Help with Mortage Valuation please

maddie67

nearlynew wrote: »

I'm afraid you are being played.

The other houses that you say have been "valued" at the same or higher haven't been sold yet have they?

Im not really sure what you mean?? They have sales proceeding on them. Its the purchasers that have had valuations done on them for their mortgages.

The builder has offered to send copies of the valuation reports from these surveyors to Santander

Although the Builder (Taylor Wimpey) might be fully aware that Santander wouldnt want to see them, so yes, maybe they are playing me.

Thats set me thinking ...

kmmr

Just keep being polite but firm. Don't wait for calls or emails, e-serv are not a helpful bunch. Write a nice polite letter. I believe I may have even used the term 'I respectfully submit that your surveyor may not have been correctly informed by me of ... blah blah blah'.

There is no exact science for what a house is worth, so don't let them pretend that there is.

FYI - they came around and were supposed to do an estimate of what my place may be worth post renovation. So I gave them all the details. Purchase price £325, renovation budget £100k. And they estimated that the POST renovation value would be £325k! This was for a full retention mortgage (ie, paydown after the work) but still they were insistent that £100k of work, including a huge extension, would add precisely zero value. And the house two doors down, an exact replica of the renovation I was proposing, in a row of exactly the same houses, had just sold 3 months earlier for £581k. With much grovelling I got them to estimate it might be worth £350k after the work was done... it was enough for the loan, but quite annoying...

nearlynew

maddie67 wrote: »

Im not really sure what you mean?? They have sales proceeding on them. Its the purchasers that have had valuations done on them for their mortgages.

The builder has offered to send copies of the valuation reports from these surveyors to Santander

Although the Builder (Taylor Wimpey) might be fully aware that Santander wouldnt want to see them, so yes, maybe they are playing me.

Thats set me thinking ...

Thinking is good.
Here's some more to think about........

You have no way of knowing for certain what someone else has had a house "valued" at. And nor should you because it is none of your business.

But whatever the valuation, the fact remains that the houses are not yet sold.

maddie67

kmmr wrote: »

Just keep being polite but firm. Don't wait for calls or emails, e-serv are not a helpful bunch. Write a nice polite letter. I believe I may have even used the term 'I respectfully submit that your surveyor may not have been correctly informed by me of ... blah blah blah'.

There is no exact science for what a house is worth, so don't let them pretend that there is.

FYI - they came around and were supposed to do an estimate of what my place may be worth post renovation. So I gave them all the details. Purchase price £325, renovation budget £100k. And they estimated that the POST renovation value would be £325k! This was for a full retention mortgage (ie, paydown after the work) but still they were insistent that £100k of work, including a huge extension, would add precisely zero value. And the house two doors down, an exact replica of the renovation I was proposing, in a row of exactly the same houses, had just sold 3 months earlier for £581k. With much grovelling I got them to estimate it might be worth £350k after the work was done... it was enough for the loan, but quite annoying...

Gosh, that is annoying. It just causes so much stress!

kmmr

maddie67 wrote: »

... they said that they do not come up with their valuations by using information from other peoples/properties figures.

What - they take the value of the bricks and mortar and add that up? Plus a bit for glass and labour??

Of course they take into account other property valuations! Local sales, similar houses... that is exactly what a surveyor is supposed to take into account. Otherwise every house would be the same if it is about the same size. Have that discussion with the folks in Holland Park flats!

kmmr

And breathe... back to my glass of wine.

As you say - it is a stressful and annoying time. I am just glad we finally got the money last week. Still not quite finished the renovation, but they decided it was done enough. Once you have a working kitchen and bathroom that seems to do the jobs! It's just annoying when you run into the 'computer says NO' type approach that e-serv have.

I know others disagree with this, but who says that Surveyors have a magical ability to provide a precise value on a property. It's just their estimate, as compared to other peoples estimates.

Anyway, best of luck Maddie! I hope you get the house, if its the right one for you.

maddie67

nearlynew wrote: »

Thinking is good.
Here's some more to think about........

You have no way of knowing for certain what someone else has had a house "valued" at. And nor should you because it is none of your business.

But whatever the valuation, the fact remains that the houses are not yet sold.

Thanks Nearlynew.

What I havent said, because its not really important, but I worked for an Estate Agent for many years, my Boss was a Chartered Surveyor (who, incidently, did many jobs for e-serv!)

Basically a Surveyor arrives at his valuation by looking at what is for sale in the immediate vicinity, then, they will check websites like 'our property' etc, to see prices of recently sold properties, they use this info for their comparables. They then give their opinion as to future saleablity etc. When the Valuer came around the house we are selling, I handed him all the information I had collated from these sources and he thanked me for saving him time!

My point here is, the house we are buying is on a new site and we were the first to have our valuation done, there is nothing else for sale in the immediate vicinity apart from other new houses, and all other properties that have been sold are older, smaller properties.

maddie67

kmmr wrote: »

And breathe... back to my glass of wine.

As you say - it is a stressful and annoying time. I am just glad we finally got the money last week. Still not quite finished the renovation, but they decided it was done enough. Once you have a working kitchen and bathroom that seems to do the jobs! It's just annoying when you run into the 'computer says NO' type approach that e-serv have.

I know others disagree with this, but who says that Surveyors have a magical ability to provide a precise value on a property. It's just their estimate, as compared to other peoples estimates.

Anyway, best of luck Maddie! I hope you get the house, if its the right one for you.

Made all the more stressful by my OH being in the Armed Forces and on deployment for the next 5 weeks so cant do anything to help me! His parting words were 'see you in the new house when I get back'! ha ruddy ha!!

Trollfever

If a mortgage lender is only providing say 50% of the purchase price then a valuer can take a more relaxed view.

maddie67

Trollfever wrote: »

If a mortgage lender is only providing say 50% of the purchase price then a valuer can take a more relaxed view.

Santanders will lend no more than 80% on new build properties