Apologies in advance as this will probably become an essay...
After a long search DH and I have finally found a house we both like and had an offer accepted. We are slightly clueless first-time buyers (not young, just haven't been in a position to buy until our early 40s now), but we instructed a solicitor, submitted a mortgage application via a broker, lined up our own surveyor to do a building survey when the mortgage is approved - and thought we were doing OK.
However...
The estate agent contacted us earlier this week to say that our vendors were getting anxious because the mortgage survey hadn't yet taken place, and wanted an update on progress with the mortgage application. Vendors are relocating quite a distance away in 3 weeks and want to exchange before they leave (although we were only made aware of this time-scale in the last week).
Our broker went away on holiday the day after submitting our application, isn't back until next week and isn't answering emails. So I contacted our lender directly, and found out that our broker went on holiday without submitting all of the supporting documentation for our application. So nothing has happened with our application, or will happen until the documents are submitted. I can't submit them myself (I asked), only the broker can do it. I relayed all this to the estate agent, who didn't seem too worried but asked that we keep them updated.
Fast forward to today, when I receive an urgent message from the estate agent - vendors very anxious, want to know why there's been no progress, talking about putting the property back on the market. I speak to the estate agent and we agree that to demonstrate good faith, we will proceed with our own survey before the mortgage is approved. Estate agent asked me to have our surveyor contact him directly, and seemed to think this would be enough to reassure the vendors.
I contact our surveyor, only to find that he is also away until Monday . So in order to get things moving I contact another surveyor, recommended by the estate agent, who gives me a quote and says he will speak to the estate agent and email paperwork to me. Great, I thought, all sorted.
The surveyor's paperwork comes through by email late this afternoon - a letter confirming instructions that we need to sign and return with payment before the survey can proceed, and an invoice matching the amount quoted to me over the phone. We intended to return paperwork and payment by post tomorrow so that the survey could be booked on Monday.
Except that all the paperwork refers to a Homebuyers Report, and I made it clear over the phone that we want a full structural survey. Tried emailing the surveyor's office back again to clarify, but by this time it was 5.30pm and, not surprisingly, I've had no response.
So what do we do now? Do we:
A) Stick with the second surveyor, after making it clear that we want a full survey and checking that the quote is correct?
or
B) Go back to the first surveyor on Monday, given that we haven't signed anything to commit us to the second surveyor and they have mucked up the paperwork?
I would prefer to do B), not least because the first surveyor was cheaper but gave a better impression - but not sure what would be a reasonable course of action.
Also, more generally, what else could/should we be doing to expedite the purchase? We really don't want this to fall through, or to annoy our vendors who seem like really nice people.
WWYD?
(Sorry, that really was long 
)