Survey costs
Is the housing association’s price for the share the same invoice as a home survey?
No. The association’s figure prices the share under the scheme. A home survey describes condition. A mortgage valuation for the amount you borrow is often a third document. Section 5 of the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 sets a peppercorn on the tenant’s share of a regulated shared-ownership lease and allows rent on the landlord’s share. None of those sentences is a survey fee.
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?
You live in the whole flat, not in a percentage of a room, so the survey still has to look at the building. The lease says who repairs. GOV.UK’s leasehold pages cover service charges. Owning 40 per cent does not mean you pay 40 per cent of the roof if the lease says otherwise.
Staircasing later is another purchase. Today’s survey will be old then. The association may nominate a valuer for price. That nomination is not a ban on you understanding the roof now. RICS publishes no shared-ownership survey tariff. Ask the firm and the association for their separate fees.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Is your fee for condition, for the share price, or for both?
- Who repairs the roof under this lease? That may be outside your knowledge. Say so.
- Are you confusing rent on the landlord’s share with ground rent on mine?
What are the typical next steps?
- Commission a condition survey even if the association has valued the share.
- Read the lease with a solicitor before you assume a small share means a small repair bill.
- Keep the three fees in three columns.
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
Does a peppercorn mean there is no rent at all?
On a regulated lease, the peppercorn is on the tenant’s share. Rent on the landlord’s share can still be charged. Your solicitor checks that this lease is regulated.
Is shared ownership of a house free of leasehold rules?
It is still a lease. Use the leasehold questions as well as the building questions.
Sources
- GOV.UK: Leasehold property (service charges, Section 20 consultation thresholds, and the right to challenge)
- GOV.UK: Right to Shared Ownership (includes the warning that extending a lease can be much more expensive below 80 years)
- legislation.gov.uk: Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022, section 5 (shared ownership: peppercorn on the tenant’s share)