Is a Property Inspection Report Necessary? (UK fiance visa)

Hey folks,

I am in the process of applying for the fiancé visa. In compiling all the needed documentation regarding accommodation, I was wondering if a property inspection report is absolutely necessary. My fiancé owns his 3-bedroom house and will be providing the land registry (I assume a print out will suffice), along with mortgage and council tax statements. Could he just provide a letter that details the size of the house? It will just be the two of us living there (with our two dogs!) 

Thanks in advance!

What you have already is 100% fine and you do not need a property inspection report. 

Property inspections are recommended if you are going to be living with family, friends or in a flat or house share to prove there is no overcrowding.  What you have is sufficient.

I figured as much, but just wanted to double check. Thank you!!

I did my biometrics on Monday, November 18.  They received the documents in Sheffield on November 20 and I received an e-mail confirming priority processing on November 20.  I received the e-mail today that the decision has been made and documents are enroute.  Oh how I wish they would give the decision in the e-mail.  Waiting for that package to arrive is torture... 

and now I'm reading about a property inspection report above.  Not sure what that entails.  We listed our long-term family friends house as we will be finding our own accommodation almost immediately.  They have a large house with only two people living in it.  I included an original letter signed from them, describing their house and saying that we have permission to stay along with contact information if they had any questions.  We're applying via the savings route and have well in excess but I'm still nervous that they'll find a reason to decline, especially as our house has already sold and I'll be 7 months pregnant by the time we leave next month.

A property inspection is not required at all and never has been, even if you are living with family or friends.

If the UK sponsor owns the accommodation you need:

- evidence of home ownership (land registry document/deed)
- mortgage statements if you have a mortgage

If you rent from a landlord you need:

- tenancy agreement
- letter from the landlord giving the visa applicant permission to live in the property as well

If you will be living with family or friends you need:

- a letter from the family/friends inviting you to live with them and stating that the property will not be overcrowded
- evidence that they own the property (land registry document/deed)
- mortgage statements if they have a mortgage.

We listed our long-term family friends house as we will be finding our own accommodation almost immediately.  They have a large house with only two people living in it.  I included an original letter signed from them, describing their house and saying that we have permission to stay along with contact information if they had any questions.

The only issue you may have is if you did not include official evidence that they own the home... as you are usually expected to include the land registry document or deed to the home as well as the letter from them.

A property inspection is not required at all and never has been, even if you are living with family or friends.

If you will be living with family or friends you need:

- a letter from the family/friends inviting you to live with them and stating that the property will not be overcrowded
- evidence that they own the property (land registry document/deed)
- mortgage statements if they have a mortgage.

The only issue you may have is if you did not include official evidence that they own the home... as you are usually expected to include the land registry document or deed to the home as well as the letter from them.

Thank you.  Now I'm a little nervous but think the following would apply:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/policyandlaw/immigrationlaw/immigrationrules/appendix-fmse/ [nofollow]

(ii) Has not submitted a specified document, the decision-maker may contact the applicant or his representative in writing or otherwise, and request the document(s) or the correct version(s). The material requested must be received at the address specified in the request within a reasonable timescale specified in the request.

(c) The decision-maker will not request documents where he or she does not anticipate that addressing the error or omission referred to in sub-paragraph (b) will lead to a grant because the application will be refused for other reasons.

I'm thinking if proof of ownership was needed and it was the only item missing, they would have likely contacted me for the information based on the above (hopefully I'm not being too naive).  Our friends own their house, have lived there for 40 years and are mortgage-free.  They provided their contact information in their letter and haven't been contacted.  I think the rest of our application should be pretty straight-forward as we proved we have well in excess of the required funds and have held them for much longer than the 6 months required.  I did indicate in our application that we intend to live there temporarily until we are able to find our new home, so likely a week or less.

I took the supporting document information from this:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/out-of-country/sup-docs-settlement.pdf [nofollow]
Accommodation details
You may wish to submit any of the following documents to provide us with evidence of your accommodation. We advise that you do not make any payments for accommodation, travel and so on until you have received your visa.
Details of the accommodation that you and your sponsor intend to live in and
permission for you to stay there along with evidence of any other occupants
This could include:
 Land Registry documents
 mortgage statements
 rent book or tenancy agreement
 council tax statements
 property inspection report
 utilities bills
 accommodation details with a supporting letter from the occupant/ landlord
confirming that you are able to stay there.

I'll let you know what happens on Wednesday!

Just received my visa and was approved!  Tears of relief here!  Thank you!

A PIR is basically a scam run by propertyinspectionreport.co.uk in cahoots with various solicitors who will try to get their (rich) clients to pay for something they don't need.

Obviously there may be situations in which it does provide some additional evidence to the caseworker / ECO.

It is very important to have an house inspection report completed otherwise you may be refused a visa for this category. The UKBA Home Office requires this to be completed before making an application for visa

Hey folks,

I am in the process of applying for the fiancé visa. In compiling all the needed documentation regarding accommodation, I was wondering if a property inspection report is absolutely necessary. My fiancé owns his 3-bedroom house and will be providing the land registry (I assume a print out will suffice), along with mortgage and council tax statements. Could he just provide a letter that details the size of the house? It will just be the two of us living there (with our two dogs!) 

Thanks in advance!

It is very important to have an house inspection report completed otherwise you may be refused a visa for this category. The UKBA Home Office requires this to be completed before making an application for visa

A property inspection report is NOT required for the visa. As you can see above, CDN2UK was just approved a visa without submitting a property inspection report.

The Property Inspection Report is mentioned on the Settlement Visa Supporting Documents Guidance as one possible piece of evidence that you could submit, but it's not an absolute requirement... and I have seen hundreds of people here on UK-Y get their visas approved without providing one.

It is very important to have an house inspection report completed otherwise you may be refused a visa for this category. The UKBA Home Office requires this to be completed before making an application for visa

We just submitted a letter from our family member indicating how long they had known my husband (since birth), that we (indicated our names) would be welcome to stay as long as was necessary until we found permanent accommodation.  The letter stated that it was a large, comfortable house and the number of bedrooms, reception rooms etc.  We included the original signed letter in our application.  We only expect to stay with our friends for less than a week and my visa was approved without any additional questions being asked.