Home buying survey

Hi all!

I am in the process of purchasing a flat in forest hill. Does anyone have any recommendations for surveyors?

Thanks!

Hi! When I bought a house with a mortgage, the survey was arranged via the lender as it had to be one of their RICS approved surveyors, which basically meant I didn’t get to choose who to use, though I could choose to have a basic or enhanced service (at additional cost). Assuming you are taking out a mortgage, it might be worth checking if the lender have any requirements or recommendations?

Yep it was the same for us, we had to go through the lender so definitely check that first.

I think the valuation survey has to be done by the lender (and by a RICS approved surveyor) and often the lenders surveyor will offer to do a homebuyers or a full building survey at the same time - at least that happened with us. However you’re perfectly free to choose your own surveyor to conduct a home buyers (basic) or full building survey (intensive). We found however that the lenders surveyors were much cheaper - presumably as their rates are fixed for ‘bolt on’ services.

We did however use a local guy for our first flat purchase - clive at corinthian surveyors. Would recommend him for a thorough job and fast turnaround - he can be contacted at clive@corinthiansurveyors.co.uk .

If you use the lenders surveyor are they liable to you if they miss something which they should have found and costs you money? ie, do you have a contract with the lenders surveyor?

Possibly liable, but I think there is a caveat that they would only be liable for things they could have found. The survey option we took was non-invasive so the odds of finding many things were pretty low as it was visual inspection only i.e. no lifting carpets or poking at anything, only inspecting externally from the ground with a ‘surveyors ladder’. I wanted to accompany the surveyor, but that wasn’t allowed

As a starting point, in our case it was fine though, and we could have opted for more specialist surveys (e.g. electrical or roofing) if there were areas of concern.

The thing you don’t want to do is pay for your own survey to then find you have to pay for another to meet the mortgage lenders requirements.

I had the same. They are employed by the lender and I think they often act as such - solely being concerned with whether the property valuation is satisfactory for the lenders product (LTV). For high LTV products (where almost all the equity at risk is the homeowners) they even do things called ‘drive by surveys’… they are as they sound.

Because of my view above I don’t actually have that much of an issue with this. Ideally it’s avoided, but if I wanted the protection/peace of mind a survey gives then I would want the surveyor to be acting in my interests, not only the lenders.

I would recommend William Wates - of Fedalah