Leasehold
Building-safety papers can include a landlord's certificate. Will you find that certificate printed inside the home survey?
No. A landlord's certificate, where the building-safety papers include one, belongs in that legal bundle. It is not typeset into the home survey. Searching the PDF for the certificate will not make it appear, and a survey sentence about the outside of the block is not a substitute page with the landlord's signature on it.
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?
Buyers hear the phrase in the same week they receive a flat report and assume the surveyor collected every safety paper while they were in the stair. They did not. The inspection describes condition in the flat and in the common parts that were entered. Building-safety papers, if this block has them, are obtained by the solicitor from the landlord or the agent. A paragraph that says further information should be obtained is a prompt to ask. It is not the certificate stapled in upside down.
Ask the solicitor whether a landlord's certificate is expected for this building and where it would sit in the pack. Do not email the survey firm demanding they print a document they were never sent. If the report notes cladding or an unusual external wall, that note still is not the certificate. Keep the two files apart so a lender is not told the survey has already answered a paper question it never opened.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Were any building-safety papers handed to you on the day?
- Is a request for further information the same as the certificate?
- Which external comments should the solicitor read beside those papers?
What are the typical next steps?
- Ask the solicitor where any landlord's certificate would be filed.
- Do not search the survey PDF as if it were the safety pack.
- Keep cladding comments separate from papers the surveyor never held.
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 the report is silent, does that mean no certificate exists?
No. Silence means the survey did not contain it. The solicitor still has to ask whether the block has one.
Can the surveyor sign the certificate because they saw the wall?
No. Seeing an elevation is not signing a landlord's certificate. Different authors, different jobs.