Seller-side surveys
The only report on offer was written for the seller last winter. Why is a season-old instruction not your survey this week?
A report written for the seller last winter is not your survey this week because you did not instruct it, and the house has had another season since the visit. The client, the questions asked, and the date all belong to that earlier job. You cannot treat the seller's PDF as a condition report prepared for you now. The old report records what that surveyor saw then, for that client. It has not re-inspected the house this week, and it does not make you the person entitled to rely on those sentences.
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?
Reliance on a survey sits with the client named in the instruction. A seller commissions a report for a selling purpose, often so buyers can be shown something, and that is a different contract from one you sign yourself. Months have passed. Roofs, gutters, damp and services can change with weather and with works done after the visit, and the old pages will not mention what happened later. The season is a reason the findings can be stale. It is not a formal expiry date invented for the PDF.
If you want a report in your name, instruct your own survey and say what the winter report already covered so the new firm can tell you what it will and will not repeat. Ask the solicitor whether you would have any reliance on the seller's survey if a defect appears. Do not negotiate from a document that never had you as the client. The old instruction has not become yours because it was attached to the particulars.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Who was the client for the winter report, and does the engagement name me?
- What might have changed since that visit that this PDF cannot record?
- If I instruct you now, what will you re-inspect rather than adopt from the old report?
What are the typical next steps?
- Treat the winter PDF as the seller's report, not as your instruction.
- Ask the solicitor what reliance, if any, you would have on it.
- Instruct your own survey if you need findings in your name this week.
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 seller emails you the PDF, do you become the client?
No. Sending the file does not rewrite the instruction or put your name on the engagement. The report remains the one written for the seller last winter. You can read it as information. You should not treat that courtesy as a survey you commissioned, or as a promise the findings were updated this week.
Does the fact it was winter make the old report more useful now?
Winter can show damp and weathering that a dry week hides, and it can also miss defects that appear in other weather. Either way the pages are last winter's visit for the seller. They are not a survey of the house this week, and the season does not transfer the instruction to you.