Unreasonable Mortgage Setup & Valuation Fees

kittykat

If the valuer had needed to actually do anything then I would not have a problem paying Abbey £615 for it! He only had to drive 5 miles to the property, and then make a phonecall to the estate agent. The "report" is a piece of A4 paper with his signature and a value inserted into otherwise standard text. I have spoken with the Project Manager from the builders who accompanied the Surveyor, and she has comfirmed that he was only actually inside the house for 5 minutes. So that makes 5 minutes each way to drive to and from office to house, 5 minutes inside, 1 phonecall to an estate agent and 2 insertions on a standard document......... and all that for a mere £615!!!! Can't imagine why I think that is not good value for money......

dunstonh

You may see it as unfair but with a fixed fee you are covering the cases which take a lot longer than yours and may cost more than £615. The fee is an average cost + profit. You also forget the admin and liability for the valuer and the admin the lender has. Some of that fee also goes to the lender. They may be only paying the valuer £450.

The fee seems fine to me. I would hate to pay it but I do understand it. Even more so after I look at my business costs per year before I even get out of bed. That wouldn't be much different to a surveyor. Office costs, rent, rates, wages, liability, car/travel costs, time, tax, NI, VAT leaving just a bit as profit.

AndrewSmith

Well said DD,

At the end of the day if you don't want to pay the fee, you can't have that product. It's a bit like asking your local car dealer to sell you a 5 Series BWM but only charge you for a Mini One.

Booking, Arrangement and valuation fees charged by lenders are what they are and in 99.9999% of cases are non negotiable. This is why they are fully disclosed at the outset on quotations etc. I'm afraid it really is a case of like it or lump it.

Andy

Robert_Sterling_3

I think that the valuer has to say that the property is good security for the amount of the mortgage.

I think you are offered a mortgage subject to various charges.

The interest rate is one of these charges.

Only a Short Term Annual Percentage Rate will help you to decide whether the mortgage is competitive.

Short Term Annual Percentage Rates are not required by law and are not

generally available. They were actually mentioned "in print" for the first time ever in a recent post on MSE.

Pennywise

kittykat wrote:

If the valuer had needed to actually do anything then I would not have a problem paying Abbey £615 for it! He only had to drive 5 miles to the property, and then make a phonecall to the estate agent. The "report" is a piece of A4 paper with his signature and a value inserted into otherwise standard text. I have spoken with the Project Manager from the builders who accompanied the Surveyor, and she has comfirmed that he was only actually inside the house for 5 minutes. So that makes 5 minutes each way to drive to and from office to house, 5 minutes inside, 1 phonecall to an estate agent and 2 insertions on a standard document......... and all that for a mere £615!!!! Can't imagine why I think that is not good value for money......

Now if you'd been quoted £x per hour, or that the fee would be £250, and then the bill was for 3 hours (when you knew it was only one) or for £500 when you expected £250, then yes, you'd have been ripped off and have every right to be aggrieved.

So you'd have been happy if he'd had to drive further, and spent an hour or two in the property, even if he'd come up with the same report. I really can't see your problem. You knew the costs, you agreed to the costs. You have received the service you paid for and agreed to. No problem.

What you don't know is how much of the fee was actually paid to the valuer and how much was kept back by the lender towards their costs/fees. For all you know, the valuer may only have been paid £200 by the lender.

Robert_Sterling_3

When I was involved in loans and valuation all over the country we would ring up a local valuer and ask if they would do all our "drive by" valuations in their area for £40 a time.

Robert_Sterling_3

When I was involved in loans and valuation all over the country we would ring up a local valuer and ask if they would do all our "drive by" valuations in their area for £40 a time. I think valuations for placing houses in Council Tax Bands come cheaper as you can sometimes drive down a road and value all the houses in one go and you can have a wide margin of error and still place the house in the right band.