Seller-side surveys
If you attend the buyer’s inspection and answer questions in every room, does the report become your survey?
No. The buyer’s survey stays the buyer’s survey. Walking round and explaining each room can help with access, but it does not make you the client and it does not let you decide the ratings. In Scotland a Home Report is part of marketing; standing in the room during a buyer’s own inspection in England or Wales does not create one.
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?
Sellers often want to point out a new boiler, a repaired leak or the reason a crack is old. Facts about the building are useful if they are accurate, and papers are more useful than a speech. The surveyor still has to look, and the opinion in the report is theirs, for the person who instructed them. You do not become that person by being present. You cannot tell them to skip a room because you have answered the question, and you cannot later say the report was a joint document.
Give access, keys and documents, then let the inspection happen. If you disagree with a rating afterwards, say so through the agent or your solicitor with your evidence. Do not treat your commentary on the day as a correction already inside the PDF. There is no RICS rule that a seller’s answers replace the limitations section. A buyer who wants their own report is entitled to one that is not a transcript of the vendor’s tour.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Will you record the seller’s explanations as the seller’s comments, not as your findings?
- Which parts will you still inspect even if the seller has an answer ready?
- Are you instructed by the buyer, not by the person showing you round?
What are the typical next steps?
- Help with access, but do not try to steer every judgement.
- Hand over papers rather than relying on what was said in the kitchen.
- Do not tell the next viewer that you co-wrote the buyer’s report.
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 you refuse to leave the room?
Access arrangements are a practical matter. Your presence still does not transfer the instruction or the opinion.
If the surveyor asks you to wait outside, has the survey become hostile?
No. They may need to see and think. Waiting outside does not change who the report is for.