The seller's contribution offer expires on Friday and exchange is planned later. What should the solicitor record before Friday?

What is the fuller explanation?

Short deadlines are how offers get accepted before anyone has checked the scope. Rating 3 means obtain written quotations before you enter a legal commitment. It does not order you to withdraw, and it does not turn a Friday expiry into a reason to skip the quotation. If you do not yet have a written price for the element, say that in the note the solicitor keeps. Accepting a round contribution with no description can leave you unable to show what was settled when exchange is still ahead.

The record should also say who made the offer, whether it was oral or written, and that What to do now is advice to the buyer rather than an invoice to the seller. If the contribution is meant to replace a repair the seller will not do, the solicitor needs that stated. If it is only a goodwill sum with no link to the rated element, it should not be described as closing the rating. Exchange planned for a later date does not, by itself, carry an expired side offer into the contract.

What should you ask your surveyor?

• Which element is the contribution said to cover, in your wording?
• Does the report still need a written quotation before commitment, even if a sum is offered?
• What would you want the solicitor to preserve if the offer lapses?

What are the typical next steps?

1. Ask the solicitor to write down the offer, its scope and the Friday limit.
2. Do not accept it only because the agent named a weekday.
3. Keep any later contract wording tied to that written record.

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

Which pages should you read next?

• The seller will repair the gutter and wants you to drop a separate demand about the roof covering. How do you avoid paying for the gutter twice?
• There is no mortgage, so there is no lender retention. Does that make a condition rating 3 safer to ignore?
• Can the floors be condition rating 1 if the surveyor did not lift the fitted carpets?
• Guide: Should you renegotiate, or walk away?
• All UK home survey questions

Sources

• RICS: What to do now (consumer PDF linked from the RICS home survey guide)
• RICS: House surveys: the costs, types and benefits of an RICS home survey
• RICS: Description of the RICS Home Survey Level 3 (condition rating definitions)