Valuation Fee

crazygoog

If you are not happy with the valuation fee of the lender, can you back out of the mortgage?

I paid £84k for my house almost 4 years ago, but spent a lot of money doing the place up. I have recently had 3 local estate agents come and value my house, ranging from 95k to 110k. I am on the lookout for a new 5 year fix but don't want the new lender to just do a drive by valuation as they may consider it to still be the 84k we paid. Should I find the best deal I can, then start the ball rolling with them, but back out if I'm not happy with their valuation? Is that possible? Sorry for being a noob.

kingstreet

Most lenders offer a free valuation, so your only potential loss may be a superfluous credit search.

holly_hobby

Its important to understand that your renovations (depdending whats been done), may not actually add £1,000's to the original valuation (unless you got it very cheap and it was very dated, without modern conveniences), the likes of redecorating, landscaping of garden etc, wouldn't really add a huge amount.

Things that would have an impact on improving the valuation from the orignal pch price (apart from general market movements) would be such things, extension/addition of living space/ bedrooms, installation of such things as ..central heating, double glazing, modern good quality fitted kitchen & bathroom, etc.

Don't forget the property type and area will have a ceiling, which may also cap things, of course celings can be broken, but only where the refinements are of really top spec and set your property head and shoulders above anything else thats recnently sold or is available for sale .....

I would have a look round your area for similar properties and specifications to what you now have, that have recently sold (last 6 mths), this will give you an idea on how the surveyor will view.

When you submit your application, you must make it clear that you want to decline a desktop or drive by valuation, and instead request an attended valuation instead (where you will have to pay the valuation fee, even on a fee free deal), explaining why you believe this is necessary ie due to the internal refurb etc.

Of course, even with an attended valuation the assessment may not meet what you believe, or the estate agents apprasial figure for sale - which is based on what they believe it may/could sell for, not what it is actually worth for mortgage purposes (which is the surveyors angle on behalf of the lender).

You may want to engage a mge broker to assist with this and sourcing the most suitable product/lender for your requirements.

Of course if you keep withdrawing, even with free surveys, you will soon leave a trail of credit checks on your record, which will start to make future applications a bit difficult ... so tread carefully and do your research ..

Hope this helps

Holly

crazygoog

Thank you both very much.

crazygoog

I was going to post a similar question again as I forgot I had posted this. But I'll just bump this one again instead, but re-word my initial post:

Should I get my current lender to value my property when remortgaging? I ask because the house i'm in was bought for £84k, but having had numerous renovations (new kitchen, bathroom, boiler, entirely re plastered, and rewired) it should now be worth over £90k, in line with other similar properties recently sold in the area. My lender would do a drive-by valuation free, but that wouldn't affect anything. So I would have to pay £280 for a revaluation. Should I do it in order to get a better LTV?

holly_hobby

If you have an attended valuation, yes you will have to pay for it.

So, if that means you initially have a drive by/desktop (on a fee free to try and avoid it) , and if it doesn't come back with the reqd value, you then ask for an attended survey - that would be your choice with the incurement of hte fee.

Although there is of course no cast iron gte that even on an attended, the surveyor will value the property to your requirements - it'll be very much a suck and see exercise I'm afraid - but the addition of a kitchen and modern bathroom should help !

Hope this helps

Holly

crazygoog

Oh, so I could have the drive-by initially, then say I want to pay for an attended one if i'm not happy, and they would then base their valuation on this instead?

Always learning on this forum thanks to help like yours, thank you very much.

holly_hobby

Ordinarilly yes, if you can provide good tangible reasons why an internal inspection will make a significant difference to the valuers assessment and comments based on their DB/desktop valuation.

As I say though, an attended valuation may still not give you the result you want, so its important to be realistic.

Hope this helps

Holly

crazygoog

Thank you very much @holly hobby for all your input. You've given me food for thought!