Homebuyer Surveys · RICS Level 2
RICS Level 2 Homebuyer Survey in Liverpool
A homebuyer survey in Liverpool tells you what the mortgage valuation never will — what is actually wrong with the house, what it is likely to cost you, and whether the price you agreed still makes sense. ASG Consulting are RICS-regulated chartered surveyors based on St James Street, and we carry out RICS Level 2 HomeBuyer Reports across Liverpool, Merseyside and the Wirral.
Survey level
RICS Level 2 (HomeBuyer Report)
Best for
Conventional homes in reasonable condition
Report format
Traffic-light condition ratings 1–3, with photographs
Turnaround
5 working days from inspection
Covering
Liverpool, Merseyside, Wirral, Sefton, St Helens
What it is
What is a homebuyer survey?
A homebuyer survey is a RICS Level 2 HomeBuyer Report — a non-intrusive inspection of a property carried out for the buyer, not the lender. A chartered surveyor examines everything that can be seen and safely reached, then rates each element 1, 2 or 3 depending on how urgently it needs attention.
It sits in the middle of the three RICS survey levels. A Level 1 Condition Report is a brief overview suited to new or near-new homes. A Level 3 Building Survey is a far deeper investigation for older, larger or altered properties. Level 2 is the one most buyers of a conventional Liverpool home need: detailed enough to find the problems that matter, without the cost of a full building survey on a house that does not need one.
The report is written for you. It flags defects, explains what they mean in practice, tells you what to raise with your solicitor, and sets out what needs doing first. You commission it after your offer is accepted and before you exchange contracts — which is the only window in which the findings can still change the deal.
● For the buyer, not the lender
Survey vs valuation
Is a homebuyer survey the same as a mortgage valuation?
No. A mortgage valuation is carried out for your lender, to confirm the property is worth roughly what they are lending against it. It is not a survey, it is often done from the doorstep or a desk, and it tells you almost nothing about condition. A homebuyer survey is commissioned by you and reports the defects, risks and repair costs that affect your decision.
This trips up more Liverpool buyers than anything else we deal with. People assume the lender has “checked the house”. The lender has checked its own security, not your purchase.
| Mortgage valuation | Homebuyer survey (Level 2) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it's for | Your lender | You |
| What it reports | Whether the property secures the loan | Condition, defects and repair risk |
| Inspection depth | Often brief, sometimes remote | Full non-intrusive inspection of the property |
| Can it change your offer? | Only if it down-values | Yes — findings are evidence you can act on |
| Who pays | You (usually via the lender) | You, directly to the surveyor |
What’s inspected
What a RICS Level 2 homebuyer survey covers
Your surveyor inspects every part of the property that can be seen and safely accessed, inside and out, and reports on:
Roof coverings, chimney stacks, flashings and rainwater goods — including shared party stacks and the condition of old Welsh slate
External walls — brickwork, rendering, sandstone, pointing, bay window piers and lintels
Damp — rising, penetrating and condensation, including cellars where accessible
Timbers, floors and ceilings — where visible, and signs of rot or infestation
Windows, doors and joinery
Internal walls, partitions — and any evidence of movement or alteration
Services — electrics, heating, plumbing and drainage, inspected visually and not tested
Grounds, boundaries, garages and outbuildings
Legal matters to raise with your solicitor — rights of way, boundary anomalies, apparent building work without obvious approvals
Environmental risks — where apparent, including visible Japanese knotweed
Reading your report
What the condition ratings mean
Every element in a RICS Level 2 report gets a rating, and the whole report is designed to be readable at a glance:
| Rating | Meaning | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | No repair currently needed | Normal maintenance only |
| 2 | Defects that need repairing or replacing, but are not serious or urgent | Budget for it, no immediate alarm |
| 3 | Defects that are serious and/or need repairing, replacing or investigating urgently | Get quotes before you exchange |
| NI | Not inspected | Access was restricted — the report explains why |
A single Condition Rating 3 does not mean walk away. It means you now know something the asking price did not account for.
Honest limits
What a Level 2 homebuyer survey does not cover
Worth being straight about this, because expectations cause more disappointment than defects do. A Level 2 survey is non-intrusive, which means your surveyor will not:
Lift carpets, move furniture or lift floorboards
Open up walls, ceilings or concealed structure
Test the electrics, boiler, gas installation or drainage — these are visual checks only
Provide detailed repair costings as standard
Inspect anything that cannot be safely reached — which is why some elements come back as NI
Where something needs specialist attention, we say so and tell you who to instruct. If the issue is structural, our structural engineering team can pick it up directly. If the cause of damp or cracking is unclear, our building pathology and defect analysis service is built for exactly that.
A survey is not a guarantee and not an insurance policy. It is a professional opinion on what can be seen on the day, and it is the best information you will get before you commit.
Choosing a level
Level 2 or Level 3? Which survey does your Liverpool property need?
Liverpool’s housing stock is unusually mixed, and the right survey depends far more on the building than on the price. Here is how it usually falls:
| Property type | Typical areas | Usually the right survey |
|---|---|---|
| 1930s semi, largely unaltered | Allerton, West Derby, Childwall, Crosby | Level 2 |
| Post-war and 1960s–80s housing | Speke, Halewood, Netherley | Level 2 |
| New-build or recent apartment | Waterfront, Baltic Triangle, city centre | Level 2 (or a snagging inspection if brand new) |
| Victorian or Edwardian terrace, sound and unaltered | Wavertree, Aigburth, Anfield, Kensington | Level 2 is often enough |
| Terrace with cellar damp, bowing walls or a rear extension | Toxteth, Dingle, Everton, Bootle | Level 3 |
| Converted flat in a Georgian townhouse | Georgian Quarter, Canning, Falkner Square | Level 3 |
| Listed, heavily altered or renovation project | Woolton, Grassendale, Cressington Park | Level 3 |
| Anything with visible cracking, movement or past underpinning | Anywhere | Level 3, often with a structural engineer |
Sometimes a Level 2 is enough and you do not need to pay for a Level 3. If that is what the property tells us when you describe it, that is what we will say — before you have paid us anything. Where a fuller inspection genuinely is warranted, our Level 3 Building Survey in Liverpool covers it.
Local knowledge
The defects we actually find in Liverpool homes
Liverpool sits largely on sandstone bedrock, often with glacial till above it. That matters more than people realise: the classic clay-shrinkage subsidence that dominates surveys in the South East is far less common here. When we find cracking in a Liverpool terrace, it is more often lintel failure over a bay, thermal movement, or a chimney breast removed without proper support than it is true subsidence.
The patterns that come up again and again:
Cellar damp in Victorian terraces, frequently made worse rather than better by injected damp-proof courses and tanking installed without addressing ventilation or external ground levels
Sandstone erosion and spalling on period frontages, particularly on exposed elevations and around window heads
Bay window lintel and pier failure in terraced stock — one of the most common sources of cracking we report
Nail fatigue and slipped slates on original Welsh slate roofs, and leaning or poorly flaunched shared chimney stacks
Chimney breasts removed at ground or first floor without adequate support above, particularly in converted and previously rented terraces
Damp bridging from retrofitted cavity wall insulation in 1930s semis, especially on exposed elevations
Flat roofs over rear extensions well past their serviceable life
Snagging and waterproofing detail defects in waterfront and Baltic Triangle apartments
Japanese knotweed along railway corridors, canal banks and rear entries
Your report
What you get in your homebuyer report
A traffic-light rated summary you can read in five minutes, with the full detail behind it
Photographs of every significant defect
Plain-English explanations — no surveyor’s shorthand you have to decode
A clear list of what to raise with your solicitor
Practical next steps, in the order they should be dealt with
A market valuation and reinstatement cost figure, if you choose the Level 2 with valuation
A follow-up call with the surveyor who inspected the property, once you have read it
The process
How it works
Tell us about the property
The address, its age and type, and anything you already know — cellar, extension, previous underpinning, a damp patch you spotted at the viewing. We come back with a fixed fee.
We confirm the right level
If a Level 2 will do the job, we will tell you that. If the property really needs a Level 3, we will explain why rather than quietly upselling you.
Access and inspection
We arrange access through the agent or vendor. A typical inspection takes 2–3 hours on site. You are welcome to attend, though you do not need to.
Your report
With you within 5 working days, traffic-light rated and written to be read by someone who is not a surveyor.
Talk it through
Call us once you have read it. Most people want to know one thing: is this a problem I should walk away from, or a problem I should get a price for?
After the report
Using your survey to renegotiate the price
A homebuyer survey is not a bargaining stick, but it is evidence — and evidence is what moves a price after an offer has been accepted.
If the report comes back with Condition Rating 3 items, the practical route is: get two written quotes for the work, go back to the agent with the report extract and the quotes attached, and ask for either a reduction or for the vendor to carry out the work before completion. Vendors argue with opinions. They argue far less with a chartered surveyor’s report and two builders’ quotes.
Sometimes the right answer is to walk. If a survey turns up structural movement that needs monitoring, widespread rot, or an extension with no apparent approvals, the cost of the survey has just saved you a great deal more than it cost. That happens on a minority of jobs — but it is the reason the survey exists.
Coverage
Areas we cover for homebuyer surveys
We carry out homebuyer surveys across Liverpool and Merseyside from our office at 54 St James Street, L1 0AB — covering L1 to L38 and out across the Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens, Warrington, Cheshire and Manchester.
That includes Allerton, Aigburth, Anfield, Bootle, Childwall, Crosby, Croxteth, Dingle, Everton, Fazakerley, Formby, Garston, Gateacre, Huyton, Kensington, Kirkdale, Maghull, Mossley Hill, Norris Green, Old Swan, Sefton Park, Speke, St Helens, Toxteth, Walton, Wavertree, West Derby, Woolton, and the Wirral. Full list on our areas we cover page.
Why ASG
Why buyers in Liverpool choose ASG
RICS-regulated. ASG Consulting is a regulated firm, and your report is produced by a chartered surveyor — not a generalist inspector on a national panel.
Local, not remote. We work out of Liverpool city centre. We know the stock, the streets and the recurring problems.
Plain English. Reports written to be understood by the person paying for them.
Honest about survey levels. We will tell you when a Level 2 is enough.
4.8 out of 5 on Google. From the buyers, landlords and investors we have reported for.
A published complaints procedure, as RICS regulation requires. Read it here.
Common questions
Homebuyer survey FAQs
The inspection itself usually takes 2–3 hours depending on the size and age of the property. Your written report follows within 5 working days.
It can. A RICS Level 2 report is available with or without a market valuation. The version with a valuation also gives a reinstatement cost figure for insurance purposes. Tell us which you need when you enquire and we will quote accordingly.
After your offer has been accepted and before you exchange contracts. That is the only point at which the findings can still change the price or the decision.
No, though you are welcome to. Some buyers find it useful to walk round at the end and have things pointed out in person.
For a genuinely new property still under warranty, a snagging inspection is often the better fit. For anything a few years old, or a new-build you are buying second-hand, a Level 2 is worth having.
Yes — including converted flats in Georgian and Victorian buildings and apartments in the city centre and along the waterfront. Converted flats in period buildings often warrant a Level 3 rather than a Level 2.
We explain what it means, what is likely to be involved in putting it right, and whether it needs a specialist. You then decide whether to renegotiate, ask the vendor to fix it, or withdraw.
Yes, and buyers regularly do. Pair the relevant report extract with two written quotes for the work and go back through the agent.
They are the same thing described differently. “House purchase survey”, “home buyers survey” and “HomeBuyer Report” all generally mean a RICS Level 2 survey.
Get started
Book your homebuyer survey in Liverpool
Tell us the address and a little about the property, and we will come back with a fixed fee and an honest view on which level of survey it actually needs.