Advice for Buyers

You should ask a seller or a selling agent to let you see a Home Report when you are interested in buying a house. The seller or the selling agent must have a Home Report before a house is marketed for sale.
A seller or their agent must provide you with a copy Home Report within 9 working days. They may make a reasonable charge for copying and posting a Home Report to you.
The duty to provide a Home Report applies to homes that are marketed for sale from 1 December 2008 onwards. Therefore, you may find that some homes are not marketed for sale with a Home Report because they were on the market prior to 1 December 2008.
A Home Report must contain:

• A Single Survey which is a report prepared by a survey provider on the condition and value of a house.
• An Energy Report which will provide you will an energy efficiency rating of a house together with useful advice to cut fuel bills and increase the home's energy efficiency
• A Property Questionnaire that contains further information about the house such as alterations that have been made, factoring costs and council tax banding.

Sellers may refuse to provide a copy in certain limited cases. These are where the seller believes that the person making the request:

• Could not afford the house
• Is not really interested in buying the house
• Is not a person to whom the seller would wish to sell the house (but this does not allow them to unlawfully discriminate against someone

If you believe that you are being denied a copy of a Home Report unlawfully, you should ask your local authority trading standards officer to investigate the matter.