Seller-side surveys
The seller says the heat pump was serviced and cannot find a date. Does the home survey fill that gap?
No. The home survey does not fill the gap of a missing service date. The seller says the heat pump was serviced and cannot find a date, and the inspection did not find a sheet, a dated sticker or any other record that would replace that missing paper. A look at the unit is not a service history. The survey has not decided when the pump was last attended, who attended it, or what was done. The date stays unknown until a document turns up.
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?
Servicing is a record of a visit by someone competent to work on the machine: what they checked, what they replaced, and when. None of that is created by a surveyor noting the model and the casing. The seller's memory, without a date, cannot be upgraded into a log by repeating it in the report. A faded label found later would still be a document, not an efficiency test this survey never ran.
Ask the seller, through the solicitor, for the service sheet or the installer's record, and leave the survey text unchanged if they cannot produce it. A buyer who needs a dated service can commission one. That new visit is not this report. Do not tell a lender the pump was serviced on a date nobody can show. Say instead that the seller asserted a service and that no date was in the papers the surveyor saw.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Did the survey find a dated service sheet for the heat pump?
- Is the seller's recollection being written up as a service log?
- Has any efficiency or refrigerant check been left untested?
What are the typical next steps?
- Leave the service date as unknown.
- Ask, through the solicitor, for the service sheet itself.
- Do not tell a lender a date that nobody can show.
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
Does a clean casing stand in for a service record?
No. A clean casing shows the outside of the unit on the day of the visit. It does not show a date, a filter change, or an engineer's findings. The survey did not convert appearance into a service history. If the seller still cannot find the paper, the gap remains. A later service would be a new instruction with its own record.
Can the agent write the date into the particulars?
The agent can only write a date they actually hold. The survey has not supplied one, because none was found. Particulars that invent a date would not match this inspection. Ask for the document the date is taken from, and pass that document to the solicitor. The home survey still does not fill the gap.