By Dan Knowles FRICS, Director and Registered Valuer, Websters Surveyors
The government wants to overhaul how we buy and sell homes in England and Wales, and one idea keeps coming back to the table: surveys paid for by the seller, prepared before a buyer has even made an offer. As a residential surveyor, the prospect of more instructions should have me celebrating. I’m going to be honest about my reservation anyway. If demand for survey reports jumps overnight, the quality of those reports is the first thing I’d expect to slip.
I’ve spent a good chunk of the last few months talking about exactly this, including a long conversation on The Surveying Shift podcast and on the Scafol Surveying Podcast. Here is where I’ve landed, and what it means if you’re buying or selling a home.
What is the government’s Home Buying and Selling Reform?
It’s a consultation by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) on fixing a sale process that most people already know is too slow. The consultation opened on 6 October 2025 and closed on 29 December 2025. The government’s own figures put the average transaction at around 120 days, with roughly one in three sales falling through before completion.
The proposals are wide-ranging: more property information made available upfront when a home is first listed, the option of a binding contract earlier in the process, mandatory qualifications and a code of practice for estate agents, and a heavy push toward digital tools and data sharing. A roadmap setting out what happens next is expected during 2026. You can read the full consultation on GOV.UK.
Will sellers have to commission a survey under the new rules?
Not yet, and possibly not in the form people imagine. The consultation leans toward sellers providing a “property condition assessment” as part of the upfront information pack, rather than mandating a full RICS Home Survey on every sale. Nothing is law at this stage.
Part of the thinking comes from Scotland, where a Home Report (including a survey) is provided by the seller before marketing, and where fall-through rates are lower than in England and Wales. The logic is appealing: give buyers the condition picture early, and fewer sales collapse late. Whether England adopts something that detailed, or something lighter-touch, won’t be clear until the roadmap lands. So if you’re selling this year, you are not obliged to commission a survey upfront. For now, a buyer’s survey remains the buyer’s call.
What is a seller’s survey, and how is it different from a buyer’s survey?
A seller’s survey is commissioned and paid for by the person selling the home, before it goes on the market. A buyer’s survey is commissioned by the buyer, usually once an offer is agreed. The report can look almost identical. The relationship behind it does not.
When you instruct your own surveyor, that surveyor owes their duty of care to you. They work for you, answer your questions, and have no interest in how quickly the property sells. A seller-commissioned report is produced for someone whose goal, understandably, is to complete a sale. That doesn’t make it dishonest, but it does change the incentives, and it raises a question every buyer should ask: who was this report actually written for, and can I rely on it? Reliance and assignment terms matter here, and they’re easy to overlook in the rush of a transaction.
Why am I cautious about seller surveys, even though they’d mean more work?
Because more demand and better quality don’t automatically travel together. From a pure business view, a system that puts a survey on every sale is a gift to my profession: more instructions, more revenue, more surveyors needed. I’d be daft to pretend otherwise.
My worry is what happens when volume spikes faster than capacity. Some firms will see a land-grab and look to make hay. Reports get turned around faster, time on site gets shorter, and the report itself becomes a tick-box exercise produced to win the next instruction rather than to protect a homeowner. We’ve watched fast-and-cheap win before in property, and the buyer is usually the one who pays for it later, sometimes literally, when a defect that should have been flagged turns into a five-figure repair. A reform meant to build trust could end up doing the opposite if the standard of the work isn’t protected alongside it.
Why does the quality of a home survey vary so much between firms?
Because “a survey” isn’t one fixed thing, in the same way “a meal out” isn’t one fixed thing. McDonald’s and a Michelin-starred restaurant are both, technically, restaurants. Both serve food. Both will fill you up. Nobody seriously believes they’re the same experience, and nobody pretends the price should be.
Home surveys are no different. Two reports can carry the same RICS label, a Level 2 or a Level 3, and be worlds apart in what they actually deliver. One surveyor spends real time on site, lifts the loft hatch, gets into the detail, and writes plain-English advice that helps you decide. Another produces a thin, heavily caveated document in half the time. Same level, same heading on the page, very different value. The label tells you the format. It does not tell you the quality. That gap is exactly what I worry a rushed seller-survey market would widen.
What did Home Information Packs teach us about upfront reports?
That upfront information only works if people trust it. HIPs were introduced in 2007 with much the same ambition the government has now: give buyers key information early to speed things up. They included a condition report, the Home Condition Report.
It didn’t stick. Lenders generally wouldn’t rely on the HCRs because they weren’t held to the same standard as a full RICS survey, so cautious buyers paid for their own survey anyway and ended up duplicating the cost. The packs became an expense without a clear payoff, and HIPs were scrapped. The lesson is the one I keep returning to: an upfront report is only useful if a lender and a buyer can genuinely depend on it. Get the standard wrong and you don’t save anyone money. You just add a layer.
If a seller provides a survey, should a buyer still get their own?
In a lot of cases, yes, and here’s the practical reasoning. A seller’s report may be perfectly good, but you need to check three things before you lean on it: who it was prepared for, whether it can be formally relied upon or assigned to you, and how recent it is.
If the report names the seller as the client with no reliance extended to you, you may have no recourse if something was missed. If it’s months old, the condition may have changed. And if you have specific concerns, about damp, movement, the roof, a particular extension, your own surveyor can look at what you care about and answer to you. Independent advice on the biggest purchase of your life is rarely the place to economise. My honest advice hasn’t changed: have a survey done by someone working for you.
How can buyers and sellers spot a quality surveyor?
Look past the headline price and the survey “level,” and check what you’re actually getting. The single most useful thing you can do is ask to see a sample report before you instruct anyone. A genuine, anonymised example tells you more than any sales pitch: how thorough the surveyor is, whether the advice is in plain English, and whether they actually help you make a decision or just bury everything in caveats. Always ask for one. A firm that won’t show you a sample is telling you something.
Beyond that, a few questions worth asking: Are they RICS-regulated? Do they actually know your area and its quirks? Will they spend proper time at the property rather than a flying visit? And will a real person be available to talk you through the findings afterward? Good surveyors are happy to be asked all of this.
Where Websters stands on all this
We started Websters because we believe a survey should genuinely protect the person paying for it, not just satisfy a process. That belief doesn’t bend with the market. If seller surveys become the norm, we’ll do that work, and we’ll do it to the standard we’d want for our own families’ homes.
One thing we do that buyers tell us makes a real difference: alongside the survey itself, we produce a concise summary report for your solicitor, pulling out the points that matter for the legal side of your purchase. It means the issues we flag don’t sit in a report nobody acts on. They feed straight into the conveyancing, so your solicitor can raise the right enquiries and you’re not left joining the dots yourself. In a reformed system that’s meant to be faster and better joined-up, that kind of practical handover is exactly the standard buyers should expect.
I care about this enough to keep saying it publicly. I talked it through in depth with Louis Blaxill on The Surveying Shift, Episode 6 — “How Seller Surveys Could Reshape Residential Surveying” (also on Apple Podcasts), and again on the Scafol Surveying Podcast, looking at what the reforms mean for the profession and for homeowners. Reform is a chance to make buying a home less painful. Let’s make sure it doesn’t come at the cost of the very quality it’s supposed to deliver.
Frequently asked questions
Are seller surveys mandatory in England and Wales? No. As of the consultation that closed in December 2025, seller-provided surveys are not mandatory. The government is considering upfront condition information as part of its reform proposals, with a roadmap expected during 2026.
Is a seller’s survey as reliable as my own survey? It can be well prepared, but it’s commissioned for the seller. Before relying on it, check whether reliance can be assigned to you, how recent it is, and exactly who the surveyor’s duty of care is owed to.
What’s the difference between a Level 2 and Level 3 survey? A Level 2 (HomeBuyer-style) survey suits conventional properties in reasonable condition. A Level 3 (Building Survey) is more detailed, better suited to older, larger, altered or unusual properties. Quality can still vary between firms within each level.
Why are some surveys so much cheaper than others? Usually because of time on site, depth of analysis, and the experience of the surveyor. A cheaper, faster report often carries more caveats and less practical advice, which can cost more in the long run.
Should I still get a survey if the property looks fine? Most defects that matter, damp, movement, roof and timber issues, aren’t visible to an untrained eye on a viewing. An independent survey is how you find out before you’re committed, not after.
Thinking about a home survey?
If you’re buying, the best protection is still a survey commissioned by you, from a surveyor who answers to you. Websters Surveyors is an RICS-regulated practice carrying out home surveys across London and the surrounding counties, including Hertfordshire, Essex, Surrey, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. We’re rated 4.9 across more than 300 Google reviews.
Not sure which level you need? A Level 2 HomeBuyer Report suits conventional, modern homes in reasonable condition; a Level 3 Building Survey is the deeper option for older, larger, altered or unusual properties. Every survey comes with a complimentary solicitor’s summary report to keep your purchase moving, and you can see exactly what you’d get by reading our sample report first.
Request a quote or call us on 020 8017 1943 for straightforward advice from someone who’ll be working for you.
Websters Surveyors is an RICS-regulated practice providing residential surveys, valuations and home surveys across London. If you’re buying or selling and want a report from a surveyor working for you, get in touch