Direct valuations - HSBC

adonis10

Any experience of this company for building surveys?

marksoton

What do you mean by direct valuation? As far as i'm aware HSBC instruct a seperate valuation company.

adonis10

marksoton wrote: »

What do you mean by direct valuation? As far as i'm aware HSBC instruct a seperate valuation company.

By "direct valuations" I mean http://www.direct-valuations.com

So, direct valuations.

marksoton

Ah i see, i thought you meant a direct valuation by HSBC themselves.

Can't say i've heard of them or seen them commented on on the boards.

Might be worth also posting in the mortgage sub forum.

joeistheone

They don't actually do the valuations. They just organise the booking of a surveyor on behalf of HSBC. So your actual surveyor will be a different RICS surveying company/individual/partnership.

shardi2209

We are getting a mortgage through hsbc and used direct valuations. They were ok, saw the bank tuesday evening and direct valuations then texted(!) me on Thursday afternoon to ask me to ring them rather than ringing me directly. I rang them back, paid the valuation/survey fee and then had to wait til a surveyor was allocated from their panel. Had to chase them a couple of times. It took 3 working days to allocate someone. We got white horse surveyors who are awful. The valuation was absolutely fine and got to the bank after 2 days but they don't ring when they say they will, we've had to chase lots of times and never get a call back. Our homebuyers report was done on 27/4 but still waiting for the report that is only supposed to take 3-5 working days.

dc197

Yes, as Joe has said they just outsource. Their outsourced company were not brilliant, they missed an issue that they should have spotted. Valuations direct were also pretty shoddy about arranging things, they gave me the run around about booking with the contractor, not on the system, can't find the booking, can't get hold of them, blah blah blah.
Still, even if I recommend against them... What are you going to do, demand HSBC change their agent?

adonis10

dc197 wrote: »

Yes, as Joe has said they just outsource. Their outsourced company were not brilliant, they missed an issue that they should have spotted. Valuations direct were also pretty shoddy about arranging things, they gave me the run around about booking with the contractor, not on the system, can't find the booking, can't get hold of them, blah blah blah.
Still, even if I recommend against them... What are you going to do, demand HSBC change their agent?

Good to hear your experiences.


The agent I'm not so worried about (annoying as poor service may be), as I am far more concerned about the surveyor they get to come and do the job; a little concerned at this stage as I've no idea which surveyor may be employed to do the work - no knowledge of them, no recommendations etc. Really rather worried that they may just rush through it and miss something important (structural, damp etc.).

PawelMag

hi all,

I have a bad experience with them. The surveyor wrote down intentionally incorrect information about the any work undertaken for my house.

The property is of a PRC construction and I told the surveyor that there was approved repair work undertaken on the property in 1989 and I have the PRC certificate for this. I mentioned that to the surveyor three times as I thought it's very important that he knows that I have a certificate which I have already provided to the bank.

Unfortunately the surveyor still wrote down the incorrect information and wrote that no approved repair scheme is understood to have been undertaken on the property and it is therefore considered unsuitable for the mortgage security.

I just made a formal complaint about this guy.

Kind Regards

Arc_1

They valued my buy to let in Aug this year and downvalued it by ten grand easy. Then they only mention the passing rent of 750 per month I get and house valuation on the report however then seem to tell HSBC my house is only worth 700 a month in rent. Even though I'm already a HSBC customer for this mortgage the last ten years and no money is changing hands as part of my switch into a fixed rate from variable, HSBC now won't borrow the full amount, they say it is because my rent does not meet the minimum criteria. So people, don't use this valuer or HSBC as they offer good rates but rarely let people switch to them. Can't even complain to the valuer as I have to go via HSBC to query the report even though I paid 175 quid for it. Disgusting.

davilown

I can't criticise HSBC and the valuers/surveyors they used - took 2 weeks but they were a local company and the ones I chose on my previous purchase. Their report was along the lines of - It's a 60 year old house so the electrics may need looking at but they look ok at the moment