Guides
A Scottish Home Report and a French sale file
Buying in Burgundy after buying in Scotland? Map the questions in a Home Report to French documents without assuming they are equivalent.
Contents
You ask for the Home Report on a Burgundy house and receive a bundle of diagnostics, plans and invoices. If your previous purchase was in Scotland, this can look like an incomplete answer. Start with the questions you expected the Scottish document to answer. Then identify where each answer belongs in the French purchase, instead of looking for a French report with an identical title.
Build a three-line comparison
The Scottish Government describes three components of a Home Report: a single survey and valuation, a property questionnaire and an energy report. It also identifies exceptions for certain properties. This is a useful organising model, not a set of Scottish requirements that automatically follows you to France.
On a blank sheet, write condition and value, property history and documents, and energy. Beside each heading, record the French information received and the question it actually answers. Add a final column for what remains unresolved. Several documents may belong on one line; a document’s presence should not automatically turn that line into a tick.
Keep the energy rating separate from the valuation
The Scottish single survey includes a valuation opinion. A French DPE does not become a valuation simply because it appears prominently in the seller’s file. Ask separately what the energy document says about the building and what supports the asking price. An energy letter alone cannot value a garden, a particular position or a useful outbuilding.
For the price discussion, request the relevant property information: the basis of stated areas, the accommodation and dependencies included, the known condition and appropriate comparisons. For a technical statement, ask which evidence supports it. A seller’s account, an agent’s price assessment and a specialist’s observation have different purposes. A well-organised file makes those purposes easier to see.
Recover the questions behind the property questionnaire
In Scotland, alterations and guarantees appear among the questionnaire’s subjects. For a French extension, the corresponding enquiry might involve planning documents, building invoices and insurance evidence, depending on what was done. “The conservatory has been there a long time” describes a recollection; it does not identify an authorisation or a completion document.
Write the precise answer received rather than replacing it with a general reassurance. If a date is unknown or a document has not been found, keep that gap visible. Send questions about rights and deeds to the notaire. A useful comparison sheet can be complete as a record while still showing issues that require an answer before commitment.
Use the French diagnostics for their stated scope
Service Public lists the French sale diagnostics according to the property’s characteristics. Collecting them does not automatically reproduce the Scottish single survey. Our guide to French diagnostics explains the individual documents. First read what is already available, so any additional work has a clear purpose.
If a roof question remains unanswered, identify that question and seek an appropriate technical opinion. If the uncertainty concerns ownership, ask the notaire. Do not expect whichever professional produced the first report to certify every aspect of the purchase. Your comparison should allocate questions, not create an imaginary all-purpose guarantee.
Use the comparison before travelling
A short exchange before a Burgundy viewing can establish which questions require documents and which can be explored on site. Mark each item as answered, awaiting a named piece of information or requiring specialist advice. This is more useful than repeatedly asking whether the whole file is “complete” without defining the decision you need to make.
For a property in Côte-d’Or, contact Shawez Ali, agent immobilier, with the questions and documents you already have. The next discussion can focus on that house’s missing information. Your Scottish experience remains valuable; the comparison helps you use it without assuming that familiar headings carry the same meaning in France.