How long is a valuation valid? Expiry and reassignment windows
Letting a valuation lapse near settlement is one of the most common self-inflicted delays in property lending. It is also one of the most avoidable, because the rules are knowable in advance — there are just more clocks running than most borrowers realise.
There are two clocks, not one
Every lender and product has a validity window: how long it will accept the report at all. Separately, most have a shorter reassignment window: how long the panel valuer can move the report to a different lender without a fresh physical inspection.
A valuation can sit comfortably inside the validity window and still be past the point where it can be reassigned. If you are refinancing to a new lender, the shorter clock is the one that governs your timeline.
Validity windows in practice
Indicative, observed across lender correspondence 2024–2026. Policies change — confirm the current position with the specific lender.
- Shorter-window lenders: 90 days from inspection, applied strictly, with no extensions granted. Past that, a new valuation at the borrower’s cost is required.
- Longer-window lenders: six months full validity.
- Large or high-LVR facilities can carry a tighter currency ceiling regardless of headline policy — around 120 days from completion has been treated as the outer limit of risk tolerance on facilities above roughly $1m at 80%+ LVR.
- A reassignment cut-off of 90 days from initial inspection can run underneath a six-month validity period. Track both.
- At least one lender automatically extends an about-to-expire valuation by a further 30 days to protect an in-progress settlement, without the broker asking. It is a one-time buffer; if settlement still will not land, a fresh paid valuation is required.
The date the clock actually runs from
Expiry runs from the report’s stated date of issue, not the physical inspection date. Where a slow lender is involved, a legitimate gap of a few weeks between inspection and issue can be the difference between surviving a cut-off mid-assessment and paying for the whole thing again. It is a fair thing to raise with the valuer at instruction.
Reassigning a valuation to a new lender
An already-completed valuation can often be transferred rather than re-ordered. It never works by forwarding the PDF. Until reassignment formally completes, the report is legally unsigned and unusable by the incoming lender, however good the content is.
The sequence
- The new lender — not the broker, not the borrower — sends formal reassignment instructions directly to the valuer.
- An engagement letter is executed.
- The valuer invoices the reassignment fee.
- The fee is paid.
- The report is formally reassigned.
Credit support teams typically action a properly lodged request in one to two business days. Start it early anyway, and push it into the formal approval queue as soon as it is requested rather than waiting for it to complete.
Fees are unpredictable — ask
Observed reassignment fees over 2024–2026 have ranged from nil to roughly $550, with a QS report reassignment separately around $1,650 where one exists. There is no reliable rule; some firms waive it, some do not.
The hidden delay: reliance-party wording
This is the one that costs settlements. A completed report naming only a lender’s trading name has had to be amended to also name the lender’s group entity and its corporate trustee before the settlement team would accept it. The amendment sat open pending the valuer’s internal compliance checks for over ten days.
Brief the valuer with the incoming lender’s exact required reliance-party wording before the report is submitted, not after it has been issued.
Two situations where reassignment simply is not available
- Some firms will not reassign at all, under any circumstances. A brand-new instruction is the only route.
- Panel membership is not portable. Some lenders instruct their own valuations and will not accept a report obtained for a different lender — even one produced by a firm that sits on their own panel for other work.
Two cheaper questions before you pay for a fresh report
- “Will you accept the existing valuation at a slightly lower LVR?” This works more often than people expect, costs nothing to ask, and has carried deals through on existing reports where the alternative was a fresh commission and a two-week delay.
- “Can the report be re-dated or re-addressed — or will a desktop or AVM product satisfy you at this LVR?” Where the LVR has headroom, a desktop product is materially cheaper and faster than a full re-inspection.
Some lenders will also provide written consent wording authorising reassignment of a valuation to an incoming lender. Ask for it and forward it straight to the valuer — on a time-critical exit from an expiring short-term facility, that consent route has avoided a fresh commission entirely.
The risk of letting one lapse
Expiry is not just an administrative deadline. In a softening market, fresh valuations have come back $100,000 to $150,000 lower than the figures they replaced. If your facility is sized off the old number, letting it lapse can turn a completed approval into an equity call.
Quantify that explicitly when you are chasing a client for outstanding conditions. “We need your ID by Friday” moves nobody. “If this valuation lapses, the replacement is likely to come in six figures lower and you will need to find the difference” moves everybody.
The practical discipline
- Diarise the expiry date from date of issue the day the report lands.
- Diarise the reassignment cut-off separately, if there is any chance of moving lenders.
- Once a valuation or approval is within a fortnight of expiry, escalate rather than wait — chase the valuer, and ask the lender’s settlement team for the latest date they could still receive documents and settle.
- Get the incoming lender’s reliance-party wording in writing before the report is issued.
General information only. It is not credit assistance, financial product advice, or an offer of finance, and it does not take account of your objectives, financial situation or needs. Windows, fees and lender policies stated are indicative observations over 2024–2026 and change without notice.