Building survey - plain wrong!

Alison74_2

Hi there,
Had our survey done for HSBC via e.surv. The valuation came back as £65k less than we were offering. Had to pull out as the numbers didn't then add up with our mortgage.
Spoke to the agent yesterday who is also selling our place. She has just told me that the place went back on the market, and 2 WEEKS LATER the survey (done again by e.surv) has valued it as worth £5k more than we were paying for it! A whopping £70k difference in the 2 surveys done by the SAME company.
She has queried this, and was simply told that the first valuation was a mistake. This mistake has cost me £350 in solicitor fees and £1300 in (full) survey fees. Not to mention losing a really nice house.
Does anyone know where we stand on this... any chance of a refund. We were willing to respect the first decision, but this just isn't on!

Cheers A

Milliewilly

Alison74 wrote: »

Hi there,
Had our survey done for HSBC via e.surv. The valuation came back as £65k less than we were offering. Had to pull out as the numbers didn't then add up with our mortgage.
Spoke to the agent yesterday who is also selling our place. She has just told me that the place went back on the market, and 2 WEEKS LATER the survey (done again by e.surv) has valued it as worth £5k more than we were paying for it! A whopping £70k difference in the 2 surveys done by the SAME company.
She has queried this, and was simply told that the first valuation was a mistake. This mistake has cost me £350 in solicitor fees and £1300 in (full) survey fees. Not to mention losing a really nice house.
Does anyone know where we stand on this... any chance of a refund. We were willing to respect the first decision, but this just isn't on!

Cheers A

E-Surv strike again. Have you a high ltv on your mortgage? E-Surv cost me my last sale because of their frankly hysterical report. I hope they don't do the next survey.

magpiecottage

If you can prove that the valuation was wrong it might be worth a complaint to HSBC on the basis that the surveyor was acting as the bank's agent and that you are out of pocket as a result of his incompetence.

I have not seen a case where this has occurred but I have seen other examples where FOS has upheld complaints that an agent of a financial institution (usually a tradesman acting for an insurer) has failed to doo a good job.

daveyjp

Formal complaint to HSBC first and also contact the RICS to register your dissatisfaction with a member of the organisation.

DVardysShadow

Dirty deal? First surveyor knew someone else who wanted the house?

Alison74_2

Many thanks for your responses... would be interested to hear from anyone else with this exact problem. We don't have a high LTV mortgage, but am concerned that this will happen again as we are searching in the same area, and according to my agent, these guys work in certain patches....

mbga9pgf

Use Direct valuations next time. We have used them for a recent purchase and HSBC accept their valuations no problems.

Much better than e.Surv, much quicker too.

If you want to do anything, I would reccommend laying a formal complaint with RICS, to see how they respond to the admission of error.

Its a pretty serious thing IMHO to get the valuation wrong.

Milliewilly

mbga9pgf wrote: »

Use Direct valuations next time. We have used them for a recent purchase and HSBC accept their valuations no problems.

Much better than e.Surv, much quicker too.

If you want to do anything, I would reccommend laying a formal complaint with RICS, to see how they respond to the admission of error.

Its a pretty serious thing IMHO to get the valuation wrong.

I wasn't aware you could stipulate to your lender which valuation surveyor they could use? Or are you saying to use a third party valuation to contest the original valuation and thus pay twice?

Former_MSE_Alana

Hi,

We have received this response from e.surv:

"We were concerned to note the apparent difficulties experienced by Alison74 and would welcome the opportunity to investigate further. It may be that the Lender involved has already raised this matter with us, as would be the normal procedure in such instances; however, if we can be of general assistance, please do email us on CustomerCare@esurv.co.uk"

Emmzi

possibley dumb question, why would you pay £1300 for a full survey before you had the mortgage application agreed abd knew you were theortically proceedable?

Some of the cost may be e-surv but surely some is down to your poor choice of running order for what you paid for when? Unless I misunderstand what happened.

Milliewilly

Emmzi wrote: »

possibley dumb question, why would you pay £1300 for a full survey before you had the mortgage application agreed abd knew you were theortically proceedable?

Some of the cost may be e-surv but surely some is down to your poor choice of running order for what you paid for when? Unless I misunderstand what happened.

I expect E-Surv did the valuation and building survey at the same time for £1300.