Spray foam and lenders
The report mentions a lender query next to spray foam. Has a refusal the query has not yet become been tested, or only named?
A lender query next to spray foam was named. A refusal has not been tested, because the query has not yet become a refusal. Only the query is in view. Spray foam in a roof prompts some lenders to ask questions. A question is not a decision, and this report has not recorded one. MoneyHelper's distinction, that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey, also means this survey does not invent lending criteria. Whether a lender will accept the foam stays undecided until that lender says so.
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?
Foam can conceal the underside of a covering, which is why it attracts questions. The survey can say the foam is there and what it could not see because of it. It cannot say that a particular lender will decline, delay or accept. Those outcomes depend on that lender's process, which is not printed in the condition report and must not be guessed. Reading a query as a refusal jumps a step that has not happened. The foam note remains a condition limit. The lending result remains unissued.
Ask the broker what, if anything, the lender has actually asked, and answer that question with facts about the foam rather than with a predicted refusal. Tell the solicitor no decline has been issued. Do not rewrite the survey as a lending decision. If the lender later refuses, that will be their letter. Until the letter exists, the query is only a query. The survey has not tested a refusal and should not be quoted as one.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What has the lender actually asked about the foam?
- Has any written refusal been issued?
- What could the survey not see because of the foam?
What are the typical next steps?
- Treat the lender query as a question, not a refusal.
- Ask the broker for the lender's actual wording.
- Do not invent a lending criterion from the foam note.
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
Has a lending decision been issued?
No. A query was mentioned beside the spray foam. A query is not a refusal, and the refusal has not been tested because it has not happened. The survey recorded the foam. It did not record a lender's decision, and it must not be read as one.
Should the foam note be rewritten as a decline?
No. The note is about the roof and what the foam concealed or showed. Decline would be a lender's act, which has not occurred. Rewriting the survey would invent criteria. Leave the query as a query until the lender answers it in their own letter.