Choosing a survey level
The seller's agent offers a surveyor they use often. What should you ask about who the surveyor is instructed by?
Ask who will instruct the surveyor, and who the client will be. The useful question is whether the firm is instructed by you, with the duty owed to you, or by the seller's agent who uses them often. An introduction is not an instruction. A surveyor the agent likes may be perfectly competent, and the repeated work for that agent is still a fact you should hear about before you appoint. You want the engagement in your name, the report addressed to you, and a clear answer on what other relationship, if any, the firm has with the agent or the seller.
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 question is whose interests the instruction serves. If the agent is the client, the report is for the agent. If you are the client, the report is for you, even where the agent made the introduction. Those are different engagements. The firm should be able to say who is instructing them and whether they act regularly for this agent. Asking now is cheaper than discovering later that you never checked.
Get the answer in the terms: client name, who may rely on the report, and any link with the agent. If you are unhappy with the link, choose another firm. Do not accept a verbal promise of fairness while the paperwork names the agent. Tell your solicitor who instructed the survey. An introduction is ordinary. An agent remaining the client, when you thought the advice was yours, is the mix-up to prevent.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Who will instruct you, and whose name will be on the terms as client?
- Do you act regularly for this seller's agent, and in what way?
- Who may rely on the report if the agent made the introduction?
What are the typical next steps?
- Ask who the client is before you accept the agent's surveyor.
- Get your own name into the terms if you are instructing.
- Choose another firm if the relationship with the agent is not acceptable.
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
If you pay the fee, are you automatically the client?
Usually that is the intention, and the terms should say so. Payment alone, if the engagement names the agent, is a muddle to clear before the visit. Ask who instructs the surveyor. Do not assume the person who transfers the money is the person the report will be written for.
Should you refuse every surveyor an agent suggests?
No. You should ask who instructs them and what the ongoing link is. A competent firm can be introduced by an agent and still be engaged by you, on your terms. The refusal, if you make one, is of an instruction that is not yours, not of every familiar name.