No gas service sheet was in the drawer. Has the survey rated the gas installation 3 for that absence?

What is the fuller explanation?

A service sheet is a record of someone else's visit. Its absence from a drawer means the paper was not there to read. It does not describe the condition of the boiler, the meter, the pipework or the flue. Rating 3 means an element is serious, urgent, or both, and it leads you to written quotations before legal commitment. A missing sheet is not that element. If the surveyor uses an R mark, that mark is a prompt to ask for documents. It is not rating 1, 2 or 3. Do not tell the agent the gas was rated 3 because the drawer was empty.

What they could see of the installation is a visual inspection only. Services are not safety-tested. A tidy boiler with no sheet is still untested, and a corroded boiler is a visual defect whether or not a sheet exists. The what to do now note advises you. It does not invoice the seller to produce a certificate, and it does not invent a rating from the gap. Ask the solicitor or the agent for any service record as a paper chase, and ask the surveyor what, if anything, they rated on the appliance itself. Keep the empty drawer and the metal in different columns.

What should you ask your surveyor?

• Did you rate the gas installation, or only note a missing sheet?
• Is any R mark a document prompt rather than a condition rating?
• What, if anything, did you see on the boiler itself?

What are the typical next steps?

1. Chase the missing sheet as a document, not as rating 3.
2. Do not tell the seller the gas failed because the drawer was empty.
3. Read any visual comment on the boiler separately.

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

Which pages should you read next?

• Rewirable fuses were seen and nobody operated them. What can the electrical condition rating honestly claim?
• The cold-water cistern could not be reached. Why is that NI rather than a rating 1 for the plumbing?
• A builder has quoted to inject the walls and the survey's damp note is a leaking gutter. Why should that quote not be sent to the seller as the cost of the defect the survey named?
• Guide: What do condition ratings 1, 2, 3 and NI mean?
• All UK home survey questions

Sources

• RICS: Description of the RICS Home Survey Level 3 (condition rating definitions)
• RICS: What to do now (consumer PDF linked from the RICS home survey guide)
• RICS: RICS Home Surveys (Home Survey Standard)