Choosing a survey level
The valuation is addressed to the lender. Why should you not treat it as a condition report written for you?
Do not treat it as a condition report written for you because it is addressed to the lender, and you are not the client of that valuation. MoneyHelper makes the distinction plain: a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey. The valuer is helping the lender decide about security for a loan. That job does not set out to describe the house for the buyer in the way a home survey does. The document you may be shown is still the lender's report. It has not become yours because you are paying a fee connected with the mortgage.
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?
A valuation looks at whether the property is acceptable to that lender for the loan being considered. It can be short, and it can say very little about gutters, roofs, damp or alterations. Even where a sentence mentions condition, it is written for the lender's question, not as advice you can rely on as if you had instructed a surveyor yourself. The name on the report matters. If it is addressed to the lender, the duty described in it runs to the lender.
If you want someone to inspect the building for you, instruct a home survey in your own name and agree the level. Do not ask the lender's valuation to carry questions it was not written to answer. Your solicitor can explain what the mortgage offer depends on, without turning the valuation into a condition report. The survey you have not instructed has not yet described this house for you.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Is this valuation addressed to the lender rather than to me as buyer?
- What condition items, if any, does it actually describe, and for whose decision?
- What would a home survey instructed by me cover that this valuation does not?
What are the typical next steps?
- Read the addressee: a report to the lender is not your condition survey.
- Do not rely on it for damp, roof, or structural decisions.
- Instruct a home survey in your own name if you need that advice.
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 figure matches the price, is the house in sound condition?
No. A figure that matches the price is a comment on value for the lender's security, not a tour of the fabric. MoneyHelper distinguishes a mortgage valuation from a structural survey. Agreement on price does not mean the roof, the damp or the services were inspected for you, and this valuation has not done that job.
Can you ask the lender's valuer to add a damp note for you?
You can ask, but the valuation remains the lender's instruction. A favour or a short remark does not turn it into a condition report written for you, and it does not make you the client. If you need damp advice you can rely on, that belongs in a survey you instruct, not in a sentence borrowed from the lender's valuer.