Houzecheck has called for the independent surveying sector to play a central role in the government’s planned reforms to the home-buying process.

The surveying firm argues that buyers should have access to reliable information about a property’s condition before committing to a purchase.

The government has confirmed plans to introduce legislation requiring sellers to prepare property sales packs before a home is listed, including property searches and a property condition report.

The reforms form part of a wider programme intended to make buying and selling homes faster, more transparent and less prone to transactions falling through.

While the government has confirmed that a condition report will form part of the proposed sales pack, the precise scope and requirements of the assessment are yet to be established.

Houzecheck believes qualified, independent surveyors should play a central role in providing this information, ensuring condition assessments are underpinned by professional expertise and give buyers meaningful information about the property they are considering.

However, Houzecheck has also warned that the government will need to consider the capacity required across the surveying sector if condition assessments become a standard part of the home-buying process.

The government’s reforms are designed to tackle longstanding problems within the home-buying process, which currently takes an average of 120 days and sees around one in three transactions fail.

Its proposals aim to move key information earlier in the process, reducing the risk that significant issues only emerge after an offer has been accepted.

But if reforms create a significant increase in demand for surveying services, Houzecheck suggests the industry must have the capacity respond without creating a new bottleneck elsewhere in the transaction, with independent surveying firms being an answer to this.

Commenting on this, Houzecheck commercial director Richard Sexton says: “Giving buyers better information earlier in the process is absolutely the right direction of travel, but the quality of that information will be critical.”

“If we’re asking buyers to make one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives based on a property’s condition, that assessment needs to come from a professional with the expertise to identify the issues that really matter.”

Sexton adds: “The last thing we should do is create a bottleneck in the homebuying process that only slows sales down. If condition assessments become a standard part of every sale, the surveying industry needs the capacity to deliver them quickly and consistently without compromising professional judgement or quality.”