Rip off valuation fee?

sparklyscarlett

Hi,

I've been quoted £350 for a remortgage valuation fee by Halifax. Does this seem reasonable? Also does anyone know if this has to be paid up front or can it be added to the mortgage? Might not seem a huge amount but there are so many outgoings at the moment!

Thanks

GMS

It is not an excessive figure.

Usually it would need to be paid up front as it is an actual cost to the lender and if you chose not to proceed after the valuation they would have paid out for nothing.

If you want Halifax unfortunately you need to play by their rules.

dunstonh

sparklyscarlett wrote: »

Hi,

I've been quoted £350 for a remortgage valuation fee by Halifax. Does this seem reasonable? Also does anyone know if this has to be paid up front or can it be added to the mortgage? Might not seem a huge amount but there are so many outgoings at the moment!

Thanks

If you dont like it then dont buy it. That is their price and they are not forcing you to buy their product. Like any retail products, some will look cheap, some will look expensive. Often with mortgages you have to look at the overall pricing of all fees to decide what is best. Not just one in isolation.

FinAdv

Hi,

It is a reasonable figure. Generally, he valuation fees is some what linked to the value of the property. My client buying house worth £650,000 has paid £680 for valuation through Halifax so £350 is not excessive.

The valuation fee is normally not added on to the loan. This is paid up front. All these lenders use different companies to conduct surveys and they have to pay the survey fees to these copanies or they won't conduct the survey. Halifax uses a company called Colleys for survey.

firstaspect

Unfortunately valuation fees are often very expensive, not a lot you can do about it I'm afraid.

koexelek

firstaspect wrote: »

Unfortunately valuation fees are often very expensive, not a lot you can do about it I'm afraid.

in the overall scheme of things, £350 isn't too bad.

Usually, only a percentage of the survey fee is paid to the actual surveyor, the rest of it is another form of stealth fee for the lender.

e.g. £350 val fee
£200 to surveyor
£150 "admin fee " retained by lender

chewback

More like £350val fee, £75 to surveyor

koexelek

chewback wrote: »

More like £350val fee, £75 to surveyor

In the good old days, when prices were rising, the lenders didn't even bother sending a valuer to the property at all if loan to value was good.

Of course, they still charged the punter full price for a survey though:cool:

sparklyscarlett

Thanks everyone. Seems like it is reasonable. I think it just seemed like a lot coming on top of everything else but I need to get real!

veryhopeful77

i had to pay 400 upfront

tkitmike

Yes I had to pay £350 for my Halifax valuation, you have to pay upfront. However, with most Halifax mortgages, you get the valuation fee refunded, or you get some form of cashback once you have you complete