SAMPLE LETTER CONDITIONS OF ENGAGEMENT FOR MORTGAGE VALUATION:

Dear Sir/Madam

We refer to your instructions received in this office today, requiring us to carry out a limited Valuation Report for Mortgage Purposes on the above property. We are obliged by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors to seek formal confirmation from you that the scope and extent of the inspection which we shall make, is in accordance with your requirements. A summary of the Conditions of Engagement upon which this valuation will be prepared is provided below.

It is also a requirement of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors that we should seek formal confirmation from you before accepting your instructions to proceed with the inspection. We are aware, however, that these requirements are generally laid down to comply with UK practices outside Scotland where the method of purchasing a property is substantially different. For our part, we will assume acceptance of the undernoted Conditions of Engagement unless advised by you to the contrary. We also confirm that we operate a Complaints Handling Procedure and that this is available to you on request in the unlikely event of a dispute.

Yours Faithfully

Whyte & Barrie/FSS

CONDITIONS OF ENGAGEMENT
1 The property will be inspected by a qualified Surveyor for the purposes of advising upon its suitability for Mortgage Purposes. However, a final decision on whether a mortgage will be granted rests with your chosen lending institution which may impose retentions in line with their lending criteria. The date of valuation will be the date of inspection.

2 The degree of inspection will be in accordance with the current guidelines for Mortgage Valuation inspections as issued by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). If there is any doubt as to the scope and extent of the inspection (IT IS NOT A SURVEY), we should be contacted prior to the submission of a binding offer to purchase and we shall be happy to provide further information. In the meantime and for the avoidance of doubt, we confirm the sub-floor areas will not be examined and roof voids will only be inspected from the access hatch without entering the roof space. Common roof voids in buildings such as tenements will not be inspected. The exterior of the property will be inspected from ground level only.

3 It is recognised that a detailed surveyor of the property is neither required nor instructed. We are specifically not required to inspect those parts which are covered, unexposed or otherwise inaccessible. Carpeting and furnishings will not be removed. As a consequence, we shall, in preparing our valuation and recommendations be entitled to assume that such parts of the property that are out with the scope of the inspection are free from defect and that there are no conditions in the adjacent properties which could have an adverse effect on the subject property. Unless expressly stated to the contrary we will, in arriving at our opinion of Market Value make the following assumptions:-

a) The property is unaffected by adverse Planning, road or other proposals or any other known proposals to amend, alter or develop any adjacent land or buildings which could have an adverse effect on the subjects under report. We shall be under no obligation to make property enquiries at Local Authority offices.

b) The property is held on feudal tenure and is not affected by any unusual or onerous Title conditions or outgoings and that good Title can be given.

c) That all alterations to the property have been properly regulated or that they can be regulated at minimal cost and that, where necessary, the Superior�s approval has been obtained.

d) We shall value the heritable parts of the property only on the basis that an inspection of those parts of the property which have not been inspected would neither reveal material defects nor cause us to alter the valuation materially.

e) That the services will not be tested and will be assumed to be in a functioning condition conforming to current regulations and that, where electricity, gas, water and drainage are installed, they are a mains facility. In the case of non-mains water and drainage we will assume that these facilities are satisfactory and approved by the appropriate authority.

f) That the property, and the adjoining properties and locality are free from any contamination or any deleterious materials and that no high alumina cement, concrete or calcium chloride additives were used in the construction of the subjects.

g) Market Value (MV) is "the estimated amount for which a property should exchange on the date of valuation between a willing buyer and a willing seller in an arms length transaction after proper marketing and wherein the parties had each acted knowledgeably prudently and without compulsion".

4 Special conditions and assumptions relating to asbestos:-

a) The valuer will not carry out an asbestos inspection, and will not be acting as an asbestos inspector in completing a valuation inspection of properties that may fall within the Control of Asbestos at Workplace Regulations 2002.

b) No enquiry of the duty holder as defined in the Control of Asbestos in the Workplace Regulations 2002 of the existence of an asbestos register or of any plan for the management of asbestos will be made.

c) Your Legal Advisor/Conveyancer should confirm the duty holder under these regulations, the availability of an Asbestos Register and the existence and management of any asbestos containing materials.

d) For the purposes of this valuation, we have assumed that there is a duty holder as defined in the Control of Asbestos in the Workplace Regulations 2002 and that a Register of Asbestos and effective Management Plan is in place, which does not require any immediate expenditure or pose a significant risk to health or breach the HSE Regulations.

5 As our client you undertake to immediately pay our fee in accordance with our current level of charges. A copy of our current fee scale is attached. We reserve the right to withhold the report until payment of our fee.

6 It should be noted that we have no vested interest in the outcome of this valuation. Unless otherwise stated we are external Valuers as defined within the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Appraisal and Valuation Standards (Fifth Edition). We strongly recommend that your report be passed to your Solicitors immediately to obtain independent legal advice.

7 Our report is private and confidential to you in the context supplied and no responsibility is accepted to any third party (whether notified to us or not) for neither the whole nor any part of its content. However, in line with Scottish practice we reserve the right to make the report available to other parties, and, if requested to their lending institutions.

8 As part of our remit, we may, where we feel qualified and experienced to do so, provide general comment on standard appropriate supplementary documentation, presented to us by the clients� lender and conveyancer. In the event of a significant amount of documentation being provided to us, an additional fee may be incurred. Any additional fee will be agreed in writing.

9 If the valuation report is received before or at the same time as this letter confirming your instructions and our terms and conditions, we have departed from the requirements of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Appraisal and Valuation Standards (Fifth Edition). This is due to time restrictions created by the traditional procedures for buying property in Scotland.