Choosing a survey level
The mortgage valuation did not open the loft and your survey did. Why can the valuation not be read as agreeing the roof structure?
Because a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey, and this one did not open the loft. MoneyHelper makes that distinction: the valuation is for the lender's lending decision, not a survey of how the house is built. Your survey opened the loft and can describe the roof structure it saw. The valuation never looked into that space, so it has no sentence that agrees, or disagrees, with what you found there. Silence from a visit that stayed out of the loft is not consent to the rafters, the purlins or the alterations your surveyor recorded.
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?
Valuers look for what the lender needs in order to decide on the loan. They are not instructed to open the roof and write up the timbers. When the hatch stays shut, the roof structure is not in the valuation. A lending figure is not a description of a truss. Your home survey, which did go into the loft, is the document that talks about that structure. Reading the valuation as agreement borrows a conclusion from a job that stayed out of the loft.
If the lender asks about the roof, give them your survey's loft notes and say plainly that the valuation did not open it. Do not tell the lender the valuation agrees the structure. MoneyHelper is clear that a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. Ask your solicitor to keep the two reports apart in the file. Any repair or further look at the roof comes from the survey that saw it, not from a valuation that did not.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Did the mortgage valuation open the loft at all?
- Which roof timbers did your own survey actually see?
- Can a lending figure be read as agreement to the roof structure?
What are the typical next steps?
- Keep the valuation and the loft notes as two different jobs.
- Do not tell the lender the valuation agreed the roof.
- Use the survey that opened the loft when the roof is discussed.
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 valuation is silent on the roof, is the roof accepted?
No. Silence here is an unopened loft, not acceptance. MoneyHelper says a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. The valuation cannot agree a structure it did not see. Your survey is the one that opened the loft and described what was there.
Does the same-day timing make the valuation adopt the survey?
No. Even if the visits were close together, the valuation that did not open the loft has not adopted the survey that did. They are different instructions. A lending visit does not become a structural look at the roof by happening near your survey.