Halifax further lending for reroofing

ed110220

OK so I've had some advice from an unusually helpful estate agent (bearing in mind there was no immediate financial incentive for him, just that if we ever want to sell we'll probably go to him first) who has come around to look at the house.

His way of going about it has been to look at the price similar (BISF) houses have sold for locally ie within half a mile. The worst, which was worse than ours went for £135 000 while the best went for £179 000. To get ours to the condition of the best he would calculate very conservatively £5000 to replace the kitchen, £5000 to replace the heating system, £3000 for the bathroom and £7000 for the roof, so £20 000 in total. He would reduce the £179 000 to £165 000 to be conservative and then deduct the £20 0000 from it, giving a conservative value of £145 000.

This would be more than enough to borrow sufficient funds to replace the roof.

He recommends challenging the Halifax's automatic valuation in which they have just fed the purchase price into their South West regional index but that I'll need to know what procedure they want. I have all the evidence of recent sold prices for BISF houses locally, bearing in mind that they are all within half a mile of each other and all identical apart from decoration/refurbishment.

Anyone have any ideas?

Ed

amnblog

ed110220 wrote: »

And the Daily Telegraph is also mistaken when it says: 'Lenders use a "remote automated valuation" model, which is not necessarily reliable. You can also ask your lender to base the valuation on the price after the work has been completed. Most will be happy to do so.'?

Are you suggesting the journalist is correct here Ed?

What we have here is poor copy.

The wording gives the impression you can borrow funds today based on a future valuation - that is NOT the case.

I stick to my point that until your property has a new roof that new roof cannot add to the value of your property

ed110220

amnblog wrote: »

Are you suggesting the journalist is correct here Ed?

What we have here is poor copy.

The wording gives the impression you can borrow funds today based on a future valuation - that is NOT the case.

I stick to my point that until your property has a new roof that new roof cannot add to the value of your property

The Halifax website under 'borrowing more' (http://www.halifax.co.uk/mortgages/existing-customers/additional-borrowing/) has this to say:

"If you want to borrow against the property’s value after the work has been done, we'll send the surveyor a copy of your estimates. The surveyor will call you to make an appointment to visit your property." (My italics).

In any case whether the valuation is done before or after is moot if the estate agent and I are correct in our view that the valuation in present state is too low (ie not necessary to use value after work has been carried out).

Ed

kingstreet

IIUIC, you need your current mortgage and increased borrowing to be within 80% of the current value of the property as the lender will not accept the post-repair value on which to base its lending decision.

The indexed value is not enough to achieve this?

Therefore you need to pay the £130 or so to see if an inspection by a Colleys surveyor will return a higher current-condition value and to also establish a post-repair valuation.

You can give the surveyor your estimates when he attends.

ed110220

kingstreet wrote: »

IIUIC, you need your current mortgage and increased borrowing to be within 80% of the current value of the property as the lender will not accept the post-repair value on which to base its lending decision.

The indexed value is not enough to achieve this?

Therefore you need to pay the £130 or so to see if an inspection by a Colleys surveyor will return a higher current-condition value and to also establish a post-repair valuation.

You can give the surveyor your estimates when he attends.

Thanks, that is what I'm looking to do. The estate agent's valuation of £145 000 in present condition would be more than enough to keep total borrowing below 80% but I'm not inclined to spend money on an inspection if it's unlikely to succeed.

Ed

kingstreet

Why don't you phone your local Colleys surveyor and ask him for his opinion? TBH what you are doing is totally lender-specific and all any of us on here can do is generalise. We aren't Halifax. You need their input.

http://www.colleys.co.uk/customer/contact-us/find-your-local-surveyor/

ed110220

kingstreet wrote: »

Why don't you phone your local Colleys surveyor and ask him for his opinion? TBH what you are doing is totally lender-specific and all any of us on here can do is generalise. We aren't Halifax. You need their input.

http://www.colleys.co.uk/customer/contact-us/find-your-local-surveyor/

Thanks, will give them a call!

Ed