New builds and warranties
What did the visit record about Buildmark, about an alteration after the warranty started, and about cover the survey must not promise?
The visit recorded Buildmark as the warranty product and recorded an alteration made after that warranty started. It did not record a promise of cover for the alteration. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey does not open a claim, and it must not promise that a later alteration sits inside the cover. Cover is read from the warranty documents. The inspection saw the alteration as a physical change. It has not decided that NHBC will or will not accept it.
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?
An alteration after cover has started might be a removed wall or a new opening. The survey can describe what it sees now. The warranty is a contract with its own terms about what is covered and what a later change does to that cover. Those terms are not applied by a surveyor noticing the change. Promising that the alteration is covered, or that it has voided everything, would invent a claims outcome. The report should refuse that invention and keep the alteration visible.
Ask the solicitor to read the Buildmark documents against the alteration, and ask NHBC or the holder of the policy what, if anything, the change does to cover. Do not ask the survey to open a claim or to warrant the alteration. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey does not open a claim. Keep the description of what was built separate from the decision on cover, which has not been made here.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What alteration did the survey actually see?
- When, relative to the warranty, does the seller say it was done?
- Has anyone read the Buildmark wording on later alterations?
What are the typical next steps?
- Record the alteration as seen, not as covered.
- Ask the solicitor to read Buildmark against that change.
- Do not treat the survey as the opening of a claim.
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
Does the survey open a Buildmark claim?
No. NHBC describes Buildmark as a 10-year warranty and insurance product. The survey does not open a claim. Seeing an alteration is not a claim form. Cover for that later change has not been promised and has not been refused by the inspection. The documents decide cover.
Who should read whether the alteration sits inside the warranty?
The solicitor, with the Buildmark documents, and the warranty holder or NHBC if a question needs putting to them. The survey must not promise cover. It recorded the alteration. It did not interpret the policy, and it did not start a claim.