Hazards of private purchase?

pigeonpie

We are buying our landlord's flat (we think: offer accepted). Because we have lived in it for 6 months as tenants, we have opted for a basic valuation rather than home buyer's report. There are a couple of material things we have noticed though that need fixing so hopefully the owner will get them fixed without having had his attention drawn to them by 'a surveyor'. The cost could be several hundred £s.

We are having a valuation done tomorrow by someone appointed by the mortgage lenders. They use a big firm, but one that we know our owner has used before too, possibly on this flat in fact. In others' experience, do the mortgage valuers just echo what you have agreed to pay for the property or do they give you a genuinely independent indication that you are possibly overpaying? We think we may be but owner won't take less, so would value a 'neutral' opinion to help negotiate as don't want to lose the flat. Also want an idea of what the flat may be worth if it's done up. (it's looking very rental).

Any ideas? Any obvious hazards of a private buy? We have a solicitor but have never met them. They were recommended by an estate agent, sound ok on the phone but we have only lived here 6 months and don't know anyone else who has bought around here.
Panicking a bit, so any advice would be very welcome! cheers!!

cattie

A surveyor will normall value a flat at it's selling price, or lower if they think it's overpriced. I've never heard of a surveyor valuing a property for more than it's worth as the idea of the lender's valuation is just to confirm or deny that the property is worth the amount they are to be lending you.

They just need to be sure they will get their money back should you default on the mortgage for any reason.

The only real way to get an idea of the flats worth after it's done up is to speak to an estate agent. They will know the area & it's property market.

silvercar

If the owner won't take less your options are limited. Remeber the gains of buying where you are already living - no removal costs etc.

PoorDave

For the "done up" valuation, get an estate agent in. Or, if you're going to be home when the surveyor comes, try asking them, but why should they tell you that when you're not paying for that info?! So it depends on the surveyor's mood, and how "nice" their husband/wife/life partner was to them the night before!

You don't "necessarily" have to let an estate agent know you don't own the property at the moment when they come to value, if you get my drift! Although they may know that this address is rented out, as many agent's have a very good knowledge of their local market. Who's to say you aren't the landlords/owners? Just don't use the sales part of the agent's who let you the house! (D'oh!)

pigeonpie

The thanks button's gawn, but thanks all. Nope, all the agents know us and know we are renting.
The mortgage is for less than 1/2 of the total price though. Estate agents won't come around as it's not 'our' flat so we are very reliant on Mr Valuer tomorrow. We are paying him though - a cool £550 to have a peek! (London!!) The problem is really that the flat was never marketed through an estate agent at all so none of them have seen it. We know what the owner paid via the free websites on LR prices. He bought lots of properties at the same time so we very much doubt that is what he really paid, we think values were assigned to individual flats as part of a big portfolio. However he says he will refuse any offer at less than a bit of profit on what he 'paid'.
If we say boo, we will be evicted, he will put it on the market and maybe our offer will still be the best, but by then we will have had to move out to another rental with all that that entails, physically, psychologically and of course financially.

I hope you are right about him valuing it lower, but he'll have seen the LR value too :S
very nervous. Don't want to move, don't want to overpay!

PoorDave

Hmm. Don't go so far as to get booted out!

Look on rightmove to find similar properties, in terms of asking price, and also sale price. This should reassure you somewhat.

Never had a surveyor go under sale price. Only time we had a lower value was a remortgage when we'd started pulling the house apart a lot since purchase, and then only 5k down on a 160k house.

pboae

We sold a flat to a tenant (in London) they got an estate agent round and just didn't tell them it was rented (with our permission, but they could have done it anyway), and then we sent another estate agent round, and we agreed a price based on those valuations.

pigeonpie

Wish our bloke was more like you pboae. We may have to get the owner's permission to get estate agents around if he continues to insist on the price we've agreed before survey. We didn't want to ask if we could as he owns lots of properties in the area, so the agents really don't want to p*ss him off. Plus some of them are his mates. So we thought it may be counterproductive.
However the mortgage lender's valuer/surveyor has been and says it is overpriced by he reckons about £15-20k, which is what we thought. Owner wants a quick sale but not sure he'd go down that much. The area will probably continue to rise in prices but of course by how much and over how long. (even London has its limits; our budget certainly does!)
Not much going on to make the panic subside. We are very bad at tactics, especially when they could cost you your home.
time for another coffee (decaf by now).