Drone Roof Surveys for Blocks of Flats in London
The roof, every elevation, the parapets and the plant, photographed in one or two hours instead of a month of scaffold. A dated severity register within 48 hours that you can put in front of leaseholders, a Section 20 consultation or a planned maintenance budget. From £495 + VAT, and the same IRATA team can abseil to confirm and repair what it finds.
- From £495 + VATUp to ~500 m² of roof
- 48 h reportRegister as PDF and spreadsheet
- Section 20 evidence packDated, referenced, priced
- Annual programmeFrom £395 per block, 5+ blocks
A £2,000 Scaffold Inspection Became a £495 Flight
Until recently, finding out the condition of a block's roof meant a scaffold or a tower, a licence, a month of hoarding and a bill of around £2,000 before anyone had written a word. London block managers have reported cutting that to about £300 per roof with a drone, and one London borough expects to replace around 1,500 scaffold inspections with drone flights across its current maintenance framework, saving roughly £2 million. Councils, housing associations and the larger managing agents now treat the drone as the default first look at a roof.
The flight is the cheap part. What a board or an agent actually needs is a document that survives a leaseholders' meeting, and that is what the rest of this page is about.
What a block survey covers
- ✓ Main roof: coverings, ridges, hips, valleys, rooflights, outlets, ponding on flat areas
- ✓ Parapets, copings, party walls and the gutters hidden behind them
- ✓ Chimneys, vents, plant rooms, lift motor room roofs, tank rooms, aerial and telecom fixings
- ✓ Every elevation: render, brickwork, cladding condition, balconies and soffits, mastic joints, rainwater goods
- ✓ Communal flat roofs over entrances, bin stores and garages
- ✓ A 4K fly-round of the whole building for the board and the residents
Evidence That Makes the Notice of Intention Specific
Most Section 20 disputes start with a vague scope: "roof repairs as necessary". Leaseholders challenge it because nobody can see what it is for, and the tribunal asks for evidence that the works were needed. A drone survey gives you that evidence before the first notice goes out, dated and referenced to photographs.
A survey on its own is normally below the consultation threshold and is not the qualifying works; its job is to make the works consultation defensible. Our Section 20 major works guide covers the three stages. For the legal position on a specific lease, take advice from your solicitor.
What is in the pack
- 1Dated defect register with severity 1 to 5, a timescale for each item and the photograph that shows it. As a PDF and a spreadsheet for the PPM schedule.
- 2Three options per item: repair now, plan within the timescale, or monitor, each with an indicative cost band, so the board chooses with its eyes open.
- 3A fixed-price estimate for the works by rope access, item by item and cross-referenced to the photographs, usable as one of the Stage 2 estimates.
- 4A one-page summary written for leaseholders, and a private web link to the full report you can include in the notice.
- 5The flight record: date, conditions, pilot, aircraft, CAA authorisation route. The provenance an auditor or a tribunal asks about.
Blocks, Estates and Portfolios
All prices exclude VAT and include the report, the photographs and the video. The full table and what changes the price are on the drone roof survey cost page.
| Building | Price + VAT | On site | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block with up to ~500 m² of roof | £495 | 1 to 2 h | Typical converted house or purpose-built block of 6 to 20 flats |
| Block with up to ~2,000 m² of roof | £695 | 2 to 4 h | Larger purpose-built blocks and mansion blocks; elevations included |
| Estates, towers and multi-block sites | From £950, or £850 per day | By scope | Priced per building after a desktop look at the site |
| Annual programme, five or more blocks | £395 to £450 per block per year | Scheduled | Same flight plan every year, change report against the previous survey, PPM schedule kept current, storm re-flights at the programme rate |
| Survey & Verify for a block | £950 to £1,400 | Half a day to a day | Drone survey plus an IRATA technician on every item rated 4 or 5, with a tender-ready specification |
| Thermal survey of a flat roof | £650 to £950 | Evening visit | For membranes with an active leak or a planned overlay; findings verified by core test |
| Restricted airspace | +£45 | 2 to 4 weeks' notice | Central London, airport and heliport zones; rope access inspection offered meanwhile |
Survey fees are credited in full against repairs of £1,500 or more instructed within 60 days, and in half against smaller repairs.
The Same Flight Every Year, So the Second Report Shows What Changed
Repeatable positions
Every photograph carries its position, altitude and heading. The next survey is flown from the same points, so the two images of a parapet joint or a flat roof outlet sit side by side and the change is obvious.
A register that rolls forward
Items are tracked by their Id from one year to the next: resolved, unchanged, worsened, new. The PPM schedule updates from the register rather than from memory, and the reserve fund forecast has something behind it.
Storm re-flights
After a named storm, programme blocks are re-flown at the programme rate and the report states what is storm damage and what was already on the register. That distinction is what the insurer's loss adjuster asks for.
The First Pass on the Facade, Before Anyone Opens It Up
The same flight that covers the roof covers every elevation, which is why the block survey includes them. Cracked render, spalling brick, failed mastic at cladding joints, staining below copings, corroding balcony soffits and damaged rainwater goods are all visible from the air and all go on the register with a severity and a timescale.
What a drone cannot do is open up a wall. An EWS1 or a PAS 9980 appraisal still needs a competent person at the wall, taking samples. Our rope access technicians do that work with your assessor, and the drone elevations tell everyone where to look first. See EWS1 and cladding inspection access.
For blocks under the Building Safety Act regime, a dated elevation record from the air is a cheap addition to the golden thread. It is not a statutory inspection and we do not present it as one; it is the evidence that the building was looked at, by whom, when and in what condition.
Where the register shows an item that needs a hand on it, the Survey & Verify option sends the technician to it on rope, with no scaffold and no licence, usually within the week.
From the Register to the Repair Without a Scaffold
Board or agent reads the summary
One page, plain English, the two or three things that matter this year and the budget band for each.
Serious items confirmed by hand
Items rated 4 or 5 are verified by an IRATA technician on rope, so the specification is based on what was touched, not only photographed.
Fixed-price specification
Item by item, cross-referenced to the register, ready for the Section 20 estimates or for direct instruction below the threshold. Survey fee credited.
Works by rope access
No scaffold licence, no hoarding, no month of exposure. Before and after photographs from the same positions close the item on the register.
For portfolio terms, framework rates and a single account manager across all your buildings, see portfolio maintenance for managing agents.
Drone Surveys for Blocks. Frequently Asked
Send the Address and the Number of Flats.
We check the airspace and the roof area from the desk, confirm the band, and offer a slot this week where the airspace allows. Portfolios of five or more blocks get the programme rate and a single account manager.
This work as a standalone service