Choosing a survey level
The valuer and your surveyor both attend on Tuesday. Do their notes merge into one report?
They stay separate. Sharing a Tuesday, a key safe or a parking space does not merge the valuer's notes into your surveyor's report. MoneyHelper puts the mortgage valuation with the lender, as their check rather than a structural survey. Your surveyor is writing the home survey you instructed. Two people in the house on one morning produce two documents, unless a single instruction actually said otherwise.
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?
It is easy, afterwards, to remember one conversation on the doorstep and assume both visitors signed the same PDF. They did not, if one was sent by the lender and the other by you. The valuer's notes answer the lender. The surveyor's notes answer the scope you paid for, at whatever level was named. A comment one of them made aloud is not automatically a line in the other's report. If you need a point recorded, it has to be in the report you are relying on.
Ask each firm what they were instructed to produce and when you will see it. The firm sets the timing of its own report. There is no rule that same-day visits are published as one pack. Do not email the agent a blended summary and call it the survey. Read the valuation for the lender's purpose and the home survey for condition, including the limits on what was not inspected. Same-day access can be convenient for the seller. Convenience is not a merger.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Will your report contain only your inspection, and not the valuer's notes?
- Did you and the valuer share any agreed single instruction I should know about?
- Which comments made on Tuesday will be absent from your report unless you write them?
What are the typical next steps?
- Expect two reports from two Tuesday instructions.
- Do not blend doorstep remarks into one supposed joint document.
- Read each PDF for the job that person was sent to do.
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 they arrive in one car, is it one instruction?
No. Travel is not the contract. Ask who instructed each of them.
Can you ask your surveyor to comment on the valuer's opinion?
Only if they are willing to add advice inside their own report. They do not absorb the valuation by being there the same day.