Can I delay while waiting for Survey??

Dawn248

Can I hold off on conveyancing while waiting for the survey to be done?
The surveyor is booking me in for three weeks time as they're really busy. They have a good reputation!
If the valuation is lower then I might want to renegotiate my offer so...should I get the conveyancer working on my purchase now or can I hold out a while for the survey?
I don't want to be building up conveyancing fees only for something to come up in the survey but don't want to lose the flat either.
The purchase is a flat in a new conversion and not even finished yet so hopefully the developers won't get too impatient?
Any advice would be great. Thanks
Any advice

G_M

Of course you can.

The risk is that the seller thinks you are not commited to the purchase, continues to market, and finds another buyer.

eddddy

There's nothing to stop you doing that, it's what quite a few people do - but it may worry the developers, and they might decide to sell to somebody else.

You have to decide whether you tell the developers up front that you are delaying the legal stuff until the survey is done, or leave them to get feedback from their solicitor that things aren't progressing.

Either approach might worry the developers.

Either way, you can instruct a solicitor, and pass their name to the developers - but tell your solicitor not to do anything until you've had the survey results.

always_sunny

you can even change your mind after until you exchange!

cloo

I'd echo the posters above that it's up to you, but might concern the vendors, either that you're not serious, or that you're holding out to renegotiate hard post survey.


I'd also say it's rare for a *total* dealbreaker to come up on the survey - at worst, on the whole, there might be issues for renegotiation. Being a refurbishment, one would hope that the developers have addressed any major issues and that services would be new, so I'd imagine it has a lower likelihood than most of turning up anything dire.

Dawn248

I know I can pull out before exchange if I want to but want to avoid losing money on legal fees if I can help it!
The property was on the market a good few months before I put my offer in and the development isn't finished yet so they might be patient but who knows?
If I can still renegotiate when I receive the survey, four weeks from now, I guess I may as well push ahead.

Thanks for all the helpful replies.