Recommendations scattered through the report
A Level 2 or Level 3 report often recommends further investigations before exchange: have the electrics tested, have the drains surveyed by camera, get a specialist to look at timber, get a structural engineer's view on a crack, check the boiler service history. They are in the report, in the sections for each element, and usually collected in a summary.
Buyers still miss some. Others read them and are unsure who to contact or whether it really matters. They phone your office for names of contractors. Your practice may not want to recommend specific firms, and your surveyor is on site. The buyer exchanges without doing the checks and, later, wonders why nobody made it clearer.
Why further investigations fall through the cracks
- Recommendations are spread across sections, and the summary is easy to skim past.
- Buyers do not know what kind of specialist does what.
- Timing is tight between the report and exchange.
- The buyer's solicitor may not see the list.
- Nobody tracks whether recommendations were acted on.
What it costs buyers and your practice
Buyers who proceed without checks the surveyor recommended. Calls to your office asking for contractors. Frustration when a recommended check is discovered after moving in. And, for the practice, the uncomfortable position of having recommended something the buyer did not take up, with no clear record that it was brought to their attention.
| Recommendation | In a typical report | In the action list |
|---|---|---|
| Electrical test | In the services section | Listed with a plain explanation and type of specialist |
| Drainage survey | In the grounds section | Listed with what a camera survey involves |
| Structural opinion | In the walls section | Listed with the element and photo it relates to |
| Timber or damp specialist | In the interior sections | Listed with advice to seek an independent specialist |
| Status | Not tracked | Buyer marks arranged or done, if they choose |
The action list we build
- When the report is signed off, recommendations for further investigation are collected from every section into one list, with a link back to the text and photo each came from. The surveyor checks the list before release.
- Each type of investigation carries a short explanation your practice has written: what the specialist does and what the buyer should ask for.
- Where your practice's policy allows, the list points to the relevant trade or professional body's directory rather than recommending named firms.
- The buyer receives the list alongside the report, as a page they can share with their solicitor and mortgage broker.
- The buyer can mark items as arranged or done, which some find helpful for keeping track before exchange.
- The practice keeps a record that the list was issued with the report.
Whether to act on a recommendation is the buyer's decision, with their own advisers. The list makes the surveyor's recommendations harder to miss. It does not add to them or change them.
Recommendations that are hard to miss
Buyers see every recommendation in one place, with an explanation that makes sense to them. Solicitors can see the list. Calls asking what to do become rarer. And your practice has a clear record that the recommendations were made prominent, which is better for everyone if questions arise later.
Surveyors benefit too: if the explanations are clear and consistent, they do not have to write them out in full in every report, and buyers get the same helpful wording whichever surveyor inspected.
Do your recommendations get lost?
- Buyers ring asking who to contact about your recommendations.
- Recommendations are spread through the report.
- Buyers' solicitors do not see a clear list.
- Your office is asked to name contractors.
- Buyers have found problems after moving in that the report recommended checking.