Overpriced New Home - Advice Needed

silvercar

Coventry BS use e-surv for their valuations. E-surv (through affiliates or not) have surveyors up and down the country, so they should be familiar with local prices.

I wonder if you are borrowing a high percentage of the sale price? This often makes valuers cautious.

dmg24

3. If property overvalued and Bryant reluctant to accept reduced offer, what are our chances of recovering £500 deposit and legal fees on the basis that we feel conned given the 5% builders incentive was actually no incentive at all given that property may only be worth the price minus the 5% incentive

If Bryant are unwilling to lower the price then they obviously believe that it will sell at that price. Bryant have actually done nothing wrong (nor have you, it is simply a disagreement as to what the property is worth), so are under no obligation to refund your deposit. Maybe you could ask if they would be willing to do it as a goodwill gesture? No harm in asking!

With regard to your legal fees, I can't see you getting anything back from Bryant towards these, they aren't liable for them.

4. Would Trading Standards be interested under the Sales of Goods Act

No. Bryant have done nothing wrong.

e-surv are a national chain, but that isn't to say that they are familiar with the local area and prices. A friend initially used them and they valued a property (not a new build) at £80,000. This was considerably less than what other houses on the same road had sold for, so she paid for a second survey, which came back at £95,000. Even with this, e-surv stood by their valuation and refused to refund her any fees, however she got the mortgage on the strength of the second valuation.

cuffie

When we got our first time buy, Abbey reckoned our house was 10k over valued. We shopped around, went with YBS and they gave us mortgage for what we wanted and said house price was fine. Some of the big lenders "down value" houses. Our house now worth £160k more than what we bought it for (admittedly 10 years down the line). Can't you find someone else?

Altarf

dmg24 wrote:

No paper would touch such a story, as they are leaving themselves open to all sorts of liability!

Equally, I doubt that a paper would let you publish your valuation report, again for liability reasons.

You are probably right.

dmg24 wrote:

Bryant will know all of the above, and would more than likely stop taking you seriously if you went down this route.

But parking your car outside their site sales office on a weekend with a big sign on the roof saying "Coventry Building Society say these houses are overpriced", with a few photocopies of the valuer's report to hand out, might be worth it for a laugh.

UK007BullDog

Ah..... this is such a can of worms.

New builds are being down valued up and down the country. Some lenders are even refusing to lend on them as they feel that the properties are overpriced. Why? Well, if a builder can give up to 20% discount then obviously something is wrong as they are still making a profit. Some lenders also limit the risk with flats as they limit the number they will lend on in any one block. So we always check first to make sure the lender has not reached their limit on that estate, before applying.

Call me naive but if a professional surveyor says the property is worth less than anticipated, as a buyer why try to force the price up? I would try to discuss this with the seller until I am blue in the face. A lower price means a lower mortgage. I might even walk away from the deal. If more people would do this the dramatic price rises would not be so high.