Financial Ombudsman Service: Valuations and surveys

For businesses

Last updated: 22 August 2023

Types of complaints we see

We hear from customers who say:

they wouldn’t have bought the property (or would have reduced their offer) if they’d known the facts
you arranged the wrong type of survey
the survey on the house didn’t flag up important problems
the valuation didn’t match the asking price – so you refused to offer what was needed to buy the property

Because the surveyor is instructed by you, the customer may think it’s always up to you to put things right.

In some cases, you’re liable for what the surveyor did or didn’t do. But not always. We look carefully at the circumstances of each individual complaint, including:

if you were clear about whether the valuation was carried out by an in-house or an independent surveyor
whether the independent surveyor you instructed was a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
whether parts of the survey report were commented on by you, and so appeared to be your opinion – not the independent surveyor’s opinion
anything you said in the report that turned out to be wrong

Handling a complaint

You have the opportunity to sort things out before we get involved. If a customer complains and you don’t respond within the time limits, or they disagree with your response, then they can come to us.

Find out more about how to resolve a complaint.

Things to consider

If you receive a complaint about the content of a valuation or survey, even if you think it’s the surveyor’s responsibility there may be issues around the instruction, or lending based on the report.

Make sure you understand the customer’s complaint, think about your responsibilities and – where appropriate – signpost your customer to the surveyor (or RICS).

What we look at

When a customer says they missed a chance for a discount

We’ll look at:

the property market at the time
other interest in the property
whether or not the seller had already agreed to any reductions

When a customer complains about a surveyor

We may direct them to RICS for help. We can’t usually deal with a complaint about the actions of an independent surveyor.

When a customer complains about the type of valuation report

Customers pay for valuation reports, but they are carried out for your benefit to decide if the property is good security for the loan. If the buyer wants a survey to help them decide whether to buy a property, they’ll need to pay for an additional report from the surveyor. They can also choose their own surveyor.

Customers can choose from three types of survey approved by the RICS:

Condition Report
HomeBuyer Report
Building Survey

If a buyer didn’t get the type of survey they’d asked for, there’s a chance you might have made an administrative mistake. But HomeBuyer reports are much more detailed than basic valuation reports – and we may decide the buyer knew they’d got the wrong type of report.

Ownership of the report

It’s important for us to work out whether the report is owned by you. A survey issued by you and bearing your name and corporate logo, doesn’t automatically make you responsible.

We also need to look at:

the format of any report the buyer saw – for example was it on your headed paper with your logo
whether it was signed off by an independent surveyor
what was said about responsibility for preparing the report
if the buyer had direct contact with the surveyor and what the surveyor said

Putting things right

If we decide something’s gone wrong, and that you’re responsible, we’ll work out how to compensate the customer fairly.

We might ask you to:

reorganise and pay for a new survey
contribute towards repair works if a survey didn’t report building defects that should have been mentioned
compensate your customer for any distress or inconvenience you’ve caused them, if you’ve treated them unfairly

Case studies

'The valuation was too low, and now I can't get the mortgage I need'

We look at Terry’s complaint about the valuation of a property he wanted to buy, which was carried out by an independent surveyor.

Mortgages

‘My bank carried out the wrong kind of survey.'

Wendy paid for a HomeBuyer’s Report, but the surveyor carried out a basic valuation.