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Condition ratings

Are condition ratings 1, 2 and 3 used on a Scottish Home Report in the same way?

Do not assume it. A Scottish Single Survey is a different product inside the Home Report. It has its own categories, explained in that document. RICS’s English and Welsh traffic-light definitions are for the home-survey levels used in that system. Read the key on the report you hold.

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?

mygov.scot sets out the Home Report, and RICS says a purchaser can rely on it. Reliance means you take the document seriously. It does not mean you paste English rating 3 advice onto a Scottish category without reading the category. If the Single Survey recommends a specialist, that recommendation is the next step, in the Scottish buying timetable your solicitor explains.

Where the two systems do match is the limit of a visual inspection. Services are not a gas certificate. A roof seen from the ground is not a stripped roof. Those limits are familiar. The numbers might not be. Quote the Scottish form’s own words in any letter. Do not translate them to a 3 to sound more urgent.

What should you ask your surveyor?

  • If you also work in England, which words on this Scottish form match the point you would have rated?
  • What does this form say was not inspected?
  • Who may rely on this Home Report?

What are the typical next steps?

  1. Read the key on the Single Survey before you use English rating language.
  2. Ask a Scottish solicitor how to use the report in the offer.
  3. If you need English-style extra investigation, ask a surveyor in Scotland what instruction is possible. Do not invent a Level 3 booking that the system does not use.

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

Can a buyer in England receive a Home Report?

Only if someone chooses to use that Scottish document, which is not the normal English process. Your English Level 2 is not a Home Report.

Does reliance mean every sentence is a guarantee?

No. It means the purchaser can rely on the report, as RICS describes. The report still has limits. Read them.

Sources