Leasehold
What should you ask about building-safety leaseholder protections, rather than guessing from the survey?
Ask your solicitor whether the protections on GOV.UK could apply to this lease, and what evidence the landlord has already provided. The survey does not decide who is a qualifying leaseholder, and it does not decide which cladding or insulation costs can be passed on. It can tell you what the outside of the building looked like from the places the surveyor stood.
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?
The GOV.UK leaseholder guidance exists because the cost of some building-safety defects was falling on people who could not have known, from a viewing, what was in the wall. A visual survey still cannot see inside a cladding system. The Level 3 description says external wall systems of flats are not inspected. If the surveyor saw damaged panels, missing cavity barriers at an open joint, or a stained wall, that is condition information. It is not the legal test in the guidance.
Send the survey to the solicitor. Ask them what questions they will put to the landlord or the agent. Do not draft those questions as a price chip until you know whether the cost is legally the leaseholder’s. There is no standard reduction this page can quote, because the guidance is about who pays, not about a discount to the purchase price.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What could you see of the external wall, and what did you not inspect?
- Which defects are ordinary maintenance rather than something that might be a building-safety item?
- What should we pass to the solicitor rather than try to rate?
What are the typical next steps?
- Ask the solicitor to follow the GOV.UK leaseholder guidance for this building, not a summary from the agent.
- Do not assume you are protected, or that you are not, because of the floor you are buying on.
- Still read the survey for leaks and condition inside the flat.
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
Does a low-rise block escape the question?
Do not assume that from the number of storeys you counted. Ask the solicitor to apply the current guidance to this building.
Can the managing agent’s email replace the guidance?
No. It is evidence to show your solicitor. It is not the law.