Booking structural survey

Giggidy

We had an offer accepted on a property 25th May, mortgage application submitted the 26th via broker who frustratingly only submitted the requested documents last week. The lender confirmed today they are running behind, and could take up to the 6th July to do the underwriting. We initially wanted to wait for the offer to come through before starting legal work and searches and doing a survey. We didn't expect it to take this long to even get passed the checking stage so we have instructed the solicitor to start the legal work, as we are 3 in a chain and they are now just waiting on us. I was hoping to book a surveyor to do a full structural for round about the second week of July as we would hopefully have heard back then about the mortgage offer. After researching local surveyors, the first one I called up said they are booked up to the 11th, takes about 5-10 days for the report and I would have to pay the £900 fee upfront. Now this makes me nervous, because we could get a refund if we don't get the offer but only up 48 hours before the booking is scheduled. That's alot of money to lose if anything goes wrong, in that time. Is this standard practice? Just want to know how things work before getting more quotes.

raygcon

Get mortgage offer is the first step. Do not book anything even start legal process until u get that sorted. There is no set rule but if u don't get mortgage then u will just lose money. 

trakky14

We made an offer on the 26th May, our mortgage still isn't sorted as they now want to do a in person valuation which won't be till next week...we are going to book our survey after that for the same reason. Legal work is underway though so that's something! As soon as the chain was complete the solicitor started work, there was a couple of weeks delay until our vendors found something. 

We're not paying for a structural survey until the mortgage is agreed as we tried to buy a place last year and the valuation came in 25k lower, vendor wouldn't budge. Sale fell through in any case but We're not risking spending 1k on a survey if the bank don't think its worth what we offered. I think a lot of people wait in case!

Giggidy

raygcon said:

Get mortgage offer is the first step. Do not book anything even start legal process until u get that sorted. There is no set rule but if u don't get mortgage then u will just lose money. 

We made a compromise to start initial legal work only, and though it may cost us some we felt it was worth the risk to keep the vendors sweet, as we really want this house. But searches and survey can wait for now

Giggidy

trakky14 said:

We made an offer on the 26th May, our mortgage still isn't sorted as they now want to do a in person valuation which won't be till next week...we are going to book our survey after that for the same reason. Legal work is underway though so that's something! As soon as the chain was complete the solicitor started work, there was a couple of weeks delay until our vendors found something. 

We're not paying for a structural survey until the mortgage is agreed as we tried to buy a place last year and the valuation came in 25k lower, vendor wouldn't budge. Sale fell through in any case but We're not risking spending 1k on a survey if the bank don't think its worth what we offered. I think a lot of people wait in case!

Almost similar timeline then! Our valuation was done within the first week of the application, it was just the broker's slowness that cost us time. Good luck with your move, hope it goes better than the last one

canaldumidi

Not much point spending money on a mortgage application if the legal searches or survey might throw up something that makes you pull out.

Hmmm - what to do first....?

Giggidy

canaldumidi said:

Not much point spending money on a mortgage application if the legal searches or survey might throw up something that makes you pull out.

Hmmm - what to do first....?

We added the fee to the mortgage application, and valuation was free...

trakky14

canaldumidi said:

Not much point spending money on a mortgage application if the legal searches or survey might throw up something that makes you pull out.

Hmmm - what to do first....?

Mortgage application and valuation was £100. Survey is £900...hence why we are waiting! Didn't want to get the bank to do the survey as they might find something they won't lend against...broker recommended we do them separately. 

Searches already underway but that was only £300, so at least we are moving forwards to some degree

trakky14

Giggidy said:

trakky14 said:

We made an offer on the 26th May, our mortgage still isn't sorted as they now want to do a in person valuation which won't be till next week...we are going to book our survey after that for the same reason. Legal work is underway though so that's something! As soon as the chain was complete the solicitor started work, there was a couple of weeks delay until our vendors found something. 

We're not paying for a structural survey until the mortgage is agreed as we tried to buy a place last year and the valuation came in 25k lower, vendor wouldn't budge. Sale fell through in any case but We're not risking spending 1k on a survey if the bank don't think its worth what we offered. I think a lot of people wait in case!

Almost similar timeline then! Our valuation was done within the first week of the application, it was just the broker's slowness that cost us time. Good luck with your move, hope it goes better than the last one

Our broker took ages to get the process started, valuation was meant to be last week as a desktop valuation but the house has land and outbuildings so they've decided to do a in in-person one now and they have less availability for that so we have to wait again for that...we'll hopefully get there! Vendors are understanding thankfully...our buyers have only just arranged their survey on ours too as they were waiting like us.

simon_or

canaldumidi said:

Not much point spending money on a mortgage application if the legal searches or survey might throw up something that makes you pull out.

Hmmm - what to do first....?

Mortgage product fee (if any) can be added to mortgage, no risk of losing it.

Mortgage valuation fee - other than Halifax, all high street banks offer free valuations

Mortgage broker fee - either fee-free or if a fee is charged it's not property specific