House down-valued - options?

RoxieW

I received the dreaded phonecall yesterday that our house has been downvalued on the survey from £140k to £115k.

It seems to me that the surveyor has compared sold prices of two bed smaller properties as, on our street, there are only 2 of the larger 3 beds but the houses look the same from the outside. (Although there were no comparables given).

Either that or he has directly compared us with next door - also a 3 bed. That sold in Dec 2010 for 115k. However, that house had to be completely renovated on purchase by the new owners whereas our has recently been renovated with new kitchen/bathroom/boiler/flooring/tiling/etc etc.

What are our options here? I've provided a list of comparables and evidence to the EA to pass on the our buyer. Can it be disputed? Any other options?

If may be that the house that we are buying is also downvalued as we are buying through the same agent that we are selling through, but we havent had that survey back.

Any advice please - and do be gentle, it's been a rough few days.

Thank

kingstreet

You can do nothing about this.

Presumably this was a report carried out for your purchaser or their mortgage lender.

They can ask for details of the comparables used to reach this valuation and for the surveyor to reconsider if the properties used were not actually comparable.

RoxieW

thank you for replying.

notanewuser

It's actually up to your buyers what happens next. If you aren't prepared to accept the revised price, but they still want the house they can either find the difference in cash, or try to persuade the surveyor that the house is worth more (and provide proof).

This happened with some friends. The house was undervalued by £40k and the surveyor wouldn't budge. They found the cash and bought anyway, but they could just as easily have walked away.

RoxieW

Thank you. We would be happy to meet somewhere in the middle if they were. I think that she can plainly see that it has been downvalued. I know most in our situation would say that but I genuinely feel that on evidence it has been.

kingstreet

Other than the challenge to the surveyor appointed by the current lender, the purchaser could consider applying for a mortgage elsewhere. This may yield a new valuation by a different surveyor.

However, caution should be employed, because many lenders use the same surveyors, Countrywide, Esurv or Allied and it's not impossible the same surveyor could be asked to value again.

CrazyChick80

When we put in an offer for the house we now live in, the sellers were happy with our offer & it was accepted. However, once the valuation came in from our mortgage lender, the surveyor knocked £15k off the market asking price, & our offer was near the top end. Quite a shock for the vendor, but the surveyor wouldn't budge.

There was nothing wrong with the house, they just based the value on previous house prices in the street over the last year or 2. Apparently that's how many of them work it these days, so the EA are giving you false hope in some ways.

We offered sellers £5k more than the valuation as we had a decent deposit saved & could offer that little bit more, & thankfully they accepted as they wanted a quick sale. But they had to get their mortgage revised for their new house they were buying due to the valuation shortfall. It can have a knock-on effect to others in the chain.

It's good news for buyers but not so good for the vendors. It's a catch 22 situation really and only you can decide what the next step is when the options & offers are placed in your court.
Hope all works out for you.