Renegotiating or walking away
You want a price change now and the survey has asked for an engineer before anyone specifies a repair. What specification is missing from that price change?
The specification missing from that price change is the repair the engineer has not yet written. You want a price change now, and the survey has asked for an engineer before anyone specifies the work. A change in price without that specification is a number with no scope. The survey has not designed the repair, has not measured it, and has not turned its request for an engineer into a finished scheme.
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?
An engineer's report, once it exists, is what says what is wrong in structural terms and what work follows. Until then the home survey has only said that this step is needed. Negotiating as if the repair were already known pretends the missing document has been written. RICS material on what to do after a survey is not a bill of quantities. The seller cannot price a repair that has not been specified, and neither can you, without inventing the work.
Wait for the engineer's specification, or agree that any price talk is provisional and will be reopened when it arrives. Tell the solicitor the survey has not specified the repair. Do not present a figure as if it were the cost of a defined scheme. If you walk away instead, that is a different decision, and it still does not invent the specification the report asked for.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What repair specification is still missing from the price change?
- Has the survey asked for an engineer before that specification exists?
- Are you keeping any price talk provisional until the engineer writes?
What are the typical next steps?
- Do not treat a price change as a specified repair.
- Obtain the engineer's writing before the work is treated as defined.
- Tell the solicitor the survey has not specified the scheme.
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 seller offers a reduction, has the repair been specified?
No. An offer is a commercial move. It does not write the engineer's specification the survey asked for. The work is still undescribed, and a reduction does not become a scope of repair. Scope and money remain different things here.
Can the surveyor's concern stand in for the engineer?
No. The concern is why the survey asked for an engineer. It is not the engineer's specification. The home survey has not designed the repair, and the price change still lacks that writing. Concern is not a scheme of work.