Push buyers to get their survey?

[Oaklion]

Our buyers made an offer end of November and are still waiting to hear in their mortgage application (they are FTBs which I believe takes longer). Homebuyers/ buildings surveys are taking 4-6 weeks to book in around here. Is it reasonable to push the estate agent to get them to book it in? We all want to make the stamp duty holiday and it seems silly to leave it.

Yes I would have expected a survey to be the first thing they did to be honest. Why haven't they done one already?

Does your house need a survey? I only ask as not everyone gets one. We didn’t on the 4 year old house as it was still covered by NHBC for anything major structurally & we were happy with the survey done by the bank on its general condition & value.

I’d def query if they’ve booked one - if you wanted to be less ‘pushy’, you could simply ask if the company they’ve contacted had a date so you can make sure you are working at home etc (even if that’s a white lie & you always do at the mo etc).

Mortgages don’t necessarily take longer for first time buyers but they are taking a while generally. Ours took 8 weeks back in Sept/Oct (remortgaging).

Yes, some buyers seem to think that you should do one thing after another rather than crack on with things in parallel. Of course it may be a matter of funds, but I'd be a little concerned at it being an indication of lack of commitment (seeing how small a survey cost is in terms of the costs of buying a house)

If it is taking weeks to get surveys done it should at least be booked in by now

@MoirasRoses raises a good point. If they are planning to get the survey through the mortgage lender then I guess this wouldn’t be arranged until the mortgage is agreed?

If you are worried things aren’t moving fast enough then get the agents to check in and see what’s happening.

Is the survey going to be in person?
Both our buying side and selling side did desk top surveys.

They may be planning on doing a basic homebuyers type survey as part of the mortgage valuation survey - it's often a better deal than arranging your own. Or no survey at all if they've had a good look round & are happy...