Seller-side surveys
The buyer says the rating binds you, the seller, to pay. Where does a private English survey actually sit?
No private English survey binds you, the seller, to pay because a rating says so. The report was instructed for the buyer. It gives that client an opinion of condition. It does not impose a debt on you, and it does not rewrite the price by itself. A rating is not an invoice and not a contract term. You may agree a change if you choose to, through the solicitors. The existence of the buyer's private report does not, on its own, make you liable to fund the repairs.
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?
Buyers sometimes talk as if a condition rating were a demand they can enforce. In a private English instruction the surveyor owes the report to the person who commissioned it. You did not ask for that opinion, and the rating does not become your bill. What the buyer does with the advice is their decision, made with their solicitor, before they are legally bound. They can ask you to contribute. Asking is not the same thing as a rating that already binds you.
If you decide to discuss a figure, keep it to a written proposal about a stated element, sent between solicitors. Do not accept a sentence that says the rating itself creates the debt. You can also refuse. A private report does not compel you to obtain quotations, to reduce the price, or to complete the works before exchange. Any agreement you do make should say what it covers, so a rating is not later described as an open promise to pay.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which element does the rating actually name, as against the whole house?
- Is the comment an opinion of condition, or a direction that someone must pay?
- What did you not inspect that the buyer is treating as proved?
What are the typical next steps?
- Read the rating as the buyer's private advice, not as your bill.
- Put any price talk through the solicitors, in writing.
- Do not agree that the rating by itself creates a debt.
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
Does a rating 3 in the buyer's report force you to reduce the price?
No. It is their advice about condition. It does not bind you, the seller, to pay, and it does not rewrite the price by itself.
Should you ignore a factual mistake in that report?
No. A factual error can be raised. That is different from treating the rating as a debt you already owe or as a promise to fund the work.