A building survey is the top level RICS home survey, and the report is the product. Anyone can inspect a house; what you are paying for is a document that says clearly what is wrong, why, how urgent it is and what to do, with enough evidence that a seller's agent cannot wave it away. Reading an example report from the firm you are about to instruct is the best twenty minutes in the whole process.
What is in a full building survey report
An overview and a summary of risks, then element by element commentary with condition ratings, photographs, and specific recommendations. Good reports separate what must be done now from what should be budgeted for, which is the distinction a buyer actually needs.
The building survey checklist before you instruct
Confirm the level, the surveyor's chartered status and insurance, what is included and excluded, who the report is addressed to, the inspection date, the report date and the fee inclusive of VAT. Six questions, one email, and every comparison afterwards is fair.
What to do with the report
Read the summary, then read the elements it flags. Get quotes for the two or three items that carry real money before you renegotiate, because a specific number moves a price and a general worry does not.
Where a building survey stops
It does not open up the structure, test services, survey drains or value the property. Each of those is a separate instruction, and a good report says which of them it actually thinks you need rather than listing all of them to be safe.
Questions people ask about building survey
What is a building survey?
The most detailed of the RICS home surveys, covering the whole property and explaining the cause and remedy of any defect it finds.
What does a building survey report look like?
A structured document with a summary, element by element commentary, condition ratings, photographs and recommendations. Firms will share a redacted example on request.
How long does a building survey report take?
Commonly several working days after the inspection. Firms that commit to a turnaround in writing generally meet it, and in a moving chain that commitment is worth asking for.
What does a building surveyor report actually conclude?
Not a valuation and not a pass. It describes the construction, records defects with their likely cause, and says what should be done and how urgently. What you do with it is a decision it deliberately leaves to you, with the evidence to make it.
What is the cost of level 3 building survey work, and how long does a level 3 survey take?
Both answers are the same answer, which is time. The level 3 is the longest inspection and the longest write up of the three, so the fee is the surveyor's day rather than a page count: the better part of a day on site for an ordinary house and longer on a large or old one, then days rather than hours for the report, because a level 3 explains each defect, its likely cause and what follows from it instead of grading it. The two things that extend both are the age and size of the property and access, since a surveyor who cannot reach the roof space or under the floor has to say so and recommend the opening up as a separate exercise.