Choose the report for the Tooting 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.
Totterdown Fields evidence: cottages composed as terrace groups
Wandsworth’s Totterdown Fields appraisal describes two-storey cottages with variations arranged across terrace groups. It identifies a projecting central gable at 249–271 Derinton Road and end properties set forward in Okeburn Road terraces. Yellow or red brick, upper-storey roughcast and differing porch designs appear in its material account. These are historical examples within that estate, from the appraisal approved by the Council’s Executive in March 2008.
Identify the bought house’s place in its group and the features actually present. Wandsworth’s current guidance directs owners to check the particular works and extent of an Article 4 Direction for their property.
Tooting building stock and property types
Tooting’s housing runs from grand Queen Anne villas to LCC cottages and dense bay-fronted terraces, much of it period, altered or conservation-controlled — which is why Level 3 is so often right here.
Alfred Heaver’s grand late-Victorian, Queen Anne houses of roughly 1890–1910 on Ritherdon Road, Elmbourne Road, Louisville Road, Foxbourne Road and Childebert Road, within the Heaver Estate Conservation Area and its Article 4 controls.
The London County Council’s first cottage estate, built 1901–1911 over some 38 acres, with terraced cottages on Ruislip Street, Lessingham Avenue, Derinton Road and Okeburn Road, and Franciscan Road and Longmead Road on the periphery — a conservation area with an Article 4 direction.
Bay-fronted brick terraces across Tooting Bec and Tooting Graveney, typically two storeys with back additions and frequent loft and rear extensions, on the streets off Upper Tooting Road and Mitcham Road.
The residential Furzedown pocket to the south-east, and the Victorian and Edwardian houses along and behind the A24 spine of Tooting High Street and Upper Tooting Road and the A217 Mitcham Road, often altered and extended.
Conservation areas, Article 4 rules and alteration risk
The Wandsworth conservation context concerns the named estate areas. Establish the responsible planning authority for the complete property address. Totterdown Fields and Heaver Estate have separate conservation and Article 4 records; Wandsworth’s current guidance says a direction may cover only parts of an area and particular works. Check the relevant property and alteration against those records.
Where the particular alteration needed consent, ask for the document that covers that work. For a Totterdown Fields cottage, assemble the work dates and available documents for changed windows, a porch or frontage. Check the requirements for that house and alteration; appearance alone does not establish a breach. Confirm the responsible authority for the complete address and the relevant boundary and direction for the work being considered.
For a Tooting house, identify its terrace position and the parts included in the purchase. A Totterdown Fields cottage needs its principal roof, porch, front boundary and later rear rooms located on the plan. Use the complete address to establish the responsible authority and the controls applying to the proposed work.
Locate a projecting gable within the bought house’s roof
For a Totterdown Fields enquiry, show the rooms beneath the main roof and any projecting gable, with the porch and neighbouring roof junctions identified. Ask whether roof-space entry gives access to the relevant part or leaves it concealed. Label each covering mentioned in the seller’s repair records.
If later roof accommodation is included, request the available stair and structural drawings for that project. Keep the original group’s silhouette separate from the details of the alteration. Date each invoice against its slope or component so that a terrace-wide roof description does not stand in for information about this cottage.
Give the end position and rear addition their own layout
Where the Tooting purchase is at a terrace end, mark the exposed flank, front projection and side approach on the enquiry plan. For a mid-terrace house, show the available route to the back. Identify any later rear room separately from the original cottage footprint.
Connect an extension’s drawings and completion papers to its actual date. Place a reported crack or damp patch at the original wall, new room or junction concerned. Ask which outside faces can be inspected and where adjoining ownership limits access, with further information requests tied to those particular gaps.
Check the frontage documents feature by feature
If windows, a porch or a front boundary have changed at the Tooting property, list the feature, work date and documents available. Match any council decision to its described alteration and address. The current Wandsworth guidance says directions may cover particular parts of an area and particular works, so an estate name alone cannot settle that comparison.
Ask the solicitor to establish the applicable permission position. Keep finish replacement, structural opening work and boundary changes in distinct entries. A recent frontage photograph helps locate what is visible, while the written file records what work and decision it actually represents.
Tooting building survey questions
What does the Totterdown Fields terrace-group description add?
It identifies variations such as central projections and forward-set end houses within a cottage estate. Locate the actual house and roof features before framing the scope.
Does an estate name settle every Article 4 question?
Wandsworth directs owners to check the relevant works and property coverage of the direction. Match the actual address and alteration to the applicable record.
What is useful for an altered cottage roof?
Show the bought rooms, projecting roof features and void access. Link later stair or structural drawings and repair invoices to their own components and dates.
How should an end-terrace extension be described?
Identify the exposed side, access route, original footprint and added room. Put symptoms and construction papers at the relevant wall or junction.
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Content updated: October 2026.