Re Mortgage Valuation Fee

[astirman]

HI,

 

What a site ! Fantastic.

 

We have had our financial difficulties and have a debt management plan in place with Payplan. We are trying to raise some addtional money to create an extra bedroom for our growing family. Went to a recomended mortgage broker and went through the application but eventually arrived at the point we had to pay a valuationfee of £465. We were concerned about this but as the house was valued two and a half years ago by Birmingham Midshires for £320,000 we we reasonably sure that the new valuation would be £340,000 as we needed for the additinal mortgage. ie a 5% increase each year. Surveyor comes around, ten minutes later has gone and in due course the mortgage broker told us he had only valued the house at £320,000 too. Ie the same as two and a half years ago in a prime south east Town. We asked the broker about this and they have said they asked the sureveyor to reconsider but he won't budge. We have a copy of the valuation document and it refers to 3 similar (one of the similar properties quoted is a semi detached house whereas ours is a bungalow) houses within 500 metres and their achieved prices. I don't know which specific properties these are and I don't know where the surveyor got the information. Websites such as as mouseprice.com don't confirm these figures.

 

Point of this long rambling post 'what's the feeling, is there any way of challenging this or contesting the extortinate cost of this valuation which I think is simply wrong and is costing us dearly in terms of alternative finance options ' ?

[HydraUK]

There's often a difference between what a surveyor values a house at, and what an estate agent can sell one for. I had a similar experience to you 5 or 6 years back when taking out a second mortgage.

 

I couldn't get them to budge and ended up with insufficient equity to get the money we needed.

[Mark_Blackpool]

With the media headlines pointing to house prices going up it's easy to think that this would apply everywhere. At the moment it's mostly London driving the figures, prices around the rest of the Country have variously been rising, static or falling over the last couple of years.

 

You don't say where you are, but you can use this site to compare values of actual selling prices (not what the valuation was, but how much it actually went for) here: Home.co.uk: House Prices Report for Welwyn Garden City - August 2004 to August 2006

 

Using Welwyn Garden City as a starting point, and just as an example, detached houses have fallen in average selling price and the total number of sales is hugely down.

 

To look at where we live: homes are routinely put on the market at prices which never sell and they sit on the market until they are reduced or the vendor gives up. Just looking at comparable asking prices doesn't tell you much; the surveyor will have looked at actual selling prices. No home has a "value" as such, it's just what the surveyor believes someone might pay for it.

 

Also see Free UK House Prices - nethouseprices.com - if a property similar to yours recently sold for, say, 320k, the surveyor might be basing the valuation of your property on that.

[feefofum]

Hia, Sorry can't offer advice, but am interested in how the data for WGC was obtained. I've been to house.co.uk becauce I want to see a similar graph for the area I live in (Bournemouth) but can't seem to find how to do it. Can you help please?

 

Thanks

[astirman]

Thanks for the replies. I have checked out the web sites referred to and these seem to support my position ie the surveyor is wrong. Do you think I should write to the senior partners or what ever of the firm of surveyors and put my case ? I suspect no matter what I do it won't help the loan situation but I would feel a whole lot better if I got at least some of the extorionate fee refunded . Comments please ?

[Mark_Blackpool]

Hia, Sorry can't offer advice, but am interested in how the data for WGC was obtained. I've been to house.co.uk becauce I want to see a similar graph for the area I live in (Bournemouth) but can't seem to find how to do it. Can you help please?

 

Thanks

 

1. Go to Home.co.uk: Property Search, Homes For Sale, Sell Your House, Estate Agents

2. Click on "House Prices" in the bar across the top

3. Type in postcode or town

4. Choose "...over the last year"

5. Use the drop downs to change the comparison basis

[feefofum]

Thank you Mark, and good luck astir-man.