Discount given by new build houses

Megagack

I am a first time buyer and was offered a mortgage by Nationwide Building Society of X amount and went looking for houses. We found a new build and the builder offered us a 5% gift off the house price. The house was on sale for £244500 and with the discount it brought the price down to £232000. We had a £25000 deposit which is above a 10% threshold so we went to nationwide to get the mortgage which were told we could get as its below the 85% house value of £244500. We were told that in principal that every would be fine but we had to wait for them to arrange a house survey by Countrywide. We were then told that after the agent from countrywide had gone to the property and taken an average of house prices around the area and although in his opinion the house price was £244500 he reckoned that as there was a gift deposit of 5% given the house price should be £230000 having plucked a figure out of the air (Nationwide Managers comment) we are now having trouble getting the mortgage as the mortgage is now over the 85% threshold and need to find another £13000 to get it down to 85%. We were told that it is not Countrywides prerogative to take the gift deposit off the price of the house when doing the valuation. Please could anyone tell me what my next port of call is or can I take it to an ombudsman.

Thrugelmir

Megagack wrote: »

We were told that it is not Countrywides prerogative to take the gift deposit off the price of the house when doing the valuation. Please could anyone tell me what my next port of call is or can I take it to an ombudsman.

The Surveyor is working on behalf of the lender. So is quite rightly deducting the gifted deposit when arriving at a fair value for the property. As this is merely inflating the price that will be registered at the Land Registry. Bears no relation to the true value i.e. cash consideration.

There's no grounds for an ombudsman appeal. As the matter lies entirely with the lender as to how much they are prepared to advance.

dunstonh

Builders are well known for increasing the price of a new build to factor in the cost of discounts, carpets and fittings. New builds typically lose 10-15% instantly on purchase. In a stagnant market, you would expect a valuer to come in a bit lower than the builder price and gifted deposits are an area of abuse.

what my next port of call is or can I take it to an ombudsman.

There is no ombudsman that covers how much a house may or may not cost. It would not be logical for there to be one either.

BTW, I dont understand your poll