FTB - do I organise survey independently of solicitor?

[custardcreampls]

I have never bought a house before so please bear with me!

I have had an offer accepted, have a mortgage offer in place and my solicitor is working on their part.

I want to have a survey done. Is this something I need to organise myself (like the mortgage application via a broker) or does the solicitor advise me on potential surveyors I could use?

If I need to arrange it independently of the solicitor, do they look at the results of the survey or do I need to 'interpret' them myself?

You arrange the survey yourself, and will need to interpret then results yourself. Not one for the solicitor to get involved in!

Just do some googling of surveyors in your local area or ask on local Fb groups 😊

You organise yourself just google search it

There will be a survey done by your lender, really this is for them to ensure that the property is worth what you’ve offered so it’ll mostly just be a valuation. Some lenders will offer a more in depth survey that you pay extra for, it’ll give more info about the condition of the property, but you’re much better off getting an independent surveyor. Ask around, the EA will know some, but they’ll suggest ones that are “friendly” ie won’t rock the boat.

Okay, thank you. Have a further question!

Do I need to liaise with the vendor to agree a date that would suit for the surveyor to come out to look at the property? I'm assuming the surveyor can't just turn up without the vendor's knowledge/agreement?

Nope you do that with the EA, if the Vendor’s agree Surveyors are usually trusted to collect keys from the EA and let themselves in, you don’t go with them. Ex EA here.

No, you're surveyor will ask for the estate agency details and they sort it all out.

from here on everything should be done through the EA, if they’re any good they should chase the solicitors on both sides. Be aware their main concern will be that the lender’s valuation is good, even if the survey mentions lots of issues it’s very hard to renegotiate if the valuation is the same as your offer.