Age and type of house
You are buying a park home and the survey, if instructed, can see the chassis and the shell. Why does that visit not set the pitch fee or replace the written agreement?
The visit that can see the chassis and the shell of this park home does not set the pitch fee and does not replace the written agreement. GOV.UK's how-to-buy guidance treats park homes as a special case and says to take specific advice. Condition of the parts that were reached is the survey's limit. The fee, the agreement and the site rules are not condition ratings, and this page does not summarise the legislation or invent a figure for the pitch.
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?
A chassis and a shell can be described where they were actually visible: corrosion, a soft floor, a failed seal, a skirt that blocked the crawl. None of those sentences is a pitch fee, and none of them rewrites the agreement you are asked to sign. If the skirt stayed on, the chassis behind it was not seen, and that limit should stay in the report.
Take the agreement to a solicitor who will read this kind of purchase, as GOV.UK points you to do. Do not ask the survey firm to say whether the fee is fair. Do not call the unit a bungalow because a brochure did. The survey, if it goes ahead, still only reports the condition it could see, and it does not stand in for the written agreement.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What of the chassis and the shell could you actually see, and what did the skirt hide?
- Are you leaving the pitch fee and the written agreement out of your condition comments?
- Will the report avoid the word bungalow for this park home?
What are the typical next steps?
- Read the written agreement with a solicitor, not with the survey.
- Do not treat any condition note as a pitch fee or as a substitute agreement.
- Take specific advice, as GOV.UK's how-to-buy guidance says for this special case.
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 the chassis looks sound, is the pitch fee acceptable?
No. The survey does not set or judge a pitch fee. Fairness of the fee sits in the written agreement and in the specific advice GOV.UK tells you to take.
Can the survey replace the agreement if it photographs every page?
No. Photographs are not a reading of the agreement, and they do not replace it. The visit, if instructed, is about condition of the unit.