Choose the report for the Lee decision
Choose according to construction, alterations, condition and the purpose of your instruction.
- RICS Level 2 Home Survey — a conventional home in reasonable condition, without significant complexity.
- RICS Level 3 Building Survey — an older, altered, unusual or complex home needing a fuller investigation of condition.
- Specific defect investigation — a defined concern such as damp, cracking or water ingress.
- Pre-acquisition commercial building survey — condition and technical risk for a commercial purchase or lease.
Send the address, plans and your concerns so the proposed service, inspection limits and fee can be confirmed before instruction.
Lee Manor evidence: raised entries, basements and differing house scales
Lewisham’s Lee Manor appraisal, adopted in March 2008, describes taller house groups around Burnt Ash, Handen and Micheldever Roads and a reduction in scale westwards along adjoining streets. Its Burnt Ash Road account records yellow-stock-brick houses with entrance steps over stuccoed basements and bays extending through several levels. These are differences within named character areas, rather than one form for all Lee homes.
Use the exact number and current section to identify the building and bought levels. Establish any conversion or later enlargement from its own drawings. The appraisal supplies historic form without diagnosing a basement or bay at the address.
Lee building stock and property types
Lee’s stock is dominated by late-Victorian and Edwardian villas and terraces — the Lee Manor conservation area and the streets around Lee Green — much of it now converted to flats, the older, solid-walled fabric a Level 3 survey is built for.
The late-Victorian and early-20th-century villas and terraces of the Lee Manor conservation area, around the Manor House, its library and gardens and the River Quaggy.
The Victorian and Edwardian terraces and shopping parades around Lee Green and Lee High Road, solid-brick with bays, sashes and rear additions, many now subdivided.
Around the Old Road and the historic village core, older survivals including almshouses and chapels remind that Lee has fabric older than its Victorian suburb — specialist stock that needs a careful eye.
Period houses divided into flats, where shared roofs, drainage and structure affect the individual home and past alterations need checking.
Conservation areas, listed buildings and alteration risk
Lee has the Lee Manor Conservation Area, designated in 1975 and extended in 1989, protecting the late-Victorian and Edwardian residential area around the Manor House, its library and gardens and the River Quaggy, with the large Blackheath Conservation Area on the higher ground to the north. Lewisham’s Article 4 directions remove permitted-development rights for changes visible from public viewpoints — windows, doors, roof alterations, chimneys, front boundary walls, front-garden paving and exterior painting on houses in single-family use — so those works need planning permission, though many rear alterations may still be permitted. For a Lee villa conversion, collect the drawings for changed lower doors, internal openings and serving stairs, with each project dated.
Establish the bought address and specific work with Lewisham, then place the permission papers alongside the solicitor’s lease and title checks.
For a Lee Manor villa or divided house, identify the purchased floors and their relationship to the raised entrance and lower accommodation. Give the actual street number and an annotated section. The appraisal distinguishes taller eastern houses from smaller western groups, while each purchase needs its own alteration and access file.
Trace the raised entrance to the bought floors
Where a Lee purchase lies within a tall villa, show the entrance steps, hall and serving stair against each occupied level. If the home is a lower flat, identify its separate doorway and route from the pavement. Keep the conversion layout alongside any earlier whole-house drawing.
Mark common landings and any passage controlled by another occupier. Ask the access contact which lower rooms, roof spaces and rear surfaces could be opened for the visit. Have lease boundaries examined separately so the inspection request identifies practical access without determining legal rights.
Locate a multi-level bay repair through the house
For a Burnt Ash Road enquiry, place the projecting bay and the rooms behind it on an elevation and section. Identify which level a repair or movement account describes. Date the relevant photographs and distinguish joinery work from changes to masonry or supports.
If the purchase occupies one floor, connect that accommodation to the bay element being discussed. Request drawings for enlarged openings or a removed internal wall at its actual location. The bay’s repeated appearance up the frontage should not combine separate projects into one assumed repair history.
Keep the smaller western house group identifiable
For a Lee house farther along a street where the built scale changes, give its number and actual frontage rather than applying a tall-villa plan. Outline any rear addition and the covering around its rooms. Identify the house’s original entrance and later doorway changes.
Ask which project introduced a wider kitchen opening or additional stair, and attach its documents to the layout. If another address’s repair record is offered, name the expressly shared component. Record missing side or rear access so the brief remains specific to the purchased building.
Locate the basement and raised entrance in the purchase plan
For a Burnt Ash Road-side enquiry, show the level of the purchased entrance and the rooms beneath it. Clarify whether a basement, bay or staircase belongs to the unit being bought or another part of the building. The appraisal's description can frame that request without establishing the current division. Supply later work records before selecting the residential survey level. If the concern is confined to a bay or lower room, provide dated photographs and the relevant access information so the defect question has a defined physical boundary.
Lee building survey questions
Does the Lee Manor account give every street one house scale?
It distinguishes taller eastern groups and smaller houses farther west. The exact number and present layout establish the form relevant to a purchase.
Which section helps with a lower flat in a tall Lee villa?
Show entrance steps, bought floor, serving stair and outside level. Identify communal landings and the contact for spaces controlled by other occupiers.
How should a multi-level bay repair be described?
Name the affected level and component, with dated photographs and work papers. Connect a flat’s rooms to that part of the projection.
Can a taller neighbour’s plan explain a smaller western house?
Use the purchased house’s own frontage, entrance and additions. Refer to the neighbouring file only where it names an element expressly shared with this building.
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Content updated: October 2026.