Extortionate Home Valuation Fee

jason555

Hi All

I recently approached my bank, with whom I already have my mortgage, with regards to re-mortgaging onto their fixed rate tracker. The charge for re-mortgaging was £99, which I thought was fair, and everything seemed fine. I was then told that the bank would have to re-value my house; perfectly understandable. But then the bank told me they would have to charge me £325 for someone to come round and value my house.

£325 for someone to come round, for what probably won’t be longer than 20mins, and say my house is worth £X.

To me this seems an incredibly extortionate charge. Is there any way that I can avoid such a cost, reduce or challenge it?

firstaspect

Unfortunately they do charge an extortionate amount for the mortgage valuation. You can shop around as everyone charges a different fee for the valuation and also if you go through a broker/advisor they get exclusive deals where they can sometimes waive the fee.

dunstonh

I recently approached my bank, with whom I already have my mortgage, with regards to re-mortgaging onto their fixed rate tracker.

That is not remortgaging. That is buying a new deal. A remortgage would be if you changed lender.

Is there any way that I can avoid such a cost, reduce or challenge it?

They are telling you their price before you decide to proceed. You dont have to buy that deal. Just like any retail product, if you dont like the price, you don't have to buy that item. You can either shop around or don't buy it at all.

TrickyDicky101

The sneaky bast**ds probably only pay the valuer a tiny fraction of the fee they charge (I asked at Nationwide how much of the £470 they wanted to charge me was retained by Nationwide but they refused to tell me;)). It's just profit to them.

Note: I'm not complaining as if I was really concerned about it, i could have looked at other deals and gone elsewhere.