The survey paperwork an Aberystwyth surveyor carries in the van

You finish the inspection in Aberystwyth at half four. Notes in a pad, forty photographs on the phone, a couple of measurements you meant to double-check. Then you drive back, and the report that should take an hour takes three because the notes are half a sentence each and the photographs are in no order.

By the time you reach Cardigan the job has followed you home. The same thing happens on a Lampeter bungalow on Monday and an Aberaeron cottage on Thursday. The survey is done in daylight. The paperwork is done at night, and it is the paperwork that decides whether the week feels finished.

Most reports follow a fixed shape. Condition, defects, what it means for the buyer, what needs a specialist. Different per job type, the same within each type. That shape is the part that can be drafted for you.

The maths (a sketch, not a client figure)

Take one surveyor writing up three reports a week, at roughly two hours of desk time each once the notes are tidied.

• 3 reports × 2 hours = 6 hours a week
• × £45 an hour (assumed rate, an assumption not a real figure) = £270 a week
• × 46 working weeks = £12,420 a year (same assumption throughout)
• With notes turned into a first draft, say half the desk time goes: 3 hours a week back = £6,210 a year on the same assumed rate

The rate is a placeholder to show the shape of the sum. Put your own number in.

Score it: the three checks

• Hours. Two hours a report, three reports a week, all of it after the site visit. It clears the bar on its own.
• Repeat. Each job type has a structure you already follow. If you can write that structure on one page, a first draft can be produced from it.
• Risk-if-wrong. A wrong defect description or a missed caveat is not a typo. It is your professional opinion attached to your name. That decides who checks it: you, every time.

Try one thing this week (free)

Before your next inspection, write the skeleton of that report type on one sheet. The headings in order, in your own words, and what you never leave out. Then log the week with the time leak tracker at tishka.ai/tracker and see what the write-ups actually cost you.

Where a person stays

Software can put your notes and photographs into the right sections and write a plain first pass. It cannot form the opinion. The surveyor reads the draft, corrects the wording, adds the judgement, and signs. Nothing goes out without that signature. Anything touching a valuation figure, a legal point or a compliance matter stays with a named person from start to finish.

FAQ