Has anyone lost a house due to a delay in the survey being done?

okborednow

I've just been reading this article that says in some areas there are big delays in the survey being done due to a shortage of surveyors. It also says that some buyers lose the house when the vendor accepts another offer or puts it back on the market.

I truly can't see how this can be so...surely if there's a shortage the next buyer would have the same issue so what's the sense in putting it back on the market?

Anyone have any experience of this as a buyer or vendor?

http://www.lovemoney.com/news/property-and-mortgages/buying-and-selling-property/21889/surveyor-shortage-could-ruin-your-house-buying-plans?source=uoofolrf0010002

Dan-Dan

I suspect this might , in part , have something to do with people paying the lenders appointed valuation surveyor , to also carry out the homebuyer survey for them , this slows things down , just the valuation from the bank and a privatley appointed surveyor , would speed things up

dimbo61

With my last house purchase we viewed on sunday afternoon, offered full asking price on monday at 10am, had survey done Thursday morning.
It did take 8/10 weeks to finally get keys

DRP

discussed this with my EA 'progressor' yesterday. She reckons that many surveyors have been relocated or changed jobs during the dip and now that certain areas are manic there is a struggle to keep up. Not sure how correct that is, but there's certainly a backlog.

Fingers crossed as 3 of us in the chain are trying to organise surveys asap...

Full_of_angst

I accepted an offer on May 18th and my buyers' mortgage valuation wasn't done until July 18th! It was just the basic valuation not a full survey as they'd commissioned their own building survey - So I don't think the delay was to do with the level of survey.

My EA said that it's because during the slump many surveyors were laid off and due to the sudden increase in movement in the property market there now aren't enough surveyors to keep up with the demand.

Very frustrating.

Emmajane1987

I put an offer in for a house on the 5th July2013, applied for my mortgage on the 6th July and paid for mymortgage valuation and home buyers report at the same time through Halifax. Iwas warned that it could be possibly be a 5 week wait which worried me butafter speaking to my EA he said he had never experienced such a long wait andexpected that it would be a lot sooner. On the 18th July my EA wascontacted and was informed that my survey was booked in for the 30thAUGUST, that’s right an eight week wait. Luckily my EA was very persistent andtold them this was unacceptable and if the wait was really that long then thewhole of the Essex, South East housing market would come to a stop, he expectedthem to go back and outsource the work. I was contacted yesterday by my EA andwas told that my surveyor is now booked for the 5th August.

There is defiantly a long wait in the South-East at themoment however my situation shows that if you keep chasing them a sooner datecan be found. However we still have had to wait 4 weeks which is still a longtime in comparison to some peoples waiting times. Countrywide have been chosenfor my survey now.

kingstreet

There are plenty of surveyors. In many cases lenders have restricted panels, such as Nationwide with Countrywide, or an in-house firm as LBG does with Colleys.

There are plenty of small independents out there, but lenders or their panel managers appear reluctant to pay the money outside of their respective firms...

I would recommend having the lender surveyor do the mortgage report & valuation and your choice of independent surveyor to do any in-depth reports. You'll get them both done quicker and will get a better survey, IMHO.

DRP

kingstreet wrote: »

There are plenty of surveyors. In many cases lenders have restricted panels, such as Nationwide with Countrywide, or an in-house firm as LBG does with Colleys.

There are plenty of small independents out there, but lenders or their panel managers appear reluctant to pay the money outside of their respective firms...

I would recommend having the lender surveyor do the mortgage report & valuation and your choice of independent surveyor to do any in-depth reports. You'll get them both done quicker and will get a better survey, IMHO.

How would one find a good independent surveyor?

I've not been able to find anyone who could give me a personal recommendation...

Dan-Dan

Reallymoving.com

DRP

Dan-Dan wrote: »

Reallymoving.com

Thanks! will have a look now.

kingstreet

There's always the RICS site, but that will simply show you surveyors in your area;-

http://www.ricsfirms.com/