Seller-side surveys
You are selling a house in Wales. Why is there no Scottish-style duty to hand the buyer a Home Report?
There is no such duty because a Home Report is the Scottish product, and a sale in Wales does not carry that Scottish requirement. You are not obliged to hand the buyer a Home Report. A survey you commission while selling in Wales is a private instruction. It is not an English Level 2 or Level 3 restyled as a Scottish pack. The inspection, if you order one, is yours. It is not a Home Report the buyer can demand in that form.
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?
Scotland's Home Report is a seller's pack for most house sales there, with its own prescribed contents. Wales does not copy that arrangement. Calling a Welsh survey a Home Report would muddle two different products and two different sale processes. This guidance does not invent a shelf life for a Home Report, because that clock is not the point of a sale outside Scotland. The name should stay with the Scottish product.
Your solicitor can explain what, if anything, you have chosen to show a buyer in Wales, and what the buyer may still commission for themselves. Do not put a Home Report label on an English or Welsh survey when you speak to a buyer or an agent. If you do instruct a survey, agree its level and who may see it. Nothing in a Scottish-style duty arises merely because the buyer asks for one.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Is a Home Report a Scottish product rather than a Welsh duty?
- Would a survey you commission in Wales be a private instruction?
- Has anyone avoided calling that survey a Home Report?
What are the typical next steps?
- Do not describe a Welsh sale as carrying a Home Report duty.
- Ask the solicitor what you are choosing to disclose.
- Keep any private survey labelled as the product you actually ordered.
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 Wales still instruct their own survey?
Yes. The absence of a Scottish-style duty does not stop a buyer commissioning a home survey of their own. That instruction is theirs, at the level they choose, and it is still not a Home Report. Your decision not to hand over a Scottish pack does not decide what they inspect. The two surveys, if both exist, stay separate.
Is a Level 2 in Wales the same document as a Home Report?
No. A Home Report is the Scottish product. It is not an English Level 2 or Level 3, even if a buyer loosely uses those names. A Level 2 commissioned in Wales is a home survey under that instruction. Do not rename it, and do not treat it as the pack Scottish sellers provide.