Choosing a survey level
You already have a Home Report and you are thinking of a second private survey. What should you ask a firm about what the Home Report has already covered?
Ask the firm which parts of the Home Report it has read, and which defects it would inspect again rather than adopt. A Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to. It is not an English Level 2 you instruct yourself. It already contains a single survey, and usually an energy report and a property questionnaire, prepared under the seller's arrangements. A second private survey is a new instruction. The firm should say plainly what the Home Report has already covered, what it will not reopen, and what you would be paying to have looked at again.
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?
The single survey inside the Home Report is a surveyor's condition report on that Scottish property, written so purchasers can be pointed to it. It is not the same engagement as a private survey you commission in England, and it is not automatically thin or automatically complete. Before you pay for another visit, the firm needs the Home Report in front of it. Ask what the single survey already says about roof, walls, damp and services, and which of those comments the firm would rely on rather than repeat.
Ask what a second survey would add: a particular defect, an outbuilding, or a question the single survey left open. Do not expect the firm to invent a life for the Home Report, or to rebadge it as a Level 2. If you do instruct someone, put in writing that they have seen the Home Report and what the extra visit is for. The Home Report has not, by existing, already answered every question you may now want asked.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which sections of this Home Report have you read, including the single survey?
- What has that single survey already covered that you would not repeat?
- What exactly would a second private survey inspect beyond the Home Report?
What are the typical next steps?
- Give the firm the whole Home Report before you agree a second survey.
- Ask what the single survey has already covered and what it left open.
- Instruct extra work only for questions the Home Report has not answered.
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 Home Report the same thing as an English Level 2 I instruct?
No. A Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to, built around the seller's arrangements. An English Level 2 is a survey you instruct yourself. They can both comment on condition, but they are not the same product, and having one does not mean you have commissioned the other.
If the single survey is quiet on the roof space, has a second survey already been done?
No. Silence in the single survey means that part of the Home Report did not report a roof-space inspection in the way you hoped. It does not create a second private survey. If you want that space looked at, you still have to instruct someone and ask them to say whether access is possible.