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What is a Home Report?
What is a Home Report - A Seller's Guide

What is a Home Report?

A Seller's Guide

Hello

We’re Cameron Stephen & Co, solicitors and estate agents Edinburgh.

What is a Home Report?

If you are selling your property, you will need to have a Home Report. And so, here is our guide to Home Reports for sellers.

What is a Home Report?

Put simply, it is a pack of documents that gives your potential buyers information about your property.

It consists of three parts:

  • A Single Survey
  • An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC); and
  • A Property Questionnaire
  • What’s in the Home Report?

The Single Survey

The Single Survey contains:

  • an assessment of the condition of your property (for example, the roof, internal and external walls, plumbing and kitchen fittings);
  • a valuation of your property in the current market; and
  • an accessibility audit for people with particular needs.

The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)

The EPC gives your home an energy efficiency rating.

The higher the rating, the more energy efficient your property is and consequently the lower the fuel bills should be.

It also looks at such things as:

  • how well insulated your property is,
  • how it is heated and
  • finally gives recommendations of ways in which to improve the energy efficiency of your property.

The Property Questionnaire

This is a form completed by you.

It contains additional information about your property which is going to be important to potential buyers such as:

  • how long you have owned your property,
  • the council tax band,
  • parking arrangements,
  • whether there have been any alterations and
  • whether there are additional factoring costs.

Do I have to have a one?

Yes.

They are a legal requirement if you want to put your property on the market for sale.

How much do they cost?

The cost varies depending on the value of your property.

Typically if you are selling your first home with a value of between £100,000 and £200,000 the cost will be around £480.

You can get them cheaper than this and if you are cost conscious there are surveyors who will give you a Home Report for less than that.

However, not all of those surveyors are on the panel of approved surveyors for lenders (banks and building societies).

So you if you go down that route you may, once an offer has been accepted, be asked to pay for the buyer’s lender’s valuation report.

When do I have to pay for the Home Report?

It has to be paid for when instructed and so it is an upfront cost for you.

How do I get a Home Report?

Usually, your estate agent  will be able to arrange this for you and they usually will have a preferred surveyor who they will choose.

Do I get to approve the Home Report?

Although you pay for it, it is mainly for the benefit of the buying public. As such the surveyor is independent of you and your interests.

So, whilst the draft of the Single Survey and the EPC will be sent to you, it will be more to check for inaccuracies.

The surveyor will agree to make corrections for inaccuracies but will not make changes if they feel that these are not justified.

For example:

  • the surveyor will not add another £20,000 to the value simply because you want that and
  • will not omit reference to evidence of dampness where dampness has been found.

What if the Home Report highlights a problem with my property?

This is up to you.

The Home Report does not impose any obligation on you to fix a problem highlighted.

Some “problems” are more significant than others and may affect how long it will take your property to sell and at what price it will then sell for.

This is best illustrated by a couple of examples.

If there are significant structural issues with your property then perhaps obviously, those issues are going to be important.

They are likely to put off the majority of buyers and might lead to interested buyers having problems getting a mortgage.

In that case, you are probably best to hold of marketing your property until the structural issues have been addressed.

If there is a small area of dampness (a common enough thing) , you can do nothing in which case in a strong selling market that is unlikely to put off many buyers.

For peace of mind, we would recommend you get a Damp Specialist Report to give you (and buyers) more information as to the extent of the problem and the costs of carrying out the required treatment.

Who gets to see the Home Report for my property?

Any potential buyer is entitled to be sent a copy of the Home Report for your property.

And since the Home Report is usually available as a download from the property marketing portals (such as the ESPC) more or less anyone can download a copy of your Home Report (including your neighbours).

Does the buyer have to accept my Home Report?

No.

The buyer is entitled to have their own surveyor carry out an independent survey and valuation but this is rare in practice.

A small number of lenders (banks and building societies) insist that as part of the mortgage application process insist on their own independent valuation.

If that is the case, then the valuation will be paid for either by the buyer or their lender and not by you.

We hope you have found this information useful.

Just a reminder that we are firm of solicitors and estate agents based in Edinburgh offering a great value fixed fee for our estate agency.

We are also members of the ESPC so your property would be marketed there as well as on other portals.

There are some links below so that you can find out a little more about our services.

Want to know how much your home is worth?
Free Home Valuation?

If you would like us to give you an idea of what your home's current value is, then we offer a free, no obligation home valuation service.

Want to know what it is going to cost?
Ask us to give you a quote

If you would like us to give you an idea of the costs and fees involved in selling your home, then that is not a problem

Want to find out more about our estate agency service?

If you would like find out more about our service, you will find out all about our service and what we can offer here