Condition ratings
If a rating 3 is described as serious but the report never says urgent, has it become a rating 2?
No. Rating 3 means serious or urgent, or both, and the definition does not require both words. Rating 2 is for repair or replacement that is not considered serious or urgent. If the surveyor has used rating 3 and called the defect serious, you do not demote it because they did not also write urgent.
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?
Readers sometimes look for the word urgent as a password. The Level 3 description uses serious and urgent as alternatives that can sit together or alone inside rating 3. A collapsed drain cover and a roof that will not get through another winter can both be rating 3 for different reasons. Your job is to read why this one was serious. The what to do now note still points you to written quotations before legal commitment. It does not say the duty appears only when the paragraph contains the word urgent.
Do not upgrade it either, and do not invent a fourth category of serious-but-wait. If you think the surveyor has misused rating 3, ask them which limb of the definition they relied on. Do not rewrite the number in the email to the agent. There is no RICS discount for the missing adjective. Quotes, if you need them, are for the defect described, not for a label you have softened.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which part of the rating 3 definition are you using: serious, urgent, or both?
- What repair are you actually describing?
- Would you still call it rating 3 if the word urgent is absent?
What are the typical next steps?
- Keep the rating the surveyor gave until they correct it.
- Get written quotations before you commit if it remains rating 3.
- Do not tell the seller a missing urgent has downgraded the element.
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 a defect be urgent and still not serious?
The definition allows rating 3 where it is serious or urgent or both. Ask the surveyor which they mean rather than regrading it yourself.
Does rating 2 ever include the word serious?
It should not. Rating 2 is not serious or urgent. If the words and the number clash, ask for a correction.