Survey Before Mortgage Application?

kmurray1003

Hi, I am currently a FTB and in the process of buying a house. I have had an offer accepted a few weeks ago and have hired a solicitor and have paid for the search fees etc.

I have a mortgage broker and am trying to get a HSBC mortgage at 90 LTV. This is really the only lender we can use as my partner was furloughed and has now returned to work 3 days a week (with the other 2 days on furlough). HSBC has already said this is fine. The issue is trying to submit an application (via broker) is like a lottery and we've been unsuccessful for over 3 weeks. We have a mip, but isn't really useful on it's own.

It seems the only thing that will hold the house sale up is the mortgage, by the time we get the application in and the lender does their searches etc. I am a bit worried that the seller will get frustrated with the time it's taking and pull the plug, which would be a shame as we love the house and determined to do whatever it takes to push the deal through.

This brings me onto the main question.....We haven't ordered the survey yet as we were waiting until we get the application in at least. Do you think we should just pay to get our survey done now at the risk of the deal falling through and us losing the £500+ for the survey? One thing that is on my mind is that lenders are changing their criteria all the time since coronavirus and HSBC may just say "we're no longer taking anyone on furlough" at anytime in the future, therefore the deal would collapse and we would lose our initial money from the solicitor and survey.

Any advice/reassurances on this whole thing would be greatly appreciated

Pugtown

Hi
We are in a very similar position to you and did go ahead and book a building survey (as well as paying for searches) as soon as the offer was accepted. We are five weeks in still waiting for our mortgage offer and last week the sellers started to make noises about wanting to complete asap. I was able to point out to the EA that we are serious given we have already paid for building survey and searches and *touchwood* this seems to have placated the sellers for now. I suppose the flip side is losing the money for survey if mortgage not granted but that was the risk we were willing to take
Hope this helps 

kmurray1003

Pugtown said:

Hi
We are in a very similar position to you and did go ahead and book a building survey (as well as paying for searches) as soon as the offer was accepted. We are five weeks in still waiting for our mortgage offer and last week the sellers started to make noises about wanting to complete asap. I was able to point out to the EA that we are serious given we have already paid for building survey and searches and *touchwood* this seems to have placated the sellers for now. I suppose the flip side is losing the money for survey if mortgage not granted but that was the risk we were willing to take
Hope this helps 

Thanks, I may reassure them that way if they start making noises! .....I'm assuming you have your mortgage application in and are just waiting approval? We haven't even got the application in yet which is worrying  

Pugtown

Yep, application went into natwest via broker five weeks ago. The wait isn't nice at all. From reading other threads on here though HSBC do seem to be a lot quicker once the application is in.

NicTin01

Also did this, got the survey done and searches paid for the same day we did our application. You take the risk that you won’t get the money back for survey and searches if anything goes TU with your mortgage application but we decided to take the risk as it was around £850 for both. All those things happened very quickly and we are just waiting for mortgage offer.