6 minute read
A good phrase library is the quiet engine behind a fast, consistent RICS Home Survey report. A bad one creates the copy-paste reports that get surveyors into trouble. The difference is in how it is built and how it is used.
Most surveyors already have something that looks like a phrase library, even if they do not call it that. It might be a Word document of stock paragraphs, a spreadsheet of defect descriptions, or fragments scattered across old reports. The question is whether that material is actually helping you produce better reports, or just helping you produce them slightly faster. The RICS Professional Standard on the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence in Surveying Practice, mandatory from 9 March 2026, has made that question harder to dodge.
Why generic phrase banks are the problem
The first generation of phrase banks were built for volume. The goal was to drop in a paragraph about lintels, swap a few words, and move on. That approach worked when reports were shorter and client expectations were lower, but it does not survive contact with a Level 3 survey on an altered Victorian terrace.
Generic phrases tend to hedge, repeat, or describe a defect that is not quite the one in front of you. Reviewers, lenders and clients all notice. There is also a regulatory dimension. If a phrase library is feeding an AI tool that drafts paragraphs, the firm is accountable for what comes out, not the software vendor.
What phrase libraries for RICS surveyors should actually do
A useful phrase library is a structured record of how your firm describes recurring defects, materials and conditions. It should make a Level 2 inspection faster without making it shallower, and it should give a Level 3 report a consistent backbone without flattening the surveyor’s judgement.
The library is a starting point, not a finished paragraph. Every entry assumes a surveyor will review it against the property in front of them, adjust the wording, and sign off the final version.
“A phrase library should sound like the surveyor who wrote it, and read like the surveyor who signed it. If a client cannot tell whether a paragraph was typed or assembled, the library is doing its job.”
A working principle for phrase library design
Four steps to build a phrase library that holds up
1. Start with the defects you actually see
Pull the last 20 to 30 reports and list the defects that appear most often. For most residential surveyors, the same items come up repeatedly: settlement cracking, failed pointing, blown render, perished mastic, dated electrics, single-glazed timber units, dampness at low level.
Build the library around what your inspections actually produce, not a theoretical list of every defect in a textbook. A focused library is faster to use and easier to maintain than a comprehensive one.
2. Write each entry in three layers
For each defect, write a short observation, a likely cause or implication, and a recommendation. Keep the layers separate so they can be combined or trimmed depending on whether you are writing a Level 2 or Level 3 report.
This also makes the library easier to maintain. When guidance changes, you update one layer rather than rewriting the whole paragraph.
3. Tag entries by condition rating and survey level
A phrase used for a Condition Rating 2 issue on a Level 2 survey is not the same as one used for a Condition Rating 3 issue on a Level 3 survey. Tagging entries by rating and level helps the right phrase surface at the right time, and prevents the kind of mismatch where a report’s narrative undersells or oversells a defect compared to its rating.
4. Review and prune at least twice a year
Phrase libraries drift. New surveyors add entries, old ones become outdated, and duplicates creep in. A short review every six months keeps the library tight. Aim for fewer, better entries rather than a bloated bank that nobody trusts.
SiteWrite
Your phrase library, working the way it should.
SiteWrite captures defects, condition ratings and photographs during the inspection, then drafts reports from the firm’s phrase library. The surveyor reviews, edits and signs off every paragraph, keeping the firm in control of tone, accuracy and accountability under the RICS AI Standard.
What this means in practice
A well-built phrase library will not write the report for you, and it should not try to. What it will do is remove the friction of staring at a blank page after an inspection, reduce the number of small inconsistencies between reports, and give junior surveyors a reliable house style to work from.
Over a year of Level 2 and Level 3 work, that adds up to noticeable time savings without any drop in quality. For firms preparing for the RICS AI Standard, a tidy, well-tagged phrase library is also one of the easiest pieces of evidence to point to when asked how AI-assisted drafts are governed.
The SiteWrite take
Phrase libraries are not a shortcut to good reports. They are infrastructure. Built carefully, kept current and used as a starting point rather than a finished paragraph, they let surveyors work faster while keeping their voice and their judgement on the page. That is the only version of efficiency worth having in a regulated profession.