Buildings Survey / Valuations

tea-towel

Hi,

I was hoping someone would be able to share some knowledge on the below please?

I am in the process of purchasing a late Victorian house. I require a mortgage to do so, and have asked, through the bank, for a full buildings survey. The form that I filled in when replying to bank stated that this included a mortgage valuation.

On Friday I received a terms of engagement letter from the surveyor who the bank have instructed, and one of the terms in this letter was that a valuation is not included, but can be provided at an additional cost.

I didn't fully understand this as it seemed to conflict the inclusion of mortgage valuation on the original form, so I called the bank, who said that a valuation for their purposes will be included. They explained the difference between a mortgage valuation and a market valuation.

Now, I'm not sure I've come away from that conversation with the correct understanding... at the moment, and I was hoping someone would be able to say if from their experience this is correct or not, I'm thinking that the buildings survey will include a survey, mortgage valuation and re-instatement cost (which I'll need for insurance). A market valuation will not be included.

I've emailed the surveyor to enquire as to the additional amount required for the market valuation.

Will I do any harm by asking the surveyor to carry out a market valuation as well and paying them separately for this? Will I need the bank's permission to do this? Any other adverse effects?

And any views on what is included / not included when a bank instructs a buildings survey? Is there any worth in me pursuing a market valuation?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Fire_Fox

What is included in a full structural survey can be found on the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors website: http://www.rics.org/

Yorkie1

The mortgage valuation is for the mortgage company.

A Homebuyers survey includes a house valuation for the buyer, but a full structural survey does not actually include a valuation for the buyer - it's about the structure rather than anything else. So what you've been told is correct, sorry.

Hailstorm

The full structural survey I had carried out on the house I recently bought included a valuation.

G_M

The surveyor will do a full survey for the buyer and a valuation for the mortgage lender.

Sometimes he will share the valuation with the buyer, or the lender will share it. But these are seperate things

tea-towel

Thanks for the answers everyone. I've received the building survey now and it raised a lot of areas for further investigation. I was wondering if anyone has used the site engineersreport.co.uk before to manage further investigations required following a building survey? Feeling quite overwhelmed at the moment with all that has been queried.

Milliewilly

Surveyors are desperate not to be sued so by nature put even the tiniest details in the report that would be quite normal for an old house eg Insulation not upto current regs, wiring, gas boiler etc etc.

It is up to you how you decide to interpret and which ones to act on. If you know someone in the building trade you can trust that would be a good start.