House valuation and separation

Stoke

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

Forget estate agents, it would be better to get a professional, paid for vavuation from a RICS qualified surveyer.

Meh. I disagree. I looked at paid valuations and it seemed most of them were still estate agents, they just knew they weren't getting a sale out of it. The estate agents who visited were perfectly reasonable, so long as they knew that the valuations were based on reality and not playing the field optimism.

However, you have a valid point that buy getting a specialist and paying, they are obligated to provide a fair and impartial assessment. They are unlikely to be as influenced by someone in their ear.

anna_1977

I think he will see what the 3 EA's he gets in value at - if there really is the £40k+ he's anticipating it may well be worth paying.

POPPYOSCAR

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

Forget estate agents, it would be better to get a professional, paid for vavuation from a RICS qualified surveyer.

I agree.

They are not done by estate agents but by a a surveyor.

Why might you need a Valuation Report?
A Valuation Report may also be commissioned for probate after the owner or one of the owners of a property has become deceased. Another situation is where a divorced couple are working through the difficult process of dividing up their joint property and hence need to determine a reasonably accurate value but possibly without actually proceeding to a sale. A valuation is also useful for a sale within a family. Before selecting a possible Surveyor you should ensure that they have satisfactory qualifications, accreditation, experience and insurance.

A valuation from them is much more difficult to argue against than an estate agent.

Stoke

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

I agree.

They are not done by estate agents but by a a surveyor.

Why might you need a Valuation Report?
A Valuation Report may also be commissioned for probate after the owner or one of the owners of a property has become deceased. Another situation is where a divorced couple are working through the difficult process of dividing up their joint property and hence need to determine a reasonably accurate value but possibly without actually proceeding to a sale. A valuation is also useful for a sale within a family. Before selecting a possible Surveyor you should ensure that they have satisfactory qualifications, accreditation, experience and insurance.

A valuation from them is much more difficult to argue against than an estate agent.

Interesting. Might be worth a thought. Plus, as I said above, if you've paid they will be obligated to be fair. They won't be bowled over by a meddling interfering individual. I still think you should politely ask she not talk during the valuation though.

Ultimately, she has had her valuations. She's happy with them. It's now time to get yours and she shouldn't be trying to influence those. You didn't do the same to her. You were not present, tapping the ear of the person doing the valuation. Like I said though, if she does start to interfere.... bring proceedings to a close and tell her that you've tried to be civil, you've tried to be polite..... now we go the other route.

Like I said, as soon as she interferes, list it as follows:
- All correspondence must now be done in writing. Explain that you will not be taking phone calls or replying to SMS Messages. E-mails will be ignored and social media is not appropriate.
- You will not be speaking to an emissary. You want this now to be handled by solicitors and direct contact to be kept at a minimum.
- You will be informing the solicitor that you wish to push through with the sale of the house as soon as possible and will be requesting the next steps to pursue this route.
- Explain that while you wanted to avoid going to court, you are now quite happy to, in light of this failure to establish an impartial valuation.
- Explain that while you are happy to go to mediation sessions, you will not be discussing the house at those proceedings because you've already decided you need to push through with the sale. Mediation proceedings should be for remaining finances and assets.

Give it a week.... She'll tell you a day she isn't in and you can go and get the valuation.

As suggested above, a paid one might not be a bad shout, if only to put her in a difficult spot. If a paid one goes horribly wrong, as per her intentions, then you are in an even stronger position when it goes down the legal route in my opinion.

Obviously the children need to be considered here and she may well try and emotionally blackmail you over it. "think of the children, you're forcing them to move house". However you need to remember that it's not you forcing them to move, it is her, because she is trying to manipulate the house valuation such that you lose out on a significant amount of money. Some might disagree with my reasoning on that, but ultimately you both purchased the house and you both 'created' the children, why should you be 20-40 grand less off? For feels? Your conscience is clear, regardless of what happens. If she wants the children to remain in their childhood home, all she needs to do is give you the correct amount that you are rightfully owed.

If she does allow you to have the valuation without her present, and the numbers aren't quite what you wanted, then I suggest you proceed with the transfer of equity. If the valuation from your side is significantly higher, then you have a problem. She will argue her valuations are low. You will argue yours are high. I wouldn't meet in the middle, like some on here might suggest. This is a huge amount of money we're talking about. I would tell her that seeing as you can't agree on the final valuation, you intend to proceed with the sale.

You've not done a lot wrong, if you follow that line of thinking. Any other, and you're potentially creating a rod for your own back.

anna_1977

Thank you so much for your advice it's really given food for thought, I'm definitely going to advise him to look into a valuation report from an Surveyor (I suppose using my family member is biased haha!)

Ultimately it's his shout but I don't want to see him being ripped off, or her either.... it has to be fair and sadly isn't currently

Stoke

anna_1977 wrote: »

Thank you so much for your advice it's really given food for thought, I'm definitely going to advise him to look into a valuation report from an Surveyor (I suppose using my family member is biased haha!)

Ultimately it's his shout but I don't want to see him being ripped off, or her either.... it has to be fair and sadly isn't currently

Nobody needs to be ripped off. If the valuations are fair, this can be done with minimal fuss. The transfer of equity goes through, he gets his money, she gets the deeds to the house, you establish a plan for the kids and you go from there. No need for a nasty court hearing, no need for bitterness.

When I had the same situation (minus the kids), by avoiding court and handling most of it privately, we saved thousands..... Now in hindsight, I wish we had gone to court, because my former partner enjoys going round telling people that I stitched her up out of money and technically speaking, I don't have a court judgement to prove otherwise..... Nothing could be further from the truth though, she did very well. However, long term, we saved a fortune by doing it that way.