Should I challenge my mortgage lender's valuation?

System

I've moved all my stuff into the living room so live out of that one room. It's not ideal, especially as I'm largely housebound. Kind of feels like a prison, tbh, but I have nowhere else to go and damned if I'm going to lose my home and everything I've worked for just because I'm ill.

ToxicWomble

If you do remortgage, how do you plan on proving your income and therefore affordability ?
You may be heading down a rabbit hole with this if you aren’t very careful.

[Deleted User]

I wouldn't challenge the valuation, it is asking someone to come round the place to get a better idea of what it's like.
If the place is set up with you living in the living room then that may get back to the lender as a note on the valuation and they will ask for details of the lodgers. They might be fine with it, they might not be.

What's the difference in monthly payment from a 60% ltv product and a product you currently qualify for?

System

Currently on 2 year fix paying £602pcm.
5 year fix at 60-75% LTV = £628pcm.
5 year fix at < 60% LTV = £649pcm.

It's ridiculous because if I could move to Direct Line, I'd be looking at around £560pcm.

You're going to say it's not worth it, but every £1 matters to me at the moment to the point I've stopped drinking tea (avoid boiling kettle), watching TV, and sit in the dark every evening (listening to the radio) to keep my electricity usage to an absolute minimum. It's the only variable of my monthly outgoings that I have any control over, so it's kinda annoying that both of my lodgers are obsessed with ironing, but I'm trying to offset as much as poss.

Mistral001

The second bathroom will have taken up space that was previously used for something else, so might not add value to the property. For example if the bathroom was an ensuite put into a bedroom, the bedroom would be smaller. If it was put in a storage area, there will be far less storage area etc.

Penelopa.Pitstop

Have you thought about shorter fix, 2 years maybe? APR should be lower and your monthly payments too. And when you hopefully recover and get some income back, you can switch to longer fix if you prefer.

Definitely apply for benefits, it's not a life what you describe. How long can you live like this, saving on everything?

SouthLondonUser

Nessie82 wrote: »

[...] before I resign myself to signing up to their inevitably extortionate rate, which fully benefits them, and fully ignores the true value of my home. Maybe I should have continued to suffer the mouldy, leaky, peeling bathroom I had and just knocked the £18k off my mortgage instead...

OP,
slow down and the passive-aggressive rant!

This may come as a shock to you, but:

1. there is not necessarily ANY relationship between the cost of the works and the change in value; the world is full of properties which are actually worth LESS after specific works because the works catered to the taste of the owners, not to those of the wider market. E.g. I can think of a kitchen extensions which left only 2 feet of garden at the back: the extension was expensive but actually caused a drop in value: no one wanted to buy a house with almost no garden. As other people pointed out, a 2nd bathroom means less space for something else: some people will value the 2nd bathroom, other people would have valued the extra space (eg for storage) more
2. the price is set by the market. You are not the market. What you like is totally, completely and utterly irrelevant. It's what the market likes which determines the price.
3. How do you know what your property is worth if there are no comparables? You may know what you would pay for the property but you are not the market (see above)