RAAC

You are buying a flat over a parade, and the shop soffit looks like planks. What can the inspection inside the flat not identify in the shop?

Not identified from inside the flat: the inspection cannot name the shop soffit that looks like planks. You are in the flat. The soffit is on the shop. Planks that look like planks are not a identification, and a visual look from the wrong side of the ceiling does not confirm what the panels are. The survey would not name those panels from the flat. IStructE guidance is the specialist route where a RAAC question has to be answered. The home survey has not answered it from indoors.

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?

Parade flats sit over a different tenancy, often with no right to inspect the shop. A ceiling in the flat can be plasterboard, a lining, or something else, and still tell you nothing about the soffit below the concrete or the planks the shop shows. Looking down from a window and thinking 'planks' is not an investigation. A community poster about panels is not one either. The report should say the shop soffit was not identified, rather than borrow a name from the appearance.

If the soffit needs naming, that is a specialist inspection of the soffit, using IStructE guidance where RAAC is the question, not a second walk around the flat. Ask the solicitor about access to the shop. Do not tell the lender the panels are a named product because they looked plank-like from the pavement. Do not tell them they are cleared because the flat's ceiling was ordinary. The inspection inside the flat did not identify the shop.

What should you ask your surveyor?

What of the shop soffit, if anything, was visible from the flat?
Are you declining to name those panels from appearance alone?
Would a specialist need access to the shop, not another lap of the flat?

What are the typical next steps?

Do not name the shop soffit from the inspection inside the flat.
Ask the solicitor about access if the soffit must be identified.
Use a specialist, not the flat ceiling, where a panel has to be named.

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 planks look regular, is that enough to name them?

No. Regular planks are still only a look from the street. The inspection inside the flat has not identified the shop soffit panels.

Does a timber fascia on the parade clear the soffit?

No. A fascia is not the soffit. Timber at the edge does not identify the panels, and it does not clear a question about them.