First, I must apologise to OP; the thread has been dragged wildly off-topic by some posters already, and IMHO parts of it have generated more distraction and off-topic heat than on-topic light for OP's benefit. Hopefully my comments here will not be seen as more of the same.
Wrong, completely and utterly wrong, right and right. ....
You will notice that I prefaced my remarks above with a clear statement that they were opinions - not advice and not paid-for legal opinion, just my opinions as an ordinary poster. You may disagree with them, but that doesn't make my opinions right or wrong, it just means we have a divergence of opinions.
... 1 - The OP is 100% right. "Sale Agreed" stage is when an offer has been accepted, but contracts not signed. After contracts have been signed, the house is labelled "Sold"...
Having bought and sold real property on a number of occasions, on my own behalf, on behalf of family members and having acted as executor for estates a couple of times, I know that until contracts are signed nothing is agreed and an estate agent sticking little signs on a lawn or attaching them to a pole makes not one whit of difference to the status of a property and imposes no legal obligation on either the buyer or the seller. EAs bandy all kinds of words about in their literature and conversations, most of it is “sales speak”, because that’s the job they do - selling, and none of it changes the ownership or status of a piece of real property.
Also refer to other experienced posters in this same thread for their opinions about “sale agreed” superimposed on a For Sale sign, even if the property is no longer being advertised.
... 2 - Why would anybody waste money on a survey after they have signed contracts and are legally obliged to buy the house anyway? …
I think here you display the same naivete as OP, and I can only assume that is because you have bought and sold a similar number of properties.
This is a buyer’s market and in order to attract and keep buyers, sellers will now ask their solicitors to accept previously unacceptable clauses in contracts, for example, :
- The buyer obtaining a mortgage
- A full structural survey which highlights no problems
- Proof of compliance with building regulations and planning conditions
- Etc.
In simple terms, the contract remains “conditional” until conditions like those listed are satisfied and if the conditions are not satisfied, then the contract is null and void. So far from wasting money on a survey, paying for it, conducting it and writing it into the conditions of the the sale / purchase contract is a smart way of avoiding a serious and very expensive mistake.
... Anybody who has bought a house in the last 20 years will tell you that you get the survey done before you sign contracts. …
In the last few years in a seller’s market, some people purchasing property have done incredibly stupid things, (buying off plans, buying multiple properties with booking deposits in the expectation of “selling on” and making a quick killing, buying new properties without full structural surveys, buying investment properties because there was a bottomless rentals market, etc.) and I have heard nothing that confers retrospective validity or intelligence on many of their actions.
Personal experience has helped to form my opinion as have the mistakes of others.
... And again, the OP is right …
Hopefully OP in expressing his / her opinion is basing it on his / her experience in property market, but a few things about his /her posts have lead me to conclude, rightly or wrongly, that this experience is limited. Firstly, “any advice to share with a nervous FTB!“, secondly “and as for being "unwise" to have spent my money on a survey and a valuation, I was "instructed" to by my bank, my broker and the estate agent...sure thats a requirement before the contract is signed...“ A prospective buyer doesn't take instruction from a bank, a broker or an EA; two if not all of those organisations are in the business of selling TO the purchaser, so instructions or expectations about performance flow in precisely the opposite direction.
... You have to get the valuation done for the bank before you can draw down the mortgage. Anybody who waits until they have already signed contracts before getting a valuation (and legally committing themselves to the sale) would be just plain stupid …
First, refer to my comments above about placing conditions in a contract, and second, as a matter of course, before approving a mortgage application, banks will send out their own valuer anyway (although this may be different if OP is working through a paid broker).