Can I under cut a market evaluation?

silverbullet_2

My wife and I are trying to buy our gramps house to help pay for his care now he is in a home. The house has been valued by a chartered surveyor at £175k, which is a little out of our price range. Ideally we could get a mortgage of £170k for it, but i'm worried that i'll be committing fraud if we pay under the market value. I know its only 5k difference, but i'm not sure how strict the rules are on this. Can anyone tell me what would be acceptable in these circumstances?

lincroft1710

Even though it has been valued by a surveyor at £175K, does not mean it will automatically achieve that price on open market. But as 100% mortgage probably won't be on offer, you will have to find money for deposit.

In 6 months time may well be worth £170K or less.

If the care fees exceed £170K over time then there may be cause for concern, there's more likely to be questions asked if you bought it for £70K.

cattie

Most houses that go on the market sell for under the asking price, so it's to be expected that the house would receive an offer of less than the agents valuation.

£5000 less is very reasonable in the current climate.

00ec25

a) by basing your offer on only 1 valuation it may be considered that you have not established the "fair" market value - after all when you sell your own house you would not get only one valuation before you market it

b) be careful about possible inheritance tax because they certainly cover the transfer of assets between family memebers at sub market value before death