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Choosing a survey level

You are buying in Scotland and a friend says you must instruct an English-style Level 2 as well as use the Home Report. What does the RICS consumer guide actually say a purchaser can rely on?

The RICS consumer guide says a purchaser can rely on the Home Report. It does not say you must also instruct an English-style Level 2. A Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to. It is not an English Level 2 that you commission yourself as the starting survey. Your friend has added a must that the guide does not contain. You can still choose more advice. The thing the guide says you can rely on is the Home Report, not a second English product stacked on top as a requirement.

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?

Scotland and England do not start from the same survey habit. In England a buyer often instructs a Level 2. In Scotland the Home Report is already the document in the marketing, with its single survey, and the consumer guide points the purchaser to that rather than to an English instruction. Treating the Home Report as optional scenery, and the Level 2 as the real survey you are obliged to buy, reverses what the guide says. No lifespan for a Home Report is stated here, because none should be invented.

Read the Home Report you have been given, and ask your solicitor how it is used in this purchase. If you want a further opinion, that is a choice, not a rule in the consumer guide. Tell the lender what you are relying on. Do not describe an English Level 2 as compulsory in Scotland because a friend was used to buying in England. The guide's point is that a purchaser can rely on the Home Report.

What should you ask your surveyor?

  • What does the RICS consumer guide say a purchaser in Scotland can rely on?
  • Does that guide require an English-style Level 2 as well as the Home Report?
  • Are you treating any extra survey as your choice rather than as a rule?

What are the typical next steps?

  1. Rely on the Home Report in the way the consumer guide describes.
  2. Do not treat an English Level 2 as a Scottish requirement.
  3. Ask your solicitor how the Home Report is used in this purchase.

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 Home Report feels short, must you buy a Level 2?

The consumer guide does not say you must. It says a purchaser can rely on the Home Report, which is the Scottish product, not an English Level 2 you instruct yourself. A short feeling is a reason to read the single survey carefully, and perhaps to ask questions. It is not a missing obligation to commission an English report.

Is the Home Report just a valuation with no condition comment?

No. It is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to, and the consumer guide says a purchaser can rely on it. It is not an English Level 2. Read the single survey inside it for condition, and do not reduce the whole pack to a price. How long the pack remains current is not invented here.

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