New builds and warranties
The plot is unfinished and the surveyor was shown the show home. What of your plot has that visit not described?
It has not described your plot. The surveyor was shown the show home, and a show home is a finished example, not the unfinished plot you are buying. The visit has not described your plot's structure, its incomplete work, its services, its drainage or its boundaries. Do not read comments about the show house as comments about the shell you will actually own. Until someone inspects the plot, the plot is what the visit has not described.
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?
Show homes are dressed to sell. They have finishes, appliances and a standard of completion the plot may not have reached. A surveyor walking that house can talk about that house. They cannot honestly transfer the kitchen, the glazing, the roof coverings or the heating onto a plot that is still open to the weather or still missing rooms. If the instruction drifted to the show home because the plot was not ready, the report should say so rather than pretend.
Ask for an inspection of the plot when there is something to inspect, and treat anything written from the show home as limited to the show home. Do not exchange on the assumption that the two match. Ask the solicitor what the specification says you will get, and do not let the dressed rooms stand in for that document either. Specification, show home and unfinished plot are three descriptions. This visit has covered one of them.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which building did you actually walk, the show home or my plot?
- What of the plot were you unable to describe because it was unfinished?
- Will comments on the show home be labelled so they cannot be read as the plot?
What are the typical next steps?
- Do not rely on the show-home visit as a description of your plot.
- Ask for the unfinished plot to be inspected when it can be.
- Keep the specification, the show home and the plot as three separate things.
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 show home is on the same site, is the plot included?
No. Same site is not the same building. A visit to the show home has not described the unfinished plot, even if you can see one from the other.
Can the agent photograph the plot and call that the survey?
No. The agent's photographs are not the inspection of the plot, and they do not convert the show-home visit into a description of your house.