Condition ratings
The damp firm telephones and says the wall is fine. Is that the written investigation you needed before a legal commitment?
A phone call is not enough. You needed a written investigation before a legal commitment, and a telephone remark that the wall is fine is neither written nor a report you can put in the file. Where the element is rating 3, the survey tells you to obtain written quotations before you enter that commitment. A voice on the phone does not meet that bar, and it does not meet a request for investigation either.
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?
Verbal reassurance is hard to show to a solicitor, a lender or a surveyor later, and it is easy for the detail to drift. You will remember fine. You may not remember which wall, whether anything was opened, or what fine excluded. Ask the damp firm to write down what they inspected, what they found, and what they recommend. Until that paper exists, the further-investigation line in the home survey is still open. The surveyor's own advice is to you in writing. Match that standard for the follow-up.
Do not exchange on the strength of the call while telling yourself the investigation arrived. Rating 3 is serious or urgent on the surveyor's view of what they saw. A cheerful phone call does not regrade it. If the firm will not write, instruct someone who will. There is no national tariff for that report, so agree the fee when you agree that the output is a document. The home survey did not safety-test services and did not guarantee concealed damp. Those limits are why a casual oral all-clear is the wrong thing to lean on.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Did your rating 3 advice require written quotations before commitment?
- Will you treat a phone call from a damp firm as if it had not answered your paragraph?
- What should a written damp investigation contain so it can sit in the legal file?
What are the typical next steps?
- Ask the damp firm for a written report of what they inspected.
- Do not treat the telephone call as the investigation.
- Pause any legal commitment that was waiting on that written piece.
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 they follow the call with an email that only says fine, is that enough?
Only if the email actually records what was inspected and what was found. A one-word email is barely more than the call.
Does the surveyor have to take the call as closing their paragraph?
No. Their paragraph stands until a written investigation is in the file and, if you ask, until they comment on it.