. A named duration without knowing who attends, and what they will leave unreached, is not enough to compare fees.
Is a short visit always wrong for a large house?
Not always. It is wrong to compare it with a longer, wider inspection as if they were the same product. A limited visit can be honest if the limits are stated first. Ask what will be left unseen. Then decide whether that service is the one you meant to buy.