Information for buyers

About Home Reports Information for sellers Information for buyers

If I'm buying a house...

If I'm buying a house, how will I get copies of the Home Report?

If a buyer is interested in a property, the law states that they should be sent the Home Report within nine working days and will have to pay ‘reasonable costs' for the copying and postage of the Home Report.

You should request the Home Report from the seller or their estate agent. Any costs that you have to pay will be set by the estate agent or the seller.

What should I do if I'm not sent a copy of a Home Report that I've requested?

Bear in mind that a seller does not have to send you a Home Report if they think you:

• Could not afford the house
• Are not interested in buying the house
• Are not a person to whom the seller would wish to sell the house (although they cannot unlawfully discriminate against you).

If you don't fall into any of the above categories, contact your Local Authority Trading Standards Officers who are responsible for enforcing these duties.

If I'm buying a house, will I have to pay anything towards the cost of the survey?

No, the seller pays for the Home Report not the buyer. One of the major benefits of the Home Report is that it means that buyers won't have to commission surveys on properties that they want to make an offer on. They will be able to use the market valuation in the Home Report as the basis for their offer. However some lawyers are already saying they will advise clients wanting to buy a house to pay for their own independent survey and valuation. They claim that the relationship between the seller and the provider of the home report may be too close for it to be truly objective.

Will my mortgage lender accept the valuation in the Home Report as the basis for their mortgage offer?

This is a tricky one. Your mortgage lender will have a list of approved surveyors. If the surveyor, who did the Home Report on the property you want to buy, is on this list of approved surveyors, they should accept the valuation. If the surveyor is not on their list of approved surveyors, they might demand that their own survey is carried out by an approved surveyor.

More questions?

For more information, have a look at the Scottish Government's Home Reports website.

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