Challenging a Surveyors Valuation

jono800

Hi all

I am after a bit of advice from you guys about whether or not there is any way to challenge a surveyors valuation as part of a re-mortgaging excercise!!

Our current fixed term mortgage is due to expire in a couple of months and we thought it a prudent idea to pay £300 and have our house valued by a surveyor organised through our mortgage lender (Natwest).

We originally purchased our village location, 3 bed end of terrcaed house 5 years ago for just over £160k (the important piece to note is 3 bed).

The valuer came round and was in the house for about 30 minutes and seemed thorough enough; looking all through the house, in the conservatory the loft and each of the 3 bedrooms (can you guess whats coming??) and checked for damp etc.

A week later we received the value from our mortgage lender and it was..........£160k!! My wife and I were a bit shocked at this as the previous year the house had a market value of about £230k. Obviously we are not naive to still think it is worth anything near this, but not £70k different.

After requesting sight of the valuers report we noticed that it stated there were only 2 bedrooms and there was no mention of a conservatory either! On challenging this the valuer has come back and stated that as the third bedroom has a sloped roof, it is unusable (even though it currently has a desk and a double bed in it) and the conservatory doesn't count as there is no heating in it.

We don't really know where to go next......... can anyone help at all????

Regards

VIGILANT22

Try another lender........

happybroker

This a massive issue at the moment and it seems that the RICS isn't communicating effectively with their members as to what factors they should or should not be basing their values on.

Natwest will have had a decent chunk of that £300 also you know and if this wasn't a "necessary" valuation they ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Get some good whole of market advice (friends and family as good a place as any for a recommendation) and if the dealy you are looking for relies on the valuation coming in at a certain level consider going for one with a free valuation.

You don't mention what your mortgage is but if it's less than £96k then I wouldn't let it worry you but I see why you are so frustrated.

edit: I wonder if the house had no heating and bedrooms in the eaves he would have deemed that it wasn't there at all and valued the plot alone?

jono800

Thanks for the response.

Unfortunately the mortgage currently sits around £150k due to some additional borrowing a couple of years ago (incidently the bank valued the property at £180k at this point), so we were hoping that by paying for the valuation we could secure a more favorable rate.

The third bedroom in question has got heating in it as the whole house was refurbished after we bought it, re-plubing and re-wiring throughout.

It appears quite difficult to find any information about what constitutes a habitable bedroom/ conservatory for valuation purposes, but I would be 99% certain that we put the house on the market today it would be advertised as a 3 bed with conservatory!

Unfortunately the mortgage lender will not continue to challenge this on our behalf, but has given to us the valuers details so we can lodge our concerns directly with him.

brit1234

We originally purchased our village location, 3 bed end of terrcaed house 5 years ago for just over £160k

That was just before peak prices, ao £160k sounds about fine.

Can't see by adding a conseverty will add £70K

happybroker

I would try elsewhere then in that case whilst still giving a direct challenge a go though I don't in all honesty hold out much hope for such a challenge unfortunately.

Take what offer you have on the table from Natwest to a whole of market adviser and see what is recommended.

jono800

brit1234 wrote: »

Can't see by adding a conseverty will add £70K

The conservatory was already with the house, the majority of the work was structural; levelling the floors on the groud floor, ensuring the previous extension work was properly stitched together, installing triple density bricks the whole way up the adjoining wall between us and the neighbours and installing a fiewall in the loft.

All 'behind-the-scenes' stuff really. It would have had to have been some conservatory to get an additional £70k!!

Thanks again for all the constructive advice, I will endevour to challenge this and keep you updated with the progress.

Cannon_Fodder

If two years ago they re-valued at £180k, then £160k isn't far out, today. Subject to fine-tuning, according to location of course.

Was he lying about the sloping roof? Just because a bed and desk are *in* a room, doesn't make the room useable.

You may have grown used to what you view as the "minor" nature of the room's limitations. Others might not view the limitations as minor.

There was a thread on the Buying and Selling forum last week, where someone was advertising their loft conversion as the 'Master Bedroom', but they had to push the bed to one side, because you couldn't walk down either side if it was in the middle (or around the foot of the bed, if the headboard was under the slope), then being a double, 1 person would have to climb over their partner or down the length of the bed keeping low to avoid bumping their head, just to get out of bed - which would be great in the middle of the night, when trying not to disturb the other half...

jono800

The room is limited, but not to that extreme!

VIGILANT22

RICS/ISVA have a Code of Measuring Practice regarding areas with a headroom of less than 1.5 metres ..does this apply?

jono800

It could quite possibly. I'm 5'11" and can stand in half of the room. If it was a standard full-height ceiling it would be classed as a 'double room'.