Selling Your Property - Surveys

Once you and a buyer have agreed a sale price and solicitors have been appointed, then the first action that the buyer’s mortgage company will take is to appoint a surveyor to come and value your property.

You will have no say in the type of survey that the buyer has - they could choose simply to have a valuation, or to get a Homebuyer’s Report or to have a whole Building Survey. You will be contacted to agree a date and time for the surveyor to visit. If you were to hold up this appointment, then you are holding up the whole purchase.

The surveyor may ask you some general questions about the property and any work that you have done. They will then carry out the survey according to their instructions. The length of time that this takes will depend on the option that the buyer took - if you would like to know beforehand, you can ask when the appointment is set.

The surveyor can only report on what he sees. This means that a report could recommend that woodwork should be protected from woodworm, when you have a certificate with the deeds detailing that the wood is protected. The surveyor is not allowed to tell you the results of their findings and you will not receive a copy of the report.

On receipt of a successful valuation, the mortgage company will continue with the application. The report may detail work which must be carried out urgently, in which case the buyers may want to re-negotiate the sale price taking into account the cost of the work. In the worst case the mortgage company may refuse to lend money on the property if it appears to be structurally unsound, in which case the offer would be withdrawn.

If you have certificates covering items which are mentioned in the report, then the buyer’s solicitor will check these and you will not need to re-negotiate.

On receipt of the report, the buyer will usually contact the estate agent to let them know the outcome. The estate agent will then be able to assist with any re-negotiations if they are needed.

More Selling Your Property topics below:

• Estate Agents - what can you expect from an estate agent?
• Private Sales - avoiding expensive estate agents fees
• Viewings - what you should say, what you should answer and what you should ask.
• Offers - how can you tell when an offer is the highest you will get?
• Surveys - as a seller, what can you expect from the survey?
• Legal - what is involved with conveyancing for sellers?
• Financial - what can you expect to be paying for when you sell your property?
• Selling Pack's - how the government proposes to speed up the property buying process
• Moving - what you should organise in order to have as easy a move as possible.

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