RAAC

A letter about RAAC is from a school trust, and you are buying a house on the same street. Why does that letter not inspect your loft?

Not an inspection of your loft. A school trust's letter about RAAC does not inspect the house you are buying, even on the same street. The letter is about the trust's buildings. Your loft is a different structure, in a different ownership, which that letter never entered. Same street is not same roof. The home survey of the house is the inspection you instructed, and even that survey is not, by itself, the specialist RAAC assessment IStructE describes. A school letter is further away still. It has not looked at your loft.

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?

Public buildings of a certain period are where RAAC panels have been a named concern. A trust writing to parents or occupiers is dealing with its estate. The letter may be right about a school block and silent about every house nearby. Do not import the school's panel into your roof because the postman passes both. Do not import the opposite comfort either: the letter does not clear your loft. It simply is not about your loft.

Ask the surveyor what the house roof is made of, from what they could see, and to keep the school letter out of that description. If the loft is timber, say timber. If something concrete is present, say what was seen and that it was not identified by a RAAC investigation. Specialist assessment is a further instruction, not a letter from a trust. File the school paper as background noise unless a sentence in it actually names your address, which a street-neighbour's letter will not.

What should you ask your surveyor?

Does the school letter name this house, or only the trust's buildings?
What is the roof structure you could see in this loft?
What investigation of panels have you not carried out?

What are the typical next steps?

Do not treat the school letter as an inspection of your loft.
Describe this roof from the survey, not from the trust's paper.
Instruct a specialist only if this building, not the school, needs that look.

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 school found RAAC, is the house likely to match?

The letter does not tell you that. It did not inspect your loft, and the same street is not the same roof.

Can the surveyor sign the school letter as if they had checked it here?

No. Their inspection is of the house they visited. The trust's letter remains about the school and does not enter your loft.