What to do next

harrup

mlz1413 wrote: »

if its that unique then pay for your own survey by a chartered surveyor in your area. if this comes back with a valuation of your asking price or higher then send a copy of the survey to the buyers valuers with a letter explaining that the other houses are in need of major repairs and ask if they will re-assess.

Actually, this isn't a bad idea.

I recall a post some month ago - or perhaps even a year? - where someone did just that. Very similar, if not idetical situation. The seller (poster) refused to accept the accuracy of the surveyor's valuation, declined to drop the price for 10 or 20 K, and in lieu, commissioned their own survey. Which came in just under their AP. A price they eventually achieved.

evansmummy, do a search on this forum under "undervaluing" or some such....and I'm sure you'll find it. Sorry, can't recall that OP posters name or the date.

tyler80

We've offered on a house that has had one sale fall through already. I'd be really annoyed if I found out that the previous sale fell through because of valuation issues because we're not in a position to pay what we've offered unless the valuation price lines up.

evansmummy

harrup wrote: »

Actually, this isn't a bad idea.

I recall a post some month ago - or perhaps even a year? - where someone did just that. Very similar, if not idetical situation. The seller (poster) refused to accept the accuracy of the surveyor's valuation, declined to drop the price for 10 or 20 K, and in lieu, commissioned their own survey. Which came in just under their AP. A price they eventually achieved.

evansmummy, do a search on this forum under "undervaluing" or some such....and I'm sure you'll find it. Sorry, can't recall that OP posters name or the date.

Thanks a lot. That's great advice harrup. Might be worth parting with £400 for the £20k extra to achieve

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

evansmummy wrote: »

Thanks a lot. That's great advice harrup. Might be worth parting with £400 for the £20k extra to achieve

It's absolutely worth disputing and challenging undervaluations.

Deliberate undervaluing has become a well documented problem.

Property sales and remortgage deals are collapsing because some mortgage lenders and surveyors are deliberately undervaluing homes

This occurred regularly during the housing slump of the early 1990s and, the NAEA said, as a result of the uncertainty in today's market, valuers are once again "frightened".

Chief executive Peter Bolton King told the BBC: "They are perhaps worried about their professional indemnity insurance - they are thinking back to the 90s when surveyors were being sued by lenders for allegedly not getting the valuations right.

"They are perhaps worrying about the market and almost deliberatively knocking off 10% almost regardless of what the property sold for.

One homeowner, Theresa Timms, told the BBC she had had problems remortgaging her home in Bridgend.

"The bank sent their own valuer who valued it at £80,000, but I knew it was worth far more so I paid £300 to get it revalued," she said.

"The valuer came and said it was worth £100,000, but it was the same person that made the first valuation."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8191007.stm

A low valuation can be devastating for any homeowner searching for a good remortgage deal. It means the homebuyer's equity in their home is cut - with the result that many of the best remortgage offers are closed to them. As a result, families are being forced on to more expensive mortgage deals costing them hundreds of pounds extra each month.

The phenomenon has been created by banks and building societies using average mortgage valuations for your area or regional house price indices rather than proper, individual surveys.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1207495/New-mortgage-catch-rocks-homebuyers-Families-losing-deals-surveyors-undervalue-houses.html#ixzz1JuhkFCrb

There is a suspicion that it's in the interests of lenders to deliberately undervalue the house ie if it's true value is higher then their loan is that much safer.

Local surveyors are said to produce the most accurate valuations because they know their area intimately.

However, sadly, some mortgage lenders may insist on you using big firms of valuers, who they have a special arrangement with, and who cover large areas.

Besides being less personal - unlike the family business feeling that you're likely to get from a local surveyor - they're not as darn good!

They're also more likely to have a good old British "nod and a wink" agreement with their client - the mortgage lender - to deliberately undervalue the property.

http://www.mortgagesorter.co.uk/buying_home_valuations.html

motherofstudents

This happened to us, so I can sympathise. Our buyer made an offer 9k below the asking price which we were happy with and they were happy with, then their surveyor valued it at 9k less. The buyers were not able to carry on with the sale and we couldn't afford to drop the price so it fell through. We therefore lost the house we were hoping to buy. I did let them know as I didn't think it was fair not to. We said our offer was still there and if we got a buyer for ours we would still want to buy the house. It didn't happen quickly enough so we lost that house. A few months later we had another offer 6k below the previous one which we accepted as we had to look for another house so we could accept a lower offer. Again their valuation survey valued the house at the same price as the previous one. Luckily for us the buyers agreed to stick to their offer. I know it's awful at the time but now we are happy that it turned out for the best in the end. We had a low offer accepted on our next purchase and it is fine. Good luck, I hope it works out for the best for you.

Thrugelmir

evansmummy wrote: »

(2 houses on our street were unusually low in price due to being nearly derelict so he valued ours in the same region).

How long have they been on the market? What do you define as derelict?

Orpheo

evansmummy wrote: »

Thanks a lot. That's great advice harrup. Might be worth parting with £400 for the £20k extra to achieve

Might end up £20,400 down.

Let's assume your valuer values it at 20k more, it doesn't mean the lender's valuer will and if they don't the buyer may not be able to raise your funds. Even if you present the lender with your surveyors valuation, they will reject it and trust their own. They can't be forced to lend the money, they can decide not to for whatever reason they like, they're not even obliged to say why.

Hearing lots of stories about valuations lower than sellers expectations, not hearing any stories about them being successfully challenged.

Orpheo

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

It's absolutely worth disputing and challenging undervaluations.

Deliberate undervaluing has become a well documented problem.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8191007.stm



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1207495/New-mortgage-catch-rocks-homebuyers-Families-losing-deals-surveyors-undervalue-houses.html#ixzz1JuhkFCrb


http://www.mortgagesorter.co.uk/buying_home_valuations.html

There has been much impotent bleating of the VIs over lower than expected valuations.

There hasn't been any change though.