Sample buyer risk report.

An illustrative walk-round on a 1930s semi, in the format you would receive: three tiers, a limits box, and a list of exactly who to call next. Not a real property.

Specimen · not a real property

The instruction

Second viewing on a three-bedroom 1930s semi, offer not yet made. One hour on site with the buyer, forty minutes writing up. The buyer had already had a mortgage valuation and believed, as most people do, that it was a survey.

The Verdict Card

Ranked, not listed.

Eight observations, sorted into what changes your decision, what changes your budget, and what changes nothing.

Worry now

Before you exchange

Stepped cracking to the rear elevation, below the bathroom window
Roughly 4mm at its widest, running through five courses and turning the corner at the downpipe. The downpipe joint above it is stained, so this may be water-related rather than movement. Either way it needs someone who can tell the difference.
Structural engineer, before exchange. Not a builder.
Original fuse box, no RCD protection
Rewireable fuse carriers, no residual current device. That tells you the electrical installation has not been substantially updated in a long time, which usually means the wiring behind it is the same age.
Registered electrician for an EICR. Budget for a partial or full rewire.

Worth a look later

Budget, don't panic

Roof covering at the end of its service life
Original concrete tiles, some slippage at the rear and moss throughout. No daylight visible in the loft and no staining on the timbers, so it is not leaking today. It is a five to ten year job, not a this-year job.
Roofer for a quote once you own it. Get two.
Single-glazed timber windows to the rear
Sound frames, working sash cords, some paint failure to the cills. Comfort and running cost rather than a defect.
Nobody urgently. Decorating cycle.
Boiler is fifteen years old
Working on the day, serviced according to the sticker. It has done its time and will be a replacement inside your first few years.
Gas Safe engineer at the first service after completion.

Not really

Things people ask us about

The damp patch in the under-stairs cupboard
Dry to the touch and to a surface reading. Old staining, consistent with a leak that has been fixed. Nothing live.
Nobody.
Sloping bedroom floor
Common in a house of this age and consistent across the room rather than dishing toward a wall. Nothing in the roof space or below suggests ongoing movement.
Nobody, though your surveyor will comment on it.
The artex ceilings
Intact and undamaged. Pre-2000 textured coatings can contain asbestos, so the rule is simply not to sand or drill them. Left alone they are not a hazard.
Nobody, unless you plan to remove them — then a licensed contractor.

The limits box · on every card

This is not a RICS survey and not a valuation. Nothing was opened up, lifted or tested. The loft was entered but not walked beyond the hatch. Floors were not lifted. Drains were not inspected. Where we say “get this looked at”, we mean by the specialist named, and we cannot tell you how bad it is until they have.

What Happened Next

Illustrative outcome.

On a specimen like this, the sensible sequence is: commission a Level 3 survey rather than a Level 2, because the age and the cracking together justify it. Get the structural engineer out before exchange, not after. Get the electrical report, and use both to decide whether the price still works.

The roof and the boiler are not reasons to walk away. They are reasons to know what the first five years cost before you commit, which is the entire point of spending an hour on this.

A buyer risk report does not replace a survey and never claims to. Where a survey is the right call, this page says so — see Level 2 vs Level 3.

Register interest.

Buyer risk reports are launching. Planned price £100 + VAT. One message on the day they go live, and nothing else.