When to book survey?

[Piranesio]

I'm a FTB that could do with some advice about the timing of things.

I've had an offer accepted on a property that is going through probate. I have applied for my mortgage (waiting for valuation to happen atm) and also the searches (waiting for these to come back).

My solicitor has advised that, as it's a probate sale, they might not get a lot of info on the property form from the sellers, and so recommend a full survey in that case. I was initially only planning on doing a homebuyers survey: the house is approx 20yrs old and standard construction and in decent condition (as far as I can see). Is it really worth paying the extra for a full survey? I thought that was really just for old houses?

Also, I was planning on waiting to book my survey until after probate has been granted, after the searches have come back and after my mortgage offer has been granted. Am i ok to wait until so late in the process? It's just such a big amount of money to spend if there are issues with any of the above.

I’d always get a full survey - the house buyers survey isn’t really worth the paper it’s written on. I’d especially do it here, for the reasons your solicitor has specified.

And no, it’s fairly standard to wait until your offer is back before you book a survey; and I probably wouldn’t have done much more until probate was granted. The only thing to be mindful of is the rest of the chain - if anyone is needing a fast move, they may prefer things to be consecutive, although they can’t do much but pull out it you don’t agree. If there’s no further chain, you’ll be fine doing it like you intend to.

Our full survey was about £120 more than the ‘free’ homebuyers survey the bank provided.

We had survey quotes from £450 to £3000 (plus vat for the last one), ultimately we chose one that came in at about £600.

Thanks, there is no chain, I'm ftb and the house I'm buying is empty. Glad to hear my plan makes sense!