Surveys and down-valuing

kev207

Our house is for sale and we have accepted an offer. However the buyers survey has valued the house at £7k less than the price we accepted. We have no choice but to accept the reduced offer - we don't want to lose the sale and could easily get the same surveyor again.

Do we have any recourse against the surveyor? The survey is extremely questionable. It's not sour grapes about having to accept less on the house there are genuine discrepancies eg. 'outhouse is dilapidated' - the outhouse had a new roof last year and is in extremely good condition. There are a whole catalogue of sweeping statements like this - the survey claims the roof needs to be replaced but we've had the roof checked twice while we've lived there and other than a couple of slipped slates nothing has needed doing. No specific failing is identified with the roof in the survey - just a generalised comment that it needs replaced.

I know surveyors are deliberately undervaluing at the moment but can we complain to RICS about the survey itself or is there another avenue I can pursue? Feel completely done by one man's extremely questionable opinion.

Fire_Fox

What level of 'survey' was it? A valuation, a Homebuyer Report or a full structural survey?

TEDDYRUKSPIN

kev207 wrote: »

Our house is for sale and we have accepted an offer. However the buyers survey has valued the house at £7k less than the price we accepted. We have no choice but to accept the reduced offer - we don't want to lose the sale and could easily get the same surveyor again.

Do we have any recourse against the surveyor? The survey is extremely questionable. It's not sour grapes about having to accept less on the house there are genuine discrepancies eg. 'outhouse is dilapidated' - the outhouse had a new roof last year and is in extremely good condition. There are a whole catalogue of sweeping statements like this - the survey claims the roof needs to be replaced but we've had the roof checked twice while we've lived there and other than a couple of slipped slates nothing has needed doing. No specific failing is identified with the roof in the survey - just a generalised comment that it needs replaced.

I know surveyors are deliberately undervaluing at the moment but can we complain to RICS about the survey itself or is there another avenue I can pursue? Feel completely done by one man's extremely questionable opinion.

You are the seller. You will have no leg to stand on this. Unfortunately many banks and building societies are undervaluing each property roughly 10% lower than the property price on sale.

eg. estate agents states your house is worth £200k. They deliberately do this as they know the property will be negotiated up to 10% reduction at worse.

So in reality as a rule of thumb this house is worth £180k in true value.

keith969

Is the survey one for mortgage valuation or did the buyers get their own survey done?

If the former they will obviously want to make a lesser offer as otherwise they may not be able to proceed (up against lenders LTV). If they got a structural survey done and are just trying to beat you down on price, then at the very least only agree to meet them half way.

I'm a bit puzzled about the comment about the outhouse - is this joined to the property or is it a seperate construction? If the latter then it should not influence the valuation.

Surveyors seem to have a penchant for replacing roofs - two houses I've bought in the past have had comments like 'the roof needs replacing or will need constant maintenance' when in fact the roof was perfectly sound, had been that way for well over 50 years and didn't need any maintenance while we lived there!

Doozergirl

The outhouse shouldn't really affect the valuation much.

As for the roof, the fact that you've had it checked twice would indicate that it is drawig near to the end of it's life. It might not be leaking now but it's something that has to be accounted for if you're supplying a 25 year loan on the house.

Also, it isn't your survey, it's your buyers. the only people that could appeal would be your buyers but they would have to prove that other houses are selling for the agreed price and above.

poppysarah

house prices can do up and down. Deliberately undervaluing would have prevented some of the chaos that's happened in the banking world over the last 18 months or so.

guppy

The valuation is just the surveyor's opinion of value - no one is forcing you to sell for this price.

You can't complain just because you disagree

Welshwoofs

In cases where the surveyor makes a general statement (like your example of the roof), it's generally the done thing to get in a roofer to do a report on the state of it rather than just accept the surveyor's general statement as fact.

When my OH was selling his last house the buyer's survey came back saying exactly the same thing, purely based on the fact that some other houses in the estate had new roofs and his didn't. The buyers wanted the cost of a new roof, OH refused and said he'd only drop if a roofer's report backed up the survey. The buyers duly got round a roofing firm who reported that the roof was absolutely sound and needed no work.

mitchaa

Home report valuation is for both sides so there would be no discrepancies between buyer/seller as the buyer would have the home report as the valuation to pass to their mortgage company?

Why would 2 lots of valuations need to be done on the property?

The home report valuation is used like this in Scotland I believe.

redpete

kev207 wrote: »

We have no choice but to accept the reduced offer - we don't want to lose the sale and could easily get the same surveyor again.

Am I missing something (it's a long time since we bought & sold a house) but why no choice? The valuation is the surveyor's stated opinion of the value, your estate agent would have given you their opinion, the amount you were offered and accepted was the buyer's opinion and one which you were happy to agree with.

Why not go back to the buyer answering the points in the survey you disagree with and either ask for the original amount or make a reduction that is in line with the survey comments you agree with. The buyer will either agree or refuse, then you can decide whether to accept the £7k reduction.

kev207

redpete wrote: »

Am I missing something (it's a long time since we bought & sold a house) but why no choice?

It's the homebuyers survey done for the bank to assess what they should be lending on the property. The buyer will not get a mortgage or home insurance for any more than then survey values the house at regardless of whether we agree with the survey or not.