Choosing a survey level
There is no loft hatch and the surveyor did not open the ceiling. What of the roof structure is simply not in the report?
The roof structure that can only be seen from inside the loft is simply not in the report. With no hatch, and because the surveyor did not open the ceiling, the rafters or trusses, the purlins, the underside of the covering and the junctions at party or gable walls were not inspected. The outside of the roof may still be described from ground level. Silence on the frame is not a pass. It is an access limit. The survey has not said the structure is sound, and it has not said it is defective. Those timbers were not in the inspection.
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?
A home survey describes what was reached. A ceiling left closed hides the entire roof void: timber sizes, cuts, spread, beetle, felt condition and whether the chimney is stayed. None of that can be reconstructed from the tiles outside. Choosing a survey level does not create a hatch that is not there. If the instruction was a visual inspection without opening the ceiling, the report's gap on the frame is the honest result. Readers should not fill that gap with an assumption.
If you need the structure, the practical step is access: a hatch cut by agreement, or a further inspection once an opening exists. Tell the solicitor the roof frame is an uninspected item, not a clear item. The survey has not recommended a particular new opening and has not priced one. Do not ask for the report to be rewritten as if the loft had been entered. Until someone looks inside the roof, the structure remains outside the document.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which parts of the roof structure did you leave out because there was no hatch?
- Did you describe the outside covering separately from the unseen frame?
- Is the silence on the loft an access limit rather than a pass?
What are the typical next steps?
- Read the missing loft section as not inspected, not as sound.
- Arrange access if the roof structure needs to be seen.
- Tell the solicitor the frame is absent from the report.
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 ceilings are straight, is the roof structure covered?
Straight ceilings do not show rafters, purlins or the underside of the covering. The surveyor did not open the ceiling, so the structure is still not in the report however even the plaster looks. What happens next for the ceilingline is outside this note and was not settled here.
Does a higher survey level inspect a loft with no hatch?
Not unless access is made. The limit here is the missing hatch and the ceiling that was not opened. A different product name does not put unseen timbers into the report. Asking about it again later still leaves this productname point outside what the survey decided.