First time buyer private sale help

[crapitus]

I've been with DB to view a house this morning. It belongs to his friends gran who has had to go into a care home, the house now needs to be sold to fund her care. DB is a first time buyer so hasn't got the luxury of an estate agent to guide him through the process.
DB has been to the bank and agreed a mortgage in principle, he says that the bank have said that he needs a gas safe check and an electrical check before they will allow him to proceed with the mortgage application? Does that sound right? Also they need to know if the house has a steel frame?
The house appears to be in good structural order (to our untrained eye) but is an ex local authority house around 60-65 years old.
After the second viewing he feels happy that he'd like to buy it (they have agreed a price at the bottom of the valuation figure an estate agent gave) but how does he proceed from here?
He'd like a full structural survey done, how do you go about arranging that privately? Is is done before he applies for the mortgage? It's been years since I bought a house and the estate agent always took care of things so I'm no help.
Can anyone guide me on what he needs to do now please? Cheers!

[wowfudge]

The mortgage company will want to carry out a survey to be sure there are no major problems and it is worth the agreed price. You can usually upgrade the survey for a few hundred pounds to a full structural survey. I think the person in the bank has probably said something along the lines of he may want to have the boiler and the electrics checked if it's a older property or needs work. That's what all surveyors seem to say, btw, so not usually obligatory.

[Spickle]

Has your DB and the friend's gran separately instructed conveyancing solicitors? If so, they will be able to guide you through the process. To be honest, once you have agreed a price and both parties are keen to go ahead, the EA is no longer needed, particularly if your DB and friend (and gran) are able to chat to each other.

Initially, all that the seller needs to provide is a "sales memo" sent to each solicitor detailing the address of the property, price, name and address of seller, name and address of their solicitor, name and address of buyer, name and address of buyer's solicitor. Then both sets of solicitors can write to each other. The seller's solicitor will ask the seller to complete and return various forms, obtain title deeds and then draft a contract. This will be sent to your DB's solicitor and the process can begin.

[crapitus]

No solicitor yet, he isn't sure what order he needs to do things in, whether to get a surveyor first etc. thanks for all your help though, very useful