Am I Forced To Use My Lenders Appointed Surveyor?

stevomac

I am currently purchasing a new build property from Taylor Wimpey and have done a part exchange on my current property.At this stage not a single brick has been laid yet my lender Intelligent Finance who I am sticking with wish to have a survey done on the property.They claim the surveyors can complete the survey with the aid of the building plans etc.All sounds very suspect to me as I always assumed a survey could only be done on a completed property.The most annoying part of this is I.Finance have appointed a firm called Colleys (owned by Lloyds Banking Group) to do the survey and are quoting £430 for this service.I have phoned 'IF' to request if I can appoint my own surveyors but they claim I can't.Can anyone advise what my rights are here.Am I duty bound to use their Surveyors or am I at liberty to instruct my own who would no doubt be considerably cheaper!

kingstreet

Lenders charge an admin and valuation fee which is used to make a profit and pay a surveyor of their choice to carry out a basic valuation of the property and an appraisal of whether the property is suitable security for the mortgage.

In the case of new builds, it is usual for the property to be "block-valued" by reference to plans or other properties on the site. In fact, most big developers get an advance block valuation done by the major surveyors to avoid down-valuations before they even break ground.

In the case of the mortgage report and valuation you have no choice. You pay for it and it's done for the lender, by the lender. In this case, IF is an HBoS brand. HBoS owns Colleys and Colleys is the surveyor chosen.

If you'd like to have an in-depth survey carried out on the property by your choice of independent surveyor, you have that prerogative, although builder and lender are likely to ignore its contents.

sonastin

I had to pay Nationwide more for my basic mortgage valuation than I paid my independent surveyor for a full survey. Unfortunately that is just the way the system works. If you want a mortgage, you have to play by their rules.

DVardysShadow

stevomac wrote: »

... my lender Intelligent Finance who I am sticking with wish to have a survey done on the property.

... Am I duty bound to use their Surveyors or am I at liberty to instruct my own who would no doubt be considerably cheaper!

You are getting confused between YOUR survey and the LENDER'S survey.

You have no say in who does the lender's survey, you just pay for it. You can appoint who you like for your survey and have as many as you want. If you are lucky your lender may accept a survey from your own surveyor, but if this is the case, it is just luck that you have chosen a surveyor they are happy with.