mortgage agreed but shocking survey

Moneynovice

I'm looking for guidance on a pickle I've got myself into...any help appreciated. I've just spent a chunk of money adding 2 new bedrooms and a decent size lounge/diner to my house..The initial plan was to re-mortgage and pay off the loan I used to complete the work..once the work was complete. I had the house valued 8 months ago (pre-work - 2 bed semi) and it came back at 145k - the surveyor that came round this time (all work and most of the decorating done - now a 4 bed semi) has valued it at 150k - this now means there is no additional borrowing available - even though I've had the mortgage offer - am I being silly going through the motions with another lender?- can the house only have gone up by 5k when I have almost doubled the floor space and still retained a large garden? or is it they simply don't want to lend me anymore cash.? I'm tempted to get a local estate agent out to get an honest/realistic figure but feel guilty wasting their time...to get the additional money i need I'm not sure how I work out the loan to value - the numbers are

existing debt on mortgage £112k
additional borrowing requested £13k

If new lender values at 160k does that mean my LTV is 78% - so I can look in the 80% bracket for mortgages?

confused and hoping for insights....:)
I have a perfect credit report and affordability is fine

amnblog

Something is seriously wrong here, either with the initial valuation, or the new one.


Worrying about wasting an Estate Agent's time is a new one on me.


A broker may be able to guide you through this as there could be a number of causes as to what has gone wrong here.


You calculations on LTV are correct.

xyz123

Who did the first valuation? If by Estate agent the there is the answer as it was optimistic. If done by someone independent, can you not get them to come again and appraise? It's not clear who the second valuation is by? Is it appointed by mortgage Lander?

Rachel_Pierson

Moneynovice wrote: »

...can the house only have gone up by 5k when I have almost doubled the floor space and still retained a large garden?...

Short answer: yes, I'm afraid so. I'm not saying whether the 2nd valuation is right or wrong, because I've not seen it and therefore can't know. But I am saying that for a given area, there is usually an upper and lower price band that you can't reach beyond, no matter how good or bad the house is. Hence the old saying......."location, location, location".

To get an idea of the range in your street, Google your address and the words "house price". You'll find loads of sites like Zoopla that list the actual selling prices of property in your area. That's pretty much what your surveyor will have done to get an initial idea of the upper and lower ranges of values your house must be in. You may be surprised at how small the difference in price is between the best and worst properties.

Obviously, a house is worth whatever someone will pay for it. The valuation is just a tool for mortgage lenders to assess their risk of being left with negative equity should they need to repossess the house. And some surveyors are more interested in covering their a*ses at the moment than in giving realistic valuations, in case they get sued by the bank if the house value falls short of what they have lent should a repossession become necessary.

Typhoon2000

£348k to £1.1m on my street.

Did you inform the surveyor it has recently been extended? If he was lazy he might just have looked up the last sale price and uplift and not actually done his job properly.

David_White

I know you've basically answered this, but did a surveyor definitely visit the property for the recent valuation?

ACG

There does sound like there is a problem for one reason or another.

If the extension was built at the back and the surveyor did a "drive by" that would maybe explain it.

The other things could be that the job has been done that badly it looks a mess/makes the house stand out like a sore thumb. Or having a loft conversion without building regs does not mean you have added a bedroom, it just means you have added a room and that does not add the same value as a bedroom.

Difficult to say without knowing more.

Estate agent and honest in the same sentence...first time for everything.

Moneynovice

Thanks for replies., I really appreciate it.. I found out today that both surveyors work for the same panel Connels/Countrywide..I didn't realise they are the same group. On both occasions they came in and walked round. The recent one was very rude (abrupt) and very quick, he didn't even enter one of the rooms downstairs - and I'm pretty sure he didn't measure anything (unless they do that outside?) I took it as a good sign and assumed he agreed with the figure i had suggested on my application (185k!!) Location might be the key. We are in a tiny hamlet (28 houses) in a remote location, idylic for me and my family but very little churn to compare recent activity.The most recent house for sale was April 2015 and it sold for 155k but only has 3 bedrooms and limited living space.I've added a big double extention and worked hard with the builders to blend it into the existing house, externally and internally, even down to the same weathered beams running in parrallel with the existing beams. I've put in a complaint and it is getting looked at - but surely it's optimistic to think the second chap will be over-ruled and questioned?? I'm now thinking of trying another lender but if they ask me why i didn't get the other one, I will have to tell them, which is surely a bad thing and make them nervous? When I said honest estate agent, I meant someone that knows that i will easily get 185k for it,houses this size in the nearest town to us (3 miles away) are going for 210 - 300k but i guess not everyone values views over acres of lincolnshire fields and being so remote! location is so important yet subjective! The funny thing is, I only need it to be worth 160 ...to get my additional borrowing *sigh* and i have no intention of moving, the house is lovely

Moneynovice

i've been looking on zoopla and my area house prices have gone up by 7% - so maybe the surveyor just added the increase on...would he have known it was valued at 145k 6 months ago? he worked for the same panel - i'm now waiting to hear from complaints team to hear next steps, I hope this is just a silly oversight! or lazy as has been suggested, caused me a lot of stress and worry.Zoopla list my house as worth 212k and my neighbours at 170k that haven't been extended and still have 3 bedrooms, this is all so confusing! thanks for takingtime to post