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Original poster

5 weeks in, no survey

33 replies

Sittingonasale · 28/05/2023 14:51

I accepted an offer on 21st April.
Hadn't heard a peep out of EA since offer and giving solicitors details.
My solicitor has said they are waiting fir enquiries.
Finally called EA last week and they said buyers mortgage offer had been sent through.

However, nobody has come around to do a survey or book one.
This is making me a bit nervous as I thought surveys were usually booked ASAP.
Even if they'd booked and it was in a few weeks surely, they'd have contacted me.

OP posts:
KievLoverTwo · 28/05/2023 15:00

Two types of survey: lenders valuation survey and survey to make sure the building isn't about to fall down. People often get the two of them confused and the valuation survey is often quite quick (ours happened 5 days after mortgage application).

If the house is straightforward, was advertised online with lots of photos and room sizes, has had no major changes or extensions and is in line with house prices locally, lenders can do desktop valuations.

They probably wanted to wait for mortgage approval before instructing a building survey, and I don't blame them. Only 41% of mortgages have gone through in the last year.

If you are still nervous, maybe reply to the agent 'great news. Will they be getting a building survey? Nobody has contacted me yet.'

Have they appointed a conveyencer? I think the EA should have a memorandum of sale from them by now, or if not yet, that should happen soon.

Original poster
Sittingonasale · 28/05/2023 15:03

I understood the valuation survey is different and they may have done that online.
Just worried they might leave structural survey until the end and then try offering less.

Standard 2 bed semi.

OP posts:
BungalowBuyer · 28/05/2023 15:05

Have you had the memorandum of sale?

KievLoverTwo · 28/05/2023 15:07

Sittingonasale · 28/05/2023 15:03

I understood the valuation survey is different and they may have done that online.
Just worried they might leave structural survey until the end and then try offering less.

Standard 2 bed semi.

I think it's more likely they were nervous about mortgage approval - lenders have doubled the cost of living amounts for each dependent for mortgages.

But email the agent to prompt getting that going asap, esp if you have had literally nothing.

Original poster
Sittingonasale · 28/05/2023 15:11

Thank you.

I think MOS has gone through. It was mentioned early on. Should I have a copy myself or just my solicitor?

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KievLoverTwo · 28/05/2023 15:15

Sittingonasale · 28/05/2023 15:11

Thank you.

I think MOS has gone through. It was mentioned early on. Should I have a copy myself or just my solicitor?

MOS is usually sent between conveyancers, iirc. But you can ask yours to confirm they have received it.

Twiglets1 · 28/05/2023 15:44

Sittingonasale · 28/05/2023 15:03

I understood the valuation survey is different and they may have done that online.
Just worried they might leave structural survey until the end and then try offering less.

Standard 2 bed semi.

Not everyone even gets a structural survey ( we didn’t & our buyers didn’t either). So I would ask your estate agent to ask them if they are intending to get one.

Lcb123 · 28/05/2023 15:47

A homebuyers survey is choice, not required. We got our mortgage offer confirmed first, then did the survey, and then got the searches done. I think it was about 6 weeks until the survey, as the recommended surveyor was busy

bjkmummy · 28/05/2023 19:50

We got our survey report a couple of days ago. Took a week to get an appointment from instructing one but we definitely thought about not getting one as we thought the house was okay and the survey does back that up. Our buyers had the survey done within 2 weeks of making an offer. It maybe your buyer isn't getting a homebuyers survey done.

Original poster
Sittingonasale · 28/05/2023 20:34

bjkmummy · 28/05/2023 19:50

We got our survey report a couple of days ago. Took a week to get an appointment from instructing one but we definitely thought about not getting one as we thought the house was okay and the survey does back that up. Our buyers had the survey done within 2 weeks of making an offer. It maybe your buyer isn't getting a homebuyers survey done.

Possibly. They only saw the house once and have not even had a second viewing.

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PurpleBananaSmoothie · 28/05/2023 20:40

We put an offer in 2 months ago but have only just got our survey done. One reason is because the first company we were trying to get in touch with kept fobbing us off. The second reason is because we wanted to make sure our sale progressed slightly before committing to spending on a survey. It hasn’t delayed anything because our sale is still going through enquiries.

We did debate getting a survey though because the one we got for this house wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. Our buyers have so far only had the mortgage survey. We won’t be pushing for them to have a survey but when we get the report back from ours this week and we’re happy they have no more queries, we’ll be pushing for exchange.

Pipperleen · 28/05/2023 21:05

As someone has said, it might not be coming at all.
We sold recently - well it actually fell through right at the end and then we sold again and did eventually move. Neither set of buyers got a survey done.

morbidcuriosity · 28/05/2023 21:32

Ive recently moved.. and the people buying my house didnt do a survey.. i was waiting too, but they never did one..

Original poster
Sittingonasale · 28/05/2023 21:47

Pipperleen · 28/05/2023 21:05

As someone has said, it might not be coming at all.
We sold recently - well it actually fell through right at the end and then we sold again and did eventually move. Neither set of buyers got a survey done.

Wow, there's lots of people not doing surveys!
Do you think people are too financially constrained atm or is that normal?

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Pipperleen · 28/05/2023 22:15

@Sittingonasale Possibly. Both were FTB if that makes a difference. Actually, when I was a FTB, I didn’t get one either. At the time, I didn’t really realise that it was quite important. I suppose I just saw that it wasn’t compulsory and every penny counted!

Original poster
Sittingonasale · 28/05/2023 22:18

I think they are Pipper.

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Twiglets1 · 29/05/2023 04:51

Sittingonasale · 28/05/2023 21:47

Wow, there's lots of people not doing surveys!
Do you think people are too financially constrained atm or is that normal?

Show quote history

People will have different reasons. We didn’t get one because we absolutely loved the house we were buying & knew we wouldn’t have pulled out over a bad survey. Also, we felt we got it at a surprisingly good price but they needed a quick sale so we didn’t want to do anything to delay things.
We could see the house was very well maintained and 5 years later, have discovered no problems with it so I’m glad we saved the cost of a full structural survey.
No idea why the people buying ours didn’t get a survey- they could have afforded it as were downsizing. I’ve always had surveys previously (moved lots of times) but found them of limited use unless you can use them to get a price reduction. With our last purchase, we knew there would be No price reduction, and no way we would walk away so why bother? Of course we still had to pay for the mortgage providers valuation survey.

BungalowBuyer · 29/05/2023 08:58

I'd started to think my buyer wasn't getting a survey and maybe had just had a drive by or desktop valuation survey, then I got a call from a surveyor to book a two hour visit.

Original poster
Sittingonasale · 29/05/2023 11:18

BungalowBuyer · 29/05/2023 08:58

I'd started to think my buyer wasn't getting a survey and maybe had just had a drive by or desktop valuation survey, then I got a call from a surveyor to book a two hour visit.

That's a long visit!

I know that I won't be able to reduce the price any more if any survey brings up issues.
They didn't offer very low but I dropped the price by 10K before it sold and I'll really struggle to get something else if it's dropped again.
We've not had any major issues since we've been here don't think any problems would be brought up but these surveys always scare you. It's a 70's house so things will need redoing in the coming years (roof etc) but boiler is new and I have all electrical, gas safety certs, build regs sign off etc.
The only thing is that last year I got all my windows changed and was misled that they were Fensa. I do not have the FENSA cert. I have told my solicitor this up front so she knows the score as does the EA.

OP posts:
SaveMeFromMyBoobs · 29/05/2023 11:22

They could not be doing a survey. If you're not living in the property then another option is estate agents had keys and arranged the survey without you knowing about it. Another is that surveys are expensive (can easily be £500 depending on the tier) so buyers are waiting to see if mortgage offer is approved and other searches etc come back ok before committing to the spend.

BungalowBuyer · 29/05/2023 11:25

@Sittingonasale And that was a level 2 not a full structural survey. I

EggbertHeartsTina · 29/05/2023 11:30

I'd get clarification ASAP if I were you. Our buyer was cash so didn't need a valuation but fannied around 6 weeks before booking a Level 2 survey, then immediately withdrew from sale as the survey highlighted the quirks of flat roofs, which put her off. Fair enough, but if she'd got the survey quicker we'd have saved a lot of time. We were almost ready to exchange on our onwards purchase and now we're back to square one with a new buyer Sad

Original poster
Sittingonasale · 29/05/2023 11:34

SaveMeFromMyBoobs · 29/05/2023 11:22

They could not be doing a survey. If you're not living in the property then another option is estate agents had keys and arranged the survey without you knowing about it. Another is that surveys are expensive (can easily be £500 depending on the tier) so buyers are waiting to see if mortgage offer is approved and other searches etc come back ok before committing to the spend.

They do have keys but I'll be so angry if they did that without telling me.

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Original poster
Sittingonasale · 29/05/2023 11:35

EggbertHeartsTina · 29/05/2023 11:30

I'd get clarification ASAP if I were you. Our buyer was cash so didn't need a valuation but fannied around 6 weeks before booking a Level 2 survey, then immediately withdrew from sale as the survey highlighted the quirks of flat roofs, which put her off. Fair enough, but if she'd got the survey quicker we'd have saved a lot of time. We were almost ready to exchange on our onwards purchase and now we're back to square one with a new buyer Sad

This is precisely my worry and why I'm kind of burying my head in the sand not looking for somewhere seriously myself. I am able to stay at my mum's if it does go through before I find somewhere so not a huge issue but I really should be looking properly by now.

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Original poster
Sittingonasale · 29/05/2023 11:36

I also have a flat roof on my extension!

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