Choosing a survey level
A report that is not from an RICS firm uses red, amber and green boxes. Are those boxes the RICS condition ratings 1, 2 and 3?
No. Those boxes are not the RICS condition ratings. A report that is not from an RICS firm uses red, amber and green. Those are that firm’s own colours, on that firm’s own scale. They are not condition ratings 1, 2 and 3, which belong to a RICS Home Survey and carry RICS definitions. Similar colours do not make the scales the same. The survey you are reading was not produced as a RICS product. Its boxes should be read with the key printed in that report, not with a RICS key brought in from somewhere else.
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 match red to the worst RICS rating and green to the best because the colours feel familiar. The match is a guess. A non-RICS firm can put green on something a RICS surveyor would still want investigated, or red on a maintenance item, and the page will not tell you by using the RICS words. There is no translation table in the RICS Home Survey that adopts another firm’s lights. If you need the RICS scale, you need a RICS report. This one can still be useful.
Read the legend in the report you have, and ask that firm what each colour commits them to. If you wanted RICS ratings, instruct a RICS firm for a RICS level rather than relabelling these lights. Tell the solicitor the document is not a RICS Home Survey. Do not quote the colours to a lender as if they were the RICS numbers. The boxes are red, amber and green. They are not ratings 1, 2 and 3.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What does your own key say red, amber and green each mean?
- Is this report outside the RICS Home Survey scale entirely?
- Which defects sit behind the colours, in words rather than lights?
What are the typical next steps?
- Read the colours with this firm’s key, not with RICS ratings.
- Do not describe the boxes as condition ratings 1, 2 and 3.
- Instruct a RICS survey if you need the RICS scale on this house.
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 firm employs a surveyor, do the colours become RICS ratings?
Employment does not change the product. The report is not from an RICS firm in the sense the question puts, and its red, amber and green boxes are not the RICS condition ratings. A person can be competent and still be writing a different scale. Read the document you were given. Do not promote its lights by who held the pen.
Can you convert green to the best RICS rating for the lender?
No. There is no conversion. Green is this firm’s box. The RICS ratings are a different scale on a different report. Writing a RICS number beside a non-RICS colour would invent a survey you did not commission. The lender should see the report that exists, described as what it is.