No yet again. Until the late 1990s, all lending institutions required new or updated surveys in the buyers name, to protect all parties from the problems listed above. However, in order to be more competitive with each other by lowering closing costs, they dropped this requirement. They have special insurance that protects them in case they take the loan back and it is devalued due to a matter that a new survey would have alerted them to, but there is no protection for the property owner.