Survey costs
The lender wants a retention and the only roof note is condition rating 2. Why is the retention the lender's choice and not a translation of the rating?
Because the retention is the lender's choice, not a translation of condition rating 2. Rating 2 means defects that need repairing or replacing but are not serious or urgent. That definition does not set a sum to be held back, and it does not require the lender to hold one. MoneyHelper says a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. The retention sits with the lender's valuation process. Do not recode the rating as the retention, or the retention as the rating.
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?
Lenders sometimes hold money back. When they do, it is their arrangement, on their valuation, for their security. It is not a line in the condition scale. A roof at rating 2 can exist with no retention. A retention can be asked for where you think the note looks mild. Neither event rewrites the other. If you tell the agent the survey demanded a retention, you have translated a rating into a lending decision the survey did not make.
Ask the broker what the lender wants held, and why, in the lender's own words. Ask the surveyor what the rating 2 roof note actually describes: a repair that is not serious or urgent, and nothing more than they wrote. Do not invent a figure that converts one into the other. If you obtain a quotation, it prices the roof. It does not explain the retention. Keep the loan decision and the condition note in separate conversations.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What does the rating 2 on the roof actually refer to?
- Are you saying the defect is not serious or urgent?
- Can you confirm the report does not set a lender's retention?
What are the typical next steps?
- Treat the retention as the lender's choice, not as a reading of rating 2.
- Read the roof note for the repair it describes and no further.
- Ask the broker to explain the retention without rewriting the survey.
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 you do the roof repair, must the retention disappear?
Not by a rule in the rating. The retention is the lender's choice. Doing the work may matter to them. It does not translate rating 2 into their decision, or out of it.
Does rating 2 always mean the lender will hold money back?
No. Rating 2 is a condition mark for a repair that is not serious or urgent. It is not a code for a retention. The lender chooses.