Valuation nightmare

valuationnightmare

We had our house valued on Monday as part of remortgaging with NR. We estimated (conservatively in our opinion) at £180k. The valuation came back tonight at £160k which we believe is inaccurate, our reasons being:-

1. Last valuation in 2003 was £165-170k and since then we have spent at least £20k on a new kitchen, bathroom, boiler, flooring and carpets throughout and completely doing the gardens, etc.

2. The surveyor was in the house for 5 minutes and was not interested in anything we had to say - the last surveyor asked loads of questions about previous values and work we had carried out to make his valuation.

3. The other properties in our road that have been valued have all shown an increase - ours appears to be the only one that has decreased.

4. There has only been one sale in the street in the last year - £210k for a slightly bigger property.

I also assume now we will have to pay for the valuation too

We went through a free mortgage broker (via Credit Expert) and are waiting to hear his thoughts on what to do next. We're absolutely gutted - we wanted to remortgage to get new windows and doors and get a wall repointed before our baby arrives in November...grrr.

Any thoughts, ideas, comments would be really appreciated.

Thanks

Beki

opinions4u

valuationnightmare wrote: »

We had our house valued on Monday as part of remortgaging with NR. We estimated (conservatively in our opinion) at £180k. The valuation came back tonight at £160k which we believe is inaccurate

This Nationwide tool would also support your view. It doesn't take in to account local market conditions though.

What I will post below will try to look at things from a valuer's perspective.

1. Last valuation in 2003 was £165-170k and since then we have spent at least £20k on a new kitchen, bathroom, boiler, flooring and carpets throughout and completely doing the gardens, etc.

Carpets are contents, not part of the building. Gardens rarely add anything and are often a "taste" thing. The other things that you mention won't add anything like the amount spent in value. Indeed, it could be argued that they are necessary maintenance to retain value. In other words, they improve saleability but the impact on selling price is not always significant.

2. The surveyor was in the house for 5 minutes and was not interested in anything we had to say - the last surveyor asked loads of questions about previous values and work we had carried out to make his valuation.

Not unusual. He's basically making sure there are no major defects.

3. The other properties in our road that have been valued have all shown an increase - ours appears to be the only one that has decreased.

Valued by who? The local estate agent will often over-value to get a client on the books. The reality of the sale price may be well short of the original asking price.

4. There has only been one sale in the street in the last year - £210k for a slightly bigger property.

What about similar properties on nearby streets?

I also assume now we will have to pay for the valuation too

I would assume you've already paid for it!

While I would listen to what your broker has to say, you need to be producing evidence that the valuer is wrong.

- land registry records of similar property sales (I think you can get this from Rightmove)

- the Nationwide link I provided above

- Zoopla

- Receipts for the improvements that you have made

Alternatively, find a different lender with a more favourable valuer (possibly on a fee-free deal?).

valuationnightmare

Thanks for this - it helps to explain in part his valuation and I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

A couple of notes:

- the other valuations that I mentioned in the street are from surveyors during other people's remortgages, not estate agents (I know not to consider them too much) It is hard to compare with other streets locally as our street is quite unique in the area in that it is a really well kept and attractive Victorian and Georgian terraced street in the middle of quite a run-down area - the difference between this street and those surrounding it is pretty significant. And the rest of the surrounding area is full of pokey new builds in sprawling estates which don't really compare.

- my mortgage broker has since received complaints from other clients who have said that Northern Rock surveyors have significantly under-valued their properties

- in the valuation report, he has left the 'proposed works' box empty, ignoring the work we have booked to replace all of the windows and doors and to repoint an end wall, also leaving the 'value after proposed works' box empty. Surely another £10k of work would have some effect on value?

- luckily the valuation was free and we appear to have escaped paying anything )

We've applied for another mortgage and have paid for a valuation which is on Tuesday. It will be interesting to see what they say. We've lowered our estimate so hopefully they'll agree with it.

Thanks again.