Age and type of house
What should you ask if a park home is being sold with an ordinary house-survey quote?
Ask the firm whether the inspection covers the chassis, the skirt and the site, or only the rooms. A park home is not a brick house on foundations the surveyor can infer from a damp-proof course. A RICS home survey format made for houses can miss the point if the quote pretends it is a semi. The survey still will not test the services.
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?
What a surveyor can see is the shell, the roof, the windows, and sometimes the steel underneath if the skirt comes off. Rot in the floor, a twisted chassis and a leak at a joint are condition. The agreement to keep the home on the pitch is a legal paper. The survey does not read the site licence and does not say you own the land. Do not invent a planning class from this page.
Tell the firm it is a park home before you compare fees with a house. There is no RICS national price either way. A lender may have its own rules. The surveyor does not answer the lender. If the skirt was not opened, the chassis was not inspected. Do not call that a pass.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Will you inspect under the home, or only the interior?
- What stays outside your instruction: the pitch agreement, the services?
- Are you using a house level, and what will that miss?
What are the typical next steps?
- Do not accept a house quote that never mentions the chassis.
- Ask the solicitor about the pitch agreement. Do not ask the surveyor to approve it.
- If the skirt is fixed shut, treat the underside as not inspected.
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
Is a park home a PRC house?
No. PRC is a concrete system. A park home is a different thing. Do not use one label for the other.
Does a brick skirt mean it has foundations?
A skirt can be cladding. It is not proof of a house foundation. Ask what was seen underneath.