Seller-side surveys

A Scottish single survey comments on a tenement roof. What has it not decided about how a common repair bill is split between the flats?

It has not decided the split. A comment on a tenement roof, which a single survey may make when that roof was visible, does not divide a common repair bill between the flats. The paragraph is not an invoice and not a title. Do not invent a statutory share from it. Where the roof is urgent, or needs future attention, consider the cost and get estimates. Those phrases are not English ratings 3 and 2, and they still do not allocate the bill.

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?

Tenement roofs invite a leap from this roof is worn to you will pay a quarter. The Home Report does not contain that leap. It has three parts: the single survey and valuation, the property questionnaire of 16 categories, and the energy report. The single survey reports condition the surveyor could see. It does not decide the legal split of a common repair. mygov.scot does not print a fraction for you to drop into an email. If you type one in, you invented it. Take the titles, the burdens and any schedule of shares to the solicitor instead.

Estimates still matter. If the roof is urgent or needs future attention, the page tells a buyer to weigh cost and inconvenience and to get estimates before proceeding. Those estimates price work. They do not, unless a legal document says so, tell each flat its share. A seller should not wave the single survey as if it had already done the conveyancing. A buyer should not demand a contribution calculated from a sentence about slates. Walking away without penalty, if you do not want to buy, is about the purchase. It is not a ruling on how neighbours divide a future scaffold.

What should you ask your surveyor?

What does the single survey actually say about the roof?
Where, if anywhere, do the titles set out shares?
Are you about to turn urgent into a percentage split?

What are the typical next steps?

Read the roof comment as condition, not as an apportionment.
Ask the solicitor how a common repair would be split.
Get estimates if the item is urgent or needs future attention, without inventing shares.

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 the property questionnaire set the legal share?

Do not assume it does. The questionnaire is one part of the pack. The split is a title question for the solicitor.

Is future attention an English rating 2 that divides the cost?

No. It is not an English rating, and it does not split the bill.