Down valuation on Taylor Wimpey Property

housebuyer1000

Hello,

I thought I'd share my Taylor Wimpey house purchase experiences, and see if anyone have similar experiences/advice to give? My wife and I recently made a offer on a property that's part of the Barns development in Andover. This was accepted and we reserved the property, paying the usual £1,000 fee. We have just exchanged contracts on our existing property, but we're still in the fixed term period with our existing mortgage company. We therefore wanted to port our existing mortgage to the new property. We were told my the mortgage company this wouldn't be a problem. Sadly, when it came time to perform the valuation, the report came back £35,000 less than the purchase price. We were told by Taylor Wimpey that the price was correct and it was the mortgage company that was wrong. They refused to drop the asking price by more than £2K, and advised us to find a new mortgage using their IFA. We decided we wanted the property, and would therefore be willing to lose the redemption charge on our existing mortgage. Sadly this hasn't worked out, once again the valuation has come back with exactly the same valuation as our original valuation. I have now spoken to Taylor Wimpey, it does't look as though they're going to change the asking price. Does anyone have any experiences of thoughts on this kind of issues?

dawyldthing

there just in a bubble and trying to get the higher price. either get them down by the 35k or walk

jimpix12

Look for reviews on Taylor Wimpey Homes or their previous names, there are many negative ones around!

Dpc_2

Was it the same surveyor?
If so very unlikely the valuation would be changed with a new mortgage, don't read too much into it.

Why are taylor wimpy so sure on price, have others moved in / got mortgages?
If it is a new site then the company may be holding out for more money, may be worth looking elsewhere, if you can't afford what they want. If others have got mortgages at a similar level then you should challenge the valuation, a survey is only an opinion after all. No new home company will accept a low valuation if they can help it as it will set a precident on the site.
To challenge valuation speak to your broker.

Good luck.

badaz52

spunko2010 wrote: »

Look for reviews on Taylor Wimpey Homes or their previous names, there are many negative ones around!

There are many negative ones for different reasons. Negative reviews with regards to build quality isn't a fair judgement IMO as TW use contractors depending on where the site is based. Each site is different.

We PX'ed with them and I would never advise PXing again, TW were extremely pushy for the entire procedure.

If you do a search for developers reviews you will notice that most if not all of the developers in this country have negative reviews, people just aren't happy with new builds as a lot cannot accept that there will be teething problems, drying out, cracks appearing etc. Do your homework on new builds and proceed if happy don't listen to the reviews though!

With regards to the mortgage valuation, ours was a little iffy too. We were purchasing at £199,995 the full price and the mortgage valuation said its worth £199,995, but also hinted that properties in the area were worth between £180,000 and £200,000 just to cover themselves, our next door neighbour paid just over £180,000 for exactly the same house.

It does seem though that many of the negative reviews with new builds is over the price and on that point, I would have to agree. New builds don't seem to be governed by market data as there isn't any for the site, all the builder looks at is general house prices in the area and adds 10-20% onto that. Our site isn't finished yet but at least 2 out of 8 owners negotiated about 8% off the asking price but the rest of us paid full price. It seems a little unjust and for that reason I'm not sure if I would buy a new build again. If I do I will make sure that I rent or don't PX so I'm in a better position at least!

jimpix12

badaz52 wrote: »

There are many negative ones for different reasons. Negative reviews with regards to build quality isn't a fair judgement IMO as TW use contractors depending on where the site is based. Each site is different.

We PX'ed with them and I would never advise PXing again, TW were extremely pushy for the entire procedure.

If you do a search for developers reviews you will notice that most if not all of the developers in this country have negative reviews, people just aren't happy with new builds as a lot cannot accept that there will be teething problems, drying out, cracks appearing etc. Do your homework on new builds and proceed if happy don't listen to the reviews though!

With regards to the mortgage valuation, ours was a little iffy too. We were purchasing at £199,995 the full price and the mortgage valuation said its worth £199,995, but also hinted that properties in the area were worth between £180,000 and £200,000 just to cover themselves, our next door neighbour paid just over £180,000 for exactly the same house.

It does seem though that many of the negative reviews with new builds is over the price and on that point, I would have to agree. New builds don't seem to be governed by market data as there isn't any for the site, all the builder looks at is general house prices in the area and adds 10-20% onto that. Our site isn't finished yet but at least 2 out of 8 owners negotiated about 8% off the asking price but the rest of us paid full price. It seems a little unjust and for that reason I'm not sure if I would buy a new build again. If I do I will make sure that I rent or don't PX so I'm in a better position at least!

Yes, larger housebuilders use different contractors, which is why I would only consider a local housebuilder who doesn't (generally).

If you disregard that argument there are still many reasons to avoid TW, namely their apparent complete lack of effort after they have your money.

badaz52

In our case a complete lack of effort once we had agreed to PX. Our new house was 3 months away, property was already on the market at £165,000 plenty of viewings over almost a year but no firm offers. TW offered £140,000 we accepted and TW contacted our EA and instructed the EA to market the property at £140,000 for the next three months. I wasn't happy about it or consulted. I never gave my authorisation either to start marketing at the price I agreed to sell to them for. As it happens it was sold to one of the original viewers the day after we moved out. TW were not obliged to tell us they had a buyer even before they owned it as it would mean us re-negotiating on price. So we got a bad deal and IMO were mislead so I would agree with you on the way they conduct business in doing the "right" thing not just for them but for the buyer too.

We have a complaint with TPO about the EAs involvement and once I have seen that through TW will be notified too.

TW are very stubborn though and early warning signs on how you may be treated are there the minute you mention price or freebies. It's the sales staff they are on commision and can negotiate but most simply say "they can't" when in actual fact they can within a certain %.