Low property valuation

Stevo_D

I have a Bank of Scotland mortgage. I am stuck with it because my income is now not sufficient for anyone else to offer me enough money. The Bank of Scotland valued my property at about £40,000 less than a local estate agent. In order to have it revalued, I had to pay £100 but wasn't allowed to use a local estate agency, but had to accept their own valuers. They increased the market value by about £8,000, but this is still well below what my bank would give me were they able to offer me the money. Is this legal?

ACG

Is it legal for them to value the property at less than an estate agent? Is that your question?

holly_hobby

Estate agents provide a market appraisal - which essentially means they merely give a figure of what they think the property could achieve on sale.

A RICS surveyor or valuer, gives professional opinion (inc request of specalist reports) on the condition and structual soundness of the property, and given so, what they consider a realistic market re-sale value. If instructed by the lender, they are assessing the property as to whether it is appropritate security for a mortgage, and its value under this assessment.

2 completely different types of "valuation" - to which a lender will always take the advice of a RICS surveyor, as oppossed to the opinion of an estate agent.

If you wished to challenge this further, you would need to provide recent (within last 6 mths) comparables of identical/very similar properties that have sold in your area, and even then the surveyor does not have to accept or review the provided sales data, or amend their own valuation of the property.

Hope this helps, if not exactly what you wanted to hear

Holly

Thrugelmir

How much do you believe the property to be worth? As the variance in valuation can be subjective in % terms.