Two Surveys Normal?

[johnworf]

We are selling our house and have already had our house surveyed on behalf of the buyers lender. However, the estate agent has just emailed and asked if we are ok with the buyers instructing their own surveyor to do a Home Buyers Survey. I was under the impression that the house is usually surveyed just the once. Is this something new?

Sounds like the first survey was just a valuation survey. A homebuyers survey is more thorough and looks into the property in more detail and will give the buyers a list of things that need upgrading or checking out in more detail. Its quite a normal thing to do, particularly if the property is older.

its normal. One is to protect the mortgage lender that the house is worth the money, the second is for the buyer so they can see if there are any structural issues. Mortgage lenders do not let the buyers see their survey (aka valuation) despite the buyers having to pay for it so they need their own.

Thanks for your replies. Hadn't realised the lenders survey wasn't shared with the buyers. This must have changed as when we originally bought this house 16 years ago the details were shared with us so we could rectify anything that needed doing.

It depends on the lender. Some just do a valuation and if you want a homebuyers/full survey you have to find a separate surveyor to do it. Other lenders let you pay to upgrade the valuation.

You can sue the surveyor if you pay for it. The valuation is really just that, a number for the bank to check there's enough security.

It's a touch more complicated than that but not much.

The first one is really just a valuation the lender insists on but the buyer doesn’t see. So yes it’s normal for buyers to organise their own survey in addition to that

We did this when we bought - the bank one for the mortgage is really basic, just to prove the house exists! We wanted a much more detailed building survey so we could plan for what needed to be done to the house and check for anything like roof work that we hadn't seen on viewings.