Estate pressure about survey - is this normal?

[Scuttlingherbert]

Just had an offer accepted on a house and we've had an email from the estate agent that has stressed me out a bit.

It says:
"Just to confirm the vendors of xxxx have agreed to accept your offer on the basis that you get any building or homebuyers survey booked in by 10/05/23. If you are not planning on having a survey, then I will need an email from you stating that you have decided not to get a survey and will not decide at a later date to do so.
Please see our recommend local surveyors below"

There's also paragraphs saying they want us to arrange our mortgage and instruct our solicitor really soon as well.
Then it says "As discussed, once these timescales have lapsed, if this has not been done then the vendor will recommence viewings."

Every time I've bought a property before, the mortgage company arranges the survey alongside the valuation.

I'm just a bit suspicious because I nearly bought a house last year and similarly got harassed quite a lot to book the survey asap, then they got really upset when the surveyor was off sick. When we finally did get the survey, it showed there were major problems with the house and we pulled out. We wondered if, on reflection, the seller was being so funny about the survey because they knew it was likely to be bad. It seemed like they were trying to discourage us from having it.

Is today's email normal? Is the estate agent just trying to get us to get moving quickly and/or plug their local surveyor/broker/solicitor? Or would you find it a bit weird?

I'm a bit concerned they're trying to get us to put in writing that we won't have one at a later date?
Surely they're used to people's mortgage company arranging the survey?

The mortgage company doesn’t arrange the structural survey though, that’s on you. It just sounds like they are keen to get the process moving asap.

I would just reply and say that as you are not cash buyers, you will be arranging a mortgage now that the offer has been accepted and your survery will be arranged via your mortgage provider but you are unable to give timescales for that at the moment. You'll keep them updated as soon as you know more.

The mortgage lender's survey is not a full survey, it's primarily for valuation and their valuer may not even visit the property but do a 'desk' valuation based on similar properties.

I don't know if it's normal to ask what the agents did, but it's not unreasonable. They are covering their arses so you can't complain if you buy and find issues - not that you would have any comeback if you didn't confirm with the agents either. Get a survey done - you have seen first hand why they're needed!

I bet they’ve been previously mucked about by people doing what they can to drop the price right before exchange.

You have the option to pick a number of types of survey though, thats what we did, we didnt go for the basic one and didnt go for the all bells and whistles one either, the sort of middling one we went for

The survey valuation bit is whats used for the bank to know how much its worth, the information bit is for the buyer to determine if they're happy with the condition.

Exactly - that's what I've had every other time. When going through the mortgage application process they ask what kind of survey you want - basic, homebuyers report or full structural, and they book it

Yes this is what we've done every time.

I have always booked my own survey. Mortgage provider satisfied themselves with their desktop valuation survey and never offered me anything more.

Booking the survey just shows you're not a time waster. They want it in writing if you don't want one done to avoid you changing your mind further down the line and holding the process up.

When I lost out on a house once, the agent told me if the other buyer hadn't booked a survey within a week, the property was ours.

As part of the acceptance it is normal to lay out T&C - for example, you presumably want them to stop marketing the property and not do any more viewings, and this will be part of the same document..

On their side they want to know that you are serious and prepared to proceed. They don't want to take it off the market and stop other viewings while you take 6 months to book a survey and appoint a solicitor, only to turn around 7 months later and say 'survey says minor damp we withdraw our offer'.

I think its quite normal - the same condition was on both of the memorandums of sale (for our sale and our purchase). I remember because I was a bit annoyed at our seller insisting on it as they hadn't even found a property to move to yet so I thought it was a bit rich to insist we shelled out on a survey when it might take months, but then noticed our agents on our sale had put the same thing in and we hadn't even mentioned it.

I think it's all about showing commitment and trying to stop any delays right at the start of the whole process.

You only have to have the date booked by May 10th, the survey doesn't have to have been done.

I know all that.

I had to book the structural survey myself separately, the mortgage company only arranged the valuation survey.

So why did you say the mortgage company doesnt arrange the structural survey then?

It does if you want that one.

Because in my experience, they don’t!

I think the sellers are being perfectly reasonably. They’ve given you over two weeks to get the survey sorted. That’s reasonable. They obviously don’t want their time wasted.

I’ve never heard of a bank doing a structural survey. Any house I’ve ever bought I’ve arrange my own structural survey, and then the bank does the valuation survey linked to the mortgage.

Our buyer has held up our whole chain by deciding to get a survey done 3 months after the memorandum of sale was agreed, when we were almost ready to exchange, having said he wasn't going to do one - I wish our estate agents had done this, as it's delayed everything and at one point looked like the chain was going to fall apart because of it!

Thank you everyone

Thanks, helpful to hear your experience

I think that’s fine, he’s not said have it done by the tenth but book it in. I think that’s fair enough.