What price integrity?
Can this be right? You find a house you like, agree a price with the seller, then apply for a mortgage. The lender wants the house valued, to make sure the loan will be secure, so it commissions a report from a valuer. But, although lending money is its business, the lender does not pay the valuer. You do. The Department of Trade and Industry does not seem to think it is right. It is due to publish a report next month about mortgage valuations, based on an investigation by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. The MMC’s findings remain confidential, but those who have given evidence or seen draft chapters of its report sense a wind of change. The Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society stopped charging mortgage valuation fees last month, and others are offering refunds to some customers while they ponder their long-term position. Few in the property industry are prepared to argue with the view of Michael Pattison, chief executive of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, tha
