Leasehold

The stairs you use are outside the area coloured on the lease plan the agent showed. Can the survey correct that plan?

The survey cannot correct the lease plan that leaves these stairs outside the coloured area. The plan is a title document the agent showed. The stairs are something you use. Seeing them, and even commenting on their condition, does not redraw the colour, does not enlarge the demise, and does not grant a right to use what the plan leaves out. That correction, if it is needed, is for the solicitor and the title, not for the inspection.

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?

A lease plan is how the letting is drawn. If the stairs you rely on sit outside the colour, the survey has no pen that can move the line. It can say the stairs exist, what they are made of, and whether they looked worn. It cannot say they are demised, shared, or licensed. Those words belong to the lease the solicitor reads.

Put the plan and a note of which stairs you actually use in front of the solicitor before you treat the route as yours. Do not ask the survey firm to initial the agent's copy. A condition rating on a stair tread is not a legal right to climb it. Keep the two files apart so a lender is not told the plan has been fixed when it has not.

What should you ask your surveyor?

Did you see the lease plan, or only the stairs that were walked on the day?
Are you able to say the stairs are outside the coloured area, without correcting the plan?
Will any comment you make stay on condition, not on the extent of the lease?

What are the typical next steps?

Ask the solicitor to compare the stairs you use with the coloured lease plan.
Do not treat the survey as a corrected plan.
Keep any comment on the stair fabric separate from who owns the route.

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 can walk the stairs, are they inside the demise?

No. Being able to use them on the day does not put them inside the coloured area. The survey cannot correct the plan the agent showed.

Can the surveyor mark up the agent's plan in ink?

No. Marking a copy would not amend the lease. The solicitor deals with the plan the agent showed. The survey only deals with condition.