Choosing a survey level
A Home Report contains both a single survey and a valuation section. Why should you not treat the valuation section as the lender's own mortgage valuation?
You should not treat the valuation section as the lender's own mortgage valuation. A Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to, and it contains a single survey together with a valuation section. That section is part of the Home Report. It is not the valuation your own lender may still instruct, and it is not an English Level 2 that you go and commission yourself. The two ideas of value can differ because they are not the same job.
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 describes the property for people who are deciding whether to buy, inside the Home Report package. The valuation section gives a figure in that same package. Your lender may still want its own valuation, on its own instruction, and may not adopt the Home Report figure. Nothing in the package turns the valuation section into that lender's report. It is also not the English practice of instructing your own Level 2. The Home Report is what a purchaser in Scotland is pointed to.
Ask your lender whether it will use the Home Report valuation section or instruct its own valuation, and ask the solicitor to keep those answers separate from the single survey. Do not assume the figure in the pack is the figure the lender will lend on. The survey material has not become the lender's valuation by being bound in the same report. No lifespan for the Home Report is stated here, because none should be invented.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Is the valuation section part of the Home Report rather than the lender's own valuation?
- Have you kept the single survey distinct from that valuation section?
- Is this pack something a purchaser is pointed to, rather than an English Level 2 you instruct?
What are the typical next steps?
- Do not treat the Home Report valuation as the lender's own valuation.
- Ask the lender whether it will instruct a separate valuation.
- Keep the single survey and the valuation section as different parts of the pack.
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 figure matches the price, has the lender agreed?
Not by that match. A figure in the Home Report valuation section is not your lender's mortgage valuation. The lender may still instruct its own. Agreement on a price does not convert the section. The pack is not the lender's report.
Can you instruct the single survey again as if it were a Level 2 in England?
No. A Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to. It is not an English Level 2 you instruct yourself. The valuation section inside it is not a fresh instruction of your own. You do not recommission it as if it were.