Halifax mortgage - what do you get for the £200 basic valuation fee?

Missy_Firefly

Hi guys. I'm all stressed out trying to go through the motions of buying our next family house, having sold our first last October and been renting since.

We got a mortgage broker through the mortgage advice bureau and he recommended the Halifax over the course of a year of looking at different houses, best and final offers, a couple of mortgage in principles. He never waived from Halifax, despite HSBC charging no valuation fee. I would have applied for my own mortgage but felt we needed to pay the guy for holding our hands for so long and estate agents seemed to always want us to have a broker, to know we were serious with offers.

We had a full building survey done on the house we are going for a, which excluded a valuation and are finally getting to the nitty gritty of contract packs, having got our mortgage and searches back.

I'm about to look for building and contents insurance but no where can I find in my mortgage offer the rebuild cost!

I knew I was not getting a home buyers survey, which I got for our last house and which had this info in it but I thought £200 would tell us the rebuild cost?

I don't think a physical valuation had occurred despite its applying on 16th June but I also don't think Halifax has done anything more than click a mouse for our hard earned money!

Can anyone shed light on whether a basic valuation should have the rebuild cost on or not?

Also is 1.95% fixed for 3 years interest ok for an 80% ltv? 

I'm sure I could have got lower and just think commission is involved. 

Is Halifax a good choice for mortgage provider?

Thanks guys!

davidmcn

Yes, I would expect any valuation to include the rebuild cost. After all, the lender will want you to insure for at least the rebuild cost, so they need to tell you what that is. Though some insurers aren't bothered about a specific figure, they know how roughly much a 3 bed semi (or whatever) in your postcode would cost to build.

kingstreet

HSBC pays us more commision than Halifax, FWIW.

ACG

Most buildings policies now have blanket cover for £500k or £1m so I would expect any decent policy to cover more than enough. 

kingstreet

I've just checked two and there is no rebuild cost on a Halifax valuation report nor mortgage offer.

[Deleted User]

For the £200 valuation fee you get a valuation that satisfies the lenders requirements to lend the money. Nothing more and nothing less.

You aren't paying £200 for the click of a button. You pay it to get the valuation thag satisfies the lenders requirements.
Most lenders do these for free Halifax don't.  If there is an issue with the charge you might want your broker to state why Halifax was rhe best lender for you. 
Unless it's criteria or service based I rarely find them to be the cheapest

Missy_Firefly

Well. I lost it a bit earlier on the phone to Halifax due to the stress I'm under, trying to argue that I should have received a rebuild cost and nowhere did it say what was and wasn't included for my £200 (my mortgage broker didn't tell me). But Halifax were having none of it and the young girl who answered had never owned a house and didn't know what 'rebuild cost' was! She was definitely lacking customer care skills and I just felt like I was a number! Her manager didn't even want to take my complaint as said their word was final. Lovely first dealings with my Mortgage provider to be! I've worked in customer care and just found them jobsworths. 

Anyway so I rang Countrywide surveyors who I know had surveyed our last house for the bank of our buyer and they also said they don't give the purchaser a rebuild cost for band 1 basic valuations. 

I guess I just expected to get the info that I need to apply for buildings insurance, seen as it's a prerequisite to having a mortgage but I was wrong. 😔

On a side note...
My mortgage broker has given up on me, now he's getting his commission. Read this conversation and tell me how you sounds to you?

WhatsApp.. 
Me:
"Hi! I can't find on the mortgage offer anything about rebuild cost for getting insurance. Where would that info be?
Him:
Should be on the survey report you have done
Me:
 a full building survey doesn't include a valuation. The £200 we paid to Halifax was supposed to provide that.
Him: (no reply)
Me: (next day) Morning. Any update on the above? I couldn't get through to Halifax yesterday as I'm not vunerable enough apparently on option 4 and 4.
Him: Just stick any amount down"

Is that not pretty unprofessional?
I haven't responded. He's getting £550 commission and we are yet to pay £395 for his services plus he's getting commission on our life insurances too.
I think it's because he rang to ask for a 5 Star review last week in order to win a competition at his estate agents, but I couldn't find the bit to write this review and then thought, I haven't actually finished the deal yet so why should I be pushed at this stage of stress to rate him!?

But seriously, if I put £50 down for the rebuild cost, I'm not going to be insured! I think that reply is crazy! 

Sorry I know this is way off OP.

Regarding OP... I've got the floor area from the EPC report as 131m² so am going to use the RICS rebuild calculator as what choice so I have?!🤔

penners324

The worst thing to do is take the mortgage brokers life insurance or mortgage protection insurance.
I was quoted £55 a month for those, quick use of a comparison site and I got £11 for the same cover.

MovingForwards

https://www.confused.com/home-insurance/guides/how-to-calculate-the-rebuild-cost-of-your-home

Brokers (Kingstreet and JMA) have confirmed the rebuild cost is not on Halifax valuations. Read through the above link and use the calculator.
Either that or go with an insurer who has a blanket rebuild cover costs eg Direct Line is upto £1m, there's probably others.

richc1981

Most insurance companies include an estimation of the rebuild cost in their quote tool.  I wouldn’t sweat it, just add on say 10-20 percent to be on the safe side if you are worried.
Remember the rebuild cost will change Year on Year due to inflation / market forces etc so you will be estimating in the future anyway.  

Your surveyor would be using the RICS calculator anyway - it’s not like they would cost it up brick by brick. 

Move on with you life and relax :-)

tasticz

Go to https://abi.bcis.co.uk

Create a free acount. Input the required parameters and it will provide you with a rebuild range. Go for the highest value or even a blanket cover type policy as it has minimal impact on residential insurances premium. 

However, FYI only. If it was a BTL property the rebuild cost is a big big big factor...

Your mortgage broker wouldn't be able to answer the questions you are asking.

Also, perhaps might be worth doing a life insurance comparison via the links provided by MSE? Assuming you have no adverse medical history... it'll be cheaper to DIY. It is also reoccuring cost so if yiu are confident you can do it correctly, you'll save a lot of money.

Most insurers want 5 years medical history + some have you ever had so and so (heart attack, diabetes, et )... but with L&G they only ask last 2 years medical along along with have you so and so...

Read up here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/cheap-life-insurance/