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How to chose a surveyor?

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  • Most people advise to wait for the chain to complete before spending money on a survey.  I didn't know about home buyer's insurance, just looked it up - don't think I'd have paid for that.


    £216 saved 24 October 2014
  • My daughter is a FTB too, I bought her the book that this website refers to, might be of interest to you.

    Home • Help me, I'm buying a house (helpmeimbuyingahouse.co.uk)
    £216 saved 24 October 2014
  • badger09
    badger09 Posts: 11,573 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Agree with youth_leader. Organise your survey when chain is complete & you have your formal mortgage offer. 
    No idea about Home buyers insurance. Would depend on exactly what it covers & how much it costs. 
  • Bookowl
    Bookowl Posts: 193 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 100 Posts Photogenic
    badger09 said:
    Agree with youth_leader. Organise your survey when chain is complete & you have your formal mortgage offer. 
    No idea about Home buyers insurance. Would depend on exactly what it covers & how much it costs. 
    Would the formal mortgage be after the valuators been and done their final checks? I’m not sure of the process.

    The vendor said they’d give me an initial 3 weeks and suspend viewings. Then review the process, would this be normal?
  • Bookowl
    Bookowl Posts: 193 Forumite
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    The other question I have is, if the survey did find something ~hopefully it’s doesn’t.  Would it be normal practice to renegotiate  the price?
    If it was £300-£500 to fix something , I wouldn’t mind paying it myself. As if the seller wouldn’t agree to pay for it, I’d worry they’d walk away from sale  :(
  • youth_leader
    youth_leader Posts: 2,910 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 13 November 2022 at 8:57PM
    The formal mortgage offer is shortly after the mortgage lender survey has happened, perhaps a week. 

    However, with the points you noticed during your viewing/the brochure, do be prepared for the possibility of them asking for further investigations.  My buyer's mortgage lender valued my house at £0 and insisted on a damp/timber survey which took weeks as it was over the Christmas holidays.  

    There is also the situation where the property could be devalued and you have to decide if you can make up the shortfall with your savings, or negotiate with the vendor.

    Following your survey you can try to negotiate the price if there are very expensive repairs needed you had no knowledge of. on your viewing.  Houses are normally priced to reflect the improvements/repairs they need.    In my case it was timbers in the loft, I'd never been up there.  

    You might like to read this 

    Mortgage valuations explained - Which?
    £216 saved 24 October 2014
  • Bookowl
    Bookowl Posts: 193 Forumite
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    Thanks for all your comments - very helpful. I’d rather wait until I have my mortgage offer agreed and then go from there 🙂. That would make the most sense- right?
  • We waited until we had our mortgage offer in hand before organising the survey, no point booking/paying for a survey if you then have the mortgage rejected.

    We also paid up front. I found them by going onto the RICS website and looking up surveyors in my local area. 
  • I had my survey done before my mortgage offer - oops, luckily that came through today and the survey results too. Though I have a tight deadline of completion so had to book early. It took 4 working days to get the level 2 survey results back. Paid up front, found them on the RICS site and they had the best availability.
    Also to note they take care of getting access with keys etc, they contacted the EA directly about access, this was something I didn't know before.
  • BigBoss
    BigBoss Posts: 170 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Bookowl said:
    In the process of buying a house as a first time buyer - it’s all very stressful. 

    I am currently looking at surveyors and don’t know what I should be looking for when appointing one?

    I have spoken to a few of them and they have talked through some of the issues they have identified when looking at the property brochure.

    Some want payment up front - is this normal?

    A first time buyer who is very stressed out. 
    Reviews/costs etc. Use a whole-market type search site - they're pretty easy to come by.
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