Bank House Valuation (Halifax/Colleys) 26 January 2011 at 2:28PM in House Buying, Renting & Selling 27 replies 22.1K views

viewsonic1

Hello All,

After getting mortgage offer from Halifax which I think was best for me, I found a very good house which was close to my work, also most of my friends were living in neighborhood, it is like a dream house for me since I am first time buyer,

The property has previous offers around £185K, £181K but my offer of £187K was accepted, I was doing mortgage of £159K with Halifax; everything was going so good until valuation;

The survoy was conducted by 'Colleys Surveyors' as it is owned by Halifax, they valued the house as £145K almost £42K difference; Although new roof and other refurbishment were taken recently; which the surveyor said she haven't inspected the roof properly.

I have came across many bad reviews about 'Colleys' as they de-value a house almost by 50% now my question is what Should I do to get this house;

I have about £30K for deposit, and needs suggestions how to convince bank to get mortgage between £155K - £159K;

Looking forward for suggestions, Thanks

cardinalbiggles

The house valuation is 145k nothing much you can do about that, it would suggest that the offer of 187k is way to high unless you really wanted it, and had the difference plus deposit in savings.

viewsonic1

Yes 187K is too high but £145 is too low as well, as the vendor have spent around £25K on maintenance 'new roof, kitchen, floor etc' ; I will need around £155-159K to borrow from bank and then put the rest from pocket, can the bank lend 159£K on a house valuation £145? also same house in next door was sold for £178K three months ago.

CloudCuckooLand

Is this your "family friend's" house ? Sounds like they are trying to sell you a pup...

£25K on top of what figure, when they bought? Not all maintenance adds value. Keeping the rain out is a basic expectation of a house.

You don't neccessarily need to convince the bank to give you more money.

You need to convince your friend to accept less. Until you have pushed them as low as you can, you don't know what amount you need from the bank...

viewsonic1

Yes CloudCuckooLand, family friends' house, I am highly interested to buy and they are less interested to sell also the house is not on market with any estate agent. in this situation its very hard to negotiate the price.

Arthritic_Toe

Why are you desperate to pay 42k more than its worth (according to a skilled professional surveyor)? And why do you think you know better than the surveyor?

Without casting any aspersions, are you sure that your 'friend' is being entirely honest with you about those previous offers?

iB1

What was highlighted in the survey that made the surveyor value the house so low?

viewsonic1

Nothing much, it says ' The property is in acceptable condition for lending purposes. My valuation reflects the fact that there is wear and tear to some items and that maintanance, repair or upgrading will be required.'

iB1

Ok, so was it just a valuation? In that case, you should have at least a Homebuyer's survey done in order to have some other aspects of the house further examined. There's no point in paying well over the odds for a house if it has lots of problems.

WHITEVANMAN

viewsonic1 wrote: »

Hello All,

After getting mortgage offer from Halifax which I think was best for me, I found a very good house which was close to my work, also most of my friends were living in neighborhood, it is like a dream house for me since I am first time buyer,

The property has previous offers around £185K, £181K but my offer of £187K was accepted, I was doing mortgage of £159K with Halifax; everything was going so good until valuation;

The survoy was conducted by 'Colleys Surveyors' as it is owned by Halifax, they valued the house as £145K almost £42K difference; Although new roof and other refurbishment were taken recently; which the surveyor said she haven't inspected the roof properly.

I have came across many bad reviews about 'Colleys' as they de-value a house almost by 50% now my question is what Should I do to get this house;

I have about £30K for deposit, and needs suggestions how to convince bank to get mortgage between £155K - £159K;

Looking forward for suggestions, Thanks

The additional problem here for you is that the valuation for mortgage purposes is suggesting the whole property is only worth £145k so they will only lend a proportion of this, so even at 90% LTV they are only going to lend you £130k.

£25k on maintenance is irrelevant when it comes to value, if it hadnt been done the valuation would probably be lower.

I cant comment on Colleys, as have never used them but have had many similar experiences of surveyors being at best very tight on valuations over the past few years.

You could try highlighting similar properties that have sold/ are selling at prices closer to your offer and asking why the surveyor feels there is such a disparity, but in general you are probably going to have to accept that you arent going to get the valuation you desired.
You could try going with another lender and going through the process again although this will involve new charges or maybe even try and see if the halifax would look at another independant valuation which you would have to fund.

IMO with such a low valuation I would suggest you might approach the EA and inform them what has happened and revise your offer significantly.
At the end of the day, if that is a true reflection of the price, any prospective buyer other than a cash buyer is going to run into the same problem and the seller will eventually either have to conceed to this fact or withdraw the property.

Edit.
The bank wont lend more than valuation. Only less.

I see further down that they arent using a EA and this is a private arrangement, in which case get round and tell them what the Surveyors Valued it at, and take your discussions forward from there, but consider what you really want to spend.
Friend or not, everyone likes to think their property is worth more than it is, in the current climate, and to be honest im getting a feeling they are taking the proverbial here, they may well say they have no need to move, but do you really know

Catatonia

viewsonic1 wrote: »

Yes CloudCuckooLand, family friends' house, I am highly interested to buy and they are less interested to sell also the house is not on market with any estate agent. in this situation its very hard to negotiate the price.

How has the house had so many offers without an EA? Are they all friends?