Seller-side surveys
You are the seller and you want the buyer's surveyor to soften a rating 3. What can you properly ask them to correct, and what can you not?
Not a softer rating. You may ask the buyer's surveyor to correct a factual error. You may not ask them to soften a rating 3 because the mark is inconvenient. The rating is their opinion for the client who instructed them. A wrong room, a wrong material, or a defect that is not there is a fact they can check. Whether the element is serious or urgent is the judgement. Asking them to make a rating 3 into something milder is asking them to change that judgement, not to fix a mistake.
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?
Write down the fact you say is wrong, and where in the report it sits. A photograph, a specification, or a clear description of what is actually built will help. Ask for that fact to be corrected if the surveyor agrees it is wrong. Do not wrap the request in a demand that the rating drop. If the fact changes, the surveyor may reconsider the rating. If the fact stands, the rating can stand with it. You do not get to choose the number.
The surveyor is not obliged to debate the opinion with you as if you were the client. Keep the request courteous, specific, and limited to the error. Do not ask them to remove a rating 3, and do not suggest the wording be made more comfortable for an agent. A correction of fact is proper. Softening a rating, without a fact to put right, is not. Your solicitor can pass the request if you would rather not write to the firm yourself.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which sentence do you say is factually wrong, rather than unwelcome?
- If that fact were corrected, would the element you saw still concern you?
- What did you not open that the rating still depends on?
What are the typical next steps?
- Put the alleged factual error in writing, with the evidence.
- Ask only for that error to be corrected.
- Do not ask the surveyor to soften the rating 3.
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
Can you demand that a rating 3 become a rating 2?
No. You can ask for a factual error to be corrected. You cannot require the opinion to be softened because the rating is inconvenient.
Who instructs that surveyor?
The buyer does. The report is for them. A factual correction is the limited request you can properly make, and softening the rating is not that request.