something dodgys going on? declined on valuation-japanese knotweed

Jimbo1976

The surveyor's job is basically twofold. They need to tell the lender 1) is it worth what you are paying for it? 2) Is something going to happen to it that will affect the value?

If the surveyor has concerns about an aspect of the property eg cracks/movement or japanese knotweed, they should recommend that you obtain a more detailed report from a professional firm. Once they have that report in their hands, they can decide whether or not the property is suitable security.

It sounds like the local surveyor is out of his depth. Call the Colleys 0845 602 2222 and explain that you would like to speak to the local managing surveyor to discuss a complaint.

It sounds like you will need to pay for additional reports, but hopefully the specialist surveyor who you were going to use for the buildings survey will be acceptable to look at the structural issues.

wannahouse

thankyou jimbo..thats what we thought would happen, but he's trying to shut it down even BEFORE we get a specialist in to look at it further!

even just the land that house it sitting on is worth way more to buy as a building plot than what we will be paying for the whole thing!!!
its so annoying, and it seems like the whole system is set up to reserve all the good homes for people with the cash lying around upfront, and the rest of us just have to buy some tiny overpriced shoebox for the same money, as we can't afford to buy cash upfront!!

we have the income to throw at doing it up each year,but not to buy upfront for cash...
wecan access enough money to do necessary works to make it completely stable and safe to mortgage, it just not going to look pretty, but we need to get that surveyor out to assess it fully to make sure that it is worth throwing the cash at first..or we walk away, but this bloke isn't even reporting "further enquiries needed" just..look for another home...

Thrugelmir

Jimbo1976 wrote: »

It sounds like the local surveyor is out of his depth. Call the Colleys 0845 602 2222 and explain that you would like to speak to the local managing surveyor to discuss a complaint.

Surveyor is agent of the bank. Has no responsibility to the purchaser.

Jimbo1976

The purchaser has "paid" for the survey the surveyor has produced therefore there is an expecation of competence of the individual that the lender has appointed to do the job.

If the surveyor is unable to follow the RICS framework for objectively assessing and reporting the risk posed to a property by the presence of Japanese Knotweed, then that seems like grounds for a complaint to me.

RICS Code of conduct

Competence
4. Members shall carry out their professional work with due skill, care and diligence and with proper regard for the technical standards expected of them.

Thrugelmir

GMS wrote: »

The lender will accept whichever valuation they choose to instruct. Almost all are basic valuations with any recommendations for specialist reports being followed up as necessary.

Which reinforces my point. A basic valuation is not suitable for a Grade 2 listed building. As without the appropriate level of expertise a surveyor is not going to commit to any value. One suspects that this is what was relayed back to the bank. At 85% LTV there is simply too much uncertainty.

wannahouse

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Which reinforces my point. A basic valuation is not suitable for a Grade 2 listed building. As without the appropriate level of expertise a surveyor is not going to commit to any value. One suspects that this is what was relayed back to the bank. At 85% LTV there is simply too much uncertainty.

we didn't have any choice but to have the basic valuation done first though!
they said that was the procedure..basic valuation done, he would value it most likely at zero, due to issues, with an expected value of x given upon addressing of those issues.
after the valuation the full surveys would be done on the issues required.

we paid for the valuation as asked to upon our application being submitted , being also informed that after that, we would be expected to pay for a full structural survey and specialist reports, looking into any issues the valuer flagged ,but that we could choose the specialists to do it, provided they had the qualifications specified on the valuation report...

but the valuation was done, and that was that..the valuer said no way, and didn't even ask for any further investigations.just said that it would be recommended for a flat out decline due to the phantom "not knotweed"(as its now called in our household)...doesn't matter if all the other problems are rectified, the knotweed has killed our chances..BUT THERE ISN'T ANY!!!

anyway, we have a specialist noxious weed guy coming out tommorrow to do a full paid survey of the site, and spend the whole morning laughing about the ridiculousness of it all with us, that is- until we have to pay out our hard earned money at the end of it to prove the valuer either seriously has no idea about which weed is which, or that he is telling porky pies to get rid of the case!

once we have established the ridiculousness on the "not japanese and not knotweed" part of the valuation, by an indemnified professional, hopefully that will be set aside, and we can get the full survey guy in to do his job...who has been waiting a month now to get in there and do it, due to all this mucking around on the valuers part!

it would have been great if we could have missed doing the first valuation, as that cost £500 for a big fat nothing, and we still have to pay the flaming knotweed guy now, as well as another grand for the historic and listed building guy to do his full survey!!!

i'll let you know tomorrow afternoon,about the weed survey!

Simon_gloster

The first paragraph us factually incorrect. 3 levels of valuations are offered and it's up to you to decide which one you choose.

Your getting confused with the lender required a minimum if a basic valuation for lending purposes to offer the case.

If it transpires nothing is present, getting the senior valuer to override a valuation already can easily take 2-4 weeks. As for the timescales you have been warned.

bigadaj

Fundamentally is a lender going to lend what you need at 85% ltv on a property that needs much work. In most circumstances given current lending criteria then no, the points raised are irrelevant if the bank isn't confident of the level of security offered.

Worst case is default and repossession, in which case the lender would have a house needing much work, which would go to auction, and consequently sell for significant,y less than a normal sale price.

This doesn't look like a goer unless you can raise more of a deposit, ultimately the lender needs to be confident of the value and security and it doesn't look like they are, no one can force them to lend.

wannahouse

Simon_gloster wrote: »

The first paragraph us factually incorrect. 3 levels of valuations are offered and it's up to you to decide which one you choose.

Your getting confused with the lender required a minimum if a basic valuation for lending purposes to offer the case.

If it transpires nothing is present, getting the senior valuer to override a valuation already can easily take 2-4 weeks. As for the timescales you have been warned.

i'm not getting confused at all...

we have always planned to have the structural survey done, but we HAD to have this valuation done for lloyds by the colleys guy first.
we would have loved only to have paid one person £1000 to do the whole thing, rather than to pay the lloyds appointed surveyor from colleys £500, and then our guy another £1000...

but this is what lloyds required.
believe me, if we didn't have to pay twice,we certainly wouldn't have!!! but i certainly wouldn't have paid for this clown that did the valuation extra, to do a full building survey on a regency house!

wannahouse

bigadaj wrote: »

Fundamentally is a lender going to lend what you need at 85% ltv on a property that needs much work. In most circumstances given current lending criteria then no, the points raised are irrelevant if the bank isn't confident of the level of security offered.

Worst case is default and repossession, in which case the lender would have a house needing much work, which would go to auction, and consequently sell for significant,y less than a normal sale price.

This doesn't look like a goer unless you can raise more of a deposit, ultimately the lender needs to be confident of the value and security and it doesn't look like they are, no one can force them to lend.

BUT you're forgetting (or didn't read) that we have agreed will be doing some works on the house btwn exchange and completion,as required after the full survey, to make it satisfactory to the lender, and the mortgage adviser has just had another customer do the same, in order to get the finance, and in her case, it was 7 mths btwn exchange and completion.
once the works were done, the surveyor came back to check all was satisfactorily done, and then she got the mortgage offer...

its not the standard thing everyone does, but it can be done, if the vendor is cooperative, and the purchaser is willing to do the works the lender has specified, in order to lend...

we know lloyds will do it, as it has happened and our in branch advisor, who covers all the branches in this region, has had similar cases, the only difference being with our case, that the surveyor seems to be setting up a road block, with this japanese knotweed saga!

if not for this palava, we would have had access to the report, so the listed buildings surveyor can go in an do his thing, after which, we could start the works and get it up to their lending criteria...

time it takes, is the time it takes.. the vendor is fine.. we just want to keep the process trotting along!

but tomorrow, the surveyor can hopefully get egg on his face when his little knotweed story is debunked by the specialist!