What Is a Home Report?
The survey, valuation and questionnaire Scottish sellers must provide.
Conveyancing Services
Selling a Property: How Conveyancing Works
Selling brings its own legal steps, and they differ markedly across the UK: most notably Scotland's requirement that sellers provide a Home Report before marketing. Here is what each jurisdiction expects of you.
England & Wales
The Process Under the Law of England & Wales
As a seller in England and Wales, your solicitor prepares the draft contract and the standard property forms, the TA6 Property Information Form, the TA10 Fittings and Contents Form, and, for leasehold, the TA7 and a management pack from the freeholder. You gather your title deeds, guarantees, planning and building-regulations paperwork, and any indemnity policies.
Your solicitor responds to the buyer's enquiries, agrees a completion date, and works towards exchange of contracts, at which point the sale becomes binding and the buyer's deposit is held. On completion, you receive the funds, your existing mortgage is redeemed, and keys are released.
Getting ahead
The single biggest cause of delay is missing paperwork. Assembling your deeds, warranties and consents before you market, and completing the property forms promptly, keeps the transaction moving. A leasehold sale needs the management pack ordered early, as freeholders can be slow.
Key Steps in England & Wales
- Solicitor instructed, title deeds located
- TA6 and TA10 property forms completed
- Draft contract issued to buyer's solicitor
- Buyer's enquiries answered
- Completion date agreed
- Exchange of contracts: sale binding
- Completion: funds received, mortgage redeemed
Scotland
How It Works Under Scots Law
Scotland front-loads the seller's obligations. Before you can market the property you must commission a Home Report: the Single Survey with a valuation, the Energy Report, and the Property Questionnaire you complete yourself. This is provided free to interested buyers.
When an offer comes in, your solicitor negotiates the missives. Once concluded, the sale is binding on both sides. Your solicitor examines and delivers the title, prepares the disposition transferring ownership, and deals with the redemption of your existing loan.
At settlement on the agreed date of entry, the price is paid, your mortgage is cleared and the buyer takes possession. Because a closing date can be set when interest is strong, having your solicitor instructed and your Home Report ready lets you respond quickly.
Getting ahead
Order your Home Report early: it takes time to arrange and has a shelf life, so timing it to your marketing matters. If your property is a flat, be ready to disclose factoring arrangements and any pending common repairs in the Property Questionnaire.
Why Scotland Is Different
Scotland has its own legal system. The binding contract is formed by concluded missives, not exchange of contracts; property tax is LBTT (with the Additional Dwelling Supplement on second homes), collected by Revenue Scotland; title is registered with Registers of Scotland; and sellers must provide a Home Report before marketing. There is no CQS scheme in Scotland: firms are regulated by the Law Society of Scotland.
Buying or Selling Across the Border?
Selling in one jurisdiction while buying in the other is common when relocating between England and Scotland. The two transactions run under different rules and often to different timelines: a Scottish sale can bind at conclusion of missives while your English purchase is still weeks from exchange, or the reverse. Flag this to your solicitor early so the dates can be managed.
Common Questions
Selling a Property: FAQs
What paperwork do I need to sell?
In England and Wales, your title deeds, the completed TA6 and TA10 forms (plus leasehold forms and a management pack if applicable), plus any guarantees, planning consents, building-regulations certificates and indemnity policies. In Scotland, you must commission a Home Report before marketing, and complete the Property Questionnaire disclosing flooding, alterations, notices and, for flats, common repairs.
Do I have to provide a survey to buyers?
In Scotland, yes, a Home Report including a Single Survey and valuation is a legal requirement before most residential property can be marketed, paid for by the seller. In England and Wales there is no such obligation; the buyer commissions and pays for their own survey after their offer is accepted.
Can a buyer reduce their offer at the last minute?
In England and Wales this is possible before exchange of contracts, a practice known as gazundering, because nothing is binding until then. In Scotland, once missives are concluded the price is fixed and neither party can change it without the other's agreement, which gives sellers more certainty earlier.
When is my sale legally binding?
In England and Wales, at exchange of contracts. In Scotland, at conclusion of missives, which usually happens earlier. Before those points a sale can still fall through; afterwards, the party who withdraws may be liable for the other side's losses.
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