What can I do about a ludicrous valuation of our property

lincroft1710

Surveyors have to have indemnity insurance which is very expensive. They are therefore very wary of putting themselves in a position where they could be sued. Thus their valuations will be on the cautious side.

Banks/building societies lend money on the basis that if the loan is not repaid they will be able to recoup their money from the sale of the property. Thus the amount they are prepared to lend will reflect the current precarious state of the property market.

If the amount they offer doesn't meet with your expectations/requirements then that is tough. You may be able to persuade them to lend you more if you can prove your home is worth substantially more than the valuation. You cannot just sue people because their opinions are different from yours.

mystic_trev

lincroft1710 wrote: »

If the amount they offer doesn't meet with your expectations/requirements then that is tough. You may be able to persuade them to lend you more if you can prove your home is worth substantially more than the valuation. You cannot just sue people because their opinions are different from yours.

Quite true. In any case from the information the OP's provided, the Surveyor has an easy get out clause

I'm out of pocket and the offer is rediculous!
The house is in generally good condition (although the boundary wall has cracked - ie not the house wall)

All the Surveyor has to say, is the crack could be an indication of subsidence, but would be unable to determine without a full structual survey of the Property - hence the lower valuation. This is what the Surveyor has provided, an opinion, and you can't sue someone for an opinion!

Turnbull2000

Horlock wrote: »

Though a little on the depressing side to think I may have lost £50000 in one year.

You what? You make it sound like they've swiped £50,000 from your savings account. You haven't lost anything because you didn't have it in the first place.

Horlock

Turnbull2000 wrote: »

You what? You make it sound like they've swiped £50,000 from your savings account. You haven't lost anything because you didn't have it in the first place.

True but 1 year ago we put the house on the market for £199,000 when we moved abroad, and then pulled it off because the wife was nervous that we might not be able to afford to buy if we returned:rolleyes:


Also just to say a big thank you to those folk who have made helpful comments and also those who have made gestures of goodwill and empathy.

poppysarah

Horlock wrote: »

True but 1 year ago we put the house on the market for £199,000 when we moved abroad, and then pulled it off because the wife was nervous that we might not be able to afford to buy if we returned:rolleyes:

Had you had an offer at 199k?

Imp

I've just run your address through a piece of software I wrote a while ago, which corrects historical prices from the land registry against the halifax house price data, so that I know what each house sold for in "today's" money.

For terraces on your street,
The 75th percentile is £169,368
The median is £151,847
The 25th percentile is £131,632

£189,000 is the 96th percentile. This means that if you take 25 houses on your street, including yours, yours is the best one of these 25.

This is based on 32 terraced houses sold between March 2000 and October 2008.

poppysarah

Imp wrote: »

I've just run your address through a piece of software I wrote a while ago, which corrects historical prices from the land registry against the halifax house price data,

Oo that sounds fun stuff to have!

mewbie_2

No wonder prices haven't dropped much yet. Everyone lives in la la land.

Horlock

mewbie wrote: »

No wonder prices haven't dropped much yet. Everyone lives in la la land.

Sadly the truth is we do live in la la land.

My first property was a 1 bed flat which was bought in 1997 for £20000 and I sold it in 2004 for over £100000. Now I'm guessing that the mortgage company valuing the property when I sold it didn't base the price on its value 9 years earlier. Either that or the person would have needed an 80% deposit to get a 100% mortgage!

Basically using 10 year old house comparables is very risky - that said it could well be what the valuer did!

That said I do appriciate the effort, hence the thanks.