valuation fee - too much??

minnie141

We have applied for a mortgage with Northern Rock through a broker for £140,000. The house isn't built yet and will be completed in approx Nov this year. The broker has quoted us a fee of £455 for the valuation fee. This seems rather excessive as we have looked online and you can get a full building report for only £560. Seeing as the house isn't even built yet and the surveyor will simply be visiting the development to look at a similar property this seems way too much. The broker first quoted us £295 and then rang later to say the price was incorrect and would be £455. Do you think he's trying to pull a fast one??!

AndrewSmith

What is the price you are paying for the house?

Valuation fee scales are in relation to the property value, not the mortgage amount.

Also, check the valuation fee quoted on the Key Features Document you will have received for the Northern Rock Mortgage. It will be quoted on there.

How would the Broker try to pull a fast one as the payment will be made directly either via card or cheque to Northern Rock? Trust me it would have to be a complete pillock of a broker who tried to overcharge a valuation fee as it is very easily verified in the current regulatory regime.

Andy

AndrewSmith

In addition to the above, the Northern Rock valuation scale means that if the purchase price is between £100-150,000 then the broker is correct.

Nothing the broker can do about it I'm afraid, if thats what they charge.

A full comparison would have taken these costs into account.

Andy

stanmoresaver

Andy is quite right- not that i need to say that!!!

But the lenders tend to add an administration harge within the "valuation" fee charge- It's just another way of squeezing a bit more out of you

Northern Rock are a lender with some of the highest set of fees for a mainstreem lender. :eek:

SS

payless

Bear in mind that most lenders include a degree of admin ( or profit) in the valuation fee... NR are actually upfront with this ....
Their fees include an application fee of £75 and a commission ( to them not the broker) of £220 !!!!


I know some brokers are really keen on them ( one of the higher commission payers !)
They are not my favourite lender .. mainly because of their fee structure, but in some cases their products and/or criteria does mean they are most suitable.

Just ensure you are happy this is the best over deal

Joe_Bloggs

These surveyors must be visionaries and worth every penny. I heard on this site where one was asked to value a hole in the ground for mortgage purposes. Now someone is complaining about them charging too much for costing a pile of bricks and cement. I suppose they have to go on the reputation of the builder/blue prints and those artistic impressions.
J_B.

HelpWhereIcan

:rotfl:

Joe_Bloggs wrote:

These surveyors must be visionaries and worth every penny. I heard on this site where one was asked to value a hole in the ground for mortgage purposes. Now someone is complaining about them charging too much for costing a pile of bricks and cement. I suppose they have to go on the reputation of the builder/blue prints and those artistic impressions.
J_B.

I know, on a new build that's pretty much what they do!! Having said that though, they do also ensure that the agreed price is reasonable for the area by getting comparibles and also indirectly commenting on the viability of the development. I had a customer who was looking at a new build house until the valuer came back and said that it was being built on the (potentially contaminated) site of an old feed plant and pointed out that the abbatoir next door (which looks just like a normal warehouse from the outside) may create a certain amount of nuisance (smell, noise, traffic etc). Needless to say, my customer pulled out and the developer's staff always seemed to panic when one of their prospective sales gave my name as their mortgage adviser :rotfl:

The main thing lenders are concerned about with new builds is over pricing the property and using that to 'stack the deal' to provide incentives such as deposit, stamp duty, carpets etc at the expense of the lender