Choosing a survey level
A Level 1 was booked when you had asked for advice on repairs to an older house. What does the Level 1 scope not set out to advise on?
The Level 1 scope does not set out to advise you how to repair or manage the defects in this older house. You asked for repair advice. What was booked is a Level 1, which RICS describes as a visual overview of condition, risks and urgent matters, aimed at conventional homes and generally not a specification of how to put defects right. The survey can note what it saw. It has not produced the repair advice you asked for, and it has not become a Level 2 or Level 3 because the house is old.
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?
Level 1 is a limited visual inspection. It is the wrong container for a brief that says: tell me how to repair an older house. Older fabric, alterations and odd details are exactly where repair advice starts to matter, and where a visual overview stops short. The report may still flag something urgent. Flagging is not a method, a sequence or a trade specification. Reading it as if the repair section was forgotten will only send you back to a scope that never promised that section.
Go back to the firm and say the instruction you wanted was repair advice on an older house, and ask what level they will actually provide. Keep this Level 1 as a condition overview if it is useful, and do not pretend it prices or sequences the work. Your solicitor is not the person to upgrade the survey. If you still need repair advice you can act on, that is a different instruction, not a rewrite of this one.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which defects have you noted without advising how to manage them?
- Is this report staying within the Level 1 scope I was actually sold?
- What would need a different level if I still want repair advice on this older house?
What are the typical next steps?
- Treat this Level 1 as a condition overview, not repair advice.
- Tell the firm you had asked how to repair an older house.
- Instruct a level that sets out to advise on repairs if you still need that.
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 Level 1 is long, has it become repair advice?
No. Length is not scope. A long Level 1 can still only be the visual overview that was booked. Extra sentences do not turn it into advice on how to repair an older house, and they do not change the product into a Level 2 or Level 3.
Can the firm add a repair specification without a new instruction?
Only if it agrees to change the instruction. The Level 1 you have does not set out to advise on repairs. Asking the surveyor to invent that advice inside the old scope is how the mismatch happened. A new instruction should say what advice you now want.