Undervaluation by Abbey Bank/Santander!!

SusieT

May be worth having someone double checking with Abbey that a mistake has not been made, if the valuer said no problems its possible although rare that a transposition error was made on the paperwork and £45k was put instead of £54k and (if I am right) he would not value at more than the expected purchase price.

townmouse53

MacMickster wrote: »

So a 25% share in another similar flat was valued at more than double the asking price for your 25% share. Really?

Not quite. The exact same layout flat. Their 25% share was valued at £59,000 while my 25% share was valued at £45,000 - £14,000 less.

Their 100% share was valued at £236,000 and my 100% share was valued at £180,000 - £56,000 less.

Only differences? I am the penthouse flat with sea views from each room. Theirs faces into an alley and has no view other than the houses across the way. And mine contains 1 disabled person.

townmouse53

shortchanged wrote: »

Estate agent valuations are always going to be higher than a surveyors valuation. So for mortgage reasons unfortunately they will go by the surveyors valuation.

Almost everyone will over value their own house, and yes I have done it myself.

I could understand it if all 4 different estate agencies had given much lower valuations and I had ignored all of them, deciding to be greedy. Instead, I took the lower of their valuations into account when listing and accepting an offer on the flat.

Also - I had to have a completely separate, independent valuation performed by an appraiser listed with the Royal Chartered Institute of Surveyors before my Housing Association would allow me to set the sales price of my property. So I am pretty sure my flat is worth every pence of the £54,000 sales price and then some.

townmouse53

Thank you Susie! I have called my estate agent and my mortgage advisor and told them to query whether the Abbey appraiser made a transposition error by mistake. They state my buyer is still set on purchasing the flat since they have seen my independent RICS appraisal, they know the flat is worth more than their asking price. Fingers crossed this still goes through.

kingstreet

I believe Susie is on the right lines here.

Due to the nature of the lender valuation model, it's quite possible the purchase price given on the valuation form given to the surveyor was £45,000 not £54,000.

The surveyor has inspected the property and simply agreed with the figure given on the form as that is what he's expected to do. Nothing more, nothing less.

We had another similar case on here not so long ago where the surveyor was given the wrong purchase price and he simply went along with it.

The error was rectified and the case proceeded normally from then.

Someone needs to speak to the buyer's adviser.

Trollfever

Could it be that Santander don't want to expand their shared ownership mortgage book?

townmouse53

Just an update - my mortgage advisor is suddenly "in appointments" every time I call and doesn't call back but the clerk let slip my buyer was in the estate agency yesterday. I don't quite trust the estate agent anymore, as a previously accepted offer had them turning away potential buyers for my flat when they knew my alleged buyer was already negotiating on a different flat in my building, only telling me she'd "changed her mind" after that offer had been accepted. (They also told me a flat I had an accepted offer on had been taken off the market but I see its now marked "sold" on Rightmove.) :mad:

I have a feeling my buyer is now looking to purchase something else but the estate agency is delaying telling me until after the new offer is fully accepted. I just want to know, as if my buyer is walking, I want to pull my flat off the market and be done with this whole mess. I thought my estate agent was supposed to look out for MY interests, as I'm the one paying them. Is it normal for the estate agency to look out for the BUYER first and the SELLER when they can be bothered??

Also - I've heard from everyone I talk to about this that Abbey/Santander are notorious for undervaluing houses. FYI.

puddy

i feel for the OP but again this is another reason to leave shared ownership and all the other part buy schemes well alone

abankerbutnotafatcat

Fingers crossed OP - it does seem to be an error (given the valuations and the other flat sale that if anything is inferior) rather than an undervalue and it is surprisingly easily done. You are right, your EA should have picked up on the mistake and demonstrated the true value to the surveyor, this happened to me once.

I wonder - is the EA's % income based on the 25% rather than the full 100%?? If that's the case you are probably not a very valuable customer to them and they are perhaps not offering you as good a service as they might otherwise - sad but true.

Flee_2

townmouse53 wrote: »

Also - I've heard from everyone I talk to about this that Abbey/Santander are notorious for undervaluing houses. FYI.

I am currently going through a divorce and hoping to get paid out for the equity for the shared property. Santander are the mortgage providers and I think they will undervalue the property to keep the mortgage holder (my ex) a customer. They quoted the property as being £20k cheaper than it actually is.

Oh and good luck with your fight. I hope it works out for your benefit.