Surveys + Mortgages

skyela

Hi there

I've had an offer accepted on a property & I'm trying to get everything with the mortgage to go through as smoothly as possible.

I've gone for a mortgage with Abbey, and they was offering a free valuation. I would like to have at least a home buyers survey done on the property, and the broker has confirmed it will be £450 for the home buyers.
I've done a few searches online, and it looks like I can get the survey done cheaper if I make my own arrangements.
Obviously I will still let Abbey go ahead with their valuation which they need, but am I allowed to get another company to survey it too?

Have tried to Google it but I have read things about if they are not recognized by the lender, it will not count, but this may be for the valuation purposes only?

Sorry if it's a stupid question & thanks for any help.

JQ.

Yes, you can get your own homebuyers survery done. It will be yours and nothing to do with Abbey. They will get their own valuation done and rely on that.

With regard to getting your own done - don't just go for the cheapest, a good surveyor could save you £000's if they spot some problems. Ask your friends, or at work, or at the pub, for recommendations.

sonastin

If you get an independent survey to do your homebuyers report, your mortgage lender will still carry out their own valuation. However, if your surveyor spots something that isn't picked up in their valuation, your lender doesn't need to know about it and it won't affect their lending decision. You can make your mind up whether its a problem you can deal with without it affecting your mortgage. If you paid for their surveyor to do the homebuyers report, they'd know everything. In general, it costs more to pay for a valuation + separate survey than to upgrade the lenders survey so you have to weigh up the benefit against the extra cost. But if you're not paying for the valuation, chances are an independent surveyor will work out cheaper. And you can wait until your mortgage offer has come through before you spend money on the survey. Basically win-win all round...