Instruct Solicitor Before Survey?

scrivomcdivo

Just wondering if people would recommend instructing a solicitor before any survey has been carried out?

Our offer has been accepted and we're hoping to get in before Christmas, so we want to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. Nonetheless, I'm just worried that, if we instruct a solicitor, they may start work and then the survey may bring up a few problems, the sale falls through and money is lost

Dasnookster

You have to pay out for survey costs and if it falls through that will certainly be lost. As far as instructing a solicitor goes, I would do it straight away, not sure how others do it, but it is one of the first things I've done whenever I've moved.

roswell

Id say get survey results first, thats we did last time we had a offer accepted, pitty the hosue turned out to be worth more knocked doown than standing .... we didnt go through with the purchase ... must have been the best £500 I ever spent to get nothing.

lilyann1

Its a risk whatever you do.
We arranged survey but mrtge company took 3 weeks to do it and by that time our solicitor could have had the searches back!!!
It all depends if you think the house will come through the survey ok and if you also think whatever the survey comes up with you'll go through with it anyway.
I would instruct solicitor immediately as it generally takes 8-12 weeks for house purchase to go through and its only 10 weeks til Xmas!!!

PoorDave

scrivomcdivo wrote:

Just wondering if people would recommend instructing a solicitor before any survey has been carried out?

Our offer has been accepted and we're hoping to get in before Christmas, so we want to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. Nonetheless, I'm just worried that, if we instruct a solicitor, they may start work and then the survey may bring up a few problems, the sale falls through and money is lost

Perhaps talking to the solicitor about this might be a good idea?!

For instance "we want use you, but please don't start work until we say the survey's ok"

But then this wouldn't speed things up in the way you're looking for.

Are you in a long chain? That'll be what decides if you move before xmas or not realistically.

mrsS_2

Hi- every time I have bought a house I have had to immediately give the details of my solicitor to the estate agents before they would even pass on the offer to the vendor.

This may not be normal of course, but how does the estate agent know that you are serious if they have no legal contact?

These days you have to have a mortgage practically sewn up as well-

at the end of the day you are going to need a solicitor even if you dont buy this property so you may as well sort it out now. You also need to get several quotes as the prices vary hugely.

Manchester_Lucy

scrivomcdivo wrote:

Just wondering if people would recommend instructing a solicitor before any survey has been carried out?

We instructed our solicitor on the day that our offer was accepted. We then told them to hold off doing the searches etc until we had the results of the survey which they did.

Just because you instruct a solicitor doesn't necessarily mean that you start paying out money immediately.