Can one element have a rating 2 and a separate sentence recommending a specialist?

What is the fuller explanation?

For example, a roof covering might be a 2, with advice to ask a roofer to specify the ridge repair. You are being told to plan a repair and to get a proper specification, not that the ridge is an emergency. If you believe the surveyor has been too calm, ask them why it is not a 3. Keep the answer.

The specialist’s quote is how you plan. It is not an invitation to rewrite the rating in the lender’s copy of the report. Send the report as it is. If the specialist finds something the surveyor could not see, send that too. New evidence can change a decision. A mood cannot.

What should you ask your surveyor?

• Why is this a 2 if you still want a specialist?
• What decision should the specialist change?
• What should I tell a contractor not to overstate?

What are the typical next steps?

1. Get the specification if you want a clear scope.
2. Do not relabel the rating in correspondence.
3. If the specialist’s findings are worse, go back to the surveyor and the solicitor with the new document.

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

Which pages should you read next?

• What does RICS’s “What to do now” note expect you to do with a rating 3?
• Are condition ratings 1, 2 and 3 used on a Scottish Home Report in the same way?
• Who decides whether a defect is enough to withdraw: you, the surveyor, or the lender?
• Guide: What do condition ratings 1, 2, 3 and NI mean?
• All UK home survey questions

Sources

• RICS: Description of the RICS Home Survey Level 3 (condition rating definitions)
• RICS: What to do now (consumer PDF linked from the RICS home survey guide)