Survey costs
The valuation is lower than the price. Does that drop equal the cost of each rating 3 added together?
No. The drop does not equal the rating 3 items added together. Those items were not given prices, so there is nothing honest to total. A lower valuation is a view of value. It is not an invoice broken into defects. Do not invent repair sums that add up to the gap and then say the ratings cost that much. The survey did not do that addition, and the valuation did not either.
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?
Those rating 3 lines were never given prices in either document. The useful next step is to ask contractors for quotations, not to subtract the lender's gap from the price and call the subtraction finished. Quotations come from contractors. They will not, except by coincidence, add up to the difference between an agreed price and a valuation. Market value moves for reasons that are not defects at all. A mortgage valuation, as MoneyHelper states, is for the lender and is not a structural survey. It is the wrong document to itemise repairs.
A retention is a different lending tool again. It is not cash you can spend and it is not a down-valuation, so do not rename the drop as a retention or the ratings as a retention. If you are deciding whether to renegotiate, put contractor quotes on one page and the lender's figure on another. Discuss the quotes with the seller if you wish. Discuss the figure with the broker. Do not staple them into a single false equation. There is no published formula, in RICS guidance or in the valuation, that performs that sum for you.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which rating 3 items need quotations before commitment?
- Have you added those items into any monetary total?
- What limitations mean some rating 3 costs are still unknown?
What are the typical next steps?
- Get quotations for each serious item.
- Do not force those quotations to equal the value gap.
- Talk to the broker about the lower figure separately.
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 there is only one rating 3, is the whole drop its cost?
No. One defect does not automatically equal the gap. The valuation is not pricing that line.
Should I add a contingency to the drop and call it the works total?
No. That manufactures a budget the reports did not print. Use contractor quotes.