Renegotiating or walking away
You are buying with cash and the seller quotes the lender's valuation figure you do not have. Why is that figure not your survey?
Because that figure is not your survey. You are buying with cash, and the seller is quoting a lender's valuation you do not have. Someone else's number is not an inspection you commissioned, and you may not even have seen the report it came from. MoneyHelper says a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. Quoted at you second hand, it is further still from your own advice. Do not let it stand in for a survey you have not had, or replace one you have.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
Sellers use a valuation figure as a badge, when there is no mortgage of yours to argue with. The badge is not yours. It was prepared, if it exists, for a lender's question about security. It does not describe the roof, the damp or the services for you, and a sentence in a phone call is not even the valuation itself. Ask to see nothing you are not entitled to, and do not negotiate as if a number you cannot read were a condition report.
If you want condition advice, instruct a home survey and read that. If you already have one, use it. The seller's quoted figure does not edit it and does not fill a gap where you skipped it. Cash means there is no lender of yours holding the process. It does not mean a stranger's valuation becomes your survey. Decide from the inspection you trust, and from your solicitor, not from a figure waved across the table.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- If I already have a survey, which findings should I rely on instead of the seller's figure?
- Are you able to say a lender's valuation is not this report?
- What condition points would still matter if no valuation figure existed?
What are the typical next steps?
- Do not treat the seller's quoted valuation as your survey.
- If you need condition advice, rely on a survey instructed for you.
- Ignore a figure you have not seen when you decide on the building.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
If the figure matches the asking price, has the house been surveyed for you?
No. A match with the price is still someone else's valuation, if it is real at all. MoneyHelper says a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. It is not yours.
If you later take a mortgage, does today's quoted figure become the survey?
No. A later lender will take their own view. A figure the seller quoted now is still not a home survey of the house for you.