What is a Home Report Single Survey?

A Home Report must contain at least three documents:

1. A Single Survey
2. An Energy Report
3. A Property Questionnaire
   

Almost certainly the most important of these is the Home Report Single Survey.  This is a detailed survey of your home conducted by a qualified surveyor and will contain much more information than was normally provided by the sort of mortgage valuation report that most people used to rely on.

Why is a single survey important?

The Home Report Single Survey will report on the key aspects of your home from basement to rooftop and gives an assessment of condition for each one on a scale from 1 (no repairs necessary) to 3 (urgent repairs are required).  It also provides an estimate of market value.

Although the Home Report Single Survey is instructed on behalf of the seller (normally by the selling solicitor), the surveyor will ultimately be responsible for the content of the survey to the eventual buyer.  If you, as the buyer, think the surveyor got it wrong, you can, at least in theory, sue the surveyor.  As a result, it is in the surveyor's best interests to be as impartial as possible in their report.

Mortgage valuation

In most cases, the Single Survey will be accompanied by a Mortgage Valuation Report.  This is a condensed version of the survey giving the sort of information that lenders commonly required before they make a decision on a mortgage application.  All of the lenders have their own format for this information, but this gives the buyer and their financial adviser an insight into what factors the lender will use to assess an application for a mortgage.

The surveyor will eventually have to provide this information in the format required by the relevant lender. As a result, it's important for sellers to ensure that the surveyor they appoint is on the approved surveyor panel for the great majority of lenders.  Otherwise, the buyer may have to instruct their own Mortgage Valuation Report. 

If the survey for your home features a category three repair, you might want to consider carrying out the repair yourself before putting your home on the market.  However, that may not always be the best solution - it all depends on the cost of the repair and the likely effect on the selling price of your home.  You can rely on a GSPC member firm to advise you on whether it is better to repair or to sell your home as it is.

Read more about what getting a Home Report involves.

Got any questions?

We have started to collate questions ans answers to help but ff you can't find the answers here, send us a note at homereports@gspc.co.uk. We may not be able to reply on-line to each message individually, but we'll summarise the most frequently asked questions and answer them here.

What should I do if my Home Report survey recommends repairs?

Does the Home Report House Price valuation fix the price of my home?