Valuation then survey, or vice versa?

LondonColt

anselld wrote: »

Is the chain complete, ie top to bottom?
I would personally not spend on either valuation or survey until there is a complete chain because nobody is proceedable and it may collapse at any time through no fault of your own.
If the chain *is* complete then your broker is correct. However, don't kid yourself; both the Broker and the EA are looking after their own interests!

Thanks for this. We are both chain free so don't need to wait for anything like that.

As you, and others, have said it looks like the EA simply being pushy to get a sale through, which is their job after all. I'm fairly relaxed about sticking to our timetable and not letting them push us around.

Thanks all!

Thrugelmir

LondonColt wrote: »

As you, and others, have said it looks like the EA simply being pushy to get a sale through, which is their job after all. I'm fairly relaxed about sticking to our timetable and not letting them push us around.

I've only ever communicated through the EA. That's what they are getting paid for, i.e. to facilitate. If approached direct then I'm polite, agreeable and neutral. As have no wish to get into a discussion.

wantonnoodle

We're trying to buy a house at the moment, which is chain free (we're FTB and the seller is a LL).

We instructed our solicitor once we had the offer accepted, and pushed on with the mortgage application pretty much straight away. My uncle is a retired surveyor, so he came with us and had a look at the house about 10 days after the offer was accepted. The mortgage valuation was booked for the following day. My uncle provided me with a written report, for my use only, pretty quick after he saw it. 3 days after the valuation, we got the valuation report in the post. This raised some areas for concern, though not what my uncle was concerned about (the roof condition was his biggest issue). They gave us an offer but it had a full retention on it until we provide them with a structural survey report covering the areas of their concern, and a cavity wall inspection report (wall ties and building movement were their concerns). We had the structural survey done on Friday, and have the cavity wall inspection booked for Monday (the cavity wall inspection people wanted to see the structural survey report before they went in). We had the structural survey report back yesterday, and while they seem quite positive about the areas the valuation report highlighted, they have totally glossed over what my uncle saw as issues.

Moral of the story is that we're now totally confused, but are happy that we didn't spend money having things looked at that we didn't need (a full building survey would have been £450+VAT, while the structural report was £270+VAT and a cavity wall tie inspection £125 VAT inc).

Hopefully now we'll be in a better position to decide if the house is a money pit or not.