The protocol that is real
The Property Care Association worked with lenders and building experts in 2023 to create its Sprayed Foam Inspection Protocol. In 2024 it added a register, so a homeowner or a lender can confirm that the person assessing the foam has the appropriate training.
Both the House of Commons Library briefing on spray foam insulation and the HomeOwners Alliance describe this protocol and register. Some lenders will look at a case where a PCA-registered surveyor has inspected under the protocol and confirmed a low-risk rating.
"In 2023 the PCA worked with lenders and building experts to create our Sprayed Foam Inspection Protocol and early last year created a register so homeowners and lenders could be assured that the people assessing the spray foam had the appropriate training." — Sarah Garry, Chief Executive, Property Care Association, quoted by the HomeOwners Alliance.
SprayFoamCheck's inspections are carried out in line with PCA guidance, but Jan is not a member of the PCA and is not on the protocol register. If your problem is specifically a lender asking for a protocol report, you need a surveyor who is on that register — and this page will tell you that rather than sell you something else.
The certificates that named themselves official
Alongside the genuine protocol there are privately run schemes that issue their own certificate, describe themselves as the official or definitive industry standard, and publish directories of approved contractors. Some also publish lists of contractors they consider non-compliant.
You can usually recognise one without needing any technical knowledge:
- It does not appear in the House of Commons Library briefing, the PCA's guidance, or RICS consumer guidance
- Its own small print says it is a voluntary industry code and not a statutory body, while its homepage says official
- The full technical standard cannot be read — no removal tolerances, timber inspection procedures, moisture thresholds or inspector qualifications are published
- No registered company name, number or office address appears on the site
- A contractor featured prominently as approved also publishes a page for the scheme on its own website
- Media logos and quotations appear without a link to the article or broadcast they came from
Private schemes are not illegal
None of that makes such a scheme illegal. Private schemes and completion certificates are normal in construction.
The problem is the distance between what the scheme is and how it is described to someone who has been told their mortgage depends on it.
What lenders actually do
The House of Commons Library reports that a quarter of the UK's biggest mortgage providers, and every equity release lender surveyed, will not lend where there is spray foam in the roof.
The BBC's November 2024 reporting also recorded industry experts warning that urgent action was needed to stop panicked homeowners needlessly turning to what the article called cowboy removal companies.
The PCA's Chief Executive has said publicly that even where foam was installed by a legitimate firm with correct paperwork, lenders remain reluctant. Homeowners have paid for several reports and still been declined.
Position varies by lender, by product and over time. No inspector, surveyor, scheme or removal company can tell you what a specific lender will decide.
How to check any certificate before you pay for it
This checklist applies to any scheme, including the genuine one:
- Can you read the full standard? Ask for the technical document, not a summary page
- Who wrote it, and who governs it? A registered company name and number should be on the website — check it on Companies House
- A UK company operating a website is generally required by the Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015 to display its registered name, company number and registered office on that website
- Does your lender actually require it? Ask your lender or broker directly, not the contractor
- Is it cited by the House of Commons Library, the PCA or RICS consumer guidance? Those bodies publish free guidance; if a scheme does not appear in it, ask why
- Is the surveyor signing it off independent of the firm that did the work?
- Does the media coverage link to an actual article or broadcast? The Advertising Standards Authority's guidance on official endorsements is the benchmark: marketing must not falsely claim endorsement by a body that has not given it, and a trust mark should not be displayed without authorisation
- Is the same phone number on the "independent" advice site and the recommended contractor's site?
What a surveyor is usually objecting to
Usually it is not the foam itself, but the inability to inspect. Where foam is applied directly to the underside of the roof covering with no ventilation path, a surveyor cannot see the timbers or assess the roof structure.
The PCA and RPSA guidance withdrawn for review in 2022 stated that without technical information it was unlikely surveyors could comment on the condition of timber roof structures, as recorded by the House of Commons Library.
The objection is to the unknown, not necessarily to the material. That is why documented evidence of what is actually there changes the conversation.
What independent documented evidence contains
An inspection records what is physically in the loft, in plain English, so it can be read by someone who was not there:
- Foam type and application quality
- Timber condition
- Ventilation assessment
- Temperature, relative humidity and dew point measured at the loft apex with a professional psychrometer
- Condensation risk assessment
- Photographic record
- A review of your existing paperwork against what is physically in the loft
What it is not
- Not a certificate — SprayFoamCheck does not issue one
- Not a guarantee of any lending decision
- Not a RICS valuation — where a lender requires a RICS surveyor, that is a different service
- Not carried out under scheme membership: inspections are carried out in line with PCA guidance, and SprayFoamCheck is not a member of the PCA or RPSA
- Not a PCA protocol report. Jan is not on the PCA register. Where that is what your lender requires, you need a registered surveyor, and this page will not pretend otherwise
What order to do things in
The three routes above are not alternatives to choose between. They are steps, and the order matters — because the lender-specific ones cost more and are only useful once a lender has actually asked for them.
- 1
Find out what you have
Before commissioning anything lender-specific, know what is actually in the roof: foam type, condition, ventilation, moisture, and whether your paperwork matches the loft. That is a £295 independent inspection. It tells you whether you have a problem at all, and if you do, which kind — and it means whatever you commission next is aimed at the right thing.
- 2
If a lender then asks for a PCA protocol report, get one
If your lender or their surveyor specifically requires a report under the PCA Sprayed Foam Inspection Protocol, you need a surveyor on that register. Jan is not on it, and will tell you so. The first inspection is not wasted — it tells you what the protocol surveyor is going to find, so you are not paying £400–600 to discover a problem you could have known about for £295.
- 3
If a lender asks for RICS, that is different again
Where a lender requires a RICS valuation or a structural engineer's report, that is a separate instruction. An independent loft inspection does not replace it, but it provides the specialist detail on the foam that a general survey does not include, and it can sit alongside one.
The exception: if your lender has already told you in writing exactly what they need — a PCA protocol report, a RICS valuation — go straight to that. Do not come here first. This page exists to stop people paying for the wrong thing, and that includes paying for this.
For everyone else — the removal quote, the surveyor's note, the certificate you have been offered, the nagging worry — start by knowing what you have. Every route above begins there.
Where SprayFoamCheck fits
Most people with spray foam are not, at this moment, facing a lender demanding a protocol report. They are facing a removal quote, a certificate they have been offered, a surveyor's note, or a decision about whether to do anything at all.
Every one of those decisions starts with the same question: what is actually in the roof? £295 to know, before spending three to six thousand pounds on any of the routes above. If the answer turns out to be that you need a PCA-registered surveyor, you will be told so.
The inspection is £295 fixed, with the written report within 48–72 hours of the visit; express turnaround is 24 hours from the inspection visit, +£50. Inspections are carried out by Jan — DEA qualified (ABBE Level 3), PAS 2035 training completed.
Sources
Every claim above links to something you can read yourself. Nothing on this page relies on the say-so of any inspection or removal company, including this one.
- 1. House of Commons Library — Spray foam insulation and mortgages (commonslibrary.parliament.uk)
- 2. HomeOwners Alliance — Government urged to tackle spray foam insulation mortgage problems (hoa.org.uk)
- 3. BBC News, November 2024 — the original reporting on lender positions (bbc.co.uk)
- 4. Property Care Association — Sprayed foam insulation guidance (property-care.org)
- 5. RICS — Consumer guide to spray foam insulation (rics.org)
- 6. Companies House — company search (find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk)
- 7. The Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015, regulation 25 (legislation.gov.uk)
- 8. Advertising Standards Authority — Official endorsements guidance (asa.org.uk)
- 9. Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (legislation.gov.uk) — for the cancellation rights already referenced on What are my options?