Lending
Your borrowing and the lender’s checks
Immediate pathway · offer accepted
Your offer has been accepted. What happens now?
An accepted offer is an important milestone, but it is not exchange of contracts. Lending, property evidence and legal work now move forward together. Use this route to understand what happens next, what each professional is checking and where you may need to pause before committing.
This pathway explains the process in England. It is education, not a live transaction tracker or financial or legal advice.
Three things move together
Know what is happening in parallel.
You do not need to memorise every step at once. Use the lane that answers your immediate question, then return to the route when new evidence arrives.
Property evidence
The condition and value of the home
Legal work
Title, searches and the contract
Your route
Eight lessons, in a sensible order.
Open the lesson for the explanation, questions, checklist and knowledge check. Each link is part of the full 48-step journey.
- 1
Lending · Start now
Submit Your Full Mortgage Application
Turn your Agreement in Principle into an application for this property and understand the evidence the lender will request.
- 2
Legal work · Start now
Instruct a Conveyancer
Appoint the legal professional who will investigate title, raise enquiries and report what you need to know.
- 3
Property evidence · Early in the process
Choose and Book Your Survey
Choose an independent survey that matches the property and reveals condition risks a viewing cannot show.
- 4
Lending · During lending checks
The Mortgage Valuation
Understand the lender's valuation and what a down-valuation could mean for your borrowing and offer.
- 5
Legal work · While evidence is gathered
Searches and Enquiries
Follow the searches and legal enquiries that can reveal risks beyond the building itself.
- 6
Property evidence · When the report arrives
Review Survey Results
Translate findings into questions, quotations and a decision about whether to proceed, renegotiate or pause.
- 7
Lending · Before exchange
Receive Your Mortgage Offer
Check the formal mortgage terms, conditions and expiry date before relying on the finance.
- 8
Legal work · When the evidence is satisfactory
Exchange of Contracts: Overview
Learn what must be ready before exchange makes the purchase legally binding.
The distinction that matters
A valuation is not a survey.
Both may appear during the same stretch of the process, but they answer different questions and protect different interests.
Lender valuation
The lender checks whether the property provides enough security for the loan. It is for the lender, may be brief and is not a survey of the building’s condition.
Learn about the valuation →Buyer’s survey
You commission a survey as the buyer to understand condition and defects. It is for your decision-making and may lead to further questions, quotations or renegotiation.
Choose a survey →Questions to carry with you
Keep the conversation useful.
Take these questions to the relevant professional. You do not need to know the answer before you ask.
- What evidence does the lender still need, and when will the mortgage offer expire?
- Which survey level fits this property, its age and its construction?
- What will the conveyancer investigate, and how will serious findings be explained to me?
- If the valuation or survey changes the picture, what decisions remain open before exchange?
When the evidence is ready
Learn what happens before exchange.
Exchange of contracts is the point at which the purchase becomes legally binding. Understand what needs to be checked before you reach it.
Open the exchange phase