Home surveyor recommendations

[doorhandles]

I am in NW6 in London and buying a property for the first time in my life. I would like a level 3 survey done with a decent RICS certified local surveyor. I have gone on line and randomly contacted surveyors but have no idea who is good and reputable and am starting to feel really overwhelmed about who to go for and who will do a through job and help me to understand their findings about the flat - especially as its in a really old building. Im the first to admit my knowledge is pretty rubbish when it comes to buildings and construction and that kind of thing.

Can anyone recommend a decent surveyor in my area? thank you so much in advance
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Are there any local Facebook groups? They are normally great for this kind of thing.

Don’t necessarily focus on local. You will probably find any listed for London will cover all of London. Look on the RICS website. Word of warning: level 3s are currently taking 5-6 weeks to get booked in (outside of London).

@doorhandles

Would this firm be suitable, OP?

I don't know them personally, but they would seem to be what you are looking for and they have an office in Hampstead.

https://hardingsurveyors.co.uk/contact-us

https://hardingsurveyors.co.uk/surveys/homebuyer-report-vs-building-survey

Thanks all. I don't know of any local groups- there is a "next door" but seems a bit hit and miss. Thank you Kievlover2 and square mile for your advice. In the end have found one recommended through my solicitor who also is on the RICS website, and sound friendly and thorough on phone. Costly but hopefully worth the expense. (Novello). Thanks again fingers crossed!

For London, you can normally find so.e.local groups by searching the postcode (eg SE26) or name (eg Sydenham). Usually tons of them!

To answer your question - last year we bought our dream house. It's an old house and we deliberately didn't get a survey because we were happy to pay the asking price and prepared to do any work needed.

Since moving in we replaced the patio doors which were so old you could just lift them out from outside.

Eventually we'll need to update the heating system as it's also old and tiny leaks are appearing in the pipes.

No other issues. We could see when we viewed that the roof, walls, windows etc were OK (the patio doors were OK but they were the old style that were insecure).

I have no advice for your specific situation, but you asked if anyone had done this themselves and we did