First time remortgaging - advice please

JamesBro

Hi there

I am coming to the end of my initial two year fixed rate mortgage. It has high monthly repayments at a high interest rate because of our 95% loan to value.

Our lenders have sent a letter through the post offering their latest rates, which are almost as high. We are now down to 91% LTV According to them. This is because they say the house is worth exactly the same as what we bought it for two years ago.

However, this is where I disagree.

We bought our house for £310k in 2017 and it was in very bad condition. We have spent approximately £25,000 on it to bring it up to a decent condition. Also, similar houses in the area are going for between £330k and £350k.

I believe our house to be worth in that region, given the improvements and the rise in prices locally.

How do I dispute this with the current lender? How do we come to an agreement about that value? Or with any other lender for that matter? Or am I simply to accept it'll just be their way or nothing?

I am clinging on to being able to do a bathroom / kitchen improvement for £15k by borrowing more but that can only happen it they value the house at £335k plus.

Any help would be extremely appreciated.

Many thanks
James

LRmortgage

2 options:
1) try and remortgage with a different lender, you get to tell them what you think the house is worth and then they instruct a surveyor to do a valuation and hope they agree with your valuation. Probably worth opting for a lender / product with a free valuation so that it doesn’t cost you anything if they don’t agree with you.

2) call your current lender and tell them you don’t agree with their valuation and you would like to request a physical valuation. You will probably have to pay for this though. But if they agree with you, you should be able to get better rates at 90% or below from your lender.