Surveyor has valued property at less than our offer

laxeylady

I know this is not unusual but its put a spanner in our works. He says there is damp in the property and has recommended the building society retain 5 grand. We have paid out £1400 to arrange the mortgage and survey the property because we went for a fixed term 60% LTV mortgage. Well now they say that because of the survey they cant lend us all we need. Basically we need to find another 3 grand to still have a 40% deposit. AND then find money to correct the damp. We cant do it. When I phoned the vendors estate agent he said he would only approach the vendor about it if he had a copy of the report. What if they wont pay to repair the damp? Or reduce their price? Its looking like we either walk away, or arrange a different mortgage and accept the fact that our arrangement fee etc has gone down the drain. We are gutted about this turn of events. I know it might sound greedy haggling over the money when we have almost enough money for a 40% deposit, but we were trying to get as small a mortgage as we could because we're not getting any younger!!

kinglewis

The house has been down valued! Get them to reduce the price without a doubt! They don't know what deposit you have!

Show the EA your reposrt they will (almost) be on your side.

CloudCuckooLand

Good to see a survey fee that has been well spent.

It has identified a problem that would have cost you your own money in the future. Now you can point it out to the vendor, get the price reduced and not be out of pocket. Very MSE!!

RobertoMoir

You sound like you're more concerned that the valuation will stop you getting the price you want than the fact the house has a damp problem (that your post implies you'll have problems affording to fix)?

If you can't get the reduction in price you need in order to get the mortgage you require and fix the problem, then by all means walk away. Don't think of the survey in terms of what it has cost you in the short term, think about what it might have saved you in the long term.

laxeylady

You're probably right roberto, but our situation is that we can't find the extra money for the mortgage AND fix the damp. The only way would be to take a different mortgage. Of course this is all academic at the moment because if the full report shows serious damp problems we will have to walk. Can anyone tell me - if we do go for a different mortgage on the same property could this survey be used again??

silvercar

Can anyone tell me - if we do go for a different mortgage on the same property could this survey be used again??

Yes, it can often just be re-written incuring a small fee. Even if the new lender wants a new survey you would now only need to get the cheapest valuation as you already have a survey.

If you are just going for a different deal with the same lender, you shouldn't need a new survey/ valuation.

Milliewilly

First stop is to approach the vendor for a reduction and show them the report as justification.

Welsh_Totster

Milliewilly wrote: »

First stop is to approach the vendor for a reduction and show them the report as justification.

I agree with this. We had a similar thing with the first property we had an offer accepted on recently, we knew there was about £20ks worth of internal work to do on it but the survey came back with a new roof required, a full dampcourse and cavity wall ties replacing on top of all the internal problems. We showed the survey to the vendors but they wouldnt reduce the price or do any remedial work, so we walked away. Best £500 we spent!

G_M

he said he would only approach the vendor about it if he had a copy of the report.

What rubbish! If you reduce your offer he has to tell the vendor!

But why not give him a copy? The vendor is more likely to agree a price reduction if he sees evidence of the damp. After all, if he finds a new buyer, their survey will show the same problem. without the report he may think you are just messing him about.

old_motters

Had the same happen to me but for a different reason, in the end the vendor had to accept a £4k reduction. Ultimately they would have had the same issue with any buyer once their lender had had the surveyors report.

laxeylady

Going to fax the valuation report to estate agents in the morning and tell him we want a reduction. If he wont move then it looks like we wont be either!! The other dodgy thing was that after paying for a decent survey, the surveyor did not go into the loft because there was a wardrobe under the hatch. So our prospective roof timbers could be half eaten by worms or rotting away. I call that a job half done. Can I complain about it?