Renegotiating or walking away
A structural engineer is still due. Why is completing before that visit a choice this survey has not made for you?
Completing the purchase before that visit is your choice, and this survey has not made it for you. A structural engineer is still due, so their opinion is not in the report. The survey records what it found and what it could not decide. It does not tell you to finish the purchase before the engineer attends, and it does not tell you to wait. That decision sits with you and your solicitor once you have understood the limits. The engineer's conclusion has not been written in advance.
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?
Where a survey points to structure, the next opinion is often an engineer who calculates or inspects in a way the home survey does not. Until they visit, their findings are unknown. They might agree the item is slight, or they might ask for opening-up. Completing while that is outstanding means accepting a purchase with an unanswered structural question. Some buyers do that with their eyes open. The survey cannot weigh your appetite for that risk, and it has not pretended the future visit already happened.
Read the structural sentences with your solicitor and decide, in that advice, whether to wait for the engineer. If you wait, keep the purchase timetable matched to their report, not to a guess. If you decide to complete while they are still due, do it knowing the survey left the question open. Do not tell a lender the engineer has already cleared the defect. Ask the engineer the question the survey could not close, and keep their letter with the papers.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Has this survey decided that you should complete before the engineer visits?
- Is the engineer's opinion already written into the report?
- Who has to choose whether to wait for that visit?
What are the typical next steps?
- Read the open structural point with your solicitor.
- Decide yourself whether to wait for the engineer.
- Do not tell a lender the engineer has already cleared it.
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
Has the engineer already settled the defect inside this survey?
No. The engineer is still due, so no conclusion of theirs is in the report. The survey may have said an engineer should look. That is a limit, not their findings. Movement, strength or repair design stays unwritten until they report. Completing before they attend does not create the missing opinion. It only means you would proceed without it.
Does the survey forbid you from instructing that engineer?
No. The survey does not forbid further advice. Saying an engineer is still due recognises that the visit has not happened. You can instruct them. What the survey has not done is choose the purchase outcome for you. Instruction of the engineer and the decision to complete are yours, with your solicitor. The report does not lock either one.