Be Confident and Reassured
Get a survey for your new home, and relax
You can get a range of home surveys to suit your needs. Our surveys are conducted by RICS-qualified surveyors who provide a detailed report on the condition of the property, including any defects or potential problems. With Survey Hut, you can be confident that you have all the information you need to make an informed decision about your purchase.
Level 3
EXTRAS
Our Surveys in Detail
What is a Level 3 Home Survey?
A level 3 home survey, also known as a Building Survey, is the most comprehensive non invasive property assessment available to you. Conducted by our RICS-qualified surveyors, it provides an in-depth inspection of the property, assessing its overall condition and identifying any maintenance concerns or significant issues that could affect the value and safety of your home.
This type of survey is best suited for larger, older properties, homes that have undergone significant modifications, or properties that may require repairs or renovation. A level 3 home survey includes a more detailed inspection and report than a level 2 home survey, making it ideal if you need a thorough understanding of a potential home purchase.
At Survey Hut, we ensure that our level 3 home surveys provide clear, practical advice, helping you make informed decisions and avoid unexpected costs after purchase.
Why You Need a Level 3 Home Survey Before Buying a Property
Buying a home is a significant investment, and a level 3 home survey helps protect your financial future by identifying potential problems before you commit. Properties that are larger, older, have undergone extensive alterations, or require repairs can carry hidden maintenance risks, which may not be immediately visible during a viewing.
Key Reasons to Get a Level 3 Survey:
- Peace of Mind – Find out as much as you can about a property before buying it. Don't have sleepless nights worrying about potential issues.
- Identify Essential Repairs – Many properties have underlying defects, such as damp issues, roof deterioration, ventilation concerns, or outdated systems that could require urgent attention.
- Avoid Unexpected Costs – By uncovering maintenance issues before purchase, you can budget for necessary repairs rather than facing costly surprises after moving in.
- Receive Expert Advice on Property Condition – A level 3 survey provides detailed insights and professional recommendations, helping you plan for long-term maintenance.
- Strengthen Your Negotiation Position – If the survey identifies significant defects, you can negotiate a lower purchase price or request that the seller carry out repairs before completion.
Whether you’re purchasing a historic home, a property that has been extended, or a house requiring refurbishment, a level 3 home survey provides the insights you need to move forward with confidence.
What Does a Level 3 Home Survey Cover?
A level 3 home survey provides an extensive assessment of your property’s overall condition, helping you identify any immediate maintenance concerns and long-term care requirements.
It offers everything from a level 2 survey but with a more detailed inspection of the property, making it particularly beneficial for homes with complex maintenance histories or visible signs of deterioration.
Exterior Property Condition
- Detailed assessment of external walls, brickwork, rendering, and cladding for signs of deterioration, cracks, or damp issues.
- Comprehensive inspection of chimneys, roof coverings, flashings, valleys, and gutters to identify defects that could lead to leaks.
- Includes a drone survey to look at the upper parts of the property in more detail.
- Assessment of visible drainage systems, including downpipes and rainwater goods, to prevent potential water ingress problems.
- Assessment of external timber elements, such as fascia boards and soffits, to check for rot, weather damage, or pest infestations.
Thorough Interior Inspection
- A thorough review of roof spaces, ceilings, walls, and floors to detect cracks, movement, damp patches, or timber decay.
- Testing of windows, doors, and internal joinery for their condition, security, insulation properties, and overall functionality.
- Visual assessment of fireplaces for damage or signs of long-term wear that may require attention.
Windows, Doors & External Features
- Checks the condition of doors, windows, and frames, looking for damaged seals, misted glazing, or defective locks.
- Assesses external timber and woodwork for signs of rot or weather damage.
- Checks for defects in external finishes, such as rendering or paintwork, that may indicate ongoing maintenance concerns.
Services and Utilities
- Visual assessment of the electrical system, including fuse boards and meter.
- Inspection of the plumbing system, including visible pipework and drainage, to identify potential leaks or corrosion.
- Visual inspection of heating systems, including the boiler, radiators, and pipework.
- Assessment of insulation and ventilation in the property.
How a Level 3 Home Survey Can Give Peace of Mind
A level 3 home survey is not just about identifying existing issues; it can provide long-term financial benefits that protect your investment. Whether you are purchasing a period property, a home with past renovations, or a fixer-upper, understanding its true condition will help you budget appropriately and avoid costly surprises down the line.
Avoiding Unexpected Maintenance Costs
- Identifies potential damp, roof, or structural concerns before purchase, allowing you to plan for necessary work.
- Highlights issues that may not be immediately visible, such as deterioration in external walls, weather damage, or outdated services.
- Reduces the risk of inheriting defects that could impact the structural integrity and overall livability of the property.
Negotiating a Fair Price
- Provides detailed, professional evidence to support price negotiations, ensuring that you do not overpay for a property requiring significant repairs.
- Identifies key areas of concern, giving you leverage to request that the seller addresses issues before completion.
- Ensures that the property’s condition is fully reflected in the asking price, potentially saving thousands by allowing you to renegotiate based on the survey findings.
Planning for Long-Term Property Maintenance
- Offers detailed insights into future repair needs, allowing you to prioritise essential fixes without unnecessary financial strain.
- Helps create a long-term maintenance strategy, ensuring the property remains in good condition and retains its market value.
- Advises on areas that may need attention in the coming years, such as roofing replacements, window repairs, or external weatherproofing.
- Supports you in gradually upgrading key aspects of the property, preventing urgent, costly repairs by addressing minor issues before they escalate.
Booking a Level 3 Home Survey
At Survey Hut, you get a straightforward and professional service to assess a property’s condition.
How the Process Works:
- Book Your Survey – Get an instant quote, ask any questions you have and instruct us to do the survey.
- Expert Inspection – We’ll book the inspection and one of our RICS-qualified surveyors will conduct a thorough, non-invasive survey.
- Receive a Detailed Report – You receive an easy-to-understand, comprehensive report within 3 working days.
- Discuss Your Findings – You’ll have the opportunity to book a call with your surveyor to answer any questions and provide additional guidance.
Property Survey FAQs
Accordion Content
The perfect time to instruct a surveyor is once you have the property under offer and have secured a mortgage, if you need one.
It is often done at the same time as your conveyancer.
Getting a survey done early can give you time to discuss the findings with the seller, negotiate a reduction in the price or pull out of the purchase before too much time is wasted.
However, a home survey can be done anytime before you exchange contracts on a property, so its never too late.
Yes. Survey Hut only use our own highly trained team to deliver your survey. Check out About Us to learn more.
We do this because we give very detailed reports, with lots of photos that benefit from the use of high tech equipment. We are contactable and available to chat through your report. We couldn’t trust this to other surveyors.
Some online comparable sites and national surveying firms take your instruction and sub-contract it to another surveyor. This means you have no control over who is doing your survey and you might struggle to speak to them.
Come direct to us.
RICS home surveys are a cost effective way to check your new home for defects.
We’ll be honest, many people buy a house without a survey.
However, from around £450 you get an experienced surveyor check for damp by taking over 100 readings with a damp meter, look for structural issues, get into the loft (subject to access), visually look at the services and inspect all accessible elements of the property. The surveyor puts together a report with lots of photos and goes through it with you to answer any questions and compare it to other similar properties. If there are issues that need further investigation they will help you find a trusted specialist.
We think a survey is a great cost effective way to check a new home and give peace of mind.
Technically a home survey isn’t a structural survey.
However, our surveyors do look for signs of structural movement at a property, including to the chimneys, roofs, walls, floors and doors which might be due to subsidence, faults with the construction and defects.
A structural report is produced by a structural engineer who will look at a specific structural problem to give a specification of works and cost of repair. It often follows a home survey or valuation where a specific issue is found. A structural report doesn’t look at the whole property.
To confirm if a wall is load bearing you often need an assessment of the property by a structural engineer to check the thickness of walls, orientation of floor and ceiling joists and footings to the walls. Unfortunately it is outside the scope of a home survey.
It’s safe to assume that structural strengthening will be required to remove all or part of a wall.
It takes a lot of professional help to build an extension. You often need input from a planning consultant, architect, structural engineer, building control officer, drainage expert, electrician, plumber and builder.
The above elements are each a specialised area.
A RICS Home Survey does not include provisions for advising on future extensions.
To help we can recommend some great specialists to guide you through the process. Just ask.
Some surveyors have a reputation for producing vague reports to try and avoid missing anything. However, these type of reports aren’t useful to a home buyer as they can’t implement the repairs or quantify the problems.
A home survey is a visual inspection of a property so a surveyor can only look at elements they can see.
A surveyor has to ensure they’re safe so can’t put themselves in dangerous situations. They also aren’t qualified to test and check the electric, gas and heating installations.
So you will get some reasonable caveats in a survey.
If you use Survey Hut you’ll get a surveyor that tries to get into all safe accessible areas. You can have a drone to see high inaccessible areas. You’ll get a report that specifies where problems are, lots of photos and advice about what could happen if defects aren’t repaired. To be helpful you get the background to a lot of the problems we find.
Your survey will include photographs, the location and visible issues with the utilities. However, surveyors are not qualified to test the condition of the utilities. This needs to be done by a qualified electrician, gas engineer or plumber.
You can have the electric, gas, oil and heating installations tested and checked by a qualified engineers by adding them as EXTRAS. The findings and certificates are included in your report.
Yes photos are included in your Level 2 and 3 Reports.
More annotated photos are included in a Level 3 Report as its more detailed.
It’s difficult to provide accurate costs due to the changes in prices and as further investigations might be needed following the survey.
We therefore don’t include costs of repairs in our reports.
A Level 2 survey focuses on the major potential defects in a property – the condition of the inside and outside of the roof, if there are signs of structural issues and if there are elevated damp readings.
It also describes the condition of the chimneys, walls, rain water goods, windows, doors, internal elements and grounds including any garage and/or outhouse.
It is regulated by the RICS and is a non intrusive survey of your new home with a traffic light grading system to indicate any defects and the urgency of any required maintenance or repair.
Add a valuation to the survey as an EXTRA.
It is suitable for traditionally constructed properties with limited extensions built in the last 100 years.
A Level 2 survey tests for elevated damp readings using a Protimeter.
It highlights any significant repairs or replacements the property needs.
Recommendations for further investigation if the surveyor can’t reach a reasonable conclusion on the current condition.
A desktop investigation of the flood risk, if it is near a current or former coal mine or if it might be affected by Radon gas.
Recommendations for your legal advisor to undertake further investigations into potential legal issues to do with extensions, building regulations, planning permissions, boundaries, rights of way and leasehold terms.
A review of the Energy Performance Certificate.
A drone survey and thermal camera investigation can be undertaken in our Level 2 PLUS survey.
Also known as a building survey. Includes everything in a Level 2 survey with greater detail on construction materials and methods, plus detailed advice on cause & repair of defects.
It is suitable for older, larger, non traditionally built homes with lots of extensions or conversions or those wanting more detail in their survey.
Add a valuation to the survey as an EXTRA.
A Level 3 survey is a more in depth and detailed report into the condition of your new home.
It will identify the building materials used in the construction of the property and comment on the likely maintenance and repair required in the future.
Concealed areas normally opened or used by the occupiers will be inspected if its safe to do so, such as drains and underfloor areas.
Read more about the differences here.
A building survey is suitable for larger, more complex, non traditionally constructed properties with more than one extension built over approximately 100 years.
When it comes to buying or selling a property, home valuation is a crucial aspect that needs to be taken into consideration. A home survey can have a significant impact on the home valuation, as it provides an in-depth analysis of the property’s condition and any potential issues that may affect its value.
At Survey Hut, we offer a range of home surveys that can help determine the true value of a property. Our surveyors provide detailed information on the property’s structure, condition, and any defects that may be present. This information can then be used to make informed decisions about the property’s value.
One of the main ways that surveys impact home valuation is by identifying any defects or issues with the property. If a survey reveals that there are significant defects or issues that need to be addressed, this can have a negative impact on the property’s value. On the other hand, if a survey reveals that the property is in good condition and well-maintained, this can have a positive impact on the property’s value.
Another way that surveys impact home valuation is by providing a more accurate picture of the property’s condition. Without a survey, it can be difficult to determine the true value of a property, as there may be hidden defects or issues that are not immediately apparent. By providing a detailed analysis of the property’s condition, surveys can help ensure that the property is accurately valued.
Home surveys can have a significant impact on home valuation. By providing detailed information on the property’s condition and any potential issues, surveys can help ensure that the property is accurately valued. At Survey Hut, we offer a range of home surveys that can help provide a more accurate picture of a property’s value, ensuring that our clients can make informed decisions about buying or selling a property.
At Survey Hut, we understand that time is valuable, and our aim is to provide our clients with a comprehensive home survey as efficiently as possible. The duration of a home survey varies depending on the size and complexity of the property, as well as the type of survey being conducted.
For a typical HomeBuyers survey, we allocate between 2-4 hours for the inspection itself, and additional time for the report writing process. This time frame allows us to thoroughly inspect the property and identify any potential issues that may affect the value or safety of the property.
For more complex properties or buildings with unique features, such as listed buildings, the survey may take longer. In such cases, we will work with the client to provide an estimated timeframe for completion and ensure that they are kept informed throughout the process.
It is important to note that the duration of a home survey is not the only factor to consider when choosing a surveyor. At Survey Hut, we pride ourselves on providing high-quality reports that are easy to understand and provide valuable insights into the property. Our experienced surveyors use the latest technology and techniques to ensure that every aspect of the property is thoroughly inspected, and any potential issues are identified.
We believe that the duration of a home survey should not be rushed, and our aim is to provide our clients with a comprehensive report that they can rely on. If you have any questions about the duration of a home survey or would like to book a survey with us, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
If you’d like us to do a survey either drop us an email at [email protected], call 0333 242 3383 or book it through the quote email we’ve sent you.
We’ll then speak to the estate agent to book the inspection, send our terms of engagement, which you can sign digitally, and email details about how to pay for the survey.
We request payment two days before we inspect the property.
Yes. You can cancel the survey and get a full refund up to two days before the inspection.
