Mortgage lender won’t do a Homebuyers survey what would you do?

[Shadowboy]

Had the following emailed to me:

“We have been advised by the surveying firm that the property is not suitable for a Homebuyers Report. I have asked for the Homebuyers fees to be refunded. We can downgrade the instruction to an MVR for lending purposes only at no fee, or upgrade to a Full Building Survey for a fee of £740.

Please advise us how the applicants would like to proceed. We currently have the instruction on hold.”

House was built in 1824 no additions but likely to need some work as has been in the same family nearly 50 years. Would you upgrade or get an independent surveyor or a builder?

For a house that old you’d be mad not to have a full, independent survey done anyway. The homebuyer’s report is a waste of money.

That’s what I’m trying to ask; do I upgrade to one via the mortgage company or do an independent one?

Have you got a surveyor you’ve used before and trust? If not, then you might as well upgrade.

Hmm I tend to think it’s better to go independent. Let the mortgage company do their free valuation, you find out what problems the house has and whether you want to fix them without it affecting the mortgage offer.

Most (if not all Lenders) use third parties to do their surveys and all have to have the correct RICS professional qualifications, professional indemnity insurance etc, so unless you have a personal recommendation then I wouldn't have an issue with going with instructing through the lender. Without knowing the property or it's value, £750 sounds a reasonable price.

I would absolutely get the independent surveyor and upgrade. Ours put us off the house in the end as identified about £50k of things which looked otherwise fine.