Surveyors don't look at lease terms when valueing - madness?

davidmcn

BBH123 wrote: »

I'm surprised any lender would accept this little / no lease information tbh because if they had to reposesss a property , the value of a 64 yr lease with £8k service charges as an example will be severely less attractive and less valuable should they need to offload the property and recover their costs. ( yes I know they can go after the mortagee but what if the mortgagee then says ' ere I paid your surveyor for an accurate valuation and you over valued it because they didnt get the correct lease details so i'm not paying

They could go after the solicitor for failing to advise them that the valuation assumptions were wrong. This is a normal part of the process - like I said above, plenty of other assumptions which the surveyor can be making and which the solicitors need to confirm.

From the CML Handbook (which is the standard set of solicitor instructions most lenders use):

4.3 You should take reasonable steps to verify that the assumptions stated by the valuer about the title (for example, its tenure, easements, boundaries and restrictions on its use) in the valuation and as stated in the mortgage offer are correct. If they are not, please let us know as soon as possible (see part 2) as it will be necessary for us to check with the valuer whether the valuation needs to be revised. We are not expecting you to assume the role of valuer. We are simply trying to ensure that the valuer has valued the property based on correct information.

deFoix

AdrianC wrote: »

So, iyho, the surveyor needs to be an expert in the legals, as well as the building itself? How much else of the solicitor's job do you want him to do?

What about people who aren't having a survey done? Do they not need the lease checking? Or would you have the lease checked twice, by surveyor AND solicitor?

Sorry but in my opinion these are BS arguments that are missing my issue.

My point is that the surveyor is performing a valuation and IS representing himself as an expert in property valuations - which in the case of leaseholds must include basic terms of the lease.

As and engineer I would never assure the safety of an installation without checking the material facts... I would never just make up some fictional assumptions. Much better just to say I don't know because I haven't seen the details!