Urgent advice - lender insisting on last minute survey?!

[SpidersAreShitheads]

Hi all,

Found out yesterday that our buyer only has 4 weeks left on their mortgage offer - and due to rate increase, they don't believe they will be able to get a new one. So it's all or bust.

We all thought we were more or less at the point of exchange. Last week our solicitor wrote to our lender to advise them that the survey showed some damp. It's not extensive, just a couple of walls where there's a broken drainpipe and we're not concerned as we're knocking down those walls to extend. We thought lender approval was just a formality.

According to my solicitor today, the lender has now said they need to do another survey!!!!! The purchase will collapse if this happens as it won't go through in time for our buyer.

Obviously the lender did their basic valuation survey at the start and can see the house isn't riddled with damp. They didn't even pick it up.

We are borrowing less than 25% of the purchase price - the rest is being financed by two house sales (me and DM are buying together to build an annexe). Their risk is tiny and if the worst happened, they could clearly still recoup their money from selling the house.

It seems total overkill for the lender to insist on doing a full survey when a) we can just share the one we had and b) they've already done a basic survey, and can see the house has no huge problem with damp and c) the small bit of damp isn't going to wipe more than £200k off the value of the house!

The other issue is that I have had three separate answers about what's going on. Lender initially told me they'd signed it off and all OK (yesterday at 10am). Then solicitor insisted they told her that they will need to do another survey (yesterday at 5pm). Then the lender told me that it had been referred back to the valuers to check the issue with damp, no decision had been made about any further info required (yesterday at 6pm).

I am very stressed. Obviously I'm going to call again today to see if the valuers have seen it. But I don't know if the solicitor spoke to someone more knowledgeable at the lender yesterday. According to my 6pm call, it only got referred back to the valuers yesterday at 1pm so I doubt they would have checked it by the time my solicitor called.....

For context, the solicitor is awful and unhelpful. She was very pleasant on the phone but has screwed loads of stuff up, delayed things and just generally not been very proactive or helpful. Case in point, the survey was done in April - I'm not sure why it took until June for her to tell us that she has to notify the lender re damp..... So pissed off.

If you're still with me, thank you. What I'm asking is whether anyone has any experience of the lender being notified of damp, and what they normally decide to do. I'm panicking like mad and I doubt I'll get an answer off the lender today. We believe the property was priced with damp included (it's a doer-upper) but even it was down valued a bit it would make no difference to the mortgage because the LTV is so low. It's just the solicitor insisting that they have asked for a new survey.

Sorry one more thought....

Lender said to me on the phone "it's got to go back to the valuers" - I didn't know what she meant by that so I got her to explain. And it just means that the info has been sent to their underwriting/valuation team again to see if they're still happy to green light the mortgage. But I'm wondering if the solicitor has taken "referred back to the valuers" to mean a survey????? I'm wondering if the lender referring it back for sign off by their valuers has been misinterpreted by the solicitor?

I said to the solicitor on the phone "that seems excessive for the amount of money we're borrowing and the value of the house!!" - and she agreed with me. But apparently she didn't make this point to the lender when she spoke to them. I also asked her whether they could use our Level 3 survey instead of getting their own. She said maybe, and that I could ask them. But again, she didn't suggest it to them - or to me.

I don't know if I'm being unrealistic with what to expect from the solicitor. All the way through the process getting help or advice from her has been like getting blood out of a stone. Eg/ I might ask a legal question "is it possible to do X?" and she'll reply "Yes". Then I have to go back and say "Well, HOW do we do X?" Whereas I'd have expected her to say, "yes, you can do X and this is what you need to do". It's just constantly the minimum possible.

When she rung the lender she knew that our purchase would fall through if we don't complete in next 3-4 weeks. So when the lender said a survey she's just effectively said "ah cool OK then...." knowing that it will mean the purchase fails. Bearing in mind all of the facts, I would have expected her to maybe challenge them on our behalf or try and find a solution? We've hit loads of bumps during this sale and each time, it's been me trying to find legal solutions or alternatives whereas I just feel that's her job.

Anyone?

I know it’s a long read 🤦🏻‍♀️

This happened with my brother's flat purchase and he was also a bit panicked as we have a home report system in Scotland which is meant to make surveys obsolete - but it went through fine and there were no issues.

Lenders are incredibly cautions rn. So I don't think the issue is going to be the survey, assume that's all going to be ok. You may have a problem if it doesn't go through in time but if you still have 4 weeks I don't think it's likely to take that long. The market is so hot which makes everything feel pressurised but the reason the market is so hot is that there aren't that many properties around - not because surveyors have too many properties to survey.

Keep talking to your lender, keep the communication going, but it is all going to be fine.

Having just re-read your second message - dunno if it's different in Scotland but I wouldn't expect your solicitor to have anything to do with coming up with solutions for your lender. It's two completely different sides of the purchase. Can't you phone your lender? Also get the name of the surveyor they use and call them to make sure you get the first slot/any cancellations.

We are borrowing less than 25% of the purchase price - the rest is being financed by two house sales (me and DM are buying together to build an annexe).

In light of this have you considered moving to your mum's temporarily so your sale can go through before the deadline.

Hi - it's actually a bit of a complicated transaction and I simplified it for this post because of the length.

It's actually my mum who's moving first, so when I say "we" I actually mean it's her house being sold. Our house is tiny and not accessible for her due to her disability. We're selling second as that gives time for some of the annexe in the new place to be built. Mum is going to live in the "main house" and then move into the annexe once it's built, leaving room for us to then move in - hence why it's a two-step process and we're not selling at the same time.

The only other option is that we might be able to buy without the mortgage now. But the mortgage is going in DM's name but I'm paying it (mortgage company are aware - I can't get one - long story) - given her age, I'm not sure whether any remortgage products are available. This mortgage we're getting now is only available on purchases, not houses you already own. If we don't get a mortgage or a remortgage we won't have enough money to build, which means we can't move in as we need to build an annexe. So it's a huge gamble buying without a mortgage in place as there might not be any products available on a remortgage basis if you see what I mean!

I wouldn't have thought that either, but she was the one who said she had to write to the lender to tell them about the damp. And she was the one who rung the lender yesterday afternoon. If she had nothing to do with the lender, I'd agree with you - but she's been involved with the lender from the start and has ongoing communication with them so I'd expect her to be trying to find a solution for us if she's speaking to them already?

If she's talking to the lender and she's our legal representative, I'd expect her to push back re the survey and say it's unreasonable etc etc. Personally I'd have been very happy if she'd not had any comms with the lender at all but she was insistent that she HAD to.

The problem is that getting an initial survey date took 10 weeks. I don't think it's feasible for them to do a full survey, assess it, agree with our legal team and then exchange and complete in less than 4 weeks. Not given how long everything has been taking so far.

My mum has a weird house - it took 6 months to find a buyer in a hot market. And we were in a huge bidding war for the house we're buying. It's a really unusual property within our price range as it provides space for an annexe without encroaching on the back garden (basically a really big corner plot). I don't think we'd find something like this again. I know purchases that fall through are a nuisance for anyone, but I really do think this is a one-shot chance for us. We can't lose it now - my mum would be destroyed.

I don't understand why your solicitor contacted your lender about the damp in your own survey in the first place- is this usual? It wasn't when we last had a mortgage. The lender had their own survey, if it didn't pick something up, that's not your business, is it? Or has procedure changed? Our most recent buyers' survey said plainly that we couldn't show it to anyone else without permission.

Is there a reason why your solicitor saw your survey?

I know this was said on your other thread, by your solicitor is likely to be acting also on your lender’s behalf which is why she had to notify them. I imagine the outcome of this is that, if the bank had done a physical survey, the valuation company will reply “yes we saw there was some damp, our valuation still stands” rather than a whole new survey being ordered. But if all they had done was an automated survey, then they might want to have it checked in person. Who knows! I hope you get a positive outcome.

Oh dear, I remember the hassle you had with your mum's house!

Hopefully the reconsideration will take a week or less, if your completion date is coming up ask your solicitor/conveyancer or mortgage broker (whoever is dealing with it) to highlight this and ask for urgent consideration. Good luck!

I'd never use a lender's solicitor. Or a house agent's solicitor. If I'm paying a solicitor I expect them to be working for me, and me alone. I'd expect them only to disclose to anyone else what they were obliged to disclose by law as my solicitor.

@BlueMongoose even if you pick your own solicitor, for a house purchase that solicitor will also be acting for the lender at the same time! It’s very rare in my experience that the lender will have a different solicitor

@BlueMongoose I didn't realise this was a thing either. However, as @StuckInARug said, in the vast, vast majority of cases the solicitor you choose also acts on behalf of the lender too - you just don't realise it. In most cases this isn't a problem, but on this occasion, it's caused an issue because it means they're obliged to pass on information about the damp. I asked if we could withhold consent but if we did that, then the solicitor would be obliged to withdraw and the whole bloody thing would take even longer.

This was our solicitor that we chose (or rather my mum chose - they wouldn't have been my pick....). They were connected to a Trust we're putting in place so they seemed like an obvious choice. They had no connection to the lender at all. We only found out when they told us they were obliged to pass the info about the damp on.

So bit of a cautionary tale really - be very careful when sharing the survey with your solicitor! We shared it because the survey raised some legal questions that needed to be addressed, but I wouldn't normally have questioned it anyway. Our surveyor definitely expected us to share it with our solicitor and I wouldn't have guessed that this would have happened.....!!

Aaah yes! I had some amazing help from this board which helped us to get DM's house sold.

We are still waiting for a reply from the lender. Twice last week I was told directly by the lender that the issue had been sorted and they'd approved it, only for our solicitor to say that she'd rung them and been told it HADN'T been approved yet.

Honestly losing the bloody will to live with this. Apparently a straightforward answer is too much to hope for......

Last update was Friday afternoon at 4pm the solicitor rang me to tell me the lender had not approved it even though they had told me at 3pm on Thursday that they HAD approved it. The documents that they told me they'd issued to the solicitor were just a re-issue of the mortgage offer and not a letter confirming that they don't care about the damp. 4pm on Friday was too late to do anything so waiting until tomorrow. Lender has apparently said they will definitely give us an answer tomorrow............hoping that it will just be a "damp makes no difference, please proceed...."

I have also since discovered that the lender did NOT tell the solicitor at any point a survey was needed. The words they used were "referred back for valuation" meaning their valuation team needed to check it. Solicitor apparently assumed this meant a survey, and panicked us all for no sodding reason. So very much hoping that will all be OK but still nervous!

Sorry, forgot to reply to this.

Our lender did a basic valuation survey in person so they've visited the house. Obviously it's a very simple, quick survey compared to the one we did but hopefully should give them confidence that the house isn't a derelict wreck and the damp really is a very minor issue.....

We shared the survey as the surveyor identified some legal queries and there didn't seem any reason not to share. The solicitor also asked for a copy of the survey - it would have been helpful for them to inform us that they would have to share the results with the lender...........