NatWest Mortgages & Homebuyers report

haziec

Hi everyone,

anyone know how long it takes NatWest to get a Homebuyers report done?

They are instructing them today and said it will probably be done next week.

Do you know which surveyors they use?

and also how long before we hear if the property is OK and do they verbally tell us this before we get the written report??

thanks a lot;)

cattie

Lenders tend to have a panel of surveyors & will allocate the work to one of the members on their panel.

The lender will be having a valuation carried out as the same time as your homebuyer's report is done. Once they have received this from the surveyor, you will hear from them regarding your mortgage on the property. This probably will be before you've had the homebuyer's report back. You wont be told anything verbally.

Some surveyors are quick in getting the homebuyer's report typed up, others can be slow. I made a recent post on here about being kept waiting for over 3 weeks in one instance a few years back. Usually you should have the report in 10 days or so after the surveyor has looked at the property, depending on just how busy the surveyor's office is.

ad44downey

cattie wrote: »

The lender will be having a valuation carried out as the same time as your homebuyer's report is done. .

So it's the surveyor who also does the valuation? Can you just employ a surveyor to do a valuation alone if you didn't need a mortgage?

cattie

Yes you can just employ a surveyor for valuation only. Unless he is particularly familiar with the area he will usually check with local agents to see what the average price of the type/style of property is before arriving at his figure.

In reality, you could do this comparrison yourself for free, so no need to waste money when no mortgage is involved.

haziec

Thanks Cattie, I hope they give them the name of the surveyor so they can chase him.
I suppose the mortgage offer can be sent to the solicitor so he can get on with the job, pending the homebuyers report?

Sammy85_2

Hi,

We have just had our survey done. The mortgage is with Natwest and we went for homebuyers report too, so i thought i'd share my experience with you.

We paid the survey fees to the bank on the monday afternoon, the surveyors called the next morning to find out how to get access to the property and the survey was carried out 2 days after that.

5 days after the survey we got a phone call from the bank regarding the mortgage. They gave us a run-down of the survey over the phone but i presume this was only because they were not prepared to lend the full amount we had asked for and wanted to explain why.

Basically the surveyor had undervalued by £15k, stating that the house didnt meet current building regulations as reasoning for this. (the house is 40yrs old. Are they expecting homeowners to rebuild everytime the regs change??)


I personnally think the surveyor is undervaluing to give the bank a bigger buffer should prices continue to fall, rather than an accurate valuation of the property at the time of the survey. At the originally agreed sale price the house was already cheaper than anything comparable in the area and 20% cheaper than a near identical house we almost bought last summer (lucky escape! although at the time i was gutted that we didnt get it)

Luckily we're still able to proceed as everyone in the chain has agreed to reduce prices. We couldnt have afforded the shortfall even if we wanted to.

This particular surveyor appears to work for a number of different banks.

The vendors have had the survey done on their new house, different bank but same surveyor. They also were undervalued by £15k.

Our agents say that they have had a number of sales fall through in the last few weeks because of this one particular surveyor, and they are currently contesting 5 of his valuations.


Its now been a week since the bank called us, so almost 2 weeks since the survey, and no sign of the homebuyers report yet! A little annoying as the agents/vendors want to see the report as part of the price re-negotiations.



Good luck with your survey!

haziec

sounds very worrying Sammy, I hope things progress quickly for you now, have you been chasing for the report? If so, who do you chase the surveyor or NatWest?
How did you find out about the surveyor working for different banks and undervaluing? thats very useful information to get.

thanks for your help and good luck, I hope you get some good news soon.

Sammy85_2

Hi,

I havent chaised for the report yet. With our last property purchase took 2-3 weeks to get the report through, so i think its pretty normal. It just happens that we could do with them being a bit quicker this time.

I spoke to the vendors directly regarding the survey and they told me that they had the same surveyor (they were home when he surveyed their house and he let slip he had done another house - their new purchase!).

I also spoke to their agents who told me about other valuations that they have had, and that its causing them problems. "They market properties at their current value and are not overpricing etc etc" . Obviously they arent working for me, so i called my agents with whom i have a good relationship and they confirmed that they are having the same problem with this same surveyor.

haziec

Thanks Sammy, its a very stressful business, the money has not been taken out of my bank for the survey yet, so just a case of waiting. I don't want to annoy NatWest but I feel like calling them every day to push it (whether or not that would make any difference is debatable) !

haziec

Sammy, could i just ask what area you are buying in??
Wondering if our area (Hertfordshire) has been subject to a similar drop in prices.

silvercar

HAZIEC wrote: »

Sammy, could i just ask what area you are buying in??
Wondering if our area (Hertfordshire) has been subject to a similar drop in prices.

Parts have, parts are more robust, whereabouts?