Surveyers report, How can they get it so wrong?!

newbyhousebuyer

We are in the middle of buying our first home, and have put in an offer of £90,000. The survey report came last wednesday and valued the house £15,000 under the asking price, which meant we couldnt get the mortgage as the owner wont drop the price. i consulted the surveyer to say i had been researching the market in that street and area and there was not one house in whatever condition that was sold for less than £100,000. so here are his mistakes......
1 undervaluing a perfectly adequate house
2 coducting the report without our signed contract of engagement
3 sending the report to our mortgage company without checking details first
4 telling the mortgage company it was ex-council housing, when it blatently isnt, therefore preventing us getting the mortgage
5 reporting we need a coal-mining search even though the nearest is in north wales and the houses are built on a sandstone shelf
6admitting he didnt bother to research the local market therefore not getting the valuation right....
and the list goes on!!!!
Can anyone help me? is this quite normal or have we got a complete muppet??? any help greatfully accepted!!!

clutton_2

what sort of survey did you arrange ?

""coducting the report without our signed contract of engagement"" - surveyors will often assume you want them to move very fast based on verbal telephone instructions - is this how you did it ?

sounds like a real dogs dinner !!

If you are dealing with a packager, rather than with the mortgage lender personally, you can get another surveyor fro a different company to do another survey, get his report, buy the house, then go back and try to get redress from the first surveyor.

But if you are dealing with the mortgage company direct it will be very difficult to get their chosen surveyors report disregarded. If you desperately want this house, maybe go to a different lender and start again.

Has the estate agent selling it known of earlier buyers who have pulled out thru similar problems ?

finally, in spite of his financial errors in evalating market value, does this report give you any pause for thought in terms of structural issues ?
good luck

Jorgan_2

Sadly this isn't that uncommon.

Surveyors unfortunatley tend to use the internet these days when comparing prices, unfortunatley the internet only gives basic info. A sale I am involved in at the moment has had a property down valued recently by a surveyor, the surveyor has told us that he has based his valuation on the figures obtained via a property price web site. Unfortunatley the properties listed on the web are two beds, not three beds like the property he was valuing. Despite comparable evidence of 7 other properties that have sold, completed, not sale agreed, by us & two other agents in the area in the last 3 months, he still hasn't revised the figure in his valuation.

He also mentioned a garage in his report, none of the properties in the street have garages.

Conrad

newbyhousebuyer wrote:

We are in the middle of buying our first home, and have put in an offer of £90,000. The survey report came last wednesday and valued the house £15,000 under the asking price, which meant we couldnt get the mortgage as the owner wont drop the price. i consulted the surveyer to say i had been researching the market in that street and area and there was not one house in whatever condition that was sold for less than £100,000. so here are his mistakes......
1 undervaluing a perfectly adequate house
2 coducting the report without our signed contract of engagement
3 sending the report to our mortgage company without checking details first
4 telling the mortgage company it was ex-council housing, when it blatently isnt, therefore preventing us getting the mortgage
5 reporting we need a coal-mining search even though the nearest is in north wales and the houses are built on a sandstone shelf
6admitting he didnt bother to research the local market therefore not getting the valuation right....
and the list goes on!!!!
Can anyone help me? is this quite normal or have we got a complete muppet??? any help greatfully accepted!!!

A valuation is compiled purely for the lender such that they might determine whether the property represents good loan security. It is not at all for the purchaser.

Although you are dissapointed, there is usually a reason for a down - valuation. There must be something that informs the valuer that in a forced 'quick' sale situation (ie if the borrower is repossesed) the property might not be as saleable as they require. There are many subtle reasons for this that people find it difficult to understand.

What reason did the valuer give for reducing his valuation? He has to give a sound reasoning.

In my experience of this buyers always always end up finding a better property , so is not lost.

Valuers like Solicitors and Politicians can never win. When they dont down value and a problem is revealed after legal completion, everyone then wants to sue!

vickyn_2

I agree with Conrad - if this is a valuation report which it sounds like then they are acting on behalf of the mortgager and not you. Best option in future is to go for a Homebuyers report as they are then acting on your behalf and will find anything 'nasty'.

A house could be downvalued for any number of reasons... have u tried contacting the surveyor directly, they will usually tell you.

4 telling the mortgage company it was ex-council housing, when it blatently isnt, therefore preventing us getting the mortgage

This in itself would not prevent you getting a mortgage whatsoever, I have had ex-council houses twice and they are no different than any normal house!!

Good luck, buying property is a stressful business!

Jorgan_2

newbyhousebuyer wrote:

4 telling the mortgage company it was ex-council housing, when it blatently isnt, therefore preventing us getting the mortgage

It may not prevent the OP from getting a mortgage but it does bring into question how much research the surveyor has done & it may also make the OP question the surveyors ability to do his job properly. Has anything else been missed or not been looked into properly.

lynzpower

Just a few thoughts from me:

newbyhousebuyer wrote:

1 undervaluing a perfectly adequate house ( this is a sign that basically you are paying too much for it. Its above what they beleive they would get for it if they had to repossess it. I had the same, albeit not to this degree, the difference for me was 3k, which I chose to borrow from my parents to secure the property)
2 coducting the report without our signed contract of engagement ( wasnt this off the back of your mortgage agreement)
3 sending the report to our mortgage company without checking details first ( such as?)
4 telling the mortgage company it was ex-council housing, when it blatently isnt, therefore preventing us getting the mortgage ( ok, this is an error, and not easily forgiveable, are you 100% sure that its not ex-council though?)
5 reporting we need a coal-mining search even though the nearest is in north wales and the houses are built on a sandstone shelf ( i had to have a coal mining search in central east london, its fairly standard)
6admitting he didnt bother to research the local market therefore not getting the valuation right.... ( Im not too sure what difference this would have made- what did he say?)

Can anyone help me? is this quite normal or have we got a complete muppet??? any help greatfully accepted!!!

I think mainly its quite normal, for a valuation survey. they are basic, by thier very nature. Im not too sure about this local area bit though, what SHOULD surveyors do with it, im not sure but would be interested to find out.

Wickedkitten

We had a homebuyers report done on the house are in just now, and the valuation came back with things reported that didn't even show up in the actual survey and recommended a retention.

However the mortgage company ended up going with the actual survey's recommendation.

Quite odd to be fair but I'm not going to question it.