Help!!! Suspect fraud in valuation

lynzpower

Helen

Could you please answer what FRAUD you believe to have occured.

dkny_2

Im sorry to hear you are struggling to keep up with payments of your mortgage.. have u tried explaining your current situation with the mortgage provider maybe they can help you? If u have tried this route how about speaking to someone about your finances and explain maybe how much u can oafford to pay back over the months?

I know it must be easier us just saying this, but i really believe you should speak with someone before u get yourself in a muddle, i know ure already in a muddle but i mean even worse of a muddle...

Regarding FRAUD - to be completely honest i dont think "fraud" is the right word to use as from what ive read it does not sound like fraud at all, the valuer was only trying to his job and for the mortgage provider...

Im sorry i havent got any positive advice, but it would help if you do speak to a proffesional..

Good luck in whatever u decide to do...

Im actually quite surprised you seem chuffed if your house is reposessed, they will still chase you for their money...

MissMotivation

Helen

Any person that owns a property and decides to sell it can put it up for sale at whatever price they like. A property is worth what someone will pay for it, you paid the price and were happy until you got into financial difficulties. You are now clutching at straws and ready to blame anyone from EA to Surveyor to Lender. The only person you should be looking at blaming is yourself, you didn't do your research and now you are paying the price.

Why would an EA or Surveyor put their jobs and personal reputation on the line for a small monetary gain?

Like Lynzpower I would be very interested to hear why you think some kind of Fraud has been committed???

dkny_2

magyar wrote:

Agreed. Helen, I know it's hard to hear, but we've all done it - you paid too much for something and unfortunately it's put you in financial problems.

Blaming yourself or anyone else isn't going to help. What will help is pragmatically looking at the problems and working out solutions. And you're in exactly the right place.

Totally agree, Helen have a look round the boards here, i am sure there will be loads of advice on them...

Good luck

benood

Sorry to hear about this Helen, obviously we can all have our view on whether you should have bought the place initially but that won't help you now.

My advice would be to call the solicitor who acted for you in the first place and he/she will be able to explain if you have any hope of making your charges stick, I fear the answer will be negative but at least this will help you to focus on what you can usefully do to resolve the problem of negative equity. If you bought the place for £250k in 2004 who's to say you won't find anyone in 2007 with the same view? Have you had the original estate agent in to give you a price - s/he will have to at least justify why they now think it's worth less than they originally had it on the market for.

Good luck.

moneysavinmonkey

Whilst i have sympathy for your plight, i don't think you should leap to
any conclusions, and i don't think you can claim 'fraud'

Have you considered all the possibilities?
some things not mentioned yet:

Did you do anything to the property in that time...

for example many things people commonly do to add value
can actually devalue your house.. things like bad pvcwindows/cconservatory, converting a bedroom into a study/gym, converting your garage, laminate flooring(!) etc.

you say you have had your house revalued..
did you get a few valuations.. maybe one is just wrong?

sorry to hear about your troubles with your mortgage repayments,
you should definately check out some of the other boards here.

moneysavinmonkey

another point is, now is a very bad time of year to sell as people aren't looking to move house over the holiday period.. perhaps the valuation took this into account and if you could hang on for a bit longer when the market picks up again in spring you may get a better figure?

... provided there hasn't been too many more interest rate rises!

bs0u0128

if asda have a loaf of bread, amongst all normal priced, on the shelf for £1000 and you buy it, who is at fault?????????????????????????

if your money hadnt become tight, would you have questioned the price?

silvercar

I wonder why it has been valued so much lower than you paid. Ok we seem to have established that you overpaid, but estate agents generally value on the high side to attract business. Any local EA will know what you paid and so would have given at least a similar valuation.

Is there some reason why it is not worth what you paid? Something unique to your immediate area? Or are you looking at a price-for-urgent-sale valuation?

I hope you have had 3 estate agents in to value the property, rather than relying on one. Plenty of advice on these boards, just ask!

Snow_Dog

Have you tried getting a valuation off the estate agent who sold you the property?

As silvercar mentioned its standard practice to get at least three EAs to value the property. If you've only got one and its the lowest then the highest maybe closer to the £250K mark (however thats still not to say you would necessarily get that for it).

If you get in the EA who sold you the property last and they value much lower than £250K you could ask them why, as you have now done your homework on nethouseprices etc you can see if the area has risen in the last two years and use this as ammunition in your discussion.

However as far as comeback is concerned I totally agree with most of the previous posts, anything is worth just what someone will pay, unfortunately you were that someone in this case, and the case for fraud would be very difficult to prove as you would have to prove that the valuer materially benefitted from misvaluing, or agreeing with the EA valuation when the property wasnt worth it.

About the only thing you might pull them up on is incompetance but as (again already been pointed out) the contract with the valuer was between them and the mortgage company (that is unless you contracted them for a full inspection and paid them money yourself).

Best of luck.