Home Report rules for selling in Scotland

What has to exist before a Scottish property can be marketed?

Section 98 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 says a person responsible for marketing a house that is on the market must possess the prescribed documents in relation to that house. The duty does not wait for a formal listing to appear. Section 101 extends it to anyone acting as an agent for the seller who takes what the Act calls a qualifying action, meaning any step taken with the intention of marketing the house that tells someone it is or may become available, even before it is formally on the market. In practice this covers the point when a seller mentions to a neighbour that they are thinking of selling and asks an agent to informally test interest, and it means an agent cannot treat the requirement as something to sort out once a for sale board goes up. Section 108 defines when a seller becomes responsible for marketing in the first place, which is when action taken by or for the seller results in the house being on the market, and that responsibility only ends when the house is sold, taken off the market, or all such public facing action stops.

What is actually inside a Home Report?

"Home Report" is the working name for two documents defined together in regulation 4 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 (Prescribed Documents) Regulations 2008, not a single document with its own legal definition. The first is a survey report, made up of a single survey covering the surveyor's visual inspection of the property's condition, accessibility and a valuation, and an energy report covering the property's energy efficiency rating and its estimated running and environmental costs. The second is a property questionnaire, completed by the seller rather than a surveyor, covering matters set out in a schedule to the regulations, among them the council tax band, any notices affecting the property, alterations or extensions carried out and whether they had the necessary permissions, specialist work and any guarantees still running, and past damage from things like fire, storm or flooding. Buyers use the single survey to judge the property's condition and the seller's valuation, and use the property questionnaire to see what the seller has actually disclosed in their own words, which is why an incomplete or evasive questionnaire is often the detail a buyer's solicitor raises first.

How quickly must a seller hand it over once someone asks?

Regulation 3 of the same 2008 Regulations fixes the answer precisely, at 9 days, and section 99 of the Act is what makes that period a legal requirement rather than good practice. A seller or their agent who cannot produce the documents within that window, because the survey has not been commissioned yet or is still with the surveyor, is not meeting the duty regardless of how close they are to having it ready. This is the reason a Scottish sale genuinely cannot start the way an English one sometimes does, with photographs and a floorplan ready before anything else is commissioned. The survey has to exist, or be close enough to completion that the 9 day window is realistic, before marketing starts at all.

Which properties are actually exempt?

The exemptions are narrower than the general belief that "new build doesn't need one" suggests, and they sit in regulations 7 to 14 of the 2008 Regulations. A house that has never previously been used as a house or for any other purpose is exempt, which covers most new build sold before a first occupier. A house that has been converted, or is being converted, is exempt if it has not previously been used in its converted state, which covers a genuine conversion but not a house that has only had work done to an existing dwelling. Beyond those two, there are separate exceptions for a portfolio of properties sold together, for seasonal or holiday accommodation, for a mixed sale involving more than a house, for a house in dual use, for a house that is unsafe to survey, and for a house that is going to be demolished. None of these exemptions removes the separate requirement for an Energy Performance Certificate, which still has to exist for an exempt property, because the EPC duty comes from different legislation and is not part of the Home Report scheme it sits alongside for other properties.

What happens if a property is marketed without one?

Section 109 of the Act designates local authorities as enforcement authorities for the Home Report scheme, and section 110 gives an enforcement officer the power to require production of the prescribed documents from anyone who should hold them. Section 111 allows for penalty charge notices to be issued under regulations made for that purpose. This guide has not been able to confirm the current penalty charge amount from a primary source, so it is stated here as a mechanism rather than a figure, and a branch should check directly with its local authority trading standards service, or with the Scottish Government's own guidance, before relying on any number quoted elsewhere.

How does this compare with England and Wales?

England and Wales have no equivalent upfront survey requirement, and the closest thing on the horizon is the sales pack element of the UK government's home buying and selling reform roadmap, which the roadmap itself places in the medium term, pending parliamentary time, rather than the near term non-statutory guidance work also underway. Scotland has required a Home Report since 1 December 2008, which makes it a genuinely different legal starting point for marketing a sale, not a stricter version of the same England and Wales process. The wider disclosure duty that does apply UK wide, including in Scotland, is covered in material information on UK property listings in 2026, and the underlying energy rating requirement referenced throughout the Home Report is set out in EPC rules when marketing a property in the UK.

Document	What it covers	Who produces it
Single survey	Visual inspection of condition, accessibility and a valuation	A chartered surveyor
Energy report	Energy efficiency rating and estimated running costs	Produced alongside the survey
Property questionnaire	Council tax band, alterations, guarantees, notices and past damage	The seller

Frequently asked questions

Does a Home Report expire?

The regulations do not set a fixed shelf life in the way an Energy Performance Certificate has a 10 year validity. In practice a Home Report that is many months old becomes less useful to a buyer and a seller may choose to commission a fresh one if a sale has been on the market a long time, but the legal duty is about possessing the prescribed documents while marketing, not about a report having a defined expiry date, and this guide has not found a source that sets one.

Can an off plan new build genuinely skip the whole process?

Only the single survey and property questionnaire, under the new housing exemption in regulation 12, which applies to a house that has never previously been used as a house or any other premises. The Energy Performance Certificate is still required regardless, since it is a separate legal duty that the Home Report exemptions do not touch.

Who actually pays for the Home Report?

The seller commissions and pays for it, since the duty in section 98 sits with the person responsible for marketing the house, and a seller cannot pass that obligation to a buyer or wait for one to appear before instructing a surveyor.

Does "on the market" include an informal test of interest before a listing goes live?

Yes. Section 101 specifically covers action taken with the intention of marketing a house that tells someone it is or may become available, even where the house has not formally gone on the market yet, which is broader than most agents assume when they think of a soft launch or a quiet word with a neighbour as separate from marketing proper.

What should an agent actually check before agreeing to market a Scottish instruction?

Confirm the survey has been commissioned, or already exists and is recent enough to be useful, before any public facing step is taken, including an informal one. If an exemption is being relied on, identify which specific regulation applies and keep a note of why, since regulations 7 to 14 cover different situations with different conditions rather than one general new build exception.

Sources

• Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, Part 3, legislation.gov.uk
• The Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 (Prescribed Documents) Regulations 2008, legislation.gov.uk
• Home Report, mygov.scot
• Home buying and selling reform roadmap, updated 19 June 2026, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Last verified: 2026-09-07