Choose the report for the Stratford 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.
Romford Road evidence: timber and masonry building examples
Newham’s March 2009 Stratford St John’s appraisal describes the Old Dispensary on Romford Road as weatherboarded, with two storeys, an attic and a clay-tiled roof. Nearby St John’s House is described as an early nineteenth-century yellow-stock-brick building with stucco dressings and a forecourt. The passage illustrates different historic construction forms in the town-centre conservation setting; current residential use requires its own evidence.
For an older Stratford purchase, request the building’s actual layout and construction information. Identify the wall and roof forms relevant to the bought accommodation rather than treating a town-centre address as a single building type.
Stratford building stock and property types
Stratford’s survey stock is the older housing back from the regeneration — Victorian and Edwardian terraces and period conversions — rather than the new-build towers; it is the solid-walled fabric a Level 3 survey is built for.
The bay-fronted Victorian and Edwardian terraces on the streets back from Stratford town centre and toward Maryland and Forest Gate, solid-brick with sash windows and rear closet-wing additions, many now subdivided.
The older buildings around Stratford St John’s and the Stratford conservation areas, protecting the historic town-centre fabric among the newer development.
Period houses divided into flats and maisonettes, where shared roofs, drainage and structure affect the individual home and past conversions need checking.
Conservation areas, listed buildings and alteration risk
Stratford has several Newham conservation areas, including Stratford St John’s around the historic church and town centre, the Sugar House Lane Conservation Area on the former industrial land by the Lea, and the University Conservation Area. Being in a conservation area itself restricts some permitted development and requires consent for demolition and many works. Newham applies Article 4 directions in some of its conservation areas, removing certain permitted-development and use-change rights; most of the wider Victorian streets are not conservation-controlled, so controls vary street to street. For an adapted Stratford frontage, identify the altered opening, wall or roof face on the current plan and obtain the available project papers.
Confirm the property’s Newham conservation boundary, listed status and applicable controls before relying on a nearby building’s designation.
For a Stratford home, describe the building containing the purchase before discussing the survey level. An upper dwelling in an adapted frontage needs its floors and stair identified; a separate block needs its own building and unit reference. Include available alteration papers and the places that can be opened for inspection.
Locate the residential route through an adapted frontage
If a Stratford flat lies above commercial accommodation, ask for a drawing of the residential entrance, stair and purchased floors. Show whether the route passes through another premises or an independent corridor. A street-front photograph may leave the rear stair and return wing unexplained.
Place any widened opening or changed shop layout on the building plan, with the work’s date. Request the drawings that show the relevant support and connection to the floors above. Keep current retail fittings separate from the structural alteration file, and identify the occupier whose access would be needed for an agreed visit.
Match a weatherboard repair to its wall and roof junction
Where the bought Stratford building has weatherboarded walls, ask which elevation a repair account describes and what the work included behind the outer boards. Locate any reported water entry at the room, corner or roof connection concerned. Replacement paint or cladding photographs alone may leave that work’s extent unclear.
For accommodation partly within a roof, show the eaves, dormer and adjoining rooms on the available section. Attach dated roof-treatment or covering invoices to their own slopes. Mark inaccessible voids so that the enquiry can distinguish what is visible from what would need further investigation or another access arrangement.
Keep a masonry building’s changes in chronological order
For a brick-built Stratford house or conversion, label changes to the forecourt, internal openings and rear accommodation separately. Assemble the available earlier plan, conversion layout and later extension drawings by date. A frontage described as restored can have a different history from the rooms behind it.
Identify the particular chimney, bay or added wing mentioned in a repair document. Where the purchase includes only one floor, state its relationship to those elements and to the common roof. Give the proposed scope the address-specific evidence, including gaps that a general town-centre appraisal cannot fill.
Establish use as well as the historic construction reference
The Romford Road examples show why the enquiry should state the present use and interest being acquired. A timber-clad historic building and a masonry building should not inherit one another's construction assumptions. Obtain the actual floor plan, alteration account and proposed access for the premises concerned. If the purchase is residential, those details support discussion of the appropriate home survey; a commercial acquisition needs its own brief. A complaint about a particular wall, covering or opening should identify the observed symptom without treating the historic description as its cause.
Stratford building survey questions
Does the Romford Road appraisal establish present residential use?
The March 2009 passage describes historic timber and masonry examples. Current accommodation, use and boundaries need the building’s own records.
What should an upper-flat enquiry above shops show?
Locate the residential doorway, stair and bought levels. Connect drawings for changed shop openings to the supported accommodation and identify access through another premises.
How can a weatherboard repair account be made useful?
State the elevation and work behind the boards, then relate the repair to the affected room and roof connection. Show any void that cannot be entered.
Is a restored frontage enough to explain an older conversion?
Collect the earlier, conversion and extension layouts in order. They help distinguish front-elevation treatment from structural and room changes elsewhere in the building.
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Content updated: October 2026.