RAAC

A news story about RAAC in a school is being quoted at you. Why does that story not identify the concrete in this house?

A news story does not identify the concrete in this house. RAAC reported in a school is about that school, or about a class of public buildings in the headlines. It is not a core from your roof, your floor, or your wall. RAAC is a form of concrete panel that IStructE says needs investigation. The survey of this house has not investigated or sampled whatever concrete is here. Quoting a story at the surveyor does not transfer the school's finding onto your panels. The house is identified only by what this inspection actually saw.

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?

News can be a fair reason to ask a question. It is a poor reason to skip the building in front of you. A school and a house can share a decade and still be built differently. The surveyor looks at this structure: the soffits, the spans, the edges, any labels. If they have not said the panels are RAAC, the article cannot say it for them. If they have raised a concern, the article still does not sample the plank. Either way the story is not the investigation.

Use the report on this property as the document that describes this property. If it is silent, do not fill the silence with a headline. If it suspects a panel, follow that suspicion with an investigation of this building, not with a cutting from the press. Tell anyone who quotes the school story that IStructE's point is about investigation of the panel in question, and that this panel has not been investigated. The concrete here remains whatever the survey could see, unsampled.

What should you ask your surveyor?

Have you identified any panel in this house as RAAC, or only been asked about a news story?
What, if anything, did you see here that is separate from that school report?
Are you clear that no sample has been taken from this building?

What are the typical next steps?

Keep the school story separate from the concrete in this house.
Rely on what the survey saw here, not on a headline.
Investigate this building only if this building gives a reason to.

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 house was built in the same era as the school, is the concrete the same?

Not by era alone. A shared decade does not identify a panel. The survey has not sampled the concrete in this house, and a news story about a school does not do that for these rooms either. This house is unsampled.

Can the seller's denial cancel the need to read the survey?

No. A denial is the seller's sentence. Read the survey for what it saw in this house. Neither the denial nor the school story is a sample of these panels or an investigation of them. This house was not cored.