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Original poster

To Be Impatient Re House Survey

16 replies

Toomuchtooyoung01 · 20/09/2021 19:48

In your experience, how long has it taken from accepting an offer on your house for a mortgage valuation survey to be booked?
We accepted an offer 4weeks ago and still haven’t heard anything about a survey being booked in. We have asked our estate agent to chase this up, but in the meantime does anyone have any idea if this is a normal period of time for these things to be booked nowadays and if not, what could be the reason for it taking so long? Getting anxious about what’s going on! Thanks!

OP posts:
iamnotanalcoholic70 · 20/09/2021 19:53

Could it have been done virtually? Some companies started doing this during the pandemic

Original poster
Toomuchtooyoung01 · 20/09/2021 20:04

Hi, thanks for your reply, no it hasn’t been done virtually.

OP posts:
spanieleyes · 20/09/2021 20:10

My son is buying and the survey was completed about 10 days after they made the offer.

Newkitchen123 · 20/09/2021 20:12

A month but we had a problem with the paperwork so they had to start again, should have been a couple of weeks

Original poster
Toomuchtooyoung01 · 20/09/2021 20:15

Does anyone have any idea of why there has been such a delay?

OP posts:
TakeYourFinalPosition · 20/09/2021 20:15

We’re buying and selling… our valuation was desktop, so happened quickly. Our buyer has struggled to get one, and the whole process of waiting for their offer has taken so long that we’re now on our fourth solicitor, and the new one has raised an enquiry with the bank which means they now want to do a proper valuation.

Fine; except Barclays have no availability for three weeks…

There is, allegedly, a surveyor shortage right now. We weren’t sure on that as we managed to get an actual survey booked in for four days after we enquired about it, but it seems the firms that banks use are struggling.

TakeYourFinalPosition · 20/09/2021 20:17

Do you know who their mortgage is with? That plays a part, too. Ours is Barclays and original offer took four days. Our buyer is using a specialist bank, and it took them five weeks to even get to valuation stage; which is standard according to their website.

Oldenoughtobedead · 20/09/2021 20:20

I moved recently and my solicitor found some issues in the first batch of paperwork she received (to do with planning permission). I told her I wouldn’t commission a survey until the legal issues were resolved because I didn’t want to waste money if the issues couldn’t be sorted. It took six months to get sorted and the people I was buying from got upset I hadn’t had the survey done whilst I was waiting. I’d been open about my reasoning but that hasn’t been passed on to them

Porridgeislife · 20/09/2021 20:22

There’s no surveyor shortage at the moment as the market has eased since June. I’m a surveyor myself.

We went under offer in mid August & had our mortgage offer by the first week of September. We were also able to get a well regarded surveyor to do a full structural survey within 5 days of enquiring.

Original poster
Toomuchtooyoung01 · 20/09/2021 20:23

Hi, thanks for your replies!
I think their mortgage is with NatWest.
It’s so frustrating, our chain has collapsed twice already so I am on constant red alert and am hesitant to instruct our solicitors to begin searches etc on the house we’re buying in case it turns out to be a waste of money. Just want some progress, it feels like we accepted our buyers offer and there has been literally zero progress since then (4 weeks ago!)

OP posts:
DarkDarkNight · 20/09/2021 20:29

I booked someone to do my survey 18 days after I offered, the survey was done a week after. This was with a firm quite far from my home, the first few I tried had very long lead times.

Houses have been selling so quickly recently, but there seems to be a bottle neck when it comes to surveyors and conveyancers.

Furrydogmum · 20/09/2021 20:31

On the first house my son offered on the valuation, after almost 4 weeks, from Barclays that said the roof of the property "may have been of the wrong materials" - no clarity (mortgage refused) next house, still Batclays, mortgage approved after less than a week with no physical valuation. Not really any help to you OP but just to show even the same bank isn't treating all loans the same way.

Furrydogmum · 20/09/2021 20:31

Barclays!!

Freddiefox · 20/09/2021 20:35

I wouldn’t book a survey until I’d had the searches done. But I would chase and see what it happening

Singlebutmarried · 20/09/2021 21:24

The mortgage lender will have instructed a valuation. NatWest are pretty quick at the moment. Certainly quicker than 4 weeks (well for the ones I’ve been working on). Usually offer is produced within 24-48 hrs of a satisfactory valuation being received.

Ask the agent to ring your buyers mortgage broker. Did the buyers have a qualified DIP?

bumhug · 21/09/2021 15:50

It's not the surveys that are taking the time here in Devon it's the searches.

Current wait time is 50 working days.

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