Hi, My landlord is wanting to send estate agents round to value the property because he wants to put it on the market. He has not yet served me with a Section 21 notice so I have no idea when he is expecting me to vacate but I would have thought a valuation would be more realistic once the house is empty and after he can do some redecorating, etc to get it ready for selling. At the moment, we have been too stressed over searching for a new home and we have been having a mad declutter and we have half packed boxes everywhere and the housework has become less of a priority, so all in all, the house no longer looks homely and I certainly wouldn't want any estate agents taking photos to use for selling purposes. Does my landlord have a right to getting a valuation, especially before he has issued a Section 21? I feel so uncomfortable about it and I really don't want anyone coming round while I still live here I have been looking through other tenants posts and came across this comment from one of CAGs members:- "Are you aware of this >> For example, a Section 21 notice cannot be served if there is no EPC or Landlord gas safety certificate in place for the property. Any non-compliance with this requirement will render the section 21 notice ineffective." Now my landlord has never done annual gas checks and the last one (for which I have a copy of the certificate) was about 2 years ago. Does the above CAG members comment mean that when I receive the Section 21 Notice it will not be legally enforceable? If so, what should I do and how do I respond to my landlord when I get the notice?

Hi All, I am in a bit of a pickle at the moment, I felt I was finally able to afford my council flat that I have lived in for over 15 years, I put in my first RTB application March 2015, and a valuation was done for the property, after the valuation came out, I found that I was not able to afford it even after the London discounts so I didn’t take up the offer, fast track November 2016, the same year I made another application and this time around the price of the flat had reduced by £100k as per the new valuation done in November 2016, so I took up the offer, applied for a mortgage and got it approved etc, to my horror council wrote to me last week saying that they have now revised the offer from the council where they have changed all the figures and have now decided to use the first valuation which is 100k more than the second one. I am a little lost now and do now know what to do. I am already out of pocket after spending on solicitors and mortgage brokers. Thanks in advance.

Has anyone been following this story from the House of Commons library re: rebanding of properties purchased after April 1st 2000 1 Council tax valuation bands (1) The Secretary of State shall, by regulation, establish a new set of council tax valuation bands as specified in subsection (4) to apply to all dwellings bought or sold after 1 April 2000. (2) Any dwelling that has not been bought or sold since 1 April 2000 shall continue to attract council tax according to the valuation bands set out in section 5 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 (different amounts for dwellings in different valuation bands) and according to the provisions of that Act. http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2014-15/counciltaxvaluationbands.html Main story from the Hoc Library here http://services.parliament.uk/bills/#c

Hi all I was just hoping for some help with this. I bought a property for £235k 2 years ago. There is a ground rent accumulator within the lease that starts at £250 per year and doubles every 10 years until the 50th anniversary, so in other words in 50 years the ground rent will be £8k per year. The lease is 125 years, so 123 years to go at present. Obviously I would like to remove this ridiculous clause. I have requested a valuation from the freeholder to extend my lease by 90 years and thereby reduce the ground rent to a peppercorn. They have quoted £22,950 + £845 legal costs + £575 valuation and processing fee, so £24,370 in total. I was hoping to get some advice in terms of - is this an accurate figure? And if not, what can I do - should I write them back a letter and try and agree a lower fee? If so, what kind of fee should I be asking for? I would ideally prefer to avoid the legal route as I figure that will just create more costs, but I guess I kind of want to know how inflated this figure is, as I'm sure they're trying to push their luck. They also offered the following deal: A premium of £15,950.00 (Fifteen Thousand Nine Hundred and Fifty Pounds) Exclusive of our legal costs of £845.00 (+ VAT if applicable) Exclusive of valuation and processing fees of £575.00 A new ground rent of £250.00 per annum to increase every 20 years by the higher of the increase in the Retail Price Index or twice the current ground rent as at the month immediately preceding each rent review period This still ends up being £8k per year after 120 years, but due to inflation this is obviously less onerous than the current accumulator. Any advice would be gratefully appreciated, particularly whether I should negotiate down on the original offer, or take up the second offer. I am particularly interested in whether the 2nd offer would affect future resale value? Many thanks

At the beginning of July 2013 I submitted a joint application with my son to purchase my council flat. I have been a council tenant for over 27 years and am therefore entitled to full discount. Although my son is not on tenancy he has provided proof of living with me the whole time by submitting 12 months bank statements, driver''s licence and mobile accounts to the address. The application was only sent on 21 September (over three months delay when statutory time limit is 1 month). After waiting a considerable time I sent a RTB5 - no acknowledgement or communication received from the LA. I submitted a RTB6 on 28 December 2013. The LA valuer eventually called on 15 January 2014 and again no further communication. I submitted a formal complaint on 11 February and only after phoning the complaints department on 21 February did I get the valuation the next day. The LA did add a further discount of 11 weeks rent. We are now over 4 months over the statutory period for dealing with the application but what is worse is the valuation is £25,000 more than comparable properties sold in the same street less than 2 weeks before I submitted my application (checked on the land registry. The flats down my side of the street are all exactly the same 2 beds whilst the other side (all privately owned) are 3 beds and are selling at considerably higher (£25,000 in fact). The LA is claiming that the valuation is at 2 July 2013 which I can prove is incorrect. I have now requested a DV valuation but would like to know my options should the DV side with the LA. Apologies for being long-winded but wanted to give all the details,

I'm fairly new to the forum, and am trying to find out how to value the remainder of a life interest in property and would be grateful for any help. This is the situation: A property owner accepted an amount of money from a married couple (both retired) in exchange for a permanent licence to occupy (accommodation for life / life interest) in an agreed part of the property. After ten years of living at the property, they have announced that they are divorcing. One of them wants to emigrate and is asking for a lump sum in return for him giving up his life interest in the property. His wife wishes to remain living at the property as agreed. I've looked at The Intestate Succession (Interest and Capitalisation) (Amendment) Order 2008: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/3162/pdfs/uksi_20083162_en.pdf but have been led to understand those tables are only for calculating cases of intestacy. Does anybody have an idea how to calculate the remaining capital value of a persons life interest in property, given the details above? Thanks in advance.

Hi All, In light of the budget 2013, I am now and can finally afford to buy my flat that I have lived in for 11years, it was valued in 2008 and after then i have since installed laminate flooring and a satellite dish without permission from the council. Can i ask them to use the details they have on record from 2008, if they have it so they don't have to visit or do they need to visit to do a new valuation? would i get in trouble? should i remove my flooring or install a carpet.

My car was written off in a no fault claim. My insurers have only offered a guide book value. The policy states that any claim shall be based on the market value at the time and current dealer advertisd prices are much higher than the guide book value. I am thinking off claiming for the difference between the two in the small claims court. I would be interested to hear if anyone has taken this option.

Hello everyone. My husband and I have applied for a loan to add on to our crrent mortgage with our current lender. We are renovating and lots has gone wrong and been ncovered so we need the money to get it finished. We googled property prices and found or home appeared to have 85% LTV in it for the amount we require. The mortgage adviser was great...we told her we werent convinced our home was worth more than the googling showed but we were approved and she said a surveyor would call and arrange to come round and value the house. That was saturday....i called today and she said that she wo0uld find out what had happened. She then called me back and said they had made a decision....and had valued our home at only £1000 more than we paid for it. We have already compelted asome renovations so surely this cannot be right? And how can they value a house without even looking at it?? We wanted to borrow £20k, but she said they can only loan us £7k now which wont be nearly enough. She said we can appeal and pay £65 for a surveyor to come out but i dont want to lose £65 if we are kidding ourselves. Any advice?