House survey, buying the house

dannyp123

Hi, was wondering is it necessary to get the house survey done by the private body when buying house?? How come this house survey is different from the property valuation which the bank does before approving the mortgage?? Please advise.

~Beanie~

A valuation is just that, the lender making sure your property is worth the amount they are lending you. A survey looks at the structure of the house and should tell you if there are any defects like damp, subsidence or dry rot for example

Yorkie1

In addition, the valuation is just for the benefit of the lender and you may not get a copy of the report. The survey is for your benefit. You can either pay an increased fee to your lender in order for the same person to carry out the survey as well as the valuation, or you can instruct an independent surveyor. Your choice.

olly300

The lender will probably chose a valuer from their panel, so if you pay to have a better survey with them it's the luck of the draw whether you will get a good one or a bad one.

MangoStan

When buying a property, the principle of caveat emptor, "buyer beware", applies. This means that if you buy somewhere and find out afterwards that there is something wrong with it that requires expensive repairs, you can't go back to the vendor and complain about it (unless they deliberately concealed it, I think). Therefore, it is your responsibility as buyer to ensure you don't get into such a position and so generally advisable to instruct a survey first to identify any potential problems.

As previous posters have already stated, lender surveys serve themselves primarily; it's not their problem if you then struggle with your mortgage repayments because you are footing bills for unforeseen repairs.

Personally, I think it would be money well spent to be assured that the property you're buying isn't on the verge of becoming a pile of rubble, not to mention anything major could be used as leverage to negotiate some money off the asking price