How Long After a House Survey is it until Completion

The prospect of a long, drawn-out house sale isn’t one that anybody savours, so it’s important to know where you stand at every stage.

From the first offer to the last handshake, a house purchase can be a slow process for everyone involved, so let’s break it down so you can brace yourself and expect the unexpected. 

Here’s your guide to everything from the types of house surveys in the UK to how long the whole thing can take from beginning to end.

Table of Contents

• What kinds of house surveys are there?

• What is a typical timeline for buying a house in the UK?

• How long does completion take after a house survey?

• What can delay completion on a house?

• How can I speed up a house sale?

What kinds of house surveys are there?

There are three different types of surveys that a buyer can take out on a house they want to purchase. These are carried out by professionals who are members of the RICS—the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors—to provide a full breakdown of the state of the building in question. The surveys available are:

Level 1: Condition Report

This RICS Level 1 survey is the most basic and affordable option—it costs approximately £300-400 to hire a chartered surveyor to carry one out.

A Condition Report is usually the best choice for newer properties that are less likely to have problems and, therefore, only take a couple of hours to complete.

Read more: How to Find Out When Your House was Built

Level 2: HomeBuyer Report

A RICS Level 2 survey goes into a little more depth on a property’s condition and unveils problems with the likes of the roof, rising damp or subsidence.

A buyer can expect to pay a surveyor up to £800 for a Level 2 inspection of a property. They are good options for houses that have been around for 50-70 years or so, since they involve a more rigorous visual inspection and might pick up some issues lurking beneath the surface.

Level 3: Building Survey

RICS Level 3 is a full, structural survey of the building and provides the buyer with a detailed report on its condition. This looks into the materials used, assesses the defects that have developed and may develop further over time and flags any repairs that will need carrying out, so it can be a good tool for renegotiation for the buyer if significant issues are discovered.

A Level 3 survey can cost upwards of £1,000 and take a full day to carry out, so you can expect to wait longer for the full report as a result.

What is a typical timeline for buying a house in the UK?

It goes without saying that every house purchase is different, at least on the open market, so it’s nigh on impossible to say how long it will take to get from offer to completion until you’re in the thick of it. Even then, anything can happen within your particular property chain—indeed, it could collapse without much notice just before completion and put everyone back to square one.

Read more: What Happens if My Chain Collapses Before Exchange?

In an ideal world, if everything goes to plan (let’s face it, it rarely does), you’re looking at roughly four months minimum for a typical house sale journey. This timeline accounts for the possibility of short delays caused by sellers, solicitors or estate agents, but, in reality, such delays can and often do push the timings way beyond four months. The average, according to Zoopla, is actually over half a year:

How long does completion take after a house survey?

Delays can crop up at any stage of the process, especially if the survey returns with issues. If it’s found that a roof needs renewing or a damp problem needs resolving, you might need to add a few weeks or even months onto the timeline.

Buyers are within their rights to renegotiate their offer if significant problems are found, so the real timeline can come down to personal and financial circumstances on both sides of the deal. A seller, for instance, might not be in a position to replace an entire roof if they have another more expensive onward purchase to complete themselves, so chains can get quite messy quite quickly.

If everything remains relatively straightforward, though, you can expect to complete within approximately two months after a survey. This is dependent on the speed of service from solicitors and mortgage lenders, especially if a renegotiation has to take place, so the actual time from survey to completion can be much longer.

What can delay completion on a house?

Ask anyone who has ever sold or bought a house and they’ll tell you the most common cause of delays was poor communication between solicitors, estate agents and local authorities. Take this frustrated Reddit user, for instance:

Waiting on paperwork (or even just a response) is one of the most frustrating aspects of a house purchase on the open market, since many solicitors and estate agents are run off their feet with backlogs of customers.

Read more: The 10 Best Estate Agents in the UK

Of course, the longer a property chain is, the more likely it is to include problems—the probability of eight or nine property purchases aligning between all buyers and sellers is pretty low if you think about it. Even if nothing comes back on your particular survey, your sale reaching completion is still dependent on every other link in the chain.

How can I speed up a house sale?

If you are a seller who is growing frustrated with your house sale process or you have a buyer who sounds like they might pull out, we can offer you a quick and stress-free alternative to see you through to completion.

Selling to a cash buyer like The Property Buying Company can speed up the sales process by many weeks, since we don’t have to request surveys or wait for any repairs to be carried out—we can buy any house in any condition quicker than you might realise.

Get in touch today to find out more about our cash house buyer approach—all you have to do is enter your postcode below for your free cash offer.