A seller in Wales is asked to produce a Scottish Home Report. Which country's marketing rule is being misapplied?

What is the fuller explanation?

The mix-up is common because both nations talk about surveys before a purchase. In Scotland the seller or agent provides the Home Report within nine days of being asked, where it is required, or the buyer can go to trading standards. Urgent items and items needing future attention come with advice to consider cost and get estimates, and a buyer who does not want to proceed can walk away without penalty. None of those sentences is a marketing rule for a house in Wales. Quoting them at a Welsh seller applies the wrong country.

What you should not do is invent a Welsh version of the same pack, or claim an exemption that exists only on the Scottish page. If somebody wants a survey in Wales, they can discuss instructing their own. Your solicitor can say so. Do not promise Scottish labels, a nine-day Home Report clock, or a walk-away sentence that mygov.scot wrote for Scottish purchases. Being asked loudly does not move the cottage across the border. Answer with the country the house is in.

What should you ask your surveyor?

• Has anyone shown you a Scottish checklist and asked you to complete it in Wales?
• Which document, if any, has actually been instructed on this sale?
• Are you being asked to use urgent or future attention as if they were your labels?

What are the typical next steps?

1. Tell the buyer the Scottish Home Report rule does not apply in Wales.
2. Ask your solicitor what this Welsh sale requires.
3. Do not retitle another PDF as a Home Report.

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

Which pages should you read next?

• The seller already knows the drain blocks in heavy rain. What should they not do to that evidence before the buyer's survey?
• The buyer's lender is holding a retention. Can the seller cancel that retention by offering their own builder?
• The seller points at several rating 1 items as a reason to ignore one rating 3. What has a rating 1 not paid for?
• Guide: Should a seller in England or Wales get a survey?
• All UK home survey questions

Sources

• mygov.scot: Buying a home: Home Report
• RICS: House surveys: the costs, types and benefits of an RICS home survey
• RICS: What to do now (consumer PDF linked from the RICS home survey guide)