Valuations

A valuation is an inspection carried out on behalf of your mortgage lender to determine the amount and terms of a mortgage offer. Your mortgage lender will probably ask you to pay for the valuation and will send you a copy of the report.

A Valuation is not a survey. It is a limited inspection to identify problems that affect the security of your mortgage lender's loan. A property can have defects that are critical to yourself, but are not of concern to the mortgage lender and therefore won't appear in a valuation report. That's why you should not just rely on the information provided by a valuation when deciding whether or not to purchase a property.

You should have a survey carried out on the property you intend to buy, and carefully consider its results before entering into a contract to buy it. Depending on the seriousness of any defects and the cost of necessary repair work, you could try to re-negotiate the purchase price to reflect the cost of repairs or decide not to purchase the property at all.

Surveyors should comment on all parts of a property that are readily accessible but they are not obliged to inspect areas that are difficult to access. They won't lift carpets or move furniture out of the way, but they will use a ladder to inspect roofs up to 3m in height.

Similary, since most surveyors are not experts in electrics or plumbing, they won't test services such as the wiring and water.