Renegotiating or walking away
What should you ask your solicitor before you tell the agent you are withdrawing after a survey?
Ask whether you have exchanged contracts, or in Scotland whether missives are concluded, and which payments you would not get back. Before exchange in England and Wales you are usually free to withdraw, but ‘usually’ is not advice on your file. The survey does not know what you have signed. Do not tell the agent you are out until the solicitor has confirmed the position.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
The survey fee is often already spent, because the report was delivered. A holding deposit, a reservation fee on a new build, and a search fee are different again. Your solicitor has the receipts. RICS does not refund them because a rating 3 appeared, and it does not tell you that any particular defect requires withdrawal. The decision is yours once you know the contractual position.
If you do withdraw, say so cleanly through the solicitor. Do not start a new negotiation in the same sentence. If you might stay, do not use ‘we are withdrawing’ as a tactic the solicitor has not agreed. In Scotland, do not import the English exchange rule. Ask the solicitor who is acting on these missives.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which findings would you want us to show the solicitor beside a withdrawal?
- Which items are still unknown, so a withdrawal would be about the unknown?
- What should we not claim you have ordered us to do?
What are the typical next steps?
- Speak to the solicitor before the agent.
- List the payments you will lose, from their figures, not from a forum.
- If you stay, stop using withdrawal language.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
Do you lose the survey fee if you withdraw?
You have usually paid for a report you received. The survey firm does not refund it because you chose not to buy the house. Check that invoice. It is not the seller’s fee.
Can the seller keep a reservation fee on a new build?
The reservation agreement says. Read it with your solicitor. A survey finding does not rewrite that agreement.