Condition ratings
An element is rating 2 and the text says further investigation. What has the rating not already commissioned?
The rating has not commissioned any investigation. Condition rating 2 means defects that need repair but are not serious or urgent. The words further investigation are advice that more enquiry is needed. They are not an appointment, a paid instruction or a specialist's report. Nobody has been booked by the number. The survey has flagged the element and stopped. You still have to decide whether to commission that next look, and from whom.
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?
A rating records condition. It does not sign a contract with an engineer, a roofer or a drainage firm. Further investigation means the surveyor is not willing to leave the point on the visual evidence alone, but is also not calling it a rating 3 serious or urgent defect. That middle position is easy to misread as work already in hand. It is not. Until you instruct someone, the only document is the survey, and the element remains unrepaired and uninvestigated beyond that visit.
Choose the specialist the text is pointing at, ask them the question the survey actually asked, and keep their report separate. Tell your solicitor you have a rating 2 plus a recommendation, not a completed investigation. Do not tell a lender the further look has happened. A rating does not raise an invoice and does not book a diary. The home survey stopped at the advice.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What exactly do you want investigated, and by which trade?
- Are you leaving this at rating 2, not serious or urgent, until that look is done?
- Has any specialist already been instructed as part of your survey?
What are the typical next steps?
- Read further investigation as advice, not as a booking.
- Instruct the relevant specialist yourself if you want the look done.
- Do not tell a lender the investigation has already happened.
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 rating 2 with those words quietly mean rating 3?
No. Rating 2 means the defect needs repair but is not serious or urgent. Further investigation is an extra sentence. It does not move the element to rating 3, and it does not commission the investigation. The element stays at rating 2 until a real investigation exists.
If you never book the specialist, has the survey done it for you?
No. The survey ended with the advice. No specialist report has been created. The rating has not commissioned anyone, so the gap stays open until you instruct the look. The further look remains uncommissioned until you instruct someone to do it.