Remortgaging, my valuation & the surveyors valuation

luke222010

Hi all,

Just in the process of remortgaging.
When I put the application in I valued the property at £205k. I based this on a number of things.
We bought the house for £186500, but the property was on the market for £199950. The reason for the lower price was down to there being no central heating in the property (storage heaters), and the conservatory had dry rot and needed replacing.
When I spoke to the surveyor when we bought back in October I asked him if the property was worth the £186500 and his reply was "easily".
Since then, we've replaced the conservatory and had a glass edwardian roof (previous the old plastic pvc stuff), and had central heating installed.

Over Christmas we had a couple of leaks in the bathroom which prompted us to replace the suite and have some retiling done.
Unfortunately, the job has only been half finished and the surveyor came out last week, and has valued the property at £195000.
This has meant that we cannot get the fixed rate that we wanted, and now have to look at a higher rate.

I would expect the half finished bathroom to have an effect on the valuation, but not to the point where it's £5k below what the property was valued at by an estate agent just 6 months ago.

Has anyone had similar experiences of this before?
I am tempted to try another mortgage through a different lender once the bathroom is complete and then have another surveyor come out at value the property, but I am wondering if it is worth it or whether we would just be better off continuing an application with the current lender for a slightly higher rate.

Any opinions (good or bad) are welcomed...

Cheers,
L.

mlp

Yes, I conservatively estimated the value of ours (for remortgaging purposes) at £200k. This was based on quite a number of similar properties in the locality being on the market at £225k+ and even properties with two fewer reception rooms being on at £199k.

The valuation came back at £190k.

Our broker sees it happen all the time.

The cynic in me might think that lenders are purposely knocking down valuations in order to push into a higher LTV band.... I'm sure it can't be true!

brit1234

Or more likely estate agents overvaluing.

Mortgage_Mark_2

...is the correct answer.

You say you asked 'the surveyor' - did you ask a surveyor or an estate agent valuer? Half a bathroom is quite likely to effect value by £5k, which is pretty small fry (2.5%) for a £200k property.

Thrugelmir

An EA's and Surveyors valuations will differ.

The EA's will be an indication of what the property might sell for given a period of time.

The surveyor will be working for the lender not you, and assess the value of a fair basis in the circumstances of a prompt sale i.e. repossession.

Coal_Shoveller

I was in the same situation back in 2001 when I remotgaged with Virgin One. I rang the lender to say I disagreed with the valuation and to complain about the Surveyor who was very rude and making comments when looking round my property, I was building a brick wall and pond in the back garden at the time and he even commented that my power tools where cheap rubish and he only buys the best.

Anyway the lender said they only went by his valuation and if I thought it was inacurate I would have to write to the surveyor and convice him. Fat chance of that I thought after I had just complained about him, and it would basically mean that he would have to admit his value was wrong, but I complied a list of all the local house prices, advertised and actual sale price and written a report/letter justifying my valuation and he changed his valuation to my figure, so my advice would be to contest it, good luck.

J.P.

luke222010

Mortgage_Mark wrote: »

...is the correct answer.

You say you asked 'the surveyor' - did you ask a surveyor or an estate agent valuer? Half a bathroom is quite likely to effect value by £5k, which is pretty small fry (2.5%) for a £200k property.

It was a surveyor. It was when we purchased the property, I had a full building survey done on the property. As I said, he claimed it was easily worth £186500. I assumed (maybe incorrectly) that adding central heating and replacing the dated wooden/polycarb conservatory with a glass all round, would push the value up slightly, at least to the £200000 that the estate agent had it on the market for before we purchased.

Your comments regarding the half finished bathroom is more in line with my trail of thought. I think we are now going to wait until its finished, and then try a mortgage with a different lender and have it revalued by another surveyor next month.

Thanks all

brit1234

luke222010 wrote: »

It was a surveyor. It was when we purchased the property, I had a full building survey done on the property. As I said, he claimed it was easily worth £186500. I assumed (maybe incorrectly) that adding central heating and replacing the dated wooden/polycarb conservatory with a glass all round, would push the value up slightly, at least to the £200000 that the estate agent had it on the market for before we purchased.

Your comments regarding the half finished bathroom is more in line with my trail of thought. I think we are now going to wait until its finished, and then try a mortgage with a different lender and have it revalued by another surveyor next month.

Thanks all

Did you pay £13,500 on the upgrades then to get it to £200,000?

Very often you don't get all your money back on your upgrades especially when we move into a falling price housing market.

luke222010

brit1234 wrote: »

Did you pay £13,500 on the upgrades then to get it to £200,000?

Very often you don't get all your money back on your upgrades especially when we move into a falling price housing market.

Just over £13500 on the upgrades.
I agree with your second comment to some degree, but it is geographical as to whether "falling price housing market" is applicable in my area. I mean, I've been watching house prices in my area for over 2 years now since we decided we would move, prices are not spiralling here like they are in more southern areas of the country.