The firm number that knows the job.
You're up a ladder when the next enquiry rings. A phone system built into your account routes the call sensibly — to the browser, to a mobile, to the whole team — shows whoever answers the booking it belongs to, and logs it for the firm. No customer ever dead-ends on a personal voicemail again.
How a call reaches you
Five steps from ring to record.
Not a switchboard bolted on the side — a phone system living inside the same account as your bookings, your mail and your reports.
A number that belongs to the firm
A number can belong to the firm as a whole, to a branch, to a hunt group, or to one surveyor — so a sole trader runs everything through a single line while a six-surveyor practice gives everyone a direct line under one main number. Each carries a friendly name ("Leeds office", "Site mobile — Priya") so the call log reads like your firm, not like a telecoms bill.
It rings where you decided
Every number routes one of five ways: straight to the browser dashboard, forwarded to a mobile, cascade — browser first with your mobile as the safety net — to a whole hunt group, or closed with a message you write. Change the route in seconds when today looks different from yesterday: a full site day can send everything to your pocket; an office day can ring the desk first.
Answer in the browser, or on the mobile you already carry
A dial pad lives in the dashboard — answer and make calls from any modern browser, no desk phone, no app to install, no headset contract. On site, calls forward to your ordinary mobile and connect like any other call. If your firm already owns a desk phone or SIP handset, that works too — but nothing new is required to start.
Nobody free? The caller still lands somewhere warm
Each route carries an opening-hours schedule, a fallback number and voicemail with a greeting you record. Out of hours, callers hear your closed message instead of endless ringing. Mid-inspection, an unanswered call rolls to the fallback or to voicemail — and either way it is written into the shared log, so the enquiry exists even when the answer didn't happen.
Logged for the firm, tied to the job
Every call — inbound, outbound, answered, missed — lands in one firm-wide log: who called, when, how it was routed, how long it lasted, who picked up. Switch recording on and the playback sits right there. A call can carry the enquiry or booking it belongs to, so it lives alongside the job in the Bookings CRM — the same way Mail keeps every thread with the job.
The moment it rings
Three rings. Answered with the job on screen.
Watch what the firm sees when a homemover calls back about her Level 2 — and what happens when the first person can't pick up. Illustrative demo.
1 · The call arrives in the browser
The caller isn't a mystery number — the call screen carries the booking, the property and the last note. You answer already knowing why she's calling.
2 · You're mid-inspection — the hunt group takes over
One person's site day never costs the firm an enquiry. The group rings simultaneously, in priority order, or round robin — you choose.
Calls in context
A call belongs on the account, the same way an email does.
No call disappears into one person's phone. The screen that answers knows the job; the log that remembers belongs to the whole firm.
The call screen knows the caller
When a caller already has an enquiry or booking with your firm, whoever answers sees it beside the call — the survey level, the property, the inspection date. "Sorry, who did you say you were?" stops being the first line of every conversation.
One log for the whole firm
Inbound, outbound, answered, missed — every call on the firm's numbers sits in one shared log with who answered, how it was routed and how long it lasted. Recording on? Playback and download live on the same row. Linked to a booking? One click to the job in the CRM.
Where the calls actually find you
Your day doesn't happen at a desk.
A surveying firm's phone rings while its people are in lofts, on ladders and between appointments. The firm line is built for exactly that.
1 · Mid-inspection
The call you can't take
You're at the top of a ladder with a torch in one hand. The firm line doesn't ring out — it moves on: to the team, to a fallback, to voicemail with your greeting.
2 · Between jobs
Answered from the car
Forwarded to the mobile in your pocket, the firm number rings you at the kerb. To the caller it's one professional line; to you it's an ordinary call — logged for everyone.
3 · Back at base
The front desk you never hired
No receptionist, no switchboard, no missed-call anxiety. The browser dial pad, the routing and the shared log do the front-of-house work from a hallway table.
Routing
Five ways to route a number.
Every number gets exactly one clear behaviour — no phone-tree mazes, no "press 3 for surveys". You can change it whenever your week changes.
Dashboard
The number rings the browser dial pad wherever you're logged in. Perfect for an office day — answer with a click, no handset on the desk.
Forward to a mobile
Straight through to the mobile you already carry. The caller dials one professional number; your pocket does the rest. Ideal for full site days.
Browser first, then mobile
The cascade: the dashboard rings first, and if nobody clicks Answer in time the call forwards to your mobile automatically. Office-first with a safety net.
Ring the whole team
A hunt group rings several people — simultaneously, in priority order, or round robin. One person's day off never costs the firm an enquiry.
Closed
Mark the line closed — for the night, the weekend, or a holiday — and callers hear a message you wrote before reaching voicemail. Never a dead ring-out.
One number, or one per surveyor
A number can belong to the firm, a branch, a hunt group, or one surveyor. A sole trader runs one line; a six-surveyor practice runs direct lines under a main number — all routed and logged the same way.
One number, many mobiles
Three ways a hunt group can ring.
Put several people behind one number and choose how the calls are shared. Set the ring timeout and a fallback number for the days nobody can pick up.
Simultaneous
Everyone in the group rings at once and the first to answer takes the call. The fastest way to make sure a ringing phone gets picked up somewhere.
Priority order
One after another, in the order you set — the office manager first, the duty surveyor second, the principal last. Calls escalate instead of scattering.
Round robin
Calls are shared in turn across the group, so enquiries — and the jobs they become — spread fairly rather than always landing on whoever sits nearest the phone.
And when the whole group is busy?
Every hunt group carries its own ring timeout and fallback number. If the timeout passes with nobody free, the call rolls to the fallback — another mobile, another line — or to voicemail with your greeting. It never just rings out, and it is always in the log.
Never miss
Every unanswered call still lands somewhere.
A missed call on a personal mobile is a job that went to the next firm on the list. On the firm line, "missed" is a routing decision — not a dead end.
Voicemail with your voice
Record a greeting, and unanswered calls reach it instead of a robotic default or a personal "hi, it's Dave". The message is the firm's — and the voicemail sits in the shared log, not on one handset.
Opening hours you set
Each route carries a schedule. In hours, the number rings the team; out of hours, callers hear your closed message and go to voicemail. Evenings stop being a lottery of half-answered mobiles.
A fallback number
Set a fallback per route or per hunt group — a partner's mobile, the office line — and calls roll there when the first destination can't pick up. The safety net behind the safety net.
Recording, if you want it
Switch recording on for your account and callers hear a notice before the line connects. Play back or download any recording from the call log — useful when "what exactly was agreed?" comes up weeks later.
How it compares
The firm line vs the alternatives.
Most small firms run on a personal mobile or a separate VoIP contract. Both can ring. Neither knows the job.
| Capability | Built-in firm line | Personal mobile |
|---|---|---|
| Caller's booking shown on answer | Yes — same account as the CRM | No |
| Shared firm-wide call log | Yes | No — trapped on the handset |
| Calls linked to bookings | Yes | No |
| Ring the whole team | Hunt groups included | No |
| Answer in the browser | Yes — dial pad in the dashboard | — |
| Voicemail owned by the firm | Yes — greeting you write, in the log | Personal greeting, one handset |
| Extra contract to negotiate | None — same account | None |
| Cost to start | £0 — number rental only if you add one, quoted upfront | Free, but personal |
Number strategy
Keep your number, or take a firm one.
Nothing here forces a new number on anyone. Start with the mobile you already give out; add a dedicated line when the firm is ready to sound like one.
Keep the number you have
Your existing mobile becomes the forward or fallback destination, and calls reach you exactly as they always have — with the routing, voicemail and shared log wrapped around them. Nothing new to advertise, print or teach your clients.
Best for: sole traders who are the firm, and anyone not ready to change what's on the van.
Take a dedicated firm number
Search and pick a UK number for the firm, a branch, a hunt group, or one surveyor. The monthly rental is quoted before you buy — no telecoms contract, no third-party invoice — and billed through the Home.co.uk account you already have set up.
Best for: firms that want a professional line on the website, the reports and the boards — separate from anyone's personal mobile.
What actually costs money here
Routing, hunt groups, schedules, voicemail, the browser dial pad and the shared call log are all included with your verified account — they're part of the same free platform as Mail and the Bookings CRM. The only thing billed is a dedicated number itself, if you choose to take one — a modest monthly rental, always quoted upfront before you buy.
A morning on the firm line
One inspection. Zero lost calls.
How a two-surveyor firm keeps every enquiry alive through a normal Tuesday morning.
Leaving for site — one tap in call settings
Tom has a Level 2 in Headingley all morning. Before he leaves, the firm number's route is set to the hunt group: him and Priya at the office, simultaneous, first to answer takes it.
A new enquiry rings while he's in the loft
Both ring; Tom's is in his pocket on a beam somewhere. Priya answers in the browser at the office — and because the caller booked online last week, the booking is on her screen before she says hello.
Priya's at lunch — the cascade catches it
A vendor calls the firm line while the office is empty. The browser rings unanswered, the call forwards to the fallback mobile, and Tom takes it at the kerb between the loft and the DPC readings. One professional number the whole way.
Back at the desk, the log tells the whole story
Three calls this morning: who rang, who answered, how each was routed, how long they talked. The enquiry Priya took is linked to its booking in the CRM. Nothing to remember, nothing to relay, nothing lost in anyone's personal call history.
Built for small firms
Sound like a firm, even when you're two people and a van.
Big practices have receptionists, switchboards and someone whose job is the phone. Most surveying firms have two or three chartered surveyors who are also the accounts department, the marketing team and the front desk.
The firm line closes that gap without hiring anyone: one professional number on the website and the reports, calls shared across whoever is free, voicemail in the firm's voice, and a log that means "did anyone call back Mrs H?" has an answer. It's the same trade as the rest of the platform — we take on more of your admin, so the time you sell is surveying.
The spec sheet
Everything the firm line does
Part of the toolkit
The phone is one door. They all open onto the same firm.
Calls, emails, bookings and documents all land on the same job record — whichever way the client reaches you.
Bookings CRM
Every enquiry and booking in one pipeline. Calls attach to the job they belong to, so the phone conversation lives beside the dates, documents and payments.
The firm inbox that keeps every thread with its job. Telephony does for calls exactly what Mail does for email — shared, logged, in context.
Calendars & requests
Live availability that fills your diary without phone tag. The fewer calls that are just "when can you come?", the more the ones that ring actually matter.
Customer portal
Clients see their booking status under your brand, so "just checking in" calls fall away — and the calls you do get are the ones worth answering.
Getting started
A firm line in three steps.
Call settings are already in your account the day your firm is verified. There's nothing to install and nobody to phone — ironically.
Claim your firm
Search for your firm by name or postcode — most RICS-regulated firms are already listed. Claim yours free, and call settings appear in your dashboard once you're verified.
Choose your route
Point calls at the browser, a mobile, a cascade or a hunt group. Record a voicemail greeting, set your opening hours, and decide what happens when nobody's free.
Add a number, if you want one
Keep forwarding to your existing mobile forever — or search and pick a dedicated UK number with the rental quoted upfront, billed to the account you already run.
FAQ
Common questions about the firm line
Getting started & cost
Is the phone system free?
Call settings, routing, hunt groups, voicemail, opening-hours schedules and the shared call log are included with every RICS-verified account at no extra cost. The only thing billed is a dedicated number itself, if you choose to take one — a modest monthly rental, quoted upfront before you buy, billed through the account you already have set up.
Do I need to buy new hardware?
No. Answer and dial from a browser dial pad in the dashboard you already use, or forward calls to a mobile you already carry. A desk phone or SIP handset is supported if your firm already has one, but nothing new is required to get started.
How do I get a firm number, and what does it cost?
From your call settings, search and pick a UK number for the firm, a branch, a hunt group, or one surveyor. The monthly rental is quoted before you buy — there is no separate telecoms contract, no setup fee and no invoice from a third party. It is billed monthly through the Home.co.uk account you already have.
Routing & answering
What are the ways a call can be routed?
Each number routes one of five ways: ring the browser dashboard, forward straight to a mobile, cascade — browser first with the mobile as the safety net, ring a hunt group so several people are tried, or closed — callers hear a message you write and go to voicemail. You change the route in call settings at any time.
Can calls ring the browser first and then my mobile?
Yes — that is the cascade route. The browser dial pad rings first wherever you are logged in; if you don't answer within the ring time, the call forwards automatically to the mobile number you set. Either way the call lands in the shared log.
What is a hunt group and how does it ring?
A hunt group is a set of people who share incoming calls on a number. It rings one of three ways: simultaneous — everyone at once, first to answer takes it; priority — one after another in the order you set; or round robin — calls shared in turn across the group. You set the ring timeout and a fallback number for when nobody in the group picks up.
What happens to a call nobody can take?
You decide the fallback. Send it to a fallback number, or let it reach voicemail where the caller hears a greeting you recorded rather than a dead line. If the line is closed — out of hours, or on purpose — callers hear your closed message. Every one of those outcomes is still written to the shared call log, so the enquiry is never invisible.
Numbers & the firm
Can I keep using my existing mobile number?
Yes. Nothing forces a new number on you — set the mobile you already give out as the forward or fallback destination and calls reach you exactly as before, with the routing, voicemail and shared log added around it. If you later take a dedicated firm number, your mobile simply becomes one of the places it rings.
Can each surveyor or branch have their own number?
Yes. A number can belong to the firm as a whole, to a branch, to a hunt group, or to one surveyor. A sole trader can run everything through a single line; a bigger firm can give each surveyor a direct line and keep a main firm number over the top — all routed and logged the same way.
Can we set opening hours?
Yes. Each route carries a schedule, so a number can ring the team during working hours and switch to your closed message and voicemail outside them. Callers out of hours hear words you wrote, not endless unanswered ringing.
The log, recording & jobs
Are calls recorded?
Only if you switch recording on — it is a setting for your account, not something forced on you. When it's on, callers hear a recording notice before the line connects, and the recording is available to play back or download from the call log afterwards.
Who can see the call log?
The call log is shared across your firm's account — every call on the firm's numbers, inbound and outbound, with who called, when, how it was routed and what happened. It is not a personal call history trapped on the handset of whoever answered.
Can a call be linked to a booking or enquiry?
Yes. A call can carry the enquiry or booking it relates to, so it sits alongside the emails, documents and dates for that job in the Bookings CRM — the same way Mail keeps every thread with the job. Months later, the phone conversation is still findable from the job record.
More tools
Explore the rest of the surveyor toolkit
Otto
AI auto-mode RICS report writer
Dictate on-site, upload photos, get a finished, fully-routed Level 2 or Level 3 report in minutes.
Level 2 Report Writer
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Field-by-field RICS Level 2 reports with inline AI suggestions, image gallery, comparables and one-click branded PDF.
Level 3 Report Writer
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Comprehensive Level 3 Building Survey reports with deep technical sections, custom rating scales and AI legal-adviser notes.
Surveyor Comparable Tool
Sold + rental comps in one click
Auto-fetch sold and rental comparables within a 1-mile radius, weighted valuation range, branded PDF appendix for any survey.
Snagging Report Builder
New-build defect tracker
Build professional new-build snagging lists with location-based defect tracking, photos, urgency, status and PDF export.
AI Dictation
Voice-to-fields routing
Speak observations on-site; AI routes every sentence to the correct RICS field with confidence scores and replayable audio.
Image AI
Auto-categorise survey photos
Upload up to 200 photos; vision AI tags each to the right RICS element, rates condition, extracts defects and picks the best 35 for the report.
Style Profile
Your firm's writing fingerprint
Teach the AI to write like your firm — upload past reports, the AI extracts a 25-dimension writing fingerprint and applies it to every future auto-mode report.
Property Viewer
Pre-survey property intelligence
Look up any UK property and instantly see EPC, energy renovation costs, broadband coverage, environmental risks (flood, radon, mining, landfill), invasive plants, sales history and listing status — all in one dashboard.
Property Data Drawer
EPC + risks + comps in one panel
Open the property data drawer in any report to see EPC, environmental risks, listing history and comparables — copy-paste ready.
Standard Phrases
Reusable language library
Personal, firm-wide and industry-preset phrase libraries — insert with one click and use to train AI routing for voice consistency.
RICS Standards Check
Home Survey Standard compliance pass
One-click AI compliance pass against the RICS Home Survey Standard — flags missing content, weak ratings and structural gaps before you sign the report.
Home Payments
Paid faster, no invoicing
Home Payments mission control — customers pay at booking through a Stripe-verified checkout, payouts land on a schedule you can see, payment links cover your private work, and there is no invoice chasing ever again.
Bookings CRM
Every job, one pipeline
The surveyor CRM built into the platform — Homemove jobs land pre-paid with customer and property attached, enquiries convert to bookings, and the whole pipeline runs from one screen.
Calendars & Requests
A diary that fills itself
Per-surveyor diaries with live availability — keep your dates current and we book real jobs straight in, with inbound availability requests answered in a tap.
The firm inbox that knows the job
A full mail client scoped to your firm — @home.uk purpose mailboxes and per-user addresses, with every thread landing against the booking it belongs to.
Documents & e-sign
Signed before you set foot on site
Terms of engagement sent with the booking, tracked from sent to signed, chased automatically and stored against the job — no more chasing clients to sign.
Customer portal
Your client, never in the dark
A white-label portal under your firm's branding and domain — booking status, reminders and secure report delivery, so customers stop asking where things are.
Website builder
Built by asking, not designing
A firm website built and edited by talking to Inigo — brand and theme sync, a real section library, custom domains via CNAME, and enquiries that land in your pipeline.
Campaigns
Win the next job from the last one
Firm email campaigns with per-recipient tracking — sends, opens, clicks and read time — built on consented lists with one-click unsubscribe handled for you.
Reviews & badges
Proof that wins the next booking
Reviews earned on real completed jobs — scored by the homemover, shown on your directory profile — plus embeddable trust badges that carry the proof to your own website.
Performance
See the pipeline, beat the clock
Firm analytics without the spreadsheets — pipeline conversion, team performance and your own turnaround speed, the fourth lever of your rate.
Inigo
The AI assistant for surveyors
Ask in chat, dictate by voice, or click any element for contextual help — grounded answers on valuations, sales history and market data, inside the platform.
AI Training
Teach it your standard
Upload past reports and press Train — the AI learns your firm's defect language, ratings philosophy and phrasing, and Otto writes with it on every job.
Environmental Report
Every risk, one report
A one-click environmental risk report for any property — flood, ground stability, environmental factors and planning constraints, delivered as a PDF.
Free directory listing. Pay-as-you-go toolkit.
Every RICS-regulated surveying firm gets a verified profile, direct bookings from home.co.uk consumers and the surveyor toolkit included with the account. No subscription. No pay-per-lead. No commission on the job. Pay only when you use the premium AI tools.
2 minute setup · Verified against the RICS register · Trusted UK property platform since 1995