Bank or Independent Homebuyer's Report?

milliebear00001

My prospective mortgage lender is doing a free valuation of the property I want to buy. I am wondering whether to bump this up to a Homebuyer's Report and pay the extra, or whether to get a separate valuation and HR done as I did last time. My concern is that if the bank surveyor does the HR, it might mean they are more likely to put retentions on the mortgage, or reduce the value of the mortgage offer if they find faults. The advantage of course, is speeding up the whole process and less inconvenience for the vendor.

Any thoughts?

Milliewilly

milliebear00001 wrote: »

My prospective mortgage lender is doing a free valuation of the property I want to buy. I am wondering whether to bump this up to a Homebuyer's Report and pay the extra, or whether to get a separate valuation and HR done as I did last time. My concern is that if the bank surveyor does the HR, it might mean they are more likely to put retentions on the mortgage, or reduce the value of the mortgage offer if they find faults. The advantage of course, is speeding up the whole process and less inconvenience for the vendor.

Any thoughts?

Free valuation means there is no contract between you and the Surveyor if you decide to sue them (yes even on a valuation!!!! before anyone pipes up).

I would bump up to a homebuyers. Anything drastic that affects the value you want to know about anyway?

Richard_Webster

Have a homebuyer's report.

As you have suggested it is a balance of speed and possible costs saving (don't assume this) in having lender's surveyor do Homebuyer's Report and risk they might make retentions etc over matters they wouldn't have spotted if they only did basic valuation. The newer the property the less of a risk this factor is.

Halifax's Homebuyer Report equivalent is not detailed enough and doesn't explain things at all. A Homebuyer's report won't go into mazing detail but it should give you some explanations.

milliebear00001

I fully intend to have HB Report. My only dilemma is whether to get the bank to do it (faster and possibly cheaper) or an independent. I do want to know if there's anything majorly wrong with the property, but don't necessarily want the bank to know that as they may then decide not to approve my full mortgage application figure.

wessexw

The lender might also choose a surveyor who you wouldn't have chosen yourself, I had a valuation done a while back and I was horrified when I found out who the lender had used to do it - I wouldn't have chosen that particular surveyor myself in a million years. By doing your own you get to chose a surveyor that you're happy with.

Richard_Webster

On balance probably better to go for an independent and they might even be cheaper - because bank cases will to some extent be "captive".

Doesn't need to be slow though - you might get it before bank do theirs - although if the house is older there's a case for waiting for the basic valuation done for the bank and then if there is something really awful on it you don't buy house, and you don't bother with more detailed report.

sinbad182

Perhaps that's an explanation. My LTV is 80% and they've been really good.

sonastin

Get quotes for an independent report. Most likely will be cheaper than bumping up the bank's "free" valuation. You can probably get the independent report back quicker as well - you can instruct them based on how soon they can carry out the survey and I believe the RICS guidelines say they should turn the report around in 3-5 days anyway. If you go with the bank, you are waiting for them to process the application, instruct the surveyor, get the survey done, get the report back to you - all of which are outside your control.

NEH

milliebear00001 wrote: »

I fully intend to have HB Report. My only dilemma is whether to get the bank to do it (faster and possibly cheaper) or an independent. I do want to know if there's anything majorly wrong with the property, but don't necessarily want the bank to know that as they may then decide not to approve my full mortgage application figure.

My ex had a homebuyer report done for our house at the time by his bank...It missed the fact that the electrics needed immediate attention and one or two other significant details. Needless to say i paid for a full survey and had to delay the sale as result at the last minute. I can't recommend it highly enough. Home buyers report in my opinion aren't worth the paper they're written on...The costs involved getting things sorted if i had of left things would have more than covered the cost of a full survey.

This may explain things more

http://www.bbc.co.uk/homes/property/moneyandlegal_solicitorsandsurveyors.shtml#property_surveys

milliebear00001

NEH wrote: »

My ex had a homebuyer report done for our house at the time by his bank...It missed the fact that the electrics needed immediate attention and one or two other significant details. Needless to say i paid for a full survey and had to delay the sale as result at the last minute. I can't recommend it highly enough. Home buyers report in my opinion aren't worth the paper they're written on...The costs involved getting things sorted if i had of left things would have more than covered the cost of a full survey.

This may explain things more

http://www.bbc.co.uk/homes/property/moneyandlegal_solicitorsandsurveyors.shtml#property_surveys

Thanks, but I've had homebuyer's reports in the past, and know the pitfalls/caveats they have. A full structural survey is overkill in my view, unless the house is particularly old or decrepit- which the one I'm possibly buying isn't.

Think I will go back to my independent surveyor. I can't find any extra money at all if the bank find stuff to reduce my mortgage valuation over, and there's more chance of them doing this if the same surveyor does the HBR.

Thanks all!

NEH

milliebear00001 wrote: »

Thanks, but I've had homebuyer's reports in the past, and know the pitfalls/caveats they have. A full structural survey is overkill in my view, unless the house is particularly old or decrepit- which the one I'm possibly buying isn't.

Think I will go back to my independent surveyor. I can't find any extra money at all if the bank find stuff to reduce my mortgage valuation over, and there's more chance of them doing this if the same surveyor does the HBR.

Thanks all!

That's a common mistake people make, that modern houses are fine and won't have any problems...Wait until things like drains play up, you find the dodgy electrics some friday guy from the builders have used....I have seen some horrors with modern houses and renovations...

The house i mentioned that the electrics needing sorting and a few other issues that needed immediate attention was only a few years old....homebuyers missed all of that.