Lea valley homes

Benenhausen

First post. Hopefully i explain this well enough.

Lea valley homes own 15% of my home as part of a government-led homebuy scheme. They put £26,500 into my home when I bought it and I can buy them out at any point, adding 15% from any price increase/profit the house may have made - it was bought for £172,500 five years ago.

Time having moved on I'm ready to buy them out and told them so.

Their procedure was to send a RICS surveyor round to get a current valuation on my property, I have paid them £200 for this to take place. The valuation came in at £227,500 and lea valley sent me a formal letter with a final balance of what I owe them(£34,500), valid for 3 months.

All fine until I proceeded with my remortgage with a view to borrowing the money to buy them out.
The mortgage company as per normal sent their own surveyor round so they can get a valuation of my house prior to sending me my mortgage offer.

This 2nd valuation came in at £22,500 more than the lea valley valuation - £250,000.

lea valley have said they will be revising their figures and "going with" the higher valuation.

This involves them totally ignoring their own valuation and final balance and will end up asking me for approximately £3,500 more than what they initially asked for!!! £38,000 now, where it was £34,500 before!

I take issue with this because:

I see it as an abuse of process.
My dealings with my mortgage company has no connection with their request of a final balance. If I was paying the final balance to lea valley through means other than a remortgage then they wouldn't be in a position to ask me for anymore money, I.e. If I was using savings, etc to complete the buyout. So how and why are they penalising me???
A valuation from MY mortgage company, however different to their valuation, is an opinion. It shouldn't mean they can just jump in on the nice high valuation and therefore take more money off the back of it!!!

Anyone see grounds for complaint/negotiation?

If any detail is lacking please ask me a question.

Hope you can help.

Thanks

Benenhausen

CKhalvashi

If they've given you an offer for 3 months, that offer should be proceeded with.

It shouldn't matter that the lender is willing to offer more for the property.

CK

kingstreet

Once you've purchased, responsibility for post-sale issues should be handled by Housing Options Plus, not by the original HomeBuy Agent.

Check the procedure for staircasing based on the scheme you used here;-

http://www.myfirsthome.org.uk/

and make sure they are being followed.