Surveyor refused to carry out valuation due to conflict of interest?!

[Freestylem]

I was booking in a valuation with a surveying company for the house I am purchasing. I spoke to the estate agent beforehand to give him the heads up that the surveyors would be contacting him to arrange access. The estate agent said he couldn't understand why I needed another valuation as I already had a valuation from my mortgage lender. I explained that the valuation was a free addition to the homebuyers survey I had purchased so there was nothing to lose in obtaining a valuation for my personal use.

I received a call from the surveyors to say that they had received a call from my estate agent letting them know we had already received a valuation from our mortgage lender. The surveyors said they therefore could not carry out the valuation as it would be a conflict of interest. I said the valuation from them would be for my own personal use, how is there a conflict of interest? The mortgage lender's valuation was with a different surveying company.

Firstly, is there a conflict of interest? Secondly, I am very concerned that the estate agent has gone to these lengths to stop me having a personal valuation! There are 3 properties on the same estate as the property I am buying that have not sold yet despite being on the market for a while.

Property in question is over £500k.

I would have a full structural survey if I was you.

Maybe there is a problem with the land is built on, given that there are a few for sale. If be very wary indeed.

Then it's not a valuation survey but a structural one.

This is all quite weird. There is absolutely no reason why you cannot have another valuation on top of the mortgage lender’s valuation,. If there was a conflict of interest then the surveyor wouldn’t have been able to do the homebuyers report for you either. Loads of purchasers have a mortgage valuation plus a homebuyers report which includes a valuation, sometimes they are both done by the same surveyor and sometimes they are done by different ones. A conflict of interest comes about if there was a reason why it would be in the surveyor’s benefit for the sale to proceed or not (eg they might not flag up defects because they want the sale to go through, for example if the vendor is a friend or if they work for the selling agent).
as an aside I don’t see why the surveyor would need to revisit the property if they have recently done a homebuyer survey on it, surely they can just to the valuation based on their notes and desk top research?

Rather than guess, can you ask them to explain why there is a conflict?

Ah the problem is using Countrywide - I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole. Their primary business model is keeping estate agents happy with the interests of the actual homebuyers being extremely low on their priority list.

It's a conflict of interest for them because doing a valuation for you would be disruptive to their profitable relationship with the estate agents.

Commission as many valuations as you want. If the estate agent does anything further to block your access to independent advice, walk away.

I can't understand why your sellers estate agents - who work for them, not you - felt they had any right to contact a third party contractor hired by you to undermine your instruction.

What are they trying to achieve, or what are they trying to hide?

I'd simply appoint a different surveyor and tell them that you expect them to deliver the service you are paying for and will not accept them taking direction or instruction from anyone but yourself.

It isn't her sale, it's her purchase. The EA isn't working for her, they're instructed by her vendor.

If you've paid for a valuation as part of your Homebuyers survey, then they need to fulfil that by doing it.

I'm a bit surprised that they have to revisit the house though given the surveyor was already done the more comprehensive part of the job?

The EA has no business calling your surveyor.

It is a little odd, but you can probably reassure them you aren't looking for a second opinion or to change your offer, or be difficult, simply that you've paid for it and you want it.