Undervalued by e.surv

itssam

We've just got back a valuation report from e.surv (who were instructed by Woolwich) which values our house 20k lower than we were expecting at £300k. This will push us into a lower % of ownership banding and make the Woolwich's suggested offering pretty unattractive.

Right before starting the application we had 3 local estate agents value the house for us, all of which valued the house at 320-325k.

The application process for the Woolwich required a £150 fee to be paid if we don't go ahead with the mortgage, its looking like were not going to want to take their offer if we can't get a value agreed on the property.

Is there anything we can do about the valuation? The survey seemed very cursory, he took about 10 min, pretty much counted the rooms and measured the outside of the house only. The company appears to be based in Northampton
Apparently we can pay for and submit our own "independant" valuation but they are under no obligation to even consider it, we can also submit local similar properties but were in a 50 house village (part of the 'value') and the houses don't come up often.

Feel rather like were being bent over here, any help would be much appreciated.

regards
Sam

TEDDYRUKSPIN

The answer is "NO". No talking, nothing.

E-surv actually instruct alot of lenders and if they came out, you got an added bonus.

As for the estate agents? Obviously they will mark the house price higher. They do this to:

(1) Attract you to use them;
(2) Automatically do this, in order for the seller to automatically bid lower like 10%.

So actually, e-surv got the house valuation spot on.

dunstonh

Right before starting the application we had 3 local estate agents value the house for us, all of which valued the house at 320-325k.

Estate agents are typically over valueing by around 10-15%. So, on that basis the figure from the valuer is in the correct ballpark

PeteHi

what the others said. If the agents say its worth £320k, then a lender valuing it at £300k is a good result!

My only advice would be to ask for an independent valuation from your preferred lender (youll pay a couple of hundred for this), or look elsewhere for your mortgage?

itssam

thanks for the reply guys, not really what i wanted to hear but makes sence.

oh well, back to the variable rate for a bit longer then

Odie1976

Just be warned should you pay for an alternative valuation, it is likely and common for the lender to take the lowest of the valuations given. So even if you had a valuation done which came in with an extra £30,000 the bank would not accept it or even take a middle ground between the two. I am currently myself going through complaints with Natwest who also used E.surv, believe me it is difficault, however I am arguing with Natwest as they did not follow up my complaint and it was proved in E.survs and Natwests own letters that they actualy made errors had inconsistancies and did not take into account my comparables. I am currently dealing with the ombudsman.

legend12

If you are trying to re-mortgage your house in order to maximise on the low interest rate then make sure the lender you are trying to use are not using E-SURV for the survey. Esurv undervalued our friend’s property by £42,000. The property should have been at £296,000 (valued at £302,000 in zoopla) but esurv valued it at £260,000 and he lost a good deal with that Lender. They have since used another lender and they have valued the property at £298,000. He spoke to people in esurv but they were inept and arrogant to help. So be WARNED, if you are planning to re-mortgage then make sure esurv cowboys are not around.

kingstreet

Worth noting - you would need to use a lender which does not panel business via Esurv. If you use a lender which does, you won't be given a choice.

Sadly, the bulk of lenders today use either Esurv or Countrywide and there are equal numbers of negative threads on both firms on here and on HBR&S.

Halifax has its own survey firms, Colleys, so there's one option I 'spose.

somethingcorporate

Zoopla valuations are worth literally nothing so hardly a "reliable" undervaluation by £42k.

In a block of flats in which our B2L is there are 18 identical apartments. Zoopla has them listed of valuations of over £100k (50%+) difference for 2 neighboring identical properties due to when they were bought and how much they paid for them.

dunstonh

The property should have been at £296,000 (valued at £302,000 in zoopla)

Zoopla tends to overvalue. My property on Zoopla is around £40k higher than it would be put on the market for, let alone the likely sale value.

Euphoria1z

i think zoopla just takes the previous sale price and adds or subtracts a certain percentage to get a current valuation and thats all it does, regardless of any other factors.