Choosing a survey level
A friend in England calls your Scottish single survey a Level 3. Why is the Home Report a different product even though someone walked the house?
A Home Report is the Scottish product, not an English Level 3, even though someone walked the house. The single survey sits inside that Scottish pack. An English Level 3 is a different instruction, with a different name, used in a different market. Walking the rooms does not rename the paper. How long a Home Report remains current is not something to invent from an English survey. What you have is the Scottish product described in the pack, not an English Level 3 under another label.
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 is the pack a seller in Scotland provides, and the single survey is the survey element inside it. An English Level 2 or Level 3 is commissioned under the home survey levels used in England and Wales. The same pair of boots in a hallway does not make those products one document. Scope, wording and what a lender expects are set by the product, not by the fact of a visit. Your friend's label imports an English name the pack does not use.
Read the Home Report for what it is, and ask your solicitor in Scotland how lenders there use the single survey. Do not ask an English surveyor to rebadge it as a Level 3. If you want an English-style Level 3 as well, that is a fresh instruction with its own terms, not a sticker on the Scottish pack. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme page is an England and Wales grant route, not a Scottish survey rule, and it has nothing to do with renaming this product.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Is the single survey the same named product as an English Level 3?
- Does walking the house change which survey product you were given?
- Should the Home Report be rebadged because a friend uses an English name?
What are the typical next steps?
- Read the pack as a Scottish Home Report, not as an English Level 3.
- Ask your Scottish solicitor how lenders use the single survey.
- Commission a separate survey only if you want a different product.
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 full walk round turn the single survey into an English Level 2?
No. Level 2 is another English home-survey product. A careful walk is how surveys are done. It does not choose the product name. The paper you have is part of a Scottish Home Report. Calling it Level 2 because the rooms were entered mixes two systems. Keep the Scottish name the pack actually uses.
Can you time-limit the Home Report by borrowing an English rule of thumb?
No. Do not invent how many days a Home Report lasts by copying a habit from England. The pack is current, or not, on its own Scottish terms, which your solicitor can explain. The survey visit shows the house as it was seen. It does not stamp an English expiry on the Home Report.