Do You Need a Home Report When Selling Privately?

If you’re selling your home in Scotland, you’ll need a Home Report. This is a legal requirement and you’ll need to provide one to any potential buyers.  

However, you may be wondering if this is still the case if you’re selling your property privately and not using an agent. The following article will explore just that!  

Home Reports and Private Sales 

In most cases, yes, you will still need a Home Report if you’re selling privately and marketing the property yourself on third-party portals.  

Regardless of if you’re using an estate agent or not, if you are marketing the property in the hope to find a buyer, then you will require a Home Report.  

This means that even if you’re only using websites like Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace, you’ll still need to have a Home Report prepared for prospective buyers.   

When Isn’t a Home Report Required for Private Sales? 

As mentioned previously, you won’t always need a Home Report if you’re selling privately. This only applies if you’re not advertising or marketing the property in any way.  

So, if you’re planning on selling the house to a private contact, such as a friend or family member, you won’t need to commission a Home Report because you’re not technically marketing it. This also applies if you’re selling the house to a tenant on a rent-to-buy scheme. However, we always advise seeking professional advice from a qualified Chartered Surveyor.  

How to Get a Home Report Without an Estate Agent 

You can source Home Reports privately, which a lot of people aren’t aware of. 

The best way to get a Home Report is to go through a private provider, like us. You can request a Home Report yourself and skip the middleman. It’s incredibly easy to do and you won’t need the help of a third party.  

To request a Home Report, get in touch with us here. 

Concluding 

If you’re selling your home privately and you’re actively marketing the property, you will need a Home Report. The criteria that apply here is the ‘marketing’ of the property. This means you won’t require a Home Report if you’re selling the property to a friend, family member, or sitting tenant, however, we do always recommend you seek professional advice.  

To view the full list of Home Report exemptions we’ve written an article about it on our site. If you need to commission a Home Report for an upcoming property sale, you can request one here.