Shared ownership staircasing - disputing a valuation

jonas123

Hi all,

Not sure if anyone has any experience in this, but I'm thinking about staircasing my property to 100% and have had a valuation done. The valuation is £105,000 more than the value 2 years ago(!), but saying that, property prices in my area (Kensington and Chelsea) seem to be a bit random.

No similar flats have sold down my road, so the valuation is using examples of some Victorian terrace house compared to my 1999 new build...

My options are to accept the valuation, or appeal and get the District Valuation Office to do a valuation. That valuation will overrider initial one (independent RICS surveyor) and will be final, whether higher or lower.

Has anyone had any experience using the district valuation office, do they tend to over value / under value properties or will they just agree with RICS valuation?

Sorry - I understand it's a bit of a rare question, but not really sure what to do, and not sure who could give the best advice!

nickyg2000

Sorry I don't know the exact answer to your question. But round my way shared ownership property's seem to be heavily discounted verses property in the same development available on the open market. An example of this was a block of nine 2 bed flats all the same in everyway. The 4 shared ownership flats sold at a percentage of £215.000. The other 5 sold for £295.000.

cattie

I'd be rather wary of wanting a property in Kensington & Chelsea to have another valuation. I don't live in such a salubrious area, but even in my greater London suburb, I've noticed just an average ex local authority house has increased by at least £50k upwards in just a few short months.

Fully privately owned homes that struggled to sell for a penny over £250k about 12 months ago are now flying off the shelves at anywhere from £325k-£395k as if they were absolute bargains.

It's a mad market out there & rising daily.

lincroft1710

The District Valuer is part of the Valuation Office Agency and will value the property without bias to the best of their knowledge and ability. There is a possibility their figure may be the same as the initial valuation, but it could be higher or lower.

I'm ex VOA and although have never personally carried out such valuations, I have seen hundreds (thousands?) of RTB valuations over the years. It is impossible to predict the outcome of such a valuation in relation to the initial one.

So it's entirely up to you.

adrifor80

Hi Jonas, my husband and I are going through the same situation. We bought 30% of our flat in NW10 almost 4 years ago, when it had a market value of £277,500 and last week a FRICS valued it a whopping £460,000. We complained but without much luck, as the only thing the surveyor said was that these are the current prices in our area, and that without direct comparables he was force to compare our purpose-built flat in a block with period conversion flats. At first we were desperate...now we are hoping we can manage to ask for a new valuation since accidentally we found out that our neighbours, who owned a very similar property, had their flat valued two weeks before us by the same surveyors and their flat was valued £300,00. The following week they sold their shares at the exact price of the valuation. Talking about random prices!!! We let the surveyor know we got hold of this information, he sounded very surprised on the phone and we are hopeful that this will be somehow enough to make them reconsider our situation, as we now have one direct comparable. If someone has had any similar experience and can reassure me (or kill my hopes) please do!

jonas123

adrifor80 wrote: »

Hi Jonas, my husband and I are going through the same situation. We bought 30% of our flat in NW10 almost 4 years ago, when it had a market value of £277,500 and last week a FRICS valued it a whopping £460,000. We complained but without much luck, as the only thing the surveyor said was that these are the current prices in our area, and that without direct comparables he was force to compare our purpose-built flat in a block with period conversion flats. At first we were desperate...now we are hoping we can manage to ask for a new valuation since accidentally we found out that our neighbours, who owned a very similar property, had their flat valued two weeks before us by the same surveyors and their flat was valued £300,00. The following week they sold their shares at the exact price of the valuation. Talking about random prices!!! We let the surveyor know we got hold of this information, he sounded very surprised on the phone and we are hopeful that this will be somehow enough to make them reconsider our situation, as we now have one direct comparable. If someone has had any similar experience and can reassure me (or kill my hopes) please do!

Slightly worrying that someone wanting to sell their share had a much lower valuation than someone wanting to staircase! Hopefully the surveyors aren't instructed to value to property differently in each situation (a bit of my paranoia shining through)

Jenniefour

cattie wrote: »

I'd be rather wary of wanting a property in Kensington & Chelsea to have another valuation. I don't live in such a salubrious area, but even in my greater London suburb, I've noticed just an average ex local authority house has increased by at least £50k upwards in just a few short months.

Fully privately owned homes that struggled to sell for a penny over £250k about 12 months ago are now flying off the shelves at anywhere from £325k-£395k as if they were absolute bargains.

It's a mad market out there & rising daily.

I agree with exercising a bit of caution on getting another valuation in Kensington and Chelsea. What you could do is pop into a couple of local agents and run it by them. Unless you've got the tiniest studio/one bed then an uplift of 105k in two years sounds, quite frankly, reasonable to me.

Mokka

I have applied to the VOA for revaluation and had mine (RTB) reduced. However the prices in London have gone bonkers.
Any way of finding a similar, comparable flat that sold recently? I got 3 estate agents to value my flat and they gave me wildly different prices.
If you don't know recent sold prices you are risking that the revaluation might be higher (it is final and you and the landlord have to accept it)

colindkavanagh

I've just sold my shared ownership flat in central London. The valuations received by by neighbours differed by £150k with different surveyors. Our valuation was at the higher end and it turned out to be accurate as we sold in line with the valuation. It worked out £200k higher than the original price we paid four years ago or approx 50%. Two other flats on our floor sold for around the same price. It might be worth checking if any neighbouring flats have sold and what they sold for. If you can find some that sold lower you would have a case.

CKhalvashi

Prices in London have gone mad in the last 12 months IMO.

We sold a property in Acton, in 2007 for £775000, which then sold again in 2012 for £725000, and has just sold for the third time at £10 under £1m (it's now showing on land registry), so frankly, nothing surprises me anymore. This is a 4 bed terraced.

I'm happier outside of London, even if it does involve taking a £250k net hit.

CK

Stan11

Good morning, first post so don't bite!

I've been in my shared ownership house with my wife for the past 3 years and own 30% and pay rent on the 70%.

It was my understanding that I couldn't 'staircase' straight up to 100% which I would like to do so I own the house.

Could anyone confirm that?

Being a new build in terms of value going forward, now I have a good deposit, would it worth me just buying elsewhere myself?

Any help or thoughts would be much appreciated.