What a home survey costs in Norfolk

The short answer

Most home surveys in Norfolk fall somewhere between £600 and £1,800, and the figure follows the building. A sound, conventional house sits near the bottom of that range; an old, listed or much-altered one sits near the top.

Here is what I charge.

Why a band and not a price

A fixed price can only work if the surveyor either ignores what the building is, or prices every job as though it were the most difficult one they might meet.

Two houses on the same street can be a morning apart in work. A 1990s semi in good order and a Georgian farmhouse with a bulging flank wall, a re-roofed rear wing and a cellar you can only reach through a hatch are the same word on a form and a completely different day. If I quoted them the same, one of you would be subsidising the other.

Every survey is therefore quoted individually, before you commit, and the figure is fixed once you have it. What follows is the honest account of what moves it.

What actually moves the number

The survey level. This is the largest single factor, and it is decided by the building rather than by budget. Level 3 involves a longer inspection and a much fuller report than Level 2. The survey chooser will tell you which one your building calls for, and it will tell you honestly if the cheaper one is enough.

Size. Floor area, the number of storeys and the number of rooms all cost time on site and time writing. A four-bedroom detached house takes longer to inspect properly than a two-bedroom terrace, and the report is longer because there is more to say.

Age and construction. Solid walls, lime plaster, timber frame, flint, clay lump and thatch all behave differently from modern cavity construction, and reading them takes experience and time. A traditionally built house asks more questions of a surveyor than a modern one does.

Listing. A listed building carries more work: the fabric usually matters more, past alterations need understanding, and what you may and may not do about a defect is bound up with consent. Grade II adds less than Grade II* or Grade I, in proportion to how much more careful the reading has to be.

Condition. A building that has been looked after is quicker to report than one that has been neglected or heavily altered. Where there is more wrong, there is more to investigate, more to explain and more to prioritise.

Access. A roof space you can stand up in, an unblocked under-floor void and an unobstructed exterior all make for a better survey and a faster one. A house packed to the ceilings with a tenant's belongings does not.

Distance. Travel inside about a fifteen-mile radius of the practice is included. Beyond that a mileage contribution applies, at a rate that covers the running cost rather than charging you for my time in the car.

Value. A more valuable property carries more professional risk, and the fee reflects that in a modest way. This is ordinary across the profession.

I have deliberately not published the arithmetic that combines these. It would invite you to audit a quote line by line, when the useful question is whether the fee is fair for the work and whether the work is what your building needs.

Why I am not the cheapest

You can buy a Level 2 survey online for around £500 and a Level 3 for around £800, fixed price, booked through a form. Those firms are doing something real and for a lot of houses they are a perfectly sensible answer.

They are a poor answer for an old building, for a straightforward reason. A fixed price only works at volume, volume needs a predictable time on site, and a predictable time on site is the one thing an eighteenth-century cottage will not give you. Look closely at those price lists and you will usually find the same footnote: listed and larger properties, contact us for a price. That footnote is the honest part.

What you are paying the difference for is time and the particular experience of old buildings. I spent eight and a half years with the National Trust looking after Blickling Hall, Felbrigg Hall and the estates around them, and twenty years working with old buildings before and alongside that. A survey that correctly identifies a lime-plaster wall drying out, rather than condemning it as rising damp, can save you the cost of the whole survey several times over in treatment you never needed.

What the fee includes

• The inspection itself, and the travel to it.
• The written report.
• A discussion once you have read it. Every RICS survey at Level 2 and above carries this. Many firms do not mention it, so people do not ask. Read the report, write down what worries you, and ring me.
• The relevant technical leaflets for your building, where they help.

What it does not include

• A market valuation. That is separate work requiring an RICS Registered Valuer, and I do not offer it.
• Opening up. A survey is a thorough visual inspection. Lifting floorboards, opening walls or taking down ceilings is a different instruction and is agreed separately.
• Specialist testing commissioned from a third party, such as timber sampling or structural monitoring, where a building turns out to need it. I will tell you if it does, and I have nothing to sell you either way.

Getting a real figure

Send the address, roughly when the house was built, how many bedrooms it has and anything that already worries you. That is usually enough for a fixed quote, and you will have it before you commit to anything.

Ask if you are unsure which level your building needs. I will tell you plainly. If a cheaper survey would serve you properly, that is the one I will quote for.

Common questions