Do banks charge you to do their survey

verytricky69

Ok so when the bank has agreed to the mortgage they go to the house you want to buy to do a survey to see if its worth the money you want to borrow right?

Do you have to pay for this survey? How much does it usually cost and do you get results? What if they think its over valued- do you still have to pay?

Should we also be doing an independent survey?

A surveyor came to out flat yesterday (we are selling as well as buying) and was here for no more than 5 mins.

Chinkle

How come you have bought previously but don't know the answers to these questions.

Yes, you pay for the mortgage valuation (basic survey) your bank requires. Ask them what the cost of this is - its usually around £300-400.

A full survey is usually recommended if you are buying a house as you will be responsible for its structural maintenance, not so crucial on a flat. You can ask the bank's surveyor to do this at the same time as their basic survey or you can have two seperate ones. Check out costs and decide.

Your buyer probably had the basic survey done if the surveyor was only with you for five minutes.

lottie176

I agree with chinkle, you have to pay. I am going with abbey/Santander and they charge £295. This is just a valuation survey and it is recommended that you carry out another survey that will be more indepth on the property.

puddy

of course you have to pay, you have to pay for everything, every time the solictor, bank or estate agent breath it will cost you money

our survey on this house was 800, i think it was the full structural but cant remember now

sheddy7

As the others have said, you almost always have to pay for the valuation. Sometimes the Mortgage deal includes free valuation but that's pretty rare these days.

The cost can vary quite a lot depending on both the bank and on how much the property you are buying is worth. I think we paid about £170 for a flat valued at £170,000 a few months ago. We also paid about the same again for them to do a Home Buyers Report at the same time, which is worth doing IMHO.

You will get a copy of the standard valuation but it won't tell you anything other than whether it's worth at least the price agreed. They will never say that it's worth more as that does not matter to them, they simply need to make sure it is worth what you are proposing to pay for it. You will only have a problem if they value it as less than the agreed price.

verytricky69

thanks for the replies.- and sorry for the dippy question- I thought this was the case but suddenly doubted myself. My husband bought the flat we were living in before we met and doesn't 100% remember how it all worked last time.

dianah

some banks have valuation included in with the mortgage. i'm with abbey/santander (i should probably say it's offshore - given that lottie's paying for hers) and the valuation's free. there is a booking fee for the mortgage of £495 but that's it.