Buying a house but who is supposed to do the planning search?

Leo said:

A prospective purchaser can simply state they didn't like something in the survey and back out at any point. They are not even obliged to share details of that concern with the vendor. A contract signed subject to survey is worthless.

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So why delay the survey until contracts are signed (if this is what you were advocating)? If the surveyor finds a structural issue you are still contractually bound to buy?

Ruffian

We seem to be at cross purposes here.

The usual choreography is

1) Buyer and seller go sale agreed.
2) The buyer gets a survey done and may proceed, pull out or seek a lower price based on that.
3) Seller's solicitor sends contracts to Buyer's solicitor - and again, the buyer must be happy.
4) The contracts are signed and then everyone is committed.

Sure the buyer can put in anything they like "subject to finance" "subject to planning" "subject to Donald Trump getting elected" but the seller would be unlikely to agree to any of these if there are other buyers around.

@Brendan Burgess, I am fine with that understanding. And on that basis a purchaser may arrange a survey once their offer has been accepted and the property has gone sale agreed. On my last purchase the Engineer sourced the info from the planning office to help inform the survey. I was beginning to think I was "doing all manner of stupid things"!

Ah, relief!

Just to refer back to the origin of my intervention here, you suggested:

Ruffian said:

There are times it may be preferable to arrange a survey before receiving correspondence/ contracts from the vendors solicitor.

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I was pointing out that spending money on a survey before getting any acknowledgement that contracts would be forthcoming is foolish.

Also, it is also recommended that all prospective purchasers should review planning files in advance of paying for a survey. Often glaring issues can be uncovered, and the earlier they are identified the better. Little point spending hundreds on a survey or a property with unauthorised development until you have confirm the vendor has resolved same.

Leo said:

I was pointing out that spending money on a survey before getting any acknowledgement that contracts would be forthcoming is foolish.

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Not sure about this.

If you do everything sequentially, it may take forever.

If you have gone sale agreed, then it's ok to get the survey done while waiting for the contracts. There is a risk that the contracts may be unacceptable and you have wasted your money. On the other hand , the surveyor could come back to you with a "don't touch this with a bargepole" and you can save your solicitor from looking at the contracts.

Brendan

Leo said:

I was pointing out that spending money on a survey before getting any acknowledgement that contracts would be forthcoming is foolish.

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Well, Leo, I accept that I may well be a foolish person inclined to doing stupid things but I spent money on a survey for our last purchase before any contracts arrived. As it happened it took about 10 weeks for them to reach our solicitor but the deal was then finalised within another 3 weeks. I was confident that they wanted to sell.

I had already given you an example of another foolish person I know (takes one to know one, of course) who arranged a survey in the case of a probate sale and in that case pulled the offer and moved on. They may have valued their time more.