No Survey Required by Mortgage Company

therealbane

Hi All,

I've had an offer accepted on a house and the mortgage has been approved and we are going through the various stages on the way to exchanging.

The mortgage company (barclays) are not carrying out any form of survey on the property. They have said its not needed.

Would you suggest we have our own survey arranged? There is nothing about the property that we are worried or concerned about, and nothing we really want investigated or checked.. But would it still be wise to have a survey done?

I've heard stories of people paying surveyors to stand in the room, look at the corners and quote "seems solid enough". :rotfl:

Lauralou79

We had a valuation survey with Natwest for the mortgage, he actually came into the house and had a proper good look round ( not just a drive by valuation) and we arranged a private one for our own piece of mind. The house looks fine inside so it did pick up things we hadn't noted, nothing drastic but will need attention at some point now we are in.

People will have their own opinions on surveyors and wether you need them. Ignoring some of the repetition on surveys( electrics,damp and timber inspections etc) we did find ours useful. I'd rather be aware of the roof/chimney minor issues before a leak arises!

ssparks2003

As long as you are confident that you actually know what you are looking for, then as long as you are happy to take the risk of finding something after you have moved in then don't bother. Personally I have always had a survey and it has paid off every time.

Rambosmum

Banks often do 'virtual surveys' these days - they look at the rightmove listing, streetview, sold prices on the road and determine if a physical survey is required from that. If those things satisfy them that they can make their money back should you fail to pay your mortgage they'll save themselves the money on the actual survey.


A valuation survey is pretty low level anyway, mostly tick sheets. I'd always organise my own.

Surrey_EA

Rambosmum wrote: »

Banks often do 'virtual surveys' these days - they look at the rightmove listing, streetview, sold prices on the road and determine if a physical survey is required from that. If those things satisfy them that they can make their money back should you fail to pay your mortgage they'll save themselves the money on the actual survey.


A valuation survey is pretty low level anyway, mostly tick sheets. I'd always organise my own.

It's almost slightly disingenuous to call what the bank does a survey. As you say it's literally a tick box exercise, and even if they do physically visit the property the visit rarely lasts longer than 15-20mins, and the sole purpose is to establish whether the property represents suitable security for the loan the bank is potentially providing.

fezster

You're lucky you didn't have to pay for a useless valuation survey. Often banks charge you for this and then do not actually send a surveyor round, instead doing a "virtual" one.

From personal experience, even the homebuyers survey is pretty useless. It is full of caveats and sections asking you to instruct specialists, so as to cover themselves for almost any eventuality. If you feel the property requires a survey, or you are not confident / comfortable with problems a house may have, then instruct a full structural survey. Anything less is money wasted unless the house is literally falling down.

pollyannaL

Santander were the same with me - they did a AVM computer based valuation
Made me feel a bit uneasy as wasn't sure if i had over paid for property. I arranged my own building survey. Only minor stuff came up, but still got £5k off asking price as a result. So i would definately say yes have one done.

G_M

Entirely up to you.

A survey might reveal a major issue you did not know about. Or it might provide a list of minor things you'll be able to work through/fix once you own (a 'to do' list).

But in the end it's up to you

* how old is the property?
* has it been extended/modified?
* does it seem well-maintained or allowed to delapidate?
* what is your attitude to risk-taking?
* how confident are you in your own (or your builder-parents') ability to spot issues in a property?
* how much time have you spent looking over the property (I don't mean that 'yes it meets our needs' viewing, I mean the 15 minutes outside looking at the roof with binoculars, 10 minutes with a torch in the attic etc etc)

kingstreet

Lenders do not do surveys.

They either;-

get a surveyor to inspect and carry out a mortgage report & valuation

or

get a surveyor to drive by the property and inspect the exterior

or

carry out an automated valuation based on house price indexes - usually for lower loan to value cases.

I'm sorry I harp on about this but it is very unhelpful linking the word survey to what lenders require for a mortgage.

In answer to the OP, if you feel you require peace of mind about the condition of the property, you should contract a surveyor to carry out a "homebuyer's report", or report on condition as it's now more commonly known.

ed67812

My personal view is that I would always have a survey. Shop around and read reviews before. A decent surveyor will be willing to chat before and afterwards. Our recent survey was a lot less than the lender was going to charge to arrange one.

The one thing I would always consider on a pre 1990s property is an asbestos survey if there is any chance that a garage ceiling, artex, pipe lagging, outbuildings etc could contain it. Whatever your own views and risk appetite, asbestos will damage resale value.

AdrianC

Whether the lender wants a valuation or not is going to depend largely on the loan-to-value. If the LTV is low, then they will just assume that there is very little risk that the property is so overvalued that they may end up out of pocket in a repossession.

And that's all they care about.

So whether they do a valuation or not should not affect whether you get a condition survey - that's entirely down to whether YOU want a second, professional, opinion of the property condition to back your own gut-feel up. So the question really is that simple - do you want to pay a surveyor to tell you whether the house is knackered or do you trust your own opinion?