Do I Need a Survey on a Leasehold Flat?
When considering a flat purchase, especially a leasehold, you need to understand the property's true condition, from the individual unit to the broader building structure and communal areas.
While your mortgage lender will require their own valuation, this serves their interests, not yours. For a flat buyer, a professional flat survey is your essential tool to highlight defects, identify potential major works liabilities, and protect your investment against unexpected future costs, such as rising service charges.
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 was passed on the 24th May 2024, but is not fully enforced yet and the date for this is not yet clear. We will update our content as and when the finalised legislation is published. Read more - Expected changes
Why a flat survey is essential for leaseholds
While it's not a legal requirement in England and Wales (unless your lender mandates a valuation), opting for a specialist RICS flat survey is not just recommended, it's an essential step to protect your investment.
Unlike buying a freehold house, flats come with complexities related to shared building structures, communal areas, and ongoing service charges.
Mortgage Valuations are not enough
Many prospective flat buyers mistakenly believe that a mortgage valuation is sufficient. However, a mortgage valuation serves the lender's interests, not yours.
It's a brief assessment to confirm the property is worth the money they are lending. It offers no insight into the property's condition, potential defects, or your future liabilities as a leaseholder.
- Lender's Focus: The mortgage valuation's sole purpose is to assess the lender's risk. It doesn't focus on how sound the property's structure is, nor does it obligate the lender to give you any information beyond the valuation price itself.
- "Caveat Emptor" Applies: In England and Wales, the principle of 'Caveat Emptor' (buyer beware) means the responsibility to investigate and uncover issues lies squarely with you, the buyer. If you later spot a problem that a survey would have revealed, you are typically liable for the costs, not the seller or the lender's valuer.
Identifying potential issues
One of the most compelling reasons to get a flat survey is to identify potential issues and defects that aren't immediately obvious during viewings.
Widely cited research from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) indicates that homebuyers who skip a survey later face, on average, £5,750 in unexpected repair costs once they've moved in. For a flat, these costs can often relate to the wider building.
- Specialist Knowledge: Unless you have considerable experience in residential building work, you won't have the skills to detect visible signs of potential faults that might cost thousands of pounds to correct. An experienced RICS surveyor has seen hundreds of properties and is trained to spot issues like damp, rot, subsidence, and structural concerns.
- Beyond Your Walls: A specialist survey for a leasehold flat goes beyond your individual unit. It assesses the condition of the entire building, including communal areas, the roof, external walls, and foundations. As a leaseholder, you'll contribute to the upkeep of these areas through service charges and major works. Issues in these shared areas can lead to significant, unexpected bills.
- Peace of Mind: Even if the flat appears in good condition, a survey provides invaluable reassurance. It confirms the property's true state, highlighting minor issues to put your mind at rest or flagging serious problems that require further investigation.
Protection through professional standards and insurance
If you commission a RICS surveyor when buying a flat survey, you benefit from their adherence to strict professional standards and the protection of their professional indemnity insurance.
- Reliable Expertise: RICS surveyors are highly trained and regulated, ensuring their expert inspection is impartial and reliable.
- Financial Safeguard: In the unlikely event that a significant fault is missed due to surveyor negligence, and it ends up costing a large sum, you may be able to claim their professional indemnity insurance. This provides a crucial layer of financial safety that you wouldn't have if you relied solely on your own inspection.
- RICS Valuers for the lease premium.
- Handling of the Section 42 Notice.
- Negotiations.
- The full Lease Extension process.
- Tribunal cases.
Types and costs of a flat survey
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) offers different levels of surveys, each tailored for varying property types, ages, and conditions.
SAM Conveyancing's cost for a leasehold survey starts from £375 EXC VAT. It's important to note that prices can vary based on the property's size, location, and the type of survey chosen.
RICS Level 3 Home Survey (Building Survey)
The RICS Level 3 Home Survey, previously known as a Building Survey or full structural survey, is the most comprehensive survey available.
It is highly recommended for older, larger, or more complex leasehold flats, or if you have specific concerns about the property's condition or plan significant work.
This survey provides a more extensive and detailed inspection, offering in-depth analysis of the property's structure and fabric.
- Flats in period buildings (anything built before 1950), especially those with unusual construction.
- Properties that are dilapidated or appear to be in poor condition.
- Flats that have undergone significant alterations or extensions.
- If you plan major renovation or structural work on the property.
- If you have particular concerns about potential structural issues affecting the flat or communal areas, roof space, or signs of building drainage issues (e.g., in ground-floor gardens).
A Level 3 survey allows the surveyor considerably more time for a thorough inspection, including a detailed examination of roofs, floors, and services (through non-intrusive methods).
It will aim to establish the building materials and techniques, how they are likely to perform in the future, and recommend necessary repairs and the risks of not acting.
Typical Cost: For more complex leasehold flats, a Level 3 survey is more extensive, typically ranging from £600 - £1,500+, with our services starting from £499 EXC VAT.
The Leasehold & Reform Act 2024: Survey impact
The recent passing of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 marks a shift in property law, aiming to make leasehold ownership fairer and more transparent. While these reforms are largely positive for leaseholders, they do not diminish the need for a flat survey.
What the Act changes (and doesn't) for surveys
- Easier & Cheaper Lease Extensions: The Act aims to make it simpler and more affordable for leaseholders to extend their leases or buy their freehold, for example, by removing the requirement to pay 'marriage value' and extending the standard lease term to 990 years with ground rent reduced to a peppercorn (zero financial value). It also removes the two-year ownership rule for lease extensions (effective from January/February 2025).
- Increased Transparency on Service Charges: The Act seeks to improve transparency around service charges and building insurance commissions, giving leaseholders greater rights to challenge unreasonable costs.
- Strengthened Leaseholder Rights: It introduces new protections, such as removing the presumption that leaseholders pay their landlord's legal costs when challenging poor practice.
However, crucially, the Act does not address the physical condition of the building or the potential for expensive repairs. This is where a survey for a leasehold flat remains indispensable.
Why you should still get a flat survey post-reform
- Physical Condition is Still Your Responsibility: The Act doesn't shift the 'buyer beware' principle regarding the physical state of the property. You, as the buyer, remain responsible for identifying any defects that could lead to significant repair bills.
- Identifying Future Major Works: While the Act aims for greater transparency on service charges, a survey proactively identifies the underlying physical issues that will drive future major works costs. For example, knowing the roof needs replacing or the external rendering is failing before you buy allows you to budget or negotiate, rather than relying solely on future transparency measures to challenge costs after they arise.
- Impact on Property Value: The physical condition of a flat, and the building it's part of, directly impacts its market value. A survey provides this information, ensuring you pay a fair price, regardless of the leasehold reforms.
- New Build Considerations: Even with the Act potentially restricting new leasehold flats in the future, existing new builds still benefit from a snagging survey to ensure build quality and identify cosmetic or minor defects before warranties expire.
In our recent survey, 16% of homeowners found defects; including 2% who were able to pull out of a bad purchase, 7% who were able to negotiate a better price, and sadly, 7% of homeowners who did not get a survey and discovered defects after the purchase.
12 of the 39 who remembered how much these defects cost to remedy spent over £5,000
Don't burn your money, book a survey.
Using your flat survey for negotiation
One of the most practical benefits of commissioning a flat survey is the negotiation power it can provide. If your survey uncovers defects, unexpected repairs, or potential future service charge burdens within the broader building structure or communal areas, these findings can form a strong, evidence-based argument for renegotiating the property's price with the seller.
How survey findings aid negotiation
- Objective Evidence: A professional RICS survey provides impartial, expert evidence of issues that might reduce the flat's value or incur future costs, moving negotiation beyond subjective opinions.
- Quantifying Costs: The survey can highlight or estimate the costs of necessary repairs (e.g., to the roof, external walls, or communal heating system) or major works, giving you concrete figures to present.
- Reducing Your Risk: By identifying problems upfront, the survey allows you to factor these into your offer, reducing your financial risk and potential unexpected outlays after purchase.
If your RICS surveyor deems the property to be worth less than your offer due to issues highlighted in the flat survey, they can work with your solicitor to help you negotiate a revised price.
This could lead to a reduction in the asking price, a contribution towards repair costs, or an agreement for the seller to carry out the necessary repairs before completion.
Call or send us a message to request a callback or an email answering your queries about our surveys. Our UK-based survey team can help you choose the right level home survey for your property, at no extra charge.
There's no obligation to instruct. We'll make sure you understand your options and provide a free, fixed-fee quote for our best-value survey to meet your needs. No robots, no call centres. Property challenges solved.
Andrew started his career in 2000 working within conveyancing solicitor firms and grew hands-on knowledge of a wide variety of conveyancing challenges and solutions. After helping in excess of 50,000 clients in his career, he uses all this experience within his article writing for SAM, mainstream media and his self published book How to Buy a House Without Killing Anyone.
Caragh is an excellent writer and copy editor of books, news articles and editorials. She has written extensively for SAM for a variety of conveyancing, survey, property law and mortgage-related articles.
