Do I Need a Home Report to Sell Privately in Scotland? (2026)
- The short answer
- Where the duty actually comes from
- What “on the market” means in practice
- The eight statutory exceptions, in full
- The auction question, checked against the law
- “Right to buy” is not an exception either
- Exempt from the Home Report still means an EPC
- The nine-day rule and the three-month rule
- When a cash buyer tells you that you do not need one
- Who each route suits
- Common mistakes and how to avoid them
- An honest word from Julie
- What to do next
The short answer
This is one of the most confidently mis-stated points in Scottish property. You will find sites — including some run by surveyors and auctioneers — listing “sold at auction” and “right to buy” as Home Report exemptions. Neither appears in the legislation. What the law actually does is narrower and, once you see it, much easier to apply: it asks one question about marketing, then gives eight exceptions about the property itself.
Key takeaways
- The trigger is marketing. No marketing, no duty — a genuinely private, unadvertised sale to a named buyer does not need a Home Report.
- “On the market” is broad. A portal listing, a flyer, a window card, a social post or an auction catalogue all count.
- There are exactly eight statutory exceptions in the Prescribed Documents Regulations 2008, and they are about the property, not the selling method.
- “Sold at auction” is not one of them. A residential house publicly marketed for auction in Scotland is on the market like any other.
- Neither is “right to buy”, despite appearing on several published exemption lists.
- If you are exempt from the Home Report you still need an EPC, and the council can fine you £500 for not providing one.
- If a buyer tells you no Home Report is needed, ask them which of the eight exceptions they are relying on — and get the answer in writing.
Where the duty actually comes from
Two documents govern this, and it is worth naming them because almost nobody selling a house in Scotland has been shown either one.
The first is Part 3 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006. Section 98 creates the core obligation: a person who is responsible for marketing a house which is on the market must possess the prescribed documents. Section 99 adds a second duty — to give a copy to a potential buyer who asks — and section 105 gives Scottish Ministers the power to make exceptions by regulation.
The second is the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 (Prescribed Documents) Regulations 2008 (SSI 2008/76). Regulation 4 defines what the prescribed documents are: a survey report which also contains information on energy efficiency, and a property questionnaire. Regulations 7 to 14 then set out the exceptions — and there are eight of them, no more.
The structure matters. The Act asks about marketing. The regulations carve out categories of property. Nothing anywhere in either instrument carves out a method of sale. That single observation resolves most of the confusion in this area, including the auction question below.
What “on the market” means in practice
Because the duty hangs on marketing, the practical question is simply: has this house been advertised to people who were not already identified buyers?
Allied Surveyors Scotland — an RICS-regulated firm with around 30 offices across Scotland — put the boundary plainly in their published guidance: selling privately to a friend or family member removes the need for a Home Report as long as you have not marketed the property, but as soon as you advertise or market it, for example by uploading it to Rightmove or by sending out flyers, you will require one — and that applies even if you are not using an estate agent. They give the same treatment to a landlord selling to sitting tenants under a rent-to-buy arrangement: because the sale was never advertised, no Home Report is needed.
Citizens Advice Scotland states the general rule the same way: most houses or flats for sale need a Home Report, but in some circumstances you do not have to produce one — for example, if you are going to sell your property to a private individual without putting it on the market. They also make the responsibility point explicit: the person marketing the property is responsible for producing the Home Report, and that is the seller unless an agent has been appointed and the responsibility transferred to them.
| Situation | On the market? | Home Report duty? |
|---|---|---|
| Selling to a family member, neighbour or sitting tenant, never advertised | No | No |
| A cash-buying company approaches you and buys direct, off-market | No | No |
| You post it on a Facebook selling group or community page | Yes | Yes |
| You put a card in the window or drop flyers through doors | Yes | Yes |
| A solicitor or agent lists it on ESPC, Rightmove, Zoopla or OnTheMarket | Yes | Yes |
| It appears in an auction catalogue or on an auctioneer’s website | Yes | Yes, unless a property exception applies |
| You were marketing it, then withdrew and sold privately to someone who saw the advert | Yes — it was on the market | Yes |
The last row catches people out. The duty is not retrospectively undone by taking the listing down. If the buyer found the property because it was advertised, it was on the market. This is worth knowing if you are weighing an off-market approach against going to auction or listing openly — the decision about marketing is also, quietly, a decision about a few hundred pounds of upfront cost.
The eight statutory exceptions, in full
These are the complete list from SSI 2008/76, in the order the regulations set them out. If a seller or buyer tells you a Home Report is not needed, one of these eight is the only thing that can make that true — other than the property never having been marketed at all.
| Regulation | Exception | What it covers in practice |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Portfolios of properties | A group of residential properties sold together as one lot, treated as a commercial rather than a residential sale. Allied Surveyors note the exception can fall away where ancillary houses such as lodges are included — worth checking with a surveyor rather than assuming. |
| 8 | Seasonal and holiday accommodation | Property that planning conditions prevent anyone occupying all year. A second home or holiday cottage you could live in year-round is not covered, whatever it is used for. |
| 9 | Mixed sales | Where a house is sold as part of a wider sale — typically land plus buildings — and the buyer is not buying the house separately. |
| 10 | Dual use | Property used for both residential and non-residential purposes. The standard example is a shop with a flat above it sold as one unit. |
| 11 | Unsafe properties | A house that poses a serious risk to health or safety. This is a genuine condition test, not a synonym for “needs work”. |
| 12 | New housing | New homes sold off-plan or to their first occupier — property that has not yet been lived in. |
| 13 | Properties to be demolished | Property with demolition consent in place. |
| 14 | Newly converted premises | Premises converted to residential use and not yet used in their converted state. |
mygov.scot publishes a shorter public-facing version of the same list, adding one point of historical detail worth knowing if you are selling a long-held property: houses that have been continuously on the market since before 1 December 2008, when the regime commenced, are outside it. In 2026 that is a vanishingly small category, but it is a real one.
mygov.scot also sets out a separate and often-missed point. Even where a Home Report is required, a seller can decline to give a copy to a specific person — if they do not believe that person is seriously interested, do not believe they have the funds, or would simply prefer not to sell to them, provided the refusal is not for a discriminatory reason. Refusing one person is not the same as being exempt from having the report.
The auction question, checked against the law
Here is a claim you will find repeated across the Scottish property web, including by firms that ought to know: properties sold at auction are exempt from the Home Report requirement. We have said something close to it ourselves on this site, and we are correcting it here.
“Sale by auction” does not appear as an exception in SSI 2008/76. The eight exceptions are listed above; you can read the contents page of the regulations on legislation.gov.uk in about thirty seconds and confirm it. Nor does the Act carve out auctioneers: section 98 speaks of the person responsible for marketing a house which is on the market, and an auctioneer advertising a residential lot on Rightmove, in a printed catalogue and on their own website is unambiguously marketing it.
So why is the belief so widespread? Three honest reasons, none of which is a legal exemption:
- Much of the auction book genuinely is exempt — on other grounds. Auction catalogues are full of derelict and unsafe property (regulation 11), buildings with demolition consent (regulation 13), shop-with-flat units (regulation 10), landlord portfolios (regulation 7), bare land and plots, and commercial lots. Part 3 of the 2006 Act applies to houses; land and commercial premises are outside it entirely. A seller looking at a catalogue where most lots carry no Home Report can easily conclude the auction is the reason, when the property type is.
- Some auction sales are genuinely off-market. A pre-auction private treaty sale to a named investor, never advertised, is not on the market and needs nothing.
- Buyers at auction rarely ask. An auction buyer relies on the legal pack and their own inspection, not on a survey commissioned by the seller. Because nobody requests the report, nobody discovers it is missing, and a practice grows up that looks like a rule.
The practical position for a Scottish seller is therefore this. If you are selling an ordinary residential house or flat and it is going to be publicly advertised as an auction lot, you should expect to need a Home Report, and you should ask your auctioneer to confirm in writing whether they are treating your lot as requiring one and, if not, which exception applies. If your lot is land, a plot, a commercial unit, a mixed-use building, a portfolio, a genuinely unsafe building or one with demolition consent, there is a good chance no Home Report is required — but the reason will be the property, not the gavel.
None of this makes auction a worse route. It removes a talking point, not an advantage. The real auction advantages — a fixed timetable, a non-refundable deposit, a buyer who cannot renegotiate after survey — are unaffected, and they are set out honestly in our guide to the pros and cons of selling at auction. What it does mean is that if you budgeted for auction on the basis of saving the Home Report fee, you should re-check that assumption against our full breakdown of what it costs to sell at auction in Scotland.
“Right to buy” is not an exception either
The second claim worth retiring is that right-to-buy sales are exempt. Right to buy is not in the eight, and the Scottish right to buy was itself abolished for new applications from 1 August 2016 under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014, so the point is largely historical in any case. Where a social landlord sells to a sitting tenant today by private arrangement, the reason no Home Report is needed is the same reason as for any other unadvertised sale: the house was never put on the market.
Exempt from the Home Report still means an EPC
This is the trap in an off-market sale, and it is a £500 one. Citizens Advice Scotland is explicit: you must provide a free Energy Performance Certificate to potential buyers, and if you advertise the property you must include EPC information in the advert. If you are producing a Home Report the EPC is inside it. If you are not required to produce a Home Report, you must still obtain an EPC separately, from an agency accredited to Scottish Building Standards. Fail to provide one and the local council can fine you £500.
mygov.scot makes the same point from the buyer’s side: if a home does not need a Home Report, the seller must still give you an EPC. So the honest saving from an off-market sale is the survey and property questionnaire, not the whole pack. Budget for the EPC and add it to the rest of your figures in our guide to the cost of selling a house in Scotland.
The nine-day rule and the three-month rule
Two timing rules sit alongside the duty and are frequently confused with each other.
- Nine days to supply. A seller or selling agent must give a Home Report to a person who requests it within nine days. mygov.scot notes that if they do not, you can contact your local council’s trading standards service. That is the enforcement route, and it is a real one.
- Three months at the point of marketing. Citizens Advice Scotland states that when a property is put on the market, the Home Report must be no more than three months old. This is about the report’s age when marketing begins, not a rolling expiry that invalidates it mid-campaign — though lenders form their own view, and a valuation more than about three months old is often re-checked before a mortgage offer is issued.
If a sale drags on and you are asked to refresh, our guide to what a Home Report is and what it costs covers refresh pricing. Timescales generally are set out in how long it takes to sell a house in Scotland.
When a cash buyer tells you that you do not need one
This is where the rule becomes commercially loaded, and it is worth being clear-eyed rather than cynical about it.
A cash buyer who approaches you directly, never advertises the property, and instructs their own survey is stating something accurate when they say no Home Report is needed. The house is not on the market. Some Scottish buyers publish exactly this position on their own sites, and it is correct as far as it goes. It is also genuinely useful to a seller in a hurry: you avoid a few hundred pounds of upfront cost and roughly a week of lead time.
But notice what has moved. In an open-market or auction sale, the survey and valuation are commissioned by you, from a surveyor with a duty to you, and every buyer sees the same document. In an off-market sale to a cash buyer, the only survey is theirs, commissioned by the party whose interest is in a lower price, and you may never see it. That is not sinister — it is how a private purchase works — but it means the saving is real and the loss of independent information is also real.
Two practical protections, neither of which costs much:
- Get your own valuation evidence before you agree a figure, even if it is only comparable sold prices from Registers of Scotland or a free auction appraisal. Do not let the buyer’s survey be the only number in the room.
- Ask the buyer, in writing, whether the offer is subject to their survey. If it is, the certainty you are being sold is conditional, and a reduction after survey is the single most common complaint about quick-sale purchases.
If you are weighing this route, read do cash house buyers offer less in Scotland and how to spot a cash house buyer scam in Scotland before you commit to anything. Our guide to companies that buy houses covers the questions to ask.
Who each route suits
| Your situation | Home Report needed? | What to weigh |
|---|---|---|
| Selling to a relative, tenant or neighbour at an agreed price | No, if never advertised | You still need an EPC. Consider paying for your own valuation anyway so the price is defensible — particularly where inheritance or a family split is involved |
| Approached directly by a cash-buying company | No, if never advertised | Their survey is the only survey. Get independent price evidence and ask whether the offer is survey-conditional |
| Selling an ordinary house or flat at public auction | Expect yes — ask your auctioneer in writing | Budget for it rather than assuming an auction exemption. It does not change the speed or certainty of the route |
| Selling land, a plot or a commercial unit | No — outside Part 3 altogether | See selling land or a plot in Scotland and commercial property auctions |
| Selling a derelict or condemned building | Possibly not — regulations 11 or 13 | These are genuine condition tests. Get the position confirmed by a surveyor, not assumed |
| Selling a landlord portfolio | Possibly not — regulation 7 | Check whether ancillary houses in the lot break the exception |
| Listing openly with an agent or solicitor | Yes | Standard route. The report must be no more than three months old when marketing starts |
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
- Assuming the method of sale creates an exemption. It never does. Only the property, or the absence of marketing, can.
- Advertising “just a little”. One Facebook post is marketing. There is no informal tier below the duty.
- Taking the listing down and calling the sale private. If the buyer came from the advert, the house was on the market.
- Forgetting the EPC. The most common and most avoidable £500 in this whole area.
- Accepting “you don’t need one” without asking why. Ask which exception, or ask them to confirm the property will not be advertised. Put it in writing.
- Treating a buyer’s survey as independent. It is commissioned by them, for them.
- Assuming an exemption saves the full Home Report cost. It saves the survey and questionnaire, not the EPC.
An honest word from Julie
“The Home Report question comes up in almost every conversation I have with a seller in a hurry, and it is usually framed as a saving. It can be a real one. But I would rather a seller understood the trade before they made it than found out afterwards. If nobody ever advertises your home, you do not need the report — that is simply what the law says. What you also do not get, in that case, is an independent surveyor whose report belongs to you. Whichever route you take, know which one you are on.” — Julie McAndrews, founder of Scotland Property Auction
What to do next
If your property has not yet been advertised anywhere, you have a genuine choice, and it is worth making deliberately rather than by default. Read what a Home Report is and what paperwork you need to sell, then decide whether the certainty of a marketed sale is worth the upfront cost in your situation. If you are considering auction, our guide to selling at auction in Scotland and guide price vs reserve price explain how the pricing works, and what happens if a lot does not sell covers the outcome most sellers worry about. Unfamiliar terms are defined in our Scottish property terms glossary.
Whichever route you choose, the legal work has to be done by a solicitor — see do I need a solicitor to sell my house in Scotland. And remember that until missives are concluded, an off-market private sale is no more binding than any other.
Sources for this guide: Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 Part 3 (sections 98, 99 and 105) and the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 (Prescribed Documents) Regulations 2008 (SSI 2008/76), both on legislation.gov.uk; the mygov.scot Home Report guide; Citizens Advice Scotland, “Selling a home”; and Allied Surveyors Scotland, “When is a Home Report not required?”. This is general information about Scots law and not legal advice on your own sale — check your position with your solicitor.
Founder & Director of Scotland Property Auction. Julie has spent over a decade helping Scottish homeowners, landlords and executors sell property quickly at auction — covering Home Reports, missives, repossession and the modern method of auction.
More about Julie →✔ Last reviewed June 2026 by Julie McAndrews. We keep our guides current with Scottish property law and market conditions.