Seller-side surveys
In Scotland the seller provides the Home Report. Why is that still not the same as you instructing a private Level 2 in England?
Because a Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to, provided because the seller must obtain it. It is not an English Level 2 you instruct yourself. In Scotland the seller commissions the pack before marketing, and you are pointed to that pack. In England a private Level 2 is your instruction, on your terms, of a surveyor you appoint. The fact that both involve someone looking at a house does not make them the same product, the same client relationship, or the same country practice. You did not instruct the Home Report. You are offered it.
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 Home Report contains the single survey and the other Scottish parts. A purchaser is pointed to that pack rather than starting with an English Level 2, chosen and addressed to them alone. Reliance follows the Scottish product. It is not created by pretending the pack is the engagement you would have signed in England. The seller providing it is the point. The instruction began with the seller, not with you.
Use the Home Report for what it is, and ask a Scottish solicitor how it fits this purchase. If you want something more, discuss that as a further instruction, not as a conversion into an English Level 2. Do not invent how long a Home Report lasts, and do not ask the seller to reissue the pack as if they were your English surveyor. Who instructed it, and what the product is, are why it is not your private Level 2.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Who provided the Home Report, and who would instruct an English Level 2?
- Is the pack the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to?
- Have you treated it as a private survey you commissioned yourself?
What are the typical next steps?
- Use the Home Report as the Scottish pack, not as your English Level 2.
- Ask a Scottish solicitor how the pack fits this purchase.
- Treat any extra inspection as a new instruction.
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 you pay the seller's agent a fee, have you instructed the Home Report?
No. A fee in the transaction is not the engagement for the pack. The seller provides the Home Report. A Home Report is the Scottish product a purchaser is pointed to. It is not an English Level 2 you instruct yourself, even if money moves around the sale.
Can you ask the Home Report author to rewrite it as a Level 2 in your name?
That would be a different product and a different instruction, not a relabelling. The pack the seller provided stays a Home Report. It does not become the private English Level 2 you did not instruct. If you want another survey, that request has to be its own terms.