surveyors report wrong

hockeynut9988

We have recently had a Zero Valuation on our House and I'm looking for help on what to do . Below is a draft of a letter I want to send the surveyor

This letter is to query your survey recently carried out on House. In the survey you have stated the property is unusable security against a mortgage there for misrepresenting our property to the prospective buyers.
Your valuation report contains various errors such as
Stating the leasehold is for 125 years, factually the lease is 861 years as per the property deed.
The property has not been refurbished, when it has actual been refurbished throughout.
Besides the above errors you also stated the property should be declined as unsuitable security with a value of £0 in paragraph 11. The property has had two Mortgage Valuation reports, one with the Nationwide Building Society and a further one with the Natwest Bank (assessed in Feb 2015). Neither reported identified any problems against the valuation.
The property has been marketed with two estate agents who know the local market and have priced the house appropriately, with viewings and offers being forthcoming.
Due to your misrepresentation the buyer has withdrawn their offer, we have missed out on a purchase and our estate agent is at a loss of what to do. Please find enclosed your report which we are returning for reassessment.

I do not know were I stand legally. Can anyone help. Is this letter a good start? Does the The RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) have any teeth if I don't get a response?Do I have a case?

eddddy

You're not the surveyor's client, so they may not discuss this with you.

The comment about the Estate Agents's valuations and the local market is probably missing the point.

Is this a lender's valuation? If so, there is probably a specific issue or defect with the property which means it's unsuitable to the lender in question.

As an example, some lender's tell their valuers that flats above shops or takeaways are unsuitable, so they should be valued at zero.

G_M

* I doubt you'll get a reply - you are not their client,

* you don't say why they valued it at £0. I would be very surprised if the report does not say. It won't be due to either of the 2 errors you highlight.

* What local estate agents do, or think, is irrelevant.

* I also doubt that the 2 previous Valuations will be considered. Different surveyors may have different professional opinions, and the lender for whom they work may have different criteria.

What reason was given for the report saying " unsuitable security?

hockeynut9988

the bank in question ,who the surveyor was working for, was Nationwide who gave me the initial loan to buy the property. The valuation in question was the lenders.

hockeynut9988

Because none residential properties in the local and there has been structural movement. However there was no request to get the movement checked.

Thrugelmir

In the survey you have stated the property is unusable security against a mortgage

On what grounds?

G_M

hockeynut9988 wrote: »

Because none residential properties in the local and there has been structural movement. However there was no request to get the movement checked.

I don't understand the first part of this sentence.

If the surveyor considered the structural movement was sufficiently significant and/or ongoing, then that is a valid reason to classify the property as unsuitable security.

He might recommend getting it checked (eg by a structural engineer) if he was unsure, but the fact that he did not recommend this suggests he was sure.

This is of course the only relevant information, yet it is completely left out from your letter, which just includes irrelevant issues.

markfj

I had this recently, perhaps for similar reasons

We were remortgaging to buy a 2nd property, and the value couldn't be carried out, we were sent a letter, explaining that there was movement etc etc and that a structural engineer needed to do a homebuyer survey and pass this on for a valuation to be carried out

£400 and 1 report later, the valuation was carried out and was fine after, remortgage was granted

hockeynut9988

There is no movement in the house. The house is over 100 years old and all movement has stopped.
If the surveyor suspected movement is it not common practice to request a civil engineering report

markfj

hockeynut9988 wrote: »

There is no movement in the house. The house is over 100 years old and all movement has stopped.
If the surveyor suspected movement is it not common practice to request a civil engineering report

Was there no reason given to you for the lack of value given? We received a full letter explaining why valuation wasn't done and what to do next

theartfullodger

hockeynut9988 wrote: »

There is no movement in the house. The house is over 100 years old and all movement has stopped.....

Sounds like you are saying there was movement but you claim it has stopped. Or did I mistunderstand (again...)??

What evidence (rather than you "know") do you have of no movement in recent years??