Any redress?

barrymarr

I put an offer of £380,000 on a flat in July 2013 and the surveyor from the mortgage provider valued it at £350,000 meaning I was unable to purchase it. I contested this but they would not change their mind. I recently discovered that the flat sold for £372,500 in September 2013.

I subsequently found a flat for £370,000 in January 2014 and though I appreciate it's not exact, the online value of the flat I missed out on is now £440,000 and the flat I bought is £377,000. I feel that the undervaluing of the original flat and the time it took me to find another has left me at a financial disadvantage and I was wondering if I have any course of redress here? If anyone knows I'd appreciate some advice.

Thanks

jjlandlord

You are not entitled to a mortgage and a bank is free to lend any amount they wish to whomever they wish.
The bank's valuer is there to assess if the property is a good security for the amount of the loan in order to help the bank make a decision.

You were not left at a disadvantage.

Move on.

AdrianC

Barrymarr wrote: »

I put an offer of £380,000 on a flat in July 2013 and the surveyor from the mortgage provider valued it at £350,000 meaning I was unable to purchase it. I contested this but they would not change their mind. I recently discovered that the flat sold for £372,500 in September 2013.

Do you know that the buyer didn't get given exactly the same valuation as you did, but was able to bridge the mortgage shortfall?
Do you even know if they had a mortgage?

though I appreciate it's not exact, the online value of the flat I missed out on is now £440,000

"not exact" is one of the kinder things that can be said about Zoopla's "valuations"... "Wet finger in the air" is the more usual epithet.

bitsandpieces

Even assuming the flat was worth £372k in September, there us a margin of error to valuations which the courts have considered non&-negligent http://www.rics.org/uk/knowledge/glossary/margins-of-error/ RICS suggests 10-15% as reasonable (so the difference in valuations would fall well inside) though you will may find the odd case that suggests something like 5%. It's also worth remembering that the value may have gone up in two months.

You can always try complaining, or even spending money on a solicitor. If you make a fuss, they may give you a few £s to go away. In your situation, I wouldn't bother spending money on a solicitor and wouldn't put any significant amount of time into complaining.

davidmcn

bitsandpieces wrote: »

Even assuming the flat was worth £372k in September

Or rather, that before the sale a surveyor ought to have valued it at £372k, based on the evidence available at the time (e.g. of similar comparable sales).

You can always try complaining

Not if it was the bank's surveyor rather than one owing any duty of care to the OP.

martin1959

As JJ said, the surveyor is providing a valuation for the lender. It is up to the lender to decide if the flat is adequate security.


Most surveyors tend to work on a 5% buffer. If they feel a property is worth less than the PP, provided it is less than 5% they will normally value it at the PP.


If you had a mortgage valuation you have absolutely no chance. If you had a homebuyers report, then you may as well have a go, but you will probably be told that placing a value on the property is subjective, and unless you can actually prove the surveyor was negligent.......and good luck trying to prove that!

barrymarr

Thanks all for the responses.

partialycloudy

We had this with two properties we were trying to buy.

The first property was undervalued by £10k from our offer, which was £10K under the asking price, so technically had been valued at 20K under the market value. The seller wouldn't drop their price and we couldn't increase our deposit, so it feel through. It later sold for the full asking price.

Next property was again valued 10k under the asking price and we were using the same mortgage company as the previous property, so this time we decided to change mortgage companies and it was re-valued at the asking/offer price with no problems.

We were quite gutted that we missed out on the first under valued property, especially when we saw it go for full asking price! But you just never know what mortgage & deposit the other people had so you don't know if it was valued back up again. it is very frustrating and I feel your pain.
For us it worked out well in the end as we ended up in a better location in a cheaper property, so all thing happen for a reason!