This document has been written and produced by teams from the following organisations: RICS, Historic England and PCA.
This document has also been adopted by the following organisations: Cadw, Historic Environment Scotland, Historic Environment Division – Northern Ireland, Institute of Historic Buildings (IHBC) and Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB).

A set of principles and competencies that should be used anytime there is a need for an assessment of moisture within a traditional building. This is most typically likely to be during a pre-purchase building survey, and investigation into a moisture related problem or when a contractor undertakes repairs and alterations to a building. In the context of a building survey on a traditional building or any historic building, it should be within the competence of the surveyor to be able to make a professional judgement on the building and not simply make a recommendation. This document establishes a position of best practice throughout all levels of surveys and inspection of traditional buildings. The surveyor should take a ‘whole building’ approach, look for the source of any excessive moisture, not rely on potentially misleading data and should then provide the client with advice to manage the situation. The document goes into detail in a step-by-step format of what the surveyor should do and ultimately to take responsibility for the advice given.