A great deal of confusion in a purchase comes from treating four different inspections as one thing. They have different clients, different purposes and different depths, and only some of them are looking after the buyer's interests.
The lender's valuation is not a survey
A mortgage valuation is commissioned by the lender to answer one question: is this property adequate security for this loan? It may take twenty minutes. It may not involve entering the property at all. It produces a figure and, sometimes, retentions or conditions, and it is not an assessment of condition for the buyer's benefit.
Buyers routinely assume that because a valuation happened and the mortgage was offered, the property has been checked. It has not.
The four inspections compared
- Mortgage valuation
- Commissioned by the lender, for the lender. Confirms the property is adequate security for the advance. Not a condition report and not addressed to the buyer.
- Condition report
- The lightest buyer survey. Traffic-light gradings of the main elements, no valuation and no detailed advice. Suited to newer, conventional properties in evident good order.
- Homebuyer survey
- A mid-level inspection of the visible and accessible parts, with gradings, commentary on defects, and often a valuation and reinstatement figure. The common choice for conventional houses and flats of ordinary age.
- Building survey
- The most detailed. A full inspection of the fabric, with discussion of construction, causes of defects, likely consequences and remedial approaches. Appropriate for older, altered, unusual or visibly troubled buildings.
How gradings work, and their limits
Most buyer surveys grade elements on a three-point scale: no repair currently needed, defects needing attention but not urgent, and defects that are serious or urgent. The scale is useful shorthand and dangerous shorthand at the same time.
It is useful because it directs attention. It is dangerous because a grading describes urgency, not cost. A minor-looking item can carry a large bill, and a serious grading can sometimes be resolved cheaply. The commentary under the grading, not the colour, is the part worth reading twice.
The other limit is that a standard survey is non-intrusive. The surveyor inspects what can be seen and safely reached. Floors are not lifted, walls are not opened, and areas full of stored belongings are not inspected. A report that says an element could not be inspected is not saying it is fine; it is saying nobody looked.
What surveys commonly find, and what that means
Recurring findings in older housing include roof covering nearing the end of its life, damp at low level with several possible causes, movement of some age and unknown activity, timber decay in concealed locations, and services, meaning wiring, heating and drainage, that have not been assessed or that predate current standards.
The important distinction in each case is between a defect that is understood and one that is merely observed. "Cracking consistent with historic settlement, no evidence of current movement" and "cracking of uncertain cause, further investigation recommended" describe very different risks and belong to different negotiations.
Where a report recommends further specialist investigation, that recommendation is the finding. Treating it as a formality, or as something to sort out after moving in, converts a known unknown into an unpriced one.
Specialist investigations
Beyond the general survey there are targeted inspections: drainage surveys, electrical condition reports, gas and heating checks, timber and damp investigations, structural engineer reports on movement, and asbestos surveys in buildings of the relevant era. Each answers a narrow question properly rather than a broad one approximately.
What a survey cannot do
A survey cannot tell you whether the price is right, though a valuation figure inside one is evidence about it. It cannot tell you about the neighbours, the noise, the parking or the school run. It cannot see through stored contents or fixed finishes. And it cannot cover the legal position of the property at all, which is the separate work of conveyancing: title, boundaries, rights of way, covenants and consents for past alterations.
Condition and title are the two halves of what a buyer needs to understand. A survey addresses one of them.