You have found a house, your offer is accepted, and the homebuyer report has come back with a line about the roof. It might say the covering has little life left, that a chimney needs attention, or that the surveyor could not see enough to be sure. A general surveyor looks at the entire house, so the roof gets a few minutes from the ground, and the report passes the question on to a specialist. That is the moment for a pre-purchase roof survey. It is a focused inspection of one part of the property, carried out before you are legally committed, and it should leave you knowing what is wrong, how urgent it is, what repair or replacement would involve and roughly what it would cost. This guide sets out how the process works in practice, what the specialist looks at, how to arrange access when you do not yet own the building, and how to use the findings in your discussions with the seller. It is written for buyers of older houses in and around Bath, where a roof can hold several different materials and hidden lead.
Why the homebuyer report points you to a specialist
A homebuyer report is a general survey. The author walks through every room, looks at the walls, the floors, the damp, the drains and the roof, and writes up what is visible in the time available. For the roof, that usually means looking from the ground, perhaps from an upstairs window, and checking the loft if there is a hatch and it is safe to enter. It does not mean climbing onto the slopes or opening up the lead.
When a general surveyor sees something worrying but cannot judge its extent, the report says so and recommends further investigation by a suitable specialist. The wording varies. You may read that the roof covering is old and further investigation is advised, that the chimney stack should be examined by a competent person, or that signs of previous water ingress were seen in the loft. In each case the report is telling you it cannot answer the question, and you should not treat that as a minor point.
The reason to act before exchange is simple. Until contracts are exchanged, you can still ask for a lower price, ask the seller to carry out repairs, or walk away. After exchange you own the problem. A roof that needs re-covering can cost many thousands of pounds, and finding that out afterwards is a far worse position than finding it out during the sale.
It is also worth reading the roof section of the report again carefully before commissioning anything. Note exactly which part the surveyor flagged, whether they saw staining or movement, and what they could not inspect. That becomes your brief to the specialist. Our guide to the free roof survey explains what a no-charge visit covers, which will help you decide whether that is enough or whether you need an independent document.
What a specialist roof survey covers
A specialist works through the roof part by part and records each in turn. On an older house that normally includes the following.
- The covering. Slate, clay or stone tile, pantile or whatever is on the roof, checked for slips, cracks, delamination and fixings that have failed.
- Ridges, hips and verges. Whether they are bedded in mortar, fixed mechanically or both, and whether the joints are open.
- Chimney stacks. Pointing, pots, flaunching, flashings and any lean or cracking.
- Lead and flashings. Valleys, abutments, parapet gutters and the soakers, the small lead pieces that sit under each course of slate where it meets a wall or stack.
- Gutters, downpipes and fascias. Falls, joints, blockages and signs of overflow staining on the walls.
- The roof structure. From the loft, the rafters, purlins and ceiling joists, looking for rot, woodworm, sagging, daylight and damp.
- Ventilation and insulation. Whether there is condensation, and whether any modification has changed how the roof breathes.
Good practice is to inspect from the slopes when conditions allow, from the loft, and from the ground and neighbouring vantage points. Some surveys add drone images for places that cannot be reached. Our page on drone roof surveys sets out what such images can and cannot show, which is useful when the seller will not allow access for ladders.
The written result should state what was inspected and how, list each defect with a photograph and a position, rank the faults by urgency and give a cost range. It should also say how much life the roof has, without trade jargon: roughly how long the covering is likely to last if repaired, and when a replacement should be budgeted for. Typical lifespans depend on exposure, workmanship and maintenance, so a specialist gives a view rather than a promise.
Arranging access before you own the house
The practical difficulty is that the building is not yet yours. Access has to go through the seller, usually via the estate agent, and sometimes through a solicitor if the sale is more complicated.
Ask early. As soon as the homebuyer report arrives and flags the roof, tell the agent you need a specialist visit, give a likely date and say how long it will take. A roof inspection from outside and in the loft normally fits into a short appointment. Make clear that the surveyor will need a ladder or tower at the front or rear, and may need to enter the loft.
Sellers are usually co-operative because a buyer who understands the roof is a buyer who is more likely to complete. Occasionally there are limits. Tenants may need notice. A shared loft or a flat in a block may need the managing agent's permission. A listed building may have restrictions on how equipment is positioned. In these cases a drone or a survey from neighbouring ground may be the only practical route, and the report should say up front what could not be reached.
If you are buying a flat in a block, the roof is often owned by the freeholder and maintained through the service charge. A survey of one flat will not tell you the state of the roof above everyone. Our page on the block of flats roof survey covers that situation and who should commission the work.
Do not rely on the seller's own roofer's report as your only evidence. It may well be accurate, but you are entitled to your own independent view when the purchase depends on the answer. If a seller offers a report, read it, ask who wrote it and when, and compare it with what your specialist finds.
Reading the findings: repair, replace or monitor
The report should lead to a decision, not just a list. For each defect the choice is generally to repair now, repair later, replace or monitor, and the reasons behind each should be given.
An elderly roof is the hardest case. Slate roofs often fail first at the fixings: iron or poorly protected nails corrode and let slates slip, and the slate itself is still good. In that case the roof may be stripped and re-laid with the same slate on new battens and nails, which is cheaper than new slate. Clay and stone tiles have their own patterns of failure. A good specialist says which applies to your roof and what the repair would involve.
Where work is needed, the cost range matters. As a reference point, MyBuilder's new roof cost guide (2026) reports a typical UK range of £5,000 to £12,000 for a roof replacement, while its roof repair guide (2026) puts minor repairs at £100 to £300 and moderate repairs at £500 to £1,000. Those are national figures from outside sources and not our prices, but they help you judge the scale of what you are being told. A fixed quote comes after a roofer has been on site, once the scope and access are known.
Also consider what Building Regulations may require. Building control approval is not normally needed for re-covering that touches under 25 per cent of the envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof. A full replacement passes both limits, so approval applies, and better insulation may be demanded. The Planning Portal sets out the rules. On a listed house, raise even matching repairs with B&NES Council before booking anyone, because the consent route differs from ordinary planning.
Using the survey in negotiation
A specialist report gives you evidence, and evidence changes the conversation. Instead of saying the roof looks old, you can say that a named defect has been found, that the repair has been costed within a range, and that you would like the price to reflect it.
There are several ways it can play out. The first is a price reduction, where you ask the seller to take some or all of the repair cost off the asking price. The second is a repair before completion, where the seller arranges and pays for the work, though you should insist on seeing the specification and the contractor's written guarantee so you know what you are getting. The third is a decision to proceed unchanged, with the repair budgeted into your plans, if the findings are minor. The fourth is to withdraw, if the cost is more than you can take on.
Which route suits you depends on how the faults rank. Active leaks and rot in structural timbers carry more weight than weathered ridge tiles. A report that sorts items by urgency and shows photographs tends to carry more weight with the seller, and with their agent, than a single remark in a general report.
Keep it factual. Pass the report to your solicitor, who can raise the matter in the enquiries, and ask the seller what repairs they know of, what guarantees exist and whether there are any records. If the seller has had a roofer working on the property, ask for the paperwork.
If you do go ahead, the dated photographs give you a baseline for the day you take over. That is useful if a defect worsens later and you need to show what condition the roof was in at purchase. It also lets you plan the work properly, rather than reacting to the first leak.
Older Bath houses: what often needs a closer look
Bath's housing stock creates particular questions for a buyer, and some are worth raising with the specialist at the outset.
Many older houses have roofs hidden behind parapets, with lead-lined gutters between the roof and the wall. Those gutters, along with lead valleys between slopes, are frequent sources of leaks, and both are out of sight from street level. If the house has them, ask the survey to include a close look at the lead, including laps, drips and any signs of patching with sealant.
Mansard roofs with dormers add further junctions where lead meets slate. Chimney stacks on party walls are often shared with a neighbour, which can affect who is responsible for repairs. Natural slate may have been replaced piecemeal with other materials, and stone tile roofs are heavy, which matters when assessing the timber beneath.
Consent is a further point. UNESCO status applies to all of Bath, and the conservation area takes in roughly one half. For a listed house, B&NES advises contacting the council before any work starts, and its listed building consent route is not the same as planning permission. Ask the specialist to say whether the repairs they recommend are likely to be like-for-like, because that affects both timing and cost.
Once you have the facts, you can plan. Our guide to the roof inspections service explains how we survey, and if you would like us to look at a roof you are about to buy, get in touch with the address and the relevant extract from your homebuyer report. We will photograph the roof whenever access is safe and give you our findings in writing, ideally before exchange, so there is still time to renegotiate the price or ask the seller to carry out the repair.