Service Announcements
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Report updates
We are please to announce some upgrades to a couple of our reports:
Your Leads
This has been updated to show a graphical overview of your leads, by month and service type.
The list of leads remains as before, but to make it faster to load and easier to navigate, is now broken down into pages of 50 leads.
The text filter works as before, and will search across ALL leads in the period selected, not just those in the 50 being displayed, making it really easy to find a specific lead when you need to - the filter checks any text in any field as you type, not just by name or address.
The month selector defaults to the current month, but you can pick any period you wish. If you choose the All Months option, it will return monthly counts for each survey type. By default, the All Months search does not return the individual lead information, but selecting the Show Lead Details option will return all leads, handy if you want to find a lead but aren't quite sure when it might have been generated. Again the text filter will work on the entire list, not just the current page.
Average Fee Tool
The Average Fee tool has been updated to provide considerably more information to help you with your pricing. It was originally designed to give a simple guide to average fees being returned in search results across our site, to help people set their fees, but without acting as a drag weight on fee levels.
Feedback from people using it was that it didn't really provide enough information so it has been ungraded to show:
- Average fees
- Maximum fees
- Minimum fees
- Your own fees
This allows you to easily see where your fees fit in to your local market.
The service, regional, and postcode filters really allow you to drill down into your local competition. The Region setting is helpful as it gives a good indication of average regional pricing and for those targeting more discrete postcode areas you can get a very good idea of your local competition.
The tool uses data from actual quotes generated from active accounts, so is a reflection of real pricing conditions in the current market.
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Survey Type Descriptions Updated
As of today we have updated the internal descriptions of our survey types to reflect the RICS Level designations. Although we had long ago added the RICS Level 1-3 descriptions to the public facing side of our system, we had held off mirroring those in our account administration for technical reasons.
Those new survey names were rolled out with some additional core system updates over the Christmas and New Year 'quiet period', and the changes are as follows:
- RICS Condition Report -> RICS Level 1 Home Survey (Condition Report)
- RICS HomeBuyer -> RICS Level 2 HomeBuyer Survey WITH Valuation
- RICS HomeBuyer (without valuation) -> RICS Level 2 HomeBuyer Survey WITHOUT Valuation
- Building Survey -> RICS Level 3 Building Survey
- Valuation Survey -> RICS Residential Valuation Survey
These new descriptions now appear throughout our system administration and reports. This only affects the naming of the survey types - there is no change to fees or any other data. It should be noted that the change is reflected in all historical and reporting data, which will now show the new naming designations.
Those receiving their leads via an API should have received prior notification, and will see the new names appearing in their feeds going forward.
If you are using the Survey Booker CRM for managing your leads, the change should be seamless, but if you encounter any problems with lead filtering or resulting workflows, you will need to contact their support for assistance.
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Price Change from December 2025
We have reviewed our pricing and have made changes to our pricing structure from December 2025.
The changes reflect the general level of inflation within the wider economy and also to keep in step with the level of average fee inflation charged by surveyors.
We have also taken the opportunity to rationalise our fee bands. During the year, due to the exceptionally low take up rate of surveyors for the RICS Level 1 Condition Report, we have dropped this from our public offer. Band A will now only apply to Valuations. We are consolidating the two RICS Level 2 options (with and without valuation) in Band B. Band C will continue as before with Rics Level 3 Building Surveys, Commercial, and 'General Practice' options. The new pricing structure will be:
Band A (Valuation) : £5.45
Band B (RICS Level 2 Homebuyer with and without valuation) : £5.95
Band C (RCS Level 3 Building Survey, Commercial Surveys, Party Wall, and all 'General Practice' services) : £7.40
All excluding VAT
The new pricing will apply to all leads from the 1st December 2025, with the first payment at the new rate taken on 14th January 2026.
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RICS Level 1 Condition Survey No Longer Offered
Due to the virtually complete lack of interest by surveyors in offering the RICS Level 1 Survey we have stopped offering it as an option to the public, although it remains as an option in our system dashboard.
Because so few surveyors were offering it, the vast majority of Level 1 searches were resulting in 'No results found', which we felt was providing an unduly negative experience for site users.
This, coupled to the fact that analysis was showing that on average there was only a 5% saving on the Level 2 survey fee, and in many cases no saving, and even some where the Level 1 was more expensive than the Level 2, we decided to revert to focusing instead on promotion of the Level 2 survey instead.
We have retained the Level 1 option in our dashboard in case we want to reactivate the public offer in the future, although this is probably somewhat unlikely, as despite having been promoted for a few years, surveyors still seem largely unconvinced by the need for a Level 1 Survey.
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Issue with API feeds
On 3rd March we had an issue with the API feeds on our site, sending multiples of empty 'leads' to all the APIs.
This was the result of a change from the Google ReCaptcha anti-spam bot protection to hCaptcha, which proved somewhat less effective at protecting our system against a bot attack.
Our security protections prevented actual searches taking place, and no actual leads were generated. However, many empty search requests were posted to the API resulting in multiple empty CRM entries.
We can confirm that none of these were recorded on surveyors' accounts and of course will not be charged.
We have introduced some additional anti-spam bot protections to avoid circumvention of the 'I am human' bot check, which should prevent further bot activity.
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Price increase from January 2025
Inflation may be slowing, but it has not yet been eliminated, so regrettably we need to increase our prices very slightly from January the 1st 2025.
The price of leads will increase by 4%, with the cost of a basic band A lead increasing from £4.95 to £5.15 plus VAT. Band B leads will be £5.77 and Band C £6.95
This change will appear in your January invoice, with the first payment at the new rates on 14th February.
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Default Survey Price Matrix Updated for 2025
Following our normal annual review of survey fees we have made some adjustments to our default pricing matrix. This is the default set of prices that are loaded when new survey types are added. This does not affect any existing fees that you might have set on your account.
Our aim is to set our default prices at, or very slightly above, the average fee being charged by surveyors across the site. This is to provide a realistic guide to market prices for new surveyors joining us, or when you are adding new services to your account..
On average, fee levels have increased by about 5% over the last year, with slightly larger increases in the lower price bands particularly in fees for valuations, and notably large variations in fees for higher value properties where we have fewer data points to compare.
Because this does not change existing fees, this might be a good opportunity for you to review your own fees to ensure that you are not falling behind inflation or underpricing against your competition!
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Pricing Structure Change From June 2024
Having stayed with a simple two tier pricing structure for several years, we are adopting a three tier structure from June 1st 2024.
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Website Upgraded
The more observant of you, or at least those who regularly visit the site may have noticed some changes to our website.
The main front facing part of the site has been upgraded, and to go with that we've also given the site a bit of a visual refresh, reverting to some of the colours we used for our initial launch 12 years ago!
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2023 A year in Reflection
As a rather turbulent year for the UK property market draws to a close we thought we'd share with you some of our reflections on the year.
The year past
The impact of the economic fallout of the Liz Truss premiership and the 2022 autumn statement, with its subsequent impact on the economy, inflation, interest rates, and mortgage availability had a notably adverse effect upon property market volumes over the winter and early spring months of 2023.
Also proudly powering the surveyor search on...
All good thanks
Our sincere thanks to Tom (and Alison) at Herongate Surveyors. We were extremely impressed with the service we received throughout our recent house purchase. The team were professional, thorough, and incredibly helpful from start to finish. Tom took the time to explain everything clearly in straightforward, layman’s terms, making sure we fully understood the findings and what they meant for us. Their knowledge, attention to detail, and willingness to answer our questions gave us great confidence and reassurance throughout the process. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to anyone looking for a professional, knowledgeable, and approachable firm of surveyors. An excellent service from start to finish.
The site was so simple to use providing a lot of information enabling me to choose a surveyor. We chose GTA surveyors and we made a good choice. They were so friendly and helpful and in constant communication with us. Our level 3 survey date was booked promptly. Our surveyor, Glen, gave us a full comprehensive report covering all aspects and followed this with a informal phone call covering any questions we had. Would definitely recommend to anyone and would use as again.
Easy to use, returned a good selection of surveyors, one of whom we uased and was excellent
Excellent service. I was able to locate a Surveyor very quickly and booked in within a day. Survey has been completed now.
I was given a list of Surveyors and I selected one which turned out to be to my satisfaction.
Local building surveyors made it super easy & quick to find me someone to do my survey. I provided all the information on Wednesday night, Thursday morning I had several companies contact me with quotes & I managed to book a company for the Friday! Using this site made it super quick & easy, I would highly recommend!!! All the companies that contacted me were certified by RICS which was very important to me too
Site was easy to use, responsive. Property fell through so never used anyone
Very quick, professional service and comprehensive report. Highly recommended.
Easy to set up and initial communication very good. I did however have to chase up the result of the survey but responded well when I did so.
I recently purchased a home survey from Independent Home Survey and was extremely impressed with the service. It was very cost-effective without compromising on quality. Hugo Howe was professional, knowledgeable, and thorough throughout the process. He explained everything clearly and provided a comprehensive report that gave me confidence in my property purchase. I would highly recommend Independent Home Survey, especially Hugo Howe, to anyone looking for an excellent, reliable, and affordable home survey service.
Found a surveyor in fact all were responsive and this service proved a little easier to use than the RICS own web site.
I used SPG Surveyors. Dan arrived at the appointed time. He was very polite, knowledgeable and professional. I would highly recommend.
Having found a good few surveyors through this site, I emailed 5, 3 days ago, still awaiting replies so cannot say for sure if my experience will be a good one.
Very helpful site. Gave me some local surveyors to call and I had an excellent response from all three. Unfortunately my sale fell through so I was not able to proceed.
Very happy with the survey. All the imformation you would want to now of the buiding. Recomend the site if asked how it went.
I found the form easy to complete to get quotes for a building surveyor. 5 quotes were sent through and we did engage one of these to do our RICS Home Buyer 2 survey. This was carried out within a few days. Now waiting for the official report.
I was very happy to find this site, that had all the information needed to review & select a RICS recommended surveyor, namely River Crest Surveyors of Eastleigh. i have found them professional, diligent and very helpful and would recommend their services.
very easy process, a good range of surveyors suggested. The company i picked from that selection was very efficient, helpful and good value.
Straightforward to book. The Level 2 Home Survey was delivered on time and gave invaluable insights with lots of photos and explanation. An excellent service. Highly recommended.
Just amazing! Had a call the day before to talk about the process and if there was anything in particular we wanted to have looked into. The survey came through just 4 days later! Survey was thorough but the review was written well and was easy to understand! I would recommend to everyone! Thank you to Tim!
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