Last updated: 03/September/2026
Manually means working through the free public sources one at a time, before you leave the office, and keeping a record of what you found. RICS doesn't prescribe a method — Appendix C of the Home survey standard gives the topic list and says it "is not prescriptive or exhaustive because relevant issues will vary based on location" — so the practical approach is a fixed running order you repeat for every job, adding local checks where the area demands it.
Start with the property itself. Pull the address and postcode into the mapping, look at aerial imagery and street-level photography for the plot, the roofscape, outbuildings, boundaries and neighbouring uses, then compare current imagery with historic maps on the National Library of Scotland OS collection — that comparison is what reveals infilled ponds, former industrial sites, backland development and made ground. Check the EPC register for the recorded construction and any earlier assessment of the fabric.
Then work through the environmental topics:
- Flooding — Check your long term flood risk for rivers, sea and surface water, and the Flood map for planning for the formal zones.
- Radon — the UKHSA indicative atlas at ukradon.org, which reports the affected-area percentage for the postcode.
- Geology and ground conditions — the BGS Geology Viewer for bedrock and superficial deposits, shrink–swell clays, and known local hazards.
- Mining — the Mining Remediation Authority map viewer (formerly the Coal Authority) for coal reporting areas, shafts and surface hazards, plus any non-coal mineral working the geology suggests.
- Noise — the Defra strategic noise maps for road, rail and aircraft exposure.
- Landfill and former industrial activity — the Environment Agency's public registers alongside what the historic maps have already told you.
- Designations — MAGIC for National Landscapes (formerly AONBs), SSSIs and similar; the National Heritage List for England for listed status; and the local authority's own mapping for conservation areas, Article 4 directions and tree preservation orders.
Finish on the local authority planning portal. Search the address for the property's own history — extensions, loft conversions, changes of use, refusals and enforcement — and then search the immediate area for anything pending nearby, along with any infrastructure schemes that would change the setting. Ask the seller or agent for what you can't see: alterations, guarantees, certificates, lease details.
Two habits make the difference. Record it as you go, with the date and the source for each check, so the file shows what a reasonably competent surveyor would have known before the inspection. And carry the findings into the visit as questions rather than conclusions — a shrink–swell clay reading means you look harder at seasonal cracking, a mining entry means you look harder at the ground floor and the boundary walls. Note also that these are the England services; Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own equivalents.
Source: RICS, Home survey standard, 1st edn, November 2019, ss.3, 3.1 and Appendix C.