Disputing a shared ownership HA valuation

Bzn

Hi everyone,

I am in the process of staircasing of my shared ownership property from 60 to 100%.

I had the flat valued in November 2014 by a RICS surveyor suggested by the HA. They valued the flat at £360k.

I applied for a Halifax mortgage (remortgage) and their valuation came back at £340K, £20,000 less! So they are only offering me £340k, I have some savings but these will got towards solicitors, stamp duty etc.

I have contacted the HA asking them to lower their valuation. They told me that they can't promise me that they will lower their valuation but they will discuss it with "their surveyor". I have emailed the RICS surveyor and he basically told me to sod off in a polite way, saying that he is happy with the valuation that he has provided for his client the HA (even though that I have paid for this valuation and he is meant to be independent, but the HA is calling him "their surveyor")

No flat in my building has ever been sold for £360k!

I am not sure how to approach this. Can I dispute this? Can I complain about the surveyor? His report is mainly based on assumptions.

I am being put in a position where I will not be able to staircase because the flat is being overvalued.

There are many threads on this subject on this forum but none of them come to a conclusion and no one has really come back to say how they have approached it

Please help if you can

PETIE

Can't be 100% on this but I think you can appeal the decision and ask for the District Valuer to value the property, but once that is done then that value is final, could be more, could be less.

Bzn

PETIE wrote: »

Can't be 100% on this but I think you can appeal the decision and ask for the District Valuer to value the property, but once that is done then that value is final, could be more, could be less.

Thanks that is what I had in mind.
Has anyone tried this here?

Senior_Paper_Monitor

Check that your SA agreement gives you the right of appeal to District Valuer (this exists for RTB recipients of which we do a lot, but we do very little shared ownership and I am not confident that this applies for them in all cases)

Bzn

Senior_Paper_Monitor wrote: »

Check that your SA agreement gives you the right of appeal to District Valuer (this exists for RTB recipients of which we do a lot, but we do very little shared ownership and I am not confident that this applies for them in all cases)

Thanks for the advice, does the District Valuer ever overrule the HA's valuation?
And in your experience what factors do they depend on when they re-value the property?

I could look at the issues/factors that they might be using to re-value and then decide if it is worth taking the risk.

savemybugs

I bought a 2 bed SO flat on 29 Apr 2014 for 220k and am looking to staircase now and the valuation has come back as 275k as of today. 2 months ago in Jan 2015 a similar 2 bed flat 150m from my flat (larger by 3 sqm) was sold for 240k.

My valuation report wrongly mentions the size of my flat to be 71.23 sqm while it is only 68sqm as per the plans and layout given to my by HA last year when I purchased it.

I have given them above details for comparison and HA has told me that they will discuss this with the valuer and get back to me.

I am worried about the response they are gonna come back with. So could some one please let me know about the details of disputing a valuation or going to the District Valuer etc.

Thanks.