Renegotiating or walking away
A camera survey the survey recommended has come back clear. Why should the price conversation move off the drains and stay with whatever the camera did not cover?
Because the camera the survey recommended has come back clear, so the drain suspicion that camera was asked to check is no longer the open item. The price conversation should move off the drains and stay with whatever that camera did not cover. The home survey did not itself test the drains. A separate camera did, and it was clear for the length it filmed. Other findings in the report were not in that film. They are the conversation that remains.
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 recommendation for a camera is a way of resolving one uncertainty. When the film comes back clear, that uncertainty has been answered in your favour on the drains that were seen. Keeping a price argument on those drains double-counts a fear the specialist has not confirmed. It also distracts from defects the camera was never pointed at: the roof, the damp, the structure, whatever else the paragraph still says. Clear means clear for the run filmed, not a wipe of the whole report.
Tell the solicitor the drain camera is clear and that the price talk should leave that item. List what the camera did not cover and keep the negotiation there, if a negotiation is still justified by the survey. Do not drop every other finding because the drain film was reassuring. Do not invent a remaining drain defect the camera did not find. The move is off the drains, not off the report.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which drain length did the clear camera actually cover?
- Which survey findings were outside that film?
- Why should the price talk leave the drains without leaving those other findings?
What are the typical next steps?
- Take the clear camera as closing the drain item it was asked to check.
- Move the price conversation onto findings the camera did not cover.
- Do not treat a clear drain film as a clear whole report.
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 camera stopped at a bend, is the whole drain closed?
Only the length that was filmed is the clear result. A bend it did not pass is part of what the camera did not cover, and the price conversation can stay with that limit if it still matters. Do not call an unseen length clear, and do not keep arguing about the length that was filmed and found open.
Does a clear drain delete a roof rating in the same report?
No. The roof was not in the camera. The price conversation stays with whatever the film did not cover, which includes the roof if the survey still reports it. A clear drain answers the drain recommendation. It does not edit the other pages.