Two Surveys?

russabbot

A colleague of mine is moving house and has decided to go for the 'middle' survey.
She has been told by Lloyds Tsb (Cheltenham & Gloucester Mortgage) that she has to pay them £300 for the bottom survey (in order to them to check that the house is worth what she is getting the mortgage for).

They have told her that if she wants a 'middle' survey doing, she has to get a separate one done and cannot simply "pay the difference"

What's the point of having two survey's done? Has anyone else had similar problems?

Thanks

Debt_Free_Chick

The lender is not getting a survey - it's a simple valuation of the property*. The lender needs one of these to satisfy itself that the property is worth enough, compared to the mortgage. There's no way of getting around this - every lender will want a valuation.

Your friend has then chosen (very wisely, in my opinion) to have a survey - so she needs to pay for this.

* The fees charged by lenders for these valuations are completely rubbish! The actual value of the work done is more like £50! Sometimes, the valuer simply drives past the house to have a look - other times, they don't even bother to do that and just call up several local estate agents and ask them "how much?".

No way around it, sorry

Dan29

In my experience though if the valuation is £200 and the Homebuyer's Report is £450 you'd normally have to pay £250 or £450, not £650.

russabbot

Thanks for the replies - I'll get her to call them back to find out if it is just the valuation. If it is get her to see if the rip off £300 is 'negotiable'

boom

Hi

We were told the same thing by the Halifax / Intelligent Finance. I then phoned up IF to ask and complain, and they stuck to the same story. The lady on the phone said she agreed with me but that was just the way it was... but as it turned out it wasn't!

I then phoned Colleys (who are they surveyors who IF/Halifax insist you use) and they gave me the proper story, namely that it was perfectly OK for you to pay the surveyor an incremental amount to do a "better" survey - be it a homebuyers or a full structural.

It may be worth double checking, as we did, whether it's just that the people you've spoken to are ill informed.

Good luck with it.

kit

I've just got a mortgage through llyods / cheltenham and gloucester (completed yesterday).
They were happy to upgrade the valuation to a home buyers, I paid £500 instead of £300.

I would go back to them and kick up a fuss; if they done it for me, I dont see why they wont do it for you.

Debt_Free_Chick

Whilst it is possible to get the surveyor doing the valuation to do the homebuyer's report too, note that you cannot then choose the surveyor. You will have to use the surveyor that the lender chooses.

That surveyor is primarily working for the lender and, personally, I would prefer to choose and appoint my own surveyor - independent of the lender.

annie-c

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

Whilst it is possible to get the surveyor doing the valuation to do the homebuyer's report too, note that you cannot then choose the surveyor. You will have to use the surveyor that the lender chooses.

That surveyor is primarily working for the lender and, personally, I would prefer to choose and appoint my own surveyor - independent of the lender.

Hello

I had a 'middle' survey done and my experience with HSBC was a little bit different. They had a list of approved surveyors from which I could choose, or they were willing to let me suggest one for approval - they had a long list ones that were already approved. I went with a surveyor from their list but was entirely happy with the choice. He was very clear from the start that he was working for the bank only to the extent that they needed an honest valuation on the property. Otherwise the survey work was for my use. He complied with the bank's requirement of a speedy 'valuation' but then spent an extra couple of days preparing a detailed report, which I was able to discuss with him extensively over the phone -this was immensely helpful as surveyors are bound to point out evry tiny flaw in the body of the report, but over the phone he was willing to give additional advice to point out the most significant aspects to consider.

Following advice frm a conveyancer friend, I used the 'middle' survey to identify areas of concern and followed this up with inspections by a local electrician, damp-proofer and gas-fitter - all costing an extra £25-30 each.