Why does mortgage lender require two quotes? What do they care? (Possibly daft FTB question)

[grumbleandcustard]

We are FTBs who had a recent purchase fall through. I’m confused about something our solicitor said, regret not asking for clarification at the time and can’t ask now (will re-instruct when we find another house to buy), so am hoping someone here could shed some light!

He mentioned that if we wanted to renegotiate the price post-survey based on the cost of any works/repairs, the mortgage lender would require two quotes to show it was a genuine price. Why would a lender care about this? I assumed we’d reduce the mortgage and deposit proportionately and keep the LTV the same, so what do they care? What am I missing? Thanks for any insight!

Probs just a measure to protect against fraud.

But fraud with what? They’re not paying for the repairs? Why would they care?

Because they are lending against a property that is defective and therefore harder to sell. You are getting a discount on the price to reflect this - but they are still trusting that you'll actually do the work, and that means trusting that the work can actually be done for the prices quoted.

Oh I see, thank you! This makes sense.

Good point. What @Mark19735 said makes more sense.