Building survey - plain wrong!

LillythePink

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.

The banks will provide a mortgage in principal but that is usally dependent on a satisfactory survey - you're not going to buy a house and then get the survey done are you?

So if the survey came back as 65k less than the selling price/mortgage requirement the bank are going to query it and not want to lend more than what the valuation says - that's common sense!

Emmzi

yes, but I've never seen a valuation survey come in at over a grand - surely thats a homebuyers or structural? unless the rpice of button pushing went exponential?

just suggesting the OP is not entirely blameless in spending before the loan was "safe" and I doubt this cost is recoverable as the timing was personal choice.

Alison74_2

Many thanks for all your info...

The building survey was indeed done at the same time as the valuation... We weren't given any option as far as I know to have two different surveyors come out without extra cost. The cost was £1295, which is the norm for a full stuctural, and was advisable at the time given the cost and age of the house...

Good news though. E-surv has refund all fees and aborted solicitors fees too. Hooray! happy end (ish)

Didn't see e-surv response to my question on this site till just now, but after a few emails via my lender earlier this month they were very quick with the refund which was much appreciated.

Thanks Again!!

sonastin

Glad it worked out OK(ish). Nice to hear the outcome for a change!

999LouLou

:mad:

I was really interested to read what has happened to you guys. The same thing has happened to me recently and I too am in the process of fighting back!

I applied for a mortgage with the Woolich who sent Esurv to the property for a mortgage valuation. They came in at £35k under what I was paying (£50k under market value). I was furious and simply did not believe it so I applied for a mortgage with First Direct who used Direct Valuations.

They provided a much better service on the whole and an accurate valuation. I also compared Esurv's rebuild figure of £180k and Direct Valuations of £297k. I could have been left drastically under insured too!

I've complained to Esurv and received their response yesterday which was a joke quite frankly. I've moved it a step along and won't stop until I get my £325 back!

Fortunately for me - we're still on track for completing our purchase at the end of the month.

I have also named and shamed John Lockwoood and Esurv to RICS who are looking into it.

Woolich, via Barclays have been exceptionally slow off the mark - perhaps my complaint has been posted overseas with their other departments......don't get me started on that one! :eek:

999LouLou

Hi Alison74. I'm not sure if you are still looking to purchase but my advice is to ask the lender what company they use before you instruct them. You are entitled to say 'not Esurv'. First Direct/HSBC use Direct Valuations. Sadly, a few of the other big lenders only use Esurv.

ess0two

Just switched to HSBC they sent e surv to my gaff.

harry2321

i have not enough money to mortgage a house. And there is a happies thing to share that i bought a brand watch at a lower price last week,

lee636

harry2321 wrote: »

i have not enough money to mortgage a house. And there is a happies thing to share that i bought a brand watch at a lower price last week,

:rotfl: !!!!!! you on about?! :rotfl:

willrowe

Same thing.

We agreed a sale with potential purchaser on our shared ownership flat.

The agreed purchase price was £240,000.00 based on a RICS approved independent UNBIASED valuation which we HAD to get at our expense in order to market the property. This valuation was approved by the Housing Association.

Solicitors had been engaged, surveys and searches arranged and deposits paid when the purchaser was required to get a valuation carried out on our flat as part of her mortgage application...and who were engaged...Esurv!

We were alarmed when the purchasers lender, on the advice of Esurv, told us our flat had been 'downvalued' by £20,000.00 to £220,000.00. There was no reference to the approved survey that had already been carried out by the independent surveyor.

We called Esurv to try and ascertain what criteria they based their alarmingly low figure on and were told that they don't generally cover our area of east London. The question remains how, if they don't normally provide valuations in our area, they were qualified to make a valid estimation of the price of our property.

I met with the Esurv surveyor when he arrive at our property. His first question to me was:

'how did you come to decide how much your property is worth'

I naturally told him we didn't decide, the price was based on the approved RICS valuation we had previously recieved. He made no comment.

Ultimately Esurv make a decision on how much your property is worth based on what their client wants (remember they work for the mortgage lender even though you pay for the valuation).

In conclusion, many lenders who use Esurv are running rough-shod over those selling or wanting to remortage their properties. Just as worrying, they are even bullying those in social housing schemes to take less than what the property is worth.

Be warned do not let Esurv into your house.