Valuation survey from a seller's perspective

thebeard2002

We are going through the process of selling our house - having been there 14 years it should be a surprise but isn't that the whole process is still the same completely dispiriting affair that it was previously. I have resigned myself to the fact that I may as well withdraw large sums of money out of the bank, put it in the corner of the room and set fire to it, while inviting surveyors, solicitors and estate agents to kick me.

Anyway, today it's the surveyor's turn...
The house was originally marketed at 385k, and got a couple of people interested. After various negotiations, the house sale price from buyer 1 was rejected at 345k, because around the same time I received an offer at 355k from buyer 2 with a more complicated chain. Buyer 1 then offered and was accepted at 355k. This has allowed me to put an offer in on another house which has been accepted at the absolute maximum of my finances and at the seller's lowest acceptable price. Buyer 1 has borrowed the extra 10k from a relative to get the offer up to 355k. I am not sure that buyer 2 is still in the market.
The house next door, which is identical to mine, sold at 366k last year and house prices in the area have been broadly flat since then, so 355k seems a reasonable amount.

The surveyor from buyer's bank did a basic valuation on the house. I was in the house at the time. The surveyor spent a maximum of 10 minutes between arriving and leaving, of which 2 minutes was chatting with me and 5 minutes in the garden.

The valuation has come back at 345k. Given the previous offer at 345k, the cursory nature of the survey, the price of next door and, most importantly, a comment from my estate agent about something that was written on the surveyor's form, I very strongly suspect clerical error (i.e. the surveyor valued the house against an bank instruction of 345k rather than 355k - there is no way that he would value it at 355k under those circumstances).

There is no reason for the house to be specifically at 345k - 30 seconds in each room of a house is not long enough to identify precisely 10k of remedial work, and there isn't 10k of remedial work to do. I could believe 300k (if there was something fundamentally wrong), but it does not seem worth the surveyor coming up with a different valuation from the sale price for the sake of 10k, especially since the additional 10k is not being borrowed from the bank.

My estate agent has suggested that neither the surveyor nor the bank is going to admit to error, and that I am not allowed to see the survey document. The buyer, who until yesterday was happy to pay 355k now wants to re-negotiate down by 10k. I will now lose my proposed purchase because someone at the bank has written the wrong figure in a form and as a result, the surveyor has valued the house at what he incorrectly believed to be the purchase price.

Can anyone think of a way out other than to hold my position? I can't think of anything else that would resolve this other than seeing the original survey document and pointing out the error - an independent survey would be meaningless.
Thanks in advance for any help and advice you may have.

kingstreet

I would not consider knocking a penny off the price of my property without being given a copy of the valuer's report on which I'm expected to rely.

A valuer's report normally has the agreed price printed on the top prior to the inspection, together with a current value figure and a value after essential repairs figure at the bottom after it.

In addition, essential repairs and future maintenace issues will normally be noted.

It should contain the information you need to confirm your suspicions. As you have guessed, if your buyer has said £345k is the agreed price on their mortgage application, the surveyor would have that figure printed on their instructions and would not value it at more than that.

I am not allowed to see the survey document

There is no legal reason why you shouldn't be able to see it and I would insist. Otherwise, insist your agent be allowed to view it and ask them to note specific information on your behalf when they have access.

thebeard2002

Many thanks, Kingstreet. It did strike me as an odd position to be in that I couldn't see the survey document, but my Estate Agent was adamant that that was the case.

kingstreet

Sometimes, in their haste to get sales through, agents sometimes forget whose interests they are supposed to represent. Ask them if they've seen it for themselves, or are they simply repeating what they've been told.

G_M

You have no right to see the valuation, in the sense that you can demand it, but you have the right to see it if the owner of the report (the bank and in some cases the buyer) chooses to show you.

By refusing to negotiate on price until you've been shown it, the onus is then on the other side to decide whether to show you, pay the full price, or walk away.

poppysarah

14 years ago you paid a lot less for the property - how vital is this 10k?

Is this 10k worth messing up a sale for?

What % profit is it?

Doozergirl

poppysarah wrote: »

14 years ago you paid a lot less for the property - how vital is this 10k?

Is this 10k worth messing up a sale for?

What % profit is it?

You don't realise a profit until you sell up good and proper. The OP is trading up, the next house is more expensive and they've already said, at the top of their own budget.

It's absolutely true that if the buyer applied on the basis of £345k that the surveyor would not value higher. I wouldn't have even considered that some might do it deliberately!

Orpheo

Your house is worth 345k.

evansmummy

I went through this same process a month ago which resulted in an undervaluation of 19k to the price agreed.
I spoke to an independant valuer who gave me an insight into the process. He said it was pointless getting an independant valuation as the lender don't have any reason to take that unless thare is over a 30%ish difference.
He said all valuers have been strongly advised by lenders to undervalue where as in the boom they were asked to do the opposite as they lenders were desperate to lend as much as physically possible. He also said that valuers are in a nervous situation as they are liable for discrepancies up to six years after that fact and lenders and buyers have the ability to sue them.
I asked if there was anyway around this fact and he basically said not really.
It's a ludicrous situation that banks are stalling the whole housing market as the chains can't progress due to them strong-arming valuers to their advantage.
I have a new buyer and am waiting for the next round of battling to begin, hopefully the valuer isn't from countrywide!!

john_white

evansmummy wrote: »

I went through this same process a month ago which resulted in an undervaluation of 19k to the price agreed.
I spoke to an independant valuer who gave me an insight into the process. He said it was pointless getting an independant valuation as the lender don't have any reason to take that unless thare is over a 30%ish difference.
He said all valuers have been strongly advised by lenders to undervalue where as in the boom they were asked to do the opposite as they lenders were desperate to lend as much as physically possible. He also said that valuers are in a nervous situation as they are liable for discrepancies up to six years after that fact and lenders and buyers have the ability to sue them.
I asked if there was anyway around this fact and he basically said not really.
It's a ludicrous situation that banks are stalling the whole housing market as the chains can't progress due to them strong-arming valuers to their advantage.
I have a new buyer and am waiting for the next round of battling to begin, hopefully the valuer isn't from countrywide!!

That's not quite what the OP is saying.

When applying for a mortgage one question is what is the purchase price. It's possible you could say any amount, in this case it seems that the buyer said the purchase price was 345k not 355k as agreed. Therefore when valued, the surveyor has said yes 345k as they do not value over the 'purchase price'.

To be fair the buyer could have made a genuine mistake but ultimately, even if they went back and said they had the wrong price it's unlikely the lender will change the valuation.

Could also be a very shrewd move and saved themselves 10k. Either way looks like a problem for the OP.

CloudCuckooLand

When buying last year (admittedly without needing a mortgage so no lender instructing the surveyor) I appointed an independent surveyor for my own piece of mind...declined to tell them the exact figure, just said "under £x".

Back comes the report, with the exact figure, down to the £500 on the end...

Why did the OP surveyor not conflab with the EA over the price, as mine obviously did ?

As for wanting to see the report. As a buyer, if I wanted to get a reduction I'd show you the relevant sections on remedial works. Wouldn't expect to get it down, without doing so.