Leasehold

The budget service charge and last year's actual do not match in the pack. Why is that a managing-agent figure and not a condition rating of the roof?

Because the mismatch is a managing-agent figure about money, and a condition rating of the roof is a comment on the fabric. The budget service charge and last year's actual do not match in the pack. That is accounts. The survey, if it rates the roof, rates what it could see of the roof. It does not audit the budget, and it does not turn a money gap into a roof defect or a roof defect into an accounts gap.

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?

Service charges are raised by the landlord or the agent against a budget, then compared with actual spending. A difference can be timing, a one-off repair, an underestimate, or a surplus. Explaining it is the agent's job and the solicitor's reading of the pack. The roof's condition is whatever the surveyor saw: coverings, flashings, leaks. Those sentences do not know what was budgeted. Quoting the mismatch as if it were a rating invents a survey finding from a spreadsheet.

Ask the solicitor to query the budget against the actual with the managing agent, as a service-charge question. Keep any roof rating in the survey for the roof alone. Do not add the two together into one complaint. The inspection has not verified the accounts, and the accounts have not inspected the tiles. Each document does only its own work.

What should you ask your surveyor?

Is the budget-versus-actual gap a figure from the agent rather than from your inspection?
Does that gap change any condition comment you made on the roof?
Where should the buyer take the mismatch if not to a roof rating?

What are the typical next steps?

Send the budget and the actual to the solicitor as service-charge papers.
Keep any roof rating as a comment on the roof alone.
Do not treat the money gap as a condition rating.

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 actual is higher, has the roof failed?

Not from the accounts. A higher actual means more was spent or charged than the budget said. It does not describe the tiles. A condition rating of the roof comes from the survey, if one was given, and this mismatch is not that rating. Ask the solicitor why the figures differ. Do not diagnose the covering from the variance.

Can the surveyor reconcile the two charge figures?

No. Reconciliation is the agent's accounts, not the inspection. The survey does not carry the budget or last year's actual as findings. The mismatch stays a managing-agent figure. It is not a condition rating of the roof, even if both documents happen to sit in the same purchase pack.