The mortgage valuation is silent on construction and the Level 3 names a steel frame. Which document do you send the lender about that frame?

What is the fuller explanation?

MoneyHelper explains that a mortgage valuation is for the lender. Its job is the lender's security, not a tour of construction for you. It can be short and silent on the very point a Level 3 has spelled out: steel seen here, hidden there, name uncertain or name given. Sending only the valuation leaves the frame out. Sending a retelling in your own words risks changing the surveyor's limit into a slogan. The Level 3 text, with its limits intact, is the document that names the frame. The valuation can still be whatever the lender already holds.

Do not invent a rule that every lender will refuse the steel, or that silence means they have accepted it. Policies differ and are not in the valuation paragraph that never mentioned construction. Ask the lender which report they want attached and whether they need a form answered in a set wording. You can point them to the Level 3 page that names the frame. You should not upgrade a suspicion into a system the Level 3 did not see, and you should not delete the steel to match the valuation's silence. Rating definitions in the Level 3 still describe condition. They are not a lending decision.

What should you ask your surveyor?

• Which sentences in the Level 3 actually name or limit the steel frame?
• Does the valuation mention construction at all, or is the silence total?
• What wording does the lender want, as against what either report already says?

What are the typical next steps?

1. Send the lender the Level 3 pages that name the frame.
2. Do not rely on the valuation's silence as a construction finding.
3. Ask the lender what they need. Do not invent their policy.

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

Which pages should you read next?

• The survey suspects mundic-type concrete in a Cornish block wall and does not give it a class. Why must you not invent the class from this page?
• One sentence says the house may be Orlit and the next says the type is uncertain. What should you not tell the lender while both sentences stand?
• A new rooflight has been cut into the front slope of a house in a conservation area. Has the survey established whether that opening had planning permission?
• Guide: What is the difference between a mortgage valuation and a home survey?
• All UK home survey questions

Sources

• MoneyHelper: Mortgage-related fees and costs (a mortgage valuation is not a structural survey)
• RICS: Description of the RICS Home Survey Level 3 (condition rating definitions)
• RICS: House surveys: the costs, types and benefits of an RICS home survey