Renegotiating or walking away
There is no mortgage, so there is no lender retention. Does that make a condition rating 3 safer to ignore?
No. Buying without a mortgage means there is no lender to hold a retention, and that gap does not make a rating 3 safer to set aside. The rating is about the element, not about how you pay. It is still serious and/or urgent. Obtain written quotations before you enter a legal commitment. Nothing in the rating orders you to withdraw. What to do now advises you, cash buyer included, and it does not bill the seller.
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?
People treat a retention as if it were the definition of a bad defect. It is not. A retention, where a lender uses one, is the lender's arrangement. It is not cash you can spend, and it is not the same event as a down-valuation. Where there is no mortgage, that arrangement simply does not arise. The building note remains. Rating 3 still means obtain written quotations before legal commitment. Ignoring the element because nobody will hold money back confuses a lending mechanic with the condition of the house.
What to do now is advice to the buyer. It does not invoice the seller, and it does not relax the advice because you are paying cash. Get the quotation, read it against the paragraph, and decide with your solicitor whether to renegotiate, repair later, or leave. Cash can make the repair easier to fund after completion. It does not change what the surveyor saw, and it does not turn a serious or urgent item into normal maintenance. Normal maintenance is the language of a rating 1, not of a rating 3.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which element is rating 3, independent of how the purchase is funded?
- What quotation would you still want if no lender were involved?
- Are you treating the absence of a retention as a rating 1?
What are the typical next steps?
- Read the rating 3 as a building point, not as a mortgage point.
- Obtain written quotations before you are legally committed.
- Do not file the paragraph away because there is no lender.
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
Is a cash purchase exempt from rating 3 advice?
No. The advice is to the buyer. How you fund the price does not delete the rating.
Does no retention mean the defect is cheap?
No. Nobody has priced it. Obtain a written quotation rather than guessing from the lack of a lender.