Condition ratings
The seller mentions a loss adjuster from an old insurance claim. Is that person the further investigation your report is asking you to commission?
Not that loss adjuster. They were involved in an old insurance claim for whoever instructed them then, on the questions the insurer asked at the time. Your report is asking you to commission a further investigation now, for you, against the sentence the surveyor wrote. A name from a historic claim is not that appointment, even if the seller still has the email.
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?
Old claim papers can be useful background. They may show that a crack, a leak or a subsidence worry was looked at in a particular year, and what that adjuster said to the insurer. They are not a fresh investigation of the element your survey has just flagged, and they were not written for you. The further-investigation line is advice to the buyer to instruct someone. It does not invoice the seller, and it does not adopt the seller's previous advisers as your specialists. If you want their old report, ask for a copy through the solicitor. Reading a copy is not the same as commissioning them again.
Check the date, the client and the question on any old letter before you put it in the file as an answer. A rating in your survey, including a rating 3 that is serious or urgent, is this inspection's view and still points you to written quotations before a legal commitment where that grade applies. An adjuster's historic opinion does not regrade it. If the survey named an engineer or another specialist, instruct that kind of investigation yourself unless you deliberately re-appoint someone and they accept a new written brief. The seller mentioning a person is not that brief.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Does your further-investigation line adopt anyone the seller used on an old claim?
- What question do you want answered now that an old insurance letter might not cover?
- Should I obtain the old papers only as background, through the solicitor?
What are the typical next steps?
- Treat the loss adjuster as the insurer's historic adviser, not as your investigator.
- Ask for old papers only as background if you want them.
- Commission the investigation your current report names.
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 adjuster is willing to visit again, does that count?
Only if you instruct them, or they are instructed for you, on a new brief that matches the survey sentence. A past role is not a current one.
Does a settled claim mean the defect is rating 1 now?
No. Settlement of an old claim is an insurance fact. Your rating is what this survey says.