survey before solicitors?

bs0u0128

if u get an offer accepted, can u have the survey done before appointing any solicitors, ie basing the decision to continue on a passable survey first

Debt_Free_Chick

Yes. But you might want to appoint your solicitor anyway as there's some paperwork to complete and you'll probably have to provide ID too (moneylaundering regs). You might as well do this now to avoid any delay if you decide to go ahead.

MegS

You could do but the EA will probably get edgy about it, why not just appoint your solicitor so everything is set up ready to go when you're ready and just tell them not to do anything until you get the results of your survey and instruct them. You'll need a solicitor anyways if you're going to buy.

loulou41

I did that when I made an offer last year, I talked to somebody's in the solicitor office and got everything ready and told her I will instruct them when my offer is accepted. EA also wanted proof that I had the cash and she told me to ask the EA to ring her as she will confirm as I showed my bank statements that I have the cash and ready to go.Unfortunately my offer was rejected. That's my plan anyway, I will get the survey done when my offer is accepted and if everything is ok, I instruct the solicitor.

Suzi.Q_3

We're currently wating for our survey to be done, and have decided not to start on the solicitors stuff until we've had the survey done. We have chosen our solicitors, and the paperwork is all ready to be sent back to them, but they want money towards the searches straight away which would obviously be lost money if the survey threw up something that we weren't happy with.

Unfortunately this is causing the EAs to harass us, and now we're starting to get concerned that the vendors may put the house back on the market.

MegS

The solicitors may well ask for money for the searches but if you just explain you're waiting on the survey results they should back off and wait for you to instruct. If you say they should wait until you instruct them to do the searches they will wait. Why are people afraid to talk to their solicitors? If you feel you can't put your point of view to him they why use him/her? As long as you are willing to listen to why he can't do what you ask then you should have a good relationship.

Suzi.Q_3

MegS wrote:

The solicitors may well ask for money for the searches but if you just explain you're waiting on the survey results they should back off and wait for you to instruct. If you say they should wait until you instruct them to do the searches they will wait. Why are people afraid to talk to their solicitors? If you feel you can't put your point of view to him they why use him/her? As long as you are willing to listen to why he can't do what you ask then you should have a good relationship.

We have spoken to our solicitors and they're happy to wait and understand our reasoning - as I said it's the estate agent we're getting hassled by. Unfortunately this particular EA is well known for harassing people (they've already had us in to talk to their mortgage advisor under false pretences, even though we had an agreement in principle).

clairefun

Our buyer waited till the survey had come back before instructing her solicitors, however we didn't know this until 2 months had passed since we'd accepted her offer! (that's how long it took to get the survey done due to Christmas and so on). Our EA were worried, our sols were worried, our vendors EA was worried...we were considering putting it back on the market, as we thought she wasn't serious. We'd already paid for searches and surveys on the house we're buying on the understanding that she was as 'full steam ahead' on our house as we were on the one we're buying. SO please please let your vendors & everybody involved know that's what you're doing...