Condition ratings
How should you read a slipped hip tile differently from a hole that shows daylight, when both sit under the roof heading?
Not as one defect. Read a slipped hip tile as a unit that has moved at the hip, and read a hole that shows daylight as an opening through the covering. Both can be written under the roof heading and still deserve different weight. A displaced hip piece is often a local repair. Daylight means the weather has a path indoors. Do not let one heading flatten those two observations into a single account.
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?
A hip is the sloping edge where two faces meet, and a hip tile that has slipped is one unit off that edge. It may still be on the roof. The repair is often to refix or replace that unit and its mortar. That sort of repair, if it is not serious or urgent, is rating 2. A hole that shows daylight is an opening: covering missing, felt gone, or a gap large enough that the sky is in the loft. An opening that lets weather in is much more likely to be serious or urgent, which is rating 3, and rating 3 is where you obtain written quotations before legal commitment. Same heading, different defect.
The surveyor may still put both in one roof paragraph. Your job is to see whether they gave one rating to the covering as a whole, or described two conditions inside it. If only one number appears, ask which defect drove it. Do not assume the slipped hip inherited the daylight, or that the hole inherited a mild tile note. The what to do now note advises you. It does not invoice the seller for both defects at the harsher reading. Concealed fixings along the rest of the hip are not guaranteed sound because one tile moved, so do not stretch either observation into a whole new roof unless the report does.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which of these two defects drove the roof rating?
- Is the slipped hip tile still on the roof, or is there an opening?
- Did you give the daylight hole its own rating?
What are the typical next steps?
- Read the hip tile and the daylight hole as separate sentences.
- Ask which defect the single roof number is actually about.
- Get quotations for a rating 3 opening before you commit.
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 both defects be rating 2?
Yes, if the surveyor judges neither is serious or urgent. Do not upgrade the hole yourself.
Does daylight at the eaves mean the hip has failed?
No. Eaves and hip are different places. Ask which opening the report means.