Condition ratings
How should a buyer separate NI behind furniture, the bay window seat and timber the sofa was standing on when all three are mentioned together?
Separate a limit, a place and a material you could not see. NI behind furniture means not inspected, not a pass. The bay window seat is where the sofa stood, and the timber under that seat is what the furniture covered. The survey has not looked at that timber, so it has not called it dry, decayed or in need of repair. Rating 1, meaning no repair currently needed, was not given to the hidden wood. The three belong together only as a gap. This report has not moved the sofa and has not inspected what it stood on.
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?
Bay seats are often a timber lid over a box, a radiator or simply the floor structure at the window. A sofa parked on that lid blocks the hinges, the boards and any staining at the junction with the window. NI records that block. It is not a quiet way of saying the timber is sound, and it is not a finding of rot. Rating 2 or rating 3 would require a defect that was seen. Nothing was seen under the furniture.
Ask for the furniture to be moved if you want the bay seat timber inspected, and tell the solicitor the NI mark is not a pass. Do not instruct a timber firm to price repairs for wood nobody has seen. A later look, with the sofa shifted, would be a new inspection of that spot. It would not change the fact that this report left the timber unrated. Until then, keep the bay seat in the not-inspected column.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Was the sofa the reason the bay window seat timber is NI?
- Did you see any of the boards the furniture was standing on?
- Has rating 1 been withheld because the timber was covered?
What are the typical next steps?
- Treat the timber under the bay seat as not inspected.
- Ask for the furniture to be moved before anyone judges that wood.
- Do not price repairs for timber this report did not see.
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 bay carpet looks even, is the seat sound?
No. An even carpet is not a view of the timber under the sofa. NI behind furniture means not inspected, not a pass. Rating 1, no repair currently needed, was not given to that hidden wood. The bay window seat stays a gap. Looks from the room do not inspect what the furniture covered.
Can the covered timber be called rating 3 for safety?
No. Rating 3 means serious and/or urgent repair, replacement or investigation, and it is given for what was found, not for what a sofa hid. NI means not inspected, not a pass. The bay seat timber was not seen, so it has no numbered rating. Fear is not a rating 3. The mark stays NI.