No valaution under taken when arranging new term

humey86

Our 2 yr fixed term came to an end May last year, bang in the middle of the pandemic. Prior to lockdown etc I had spoken to our advisor about our options and we had agreed that house will have increased in value and with our improved LTV we would be looking at monthly saving of around £200 when we come to finding our next fixed term. When the date came around we were under lockdown and were told that no mortgage companies were undertaking valuations so our house had not changed in value, lenders were sparse so we had to go with the same lender again under a 5yr term (our choice on the advice that the market may be unstable) 

The street price has gone up and we have done a vast number of home improvements including landscaping, wood burner added etc and I have spoken to another advisor and he has said that this is wrong, there must be a suitability report and valuation taken out and I should ask to access these. I believe we were "had", as first time buyers our knowledge of how this works is limited. Is there anything else I should take into consideration?

kingstreet

When you pick a customer retention product from your existing lender, normally an indexed valuation is used reflecting house prices changes on a regional basis. There may be no physical report, but your lender's illustration would normally indicate the valuation used to calculate the LTV.

K_S

@humey86 It's not clear from your post - did you get any advice (either from a broker or the lender) when you switched your product?

Or did you simply do a non-advised (execution-only) product switch direct on the lender's website?

getmore4less

if you are at a LTV where a couple of years makes a big differnce why go for a 5year.

what rate  have you got which lender?

what LTV and what do you think it should be?  

humey86

K_S said:

@humey86 It's not clear from your post - did you get any advice (either from a broker or the lender) when you switched your product?

Or did you simply do a non-advised (execution-only) product switch direct on the lender's website?

We used a advisor we had used when purchasing that was linked to the agent

dimbo61

So you need to check with your lender.
Contact the mortgage centre and ask what valuation did they place on your property.
If the last sale on your road was your home 2 years ago that could make it difficult to value your property at more than that amount.
Why do you think adding a Wood burner adds value ? Or landscaping the garden.
Now adding a rear extension or side extension adds value as you getting more floor space.
The broker at the estate agents is not interested in you as he/she makes no money from you taking a new deal with your existing lender.
The pandemic has been a difficult time to remortgage.

[Deleted User]

If your broker arranged it then you received advice during that process.   That advice comes with a complaints procedure if you feel you have been wrong done by.  I would give the previous broker a chance to answer your questions first though.  Even if you were doing a product transfer you should have had a copy of an illustration confirming the borrowing amount, valuation assumed, monthly payments. 
You may have been given a suitability report that will confirm this in a different format.  

Did you get a mortgage illustration prior to agreeing the changes?  There would have been a documented justification for going to your existing lender over remortgaging.