Finding your own surveyor?

curedham

So we've exchanged on our current flat and hoping to move to a house soon. We were sorely disappointed with the surveyor when we bought our flat so definitely not using them again.

But then again how do we find a good surveyor? The one from the bank (HSBC) had terrible reputations so not going with them (apart from the basic valuation which is compulsory). A colleague of mine recommended her surveyor but they are in north east London while we're buying in south west London.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

G_M

Recommendations and/or RICS website.

curedham

Well that's the thing, all surveyors will be in RICS website, they won't be surveyor otherwise right?

Getting recommendation somehow a bit difficult, most of my friends rents while most of my colleagues live outside London.

What do people think about getting local surveyors that have knowledge in the area? Is it a valid consideration factor? For someone who has seen a lot of the housing stock in the local area.

Icecold_2

We got a great recommendation from our conveyancing solicitor

Calleja

I had a similar issue - no one I knew could recommend a surveyor in my area. So I got some quotes from reallymoving (as recommended in Martins 50 house buying tips) and another website that I forget now. I called three to chat to them. One completely stuck out from the others - he asked lots of questions, gave time for me to ask questions and I felt like we had a bit of a rapport. He has since been very supportive, spending time on the phone with me explaining things and giving me his opinion. He wasn't the cheapest but wasn't the most expensive quote either.

One of the companies I called were going to sub-contract and couldn't tell me at the time who to, plus I was only speaking to a company representative, not the surveyor. In this instance I felt that getting hold of the actual surveyor might be difficult (at least prior to the survey if not also after) and I wanted to ensure I discussed an issue with them, so that ruled them out.

I ruled one out on price alone, and by this I mean it sounded too cheap in comparison to others I was getting! That might go a bit against the ethos of this website, and when I spoke to him he was fine (although the one I eventually went with asked more questions) but it still concerned me.

I'm sure others have different opinions as to what is important but this is how I made my decision and I've been very happy with my guy, who has spent a lot of time advising me on actions I should take (without scaremongering or being overly cautious). But I think it will always be a bit of a risk when you are picking someone unknown and I may have just got lucky.