Renegotiating or walking away
You want the price changed before the structural engineer the survey named has written. What repair specification does that request not yet have?
The request does not yet have a repair specification. You want the price changed before the structural engineer the survey named has written, so the change would be agreed with no description of the work. The survey has pointed at an engineer. It has not written the engineer's scope, the method or the extent. A price move in that gap has nothing technical to attach to. Nothing in the gap is a scheme of work.
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?
Specification is the list of what would actually be done: which wall, which element, what repair, what is left alone. The home survey has said that list should come from the engineer it named, and that person has not written. Negotiating now asks the seller to value a blank. RICS guidance after a survey is about understanding findings and getting the right next look. It is not a priced schedule, and this page will not invent one.
Either wait for the engineer's writing, or mark any price discussion as temporary and reopen it when the specification exists. Tell the solicitor the request has no repair specification yet. Do not lock a deal to a sum that pretends the engineer has already defined the work. Walking away is available, but it is not a specification either. Leave the sum unattached to any invented works.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What repair specification is missing while the engineer has not written?
- Has the survey named that engineer without supplying the scope?
- Will any price talk stay temporary until the writing exists?
What are the typical next steps?
- Do not change the price as if a repair specification existed.
- Wait for the engineer named in the survey to write.
- Tell the solicitor the request has no scope of work yet.
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 engineer is named, is the specification already chosen?
A name is not a specification. The survey has identified who should write. It has not written the repair. The price request still lacks that description of the work, however clear the name is. Clarity of a name is not scope.
Can the seller's builder specify it instead?
A seller's builder can offer ideas, but that offer is not the engineer's specification the survey asked for. Until that writing exists, the price change does not yet have a repair specification from the person the report named. Ideas are not the missing writing.