Halifax Survey - why am I paying twice?

deaston

So I've paid Halifax £735 for the valuation survey. The mortgage advisor said I'd need to pay the extra for the building survey to the actual surveyors.

This morning, I get a call from Colleys (?), Lloyds Group's surveyors, saying they don't have any surveyors in the area and gave me the numbers of some other surveyors telling me to phone around and choose which we'd like to do the valuation and building survey.

So I rang around and was quoted £1,200 plus VAT. It's as if I'm paying for the valuation survey twice.

So what on Earth am I paying Halifax for? I'm going to pay out over £2,000 for a survey.

David_White

That does seem excessive for a valuation fee.

Have you applied directly with Halifax or a Broker?

Also, are you purchasing an unusual or very old property?

kingstreet

£735 is the valuation fee for £700,000 to £800,000. Of that, £100 is a Halifax admin charge.

If you were having a valuation and homebuyer's report together, the total would be £1,365.

The cost of a valuation and chartered building survey would be considerably higher.

If two surveyors have to go out there would be some element of double charging.

I'd expect Colleys to panel the whole job out to an external firm if they don't have coverage.

deaston

Well, I'm paying the £735 to Halifax plus an additional £1,440 to Edwards for the building survey. When fees are totalling over £44,000, what's another £1,440...?

Brings the cost of my MacBook Pro into perspective.