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A firm that is not described as RICS-regulated uses the numbers 1, 2 and 3. Are those numbers the RICS ratings by virtue of the digits?

No. Those numbers are not the RICS ratings merely because the digits are 1, 2 and 3. RICS condition ratings belong to RICS home surveys, used by firms that are working to that product and regulated as such. A firm that is not described as RICS-regulated can still print the same digits. The digits do not import the RICS meanings, the RICS conduct rules, or the RICS complaint route. What each number means is whatever that firm says in its own terms. Matching numerals are not a conversion into a RICS report.

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?

Numbers are easy to copy. A template can label a defect 1, 2 or 3 without the rest of a RICS home survey: the defined product, the regulation of the firm, the complaint route. If the firm is not described as RICS-regulated, do not fill that gap by recognising a familiar scale. Ask what each number means in their terms, who may rely on the report, and which body you could complain to. Those answers come from their engagement, not from the shape of the digit.

If you wanted a RICS home survey, instruct a firm that is offering that product and says so in the engagement. Keep this firm's numbers inside this firm's report. Do not tell a lender, or a solicitor, that you have RICS condition ratings if the firm is not giving you a RICS survey. A solicitor reading the report later will look at who wrote it and on what terms. The digits will not answer that question for them. The letterhead and the terms will.

What should you ask your surveyor?

  • Does this firm describe itself as RICS-regulated in the terms?
  • What does each of 1, 2 and 3 mean in this firm's own words?
  • Who may rely on the report, and which body handles a complaint?

What are the typical next steps?

  1. Read the numbers by this firm's definitions, not by the RICS scale.
  2. Do not call the report a RICS survey unless the terms say it is.
  3. If you need a RICS product, instruct one.

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 their 3 sounds serious, is it the RICS rating 3?

Only if this is actually a RICS home survey, which a firm not described as RICS-regulated is not providing merely by using the digit. Serious in their vocabulary is their word. Do not translate it into the RICS scale by resemblance. Ask them what action their own 3 requires.

Can adding a RICS logo later make the old numbers RICS ratings?

No. A logo does not rewrite a report already issued by a firm outside that regulation. The numbers meant what that engagement said they meant. A RICS survey is a new instruction with a RICS firm, not a sticker on someone else's digits.

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