Lost 25K in 2yrs due to valuers - can I do anything about it?

Munkistuff

We bought our house 2yrs ago for £215K (the estate agents had it up for offers over £225K but we knew the owners and they wanted a quick move). Santander valued the house at £215K and we got a 75% LTV mortgage (I still have the valuation paperwork). We've spent about £10K on the house upgrading the single glazed areas to double and put in a new bathroom. The mortgage has just come out of its deal and so we've shopped around and gone with HSBC. However, their valuer valued the house at £200K so we've lost £15K on the valuation, £10K of improvements plus whatever the housing market should have increased by over the last 2yrs (for my area this is 4%). We could have started the whole process over again and tried a different lender but this takes time and we had already made 2 payments on the mortgage at the higher rate, so we agreed to proceed. So my question is; do I have any recourse with Santander for overvaluing my property 2yrs ago. Its hard for me to comprehend that I have lost at least £15K on my house in what's supposed to be a rising market......TVM

beecher2

No, you accepted both valuations so there isn't much you can do about it now.

betmunch

What makes you think the surveyor instructed by HSBC is the correct one?

Did you have a homebuyer report done with Santander, or just the basic free one?

StuC75

You may have just over paid on the house a couple of years ago? I assume you were happy enough then at paying 215 vs 225 asking..

Unfortunately theres no guarantee of prices went up x% so mine should be worth yyy.

Its the risk that you take in property buying.

TrickyDicky101

You're the one who agreed to pay £215k for the house - maybe you should take it up with yourself?

Munkistuff

We had the free valuation done by the bank - we bought the house next door to where I have lived for 35yrs so we know it's structural history. I get the points that we must have been happy with the initial valuation however; I'm not the expert - they are - so you put your trust in them to get it right do you not? If they had said it was only worth £200K I could have either re-negotiated or walked away.....

bsms1147

Perhaps your £10k of 'improvements' knocked £15k off the house's value...

haras_nosirrah

Maybe HSBC have valued too cautiously to get you
Onto a higher ltv product?

betmunch

Munkistuff wrote: »

We had the free valuation done by the bank - we bought the house next door to where I have lived for 35yrs so we know it's structural history. I get the points that we must have been happy with the initial valuation however; I'm not the expert - they are - so you put your trust in them to get it right do you not? If they had said it was only worth £200K I could have either re-negotiated or walked away.....

OK, so the problem is that you have take the basic valuation. This only protects the bank, not you.

You will be pleased to know that in the event of you being repossessed and the bank making a loss they will have recourse against the surveyor.

If you had had a report done for yourself AND you had crystalised your losses, you might have had recourse.

mrginge

So was it a homebuyers report or a basic valuation?

dunstonh

do I have any recourse with Santander for overvaluing my property 2yrs ago.

Houses do not have a price ticket. They have an opinion of an individual to what a house may achieve on sale. The criteria for that opinion will also vary.

Its hard for me to comprehend that I have lost at least £15K on my house in what's supposed to be a rising market

What makes you think your changes would see a full recovery of your costs? Your tastes may actually have reduced the value for all we know. Or the changes may have been mostly cosmetic with no structural benefit.

What makes you think HSBC are right and Santander are wrong?

You are talking about very small differences in price in an area of opinion which cannot be proven either way. You could sell the house to one person for £225k whereas had you waited for the next person, they may have offered £230k. Or you could turn down the £225k and find no-one else offers close to that for another 2 or so years. This is why pricing is opinion and querying over such as small difference is ridiculous in my opinion.