FTB (probably) dim question re surveys

kneame

Hi,

This is probably (hopefully) a very easy question but I can't find the answer anywhere so thought I'd try on here...

My boyfriend and I have just had an offer accepted on a house. We've instructed our solicitors and have an appointment with our mortgage broker on Wednesday afternoon. We want to have a homebuyers survey done on the house at the v least as it is a victorian terrace. Trouble is we're not sure on a couple of points.

Firstly, when should you commission a survey to be done? Should you have it done before you apply for your mortgage as one person suggested to me because of the possible changes in the price of the house following survey? We're going on holiday next week and don't want to hold things up so would like to get the mortgage application going as asap.

Secondly (and this is linked to the first point), is it a good idea (and generally cheaper) to get the mortgage company to do a homebuyers survey at the same time as they do the valuation? Or are there advantages to arranging one seperately?

Sorry - really quite clueless about this. And sorry about the long post....

xela_17

If the mortgage company is doing the survey you tell them during the application process and then it's done around the same time as the valuation. You can check the cost of some lenders' homebuyers surveys on their websites (I know you can for HSBC and Northern Rock anyway). It holds things up a bit if the house price is renegotiated after survey as you then need a new mortgage offer but it's not a big problem.

aloiseb

just been readign Kirsty n Phil's "How to buy a house" and they reckon you shouldn't instruct a survey until you are sure that the vendors have got going with their contracts - just in case they aren't really serious about selling.

It struck me as good advice, if you can do it in spite of the estate agents! - , cos we were caught out this way last time we bought, and paid over £500 for a full survey, then the vendor suddenly decided not to sell after all! i dont' think she had even instructed solicitors. I coudl have foudn that out in advance with a little trouble I'm sure (with hindsight, which is a wonderful thing)

Debt_Free_Chick

aloiseb wrote:

just been readign Kirsty n Phil's "How to buy a house" and they reckon you shouldn't instruct a survey until you are sure that the vendors have got going with their contracts - just in case they aren't really serious about selling.

But on another thread it was suggested that a seller shouldn't waste money on getting the solicitors going with the contract until the buyers had had the survey done :rotfl:

Both advice is true ... but you can see how things can end up deadlocked, if both buyer and seller are sitting it out waiting for the other party to move .....

Debt_Free_Chick

kneame wrote:

Firstly, when should you commission a survey to be done? Should you have it done before you apply for your mortgage as one person suggested to me because of the possible changes in the price of the house following survey? We're going on holiday next week and don't want to hold things up so would like to get the mortgage application going as asap.

Secondly (and this is linked to the first point), is it a good idea (and generally cheaper) to get the mortgage company to do a homebuyers survey at the same time as they do the valuation? Or are there advantages to arranging one seperately?

I prefer to treat the mortgage valuation and the survey separately. Personally, get on with the mortgage application and let them do their valuation - the cost is included in the application fee.

Then, separately, appoint your own surveyor to do the homebuyers survey - are you sure you don't want a full structural survey on a Victorian house?

This way, the mortgage application proceeds as soon as possible and it then doesn't matter when you get the full survey - though you probably want to hold off signing the contract until you've seen it, as you may want to negotiate on any necessary work.

Personally, I don't think there's a huge saving in getting the same surveyor to both the valuation and the survey, but a shop around will give you some prices to compare.

HTH

lowis

i just upgraded my lenders (Nationwide) valuation survey to a homebuyers - the basic valuation was £285, homebuyer is £445. i also called some surveyors independently to get a price and the cheapest I found was £450 plus VAT - so I have 'saved' about £280 by using the lenders surveyor.

clutton_2

do make sure that you can talk to the surveyor afterwards if you have any issues with his report.