During the home buying purchase there are lots of obstacles to over come and over people are under a certain amount of time pressure to complete on the purchase to help with onward chains etc.
We often have perspective clients calling to get the level 2 Homebuyers or Level 3 Building Survey booked in as soon as possible as they are about to exchange and their solicitor or mortgage broker has recommended that they get a survey prior to this.
The problem with leaving the survey until last minute is that it can leave the buyer in a particularly difficult position with little room to think or negotiate, often resulting with them taking on whatever problem is found and having to undertake further investigation or remedial works once they have moved in.
If one of our Chartered Surveyors does recommend either further investigation or remedial works to a defect then this often takes time, which people don’t have when leaving things until the last minute.
The home buyers process is tricky and with lots of things to think about it is understandable why the survey is put on the back burner until later on down the line but ultimately all parties can be affected by this decision which can cause unnecessary delays to the process.
One of our Chartered Surveyors Nick has put together a small flow chart to help aid the buying process which a suggestion of when a survey should be commissioned.
By following this process, you will have to consider the survey report fully before deciding how to proceed.
It may be that there aren’t any major issues with the property and you can carry on to instruct your Solicitor and Mortgage Broker but if there are any options you will have sufficient time to either:
- Get quotations for any works recommended.
- Have further investigation undertaken.
- Renegotiate the asking price.
- Walk away from the purchase.
Obviously, option 4, walking away from the purchase will be the worst case scenario but if it is then you will have saved money by not instructing a Solicitor or Mortgage Broker to undertake their work and you will have time to find another property, having saved money.
Learn more about what is involved in a Building Survey.
If you require any advise on the Survey process please feel free to contact us on 01494 926236 or 020 8058 0082 or via email.
