Halifax undervalued my house and made me pay a higher rate

lydia_dustbin

Hi there

I took out my mortgage at the end of last year with Halifax via London and Country mortgages. I was already with the Halifax but my previous fixed rate had ended. I wanted a fixed rate again. I was told there were only rates. The lower rate was if I had a low LTV and the higher rate was if I had a better LTV. I had had my house valued a couple of months before at £175-£185k. The Halifax told me that they had valued my house at £154k!!! If I wanted an exact valuation they said that I would have to pay for this. They said that I would only get the better rate if my house was valued at £183k. I didnt pursue this as i couldnt really afford the valuation charge and i kind of knew that they would come back and say that they didnt think it was worth £183k or more. So i got left with the only option of the higher rate of interest.

I am really cross about it as I was already with halifax so they must have known the real value of my house. My mum said that some people have managed to challenge this. I have searched the forums and cant find the right thread.

Please can anyone help? I would be forever grateful

love

lisa
mum of two and only one with an income
xxx

HarveyGal

Sorry their deal wasn't what you wanted but even if they agreed with the £175K valuation, or even £7K more at £182K...it still would not have given you the deal where £183K was needed.
Maybe the passing of a couple of months dropped the value from £175-£185K to £154K?
I know it was annoying and disappointing, but the banks can make deals when and where they want.You accepted their deal and didn't remortgaage elsewhere. Don't lose sleep over it.

Apologies if this offends. Enjoy your beautiful children and be proud you are caring for them.

beecher2

Who had valued your house when you were told it was worth £175 - 185k? Halifax use a computerised system to value houses and theirs obviously said that your house was worth £154k. You had the option of getting a new valuation, or of staying on the SVR of 3.5% - I'm at a loss as to what you want advice on, as you'd now have to pay an Early Repayment Charge to get out of your present deal.

Conrad

The time to have challenged the val was during the process but now that you have completed on a deal it's very unlikely you will be able to do anything.

In any event, challenging valuations usualy ends in failure (no doubt someone will now post saying they managed, but the exception doesn't proove the rule)

lydia_dustbin

thanks for the advice. i was only asking as i had heard others had challenged but my mum reads the daily mail so i should have known better! lol xxx

Leew1231

I had a similar thing, but I stuck with the SVR. Incidentally it was around the time that the rates were reduced by the Bank of England so I actually did quite well out of it. I am now on a SVR of 3.94%. Yeah there is the risk it will go up again at any time but if you look particularly for fixed rates they are about 5% min at my LTV which the bank actually say it is in negative equity based on the computerised system. I and estate agents disagree but I'm not in a bad situation at the moment so happy to leave it all as it is.