Leasehold

The survey describes the block roof and does not attach the service-charge accounts. Why are the accounts a management-pack document?

The accounts are a management-pack document because they are the landlord's or the agent's record of service charges, not a product of the home survey. The survey describes the block roof it could see. It does not attach the accounts, and it has not audited them. A condition comment on a roof is not a set of figures for cleaning, insurance or reserves. Those figures live in the pack the solicitor asks the managing agent for. Their absence from the survey PDF is not an omission of a page the survey was meant to include.

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 see one roof and expect one file. The roof the surveyor looked at is a building element. The service-charge accounts say what owners have been asked to pay and what was spent. The surveyor was not the accountant, and the report does not become one by mentioning the covering. If the roof needs work, the accounts and the planned major works are where you learn whether money is already held. The survey will not invent that position from the state of the felt or the tiles.

Ask the solicitor for the management pack, including the service-charge accounts and any note of works to the roof. Read the survey's roof description beside those papers, not instead of them. Do not ask the surveyor to paste accounts into the report. They are not the surveyor's document. Keep condition and service charge in their own columns. The pack is the right place for the accounts.

What should you ask your surveyor?

Did you describe the block roof without attaching service-charge accounts?
Are the accounts outside the survey and inside the management pack?
Have you left spending and reserves unaudited?

What are the typical next steps?

Get the service-charge accounts from the management pack.
Read them beside the survey's roof description, not inside it.
Ask the solicitor what the accounts say about roof works.

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 roof looks new, can you skip the accounts?

No. A new-looking roof is a condition impression. It does not show what was spent, what is held in reserve, or what the next works are. The accounts remain a management-pack document. The survey has not attached them and has not replaced them.

Does a high service charge prove the roof has failed?

No. The survey has not audited the charge and has not priced the roof. A charge is an accounts question. A defect is a survey question. One does not prove the other, which is why the accounts stay in the management pack.