New Build Home - Undervalued without visit

Missbunny14

Hi, 

This has been going on for a couple of months now so i'm going to make a long story short. 

We looked at a new build property at the beginning of October and fell in love with it, there was only one property left of that type so we reserved it the next day after speaking with our mortgage advisor. The house isn't meant to be finished until feb/march but because me and my partner both had/have adverse credit history we needed to explore our options ASAP. We went for the mortgage company that would give us the lowest interest rate and everything was going well. Eventually we were told that we have been approved as long as the survey comes back ok. We were elated because we were told by various people the survey will be fine, especially on a new build. We thought we had got through the worst part when in actually fact the survey caused us nothing but stress. 

When the survey is carried out you don't get regular updates, we were just told it was done. A week later the survey came back almost 20 grand undervalue. We  had a discussion with the housing development company asking why the price is so much higher than the survey and they said that the surveyor is wrong. Our mortgage advisor told us that the mortgage company had given us a life line and said if we can get a comparable for other recently sold houses on the development they can appeal the surveyors valuation. This was like getting blood out of a stone, long story short no one else that has reserved a plot for the same house type has applied for a mortgage yet. There were a lot of heated conversations between mortgage advisor and the developers and our mortgage company and the surveyor however, the mortgage company was still actively trying to get this decision overturned. We were then told by the sales team at the development that the surveyor never attended site. When we heard this we were fuming because it literally felt like we were dealing with a bunch of amateurs. 

Moving on, yesterday we were told that the surveyor has come back and said he arranged to view the house on the appointed day but there were no staff present. Two phone calls were made that day, but these went through to voicemail and a message was left. The surveyor has advised that he took photos of the site office which shows he attended on the day that was arranged with the developers. The valuer therefore valued off plan. Therefore he wont change his mind on his valuation. We thought we could just apply through another mortgage advisor but both of the other mortgage lenders we can use, use the same surveyor for new builds. We have been told our only other options are to wait to see if any of the other houses use the same surveyor so we can use their house sale as an appeal or we would need to pay the difference in price.

I'm a bit upset that because the developers may not have given access to the surveyor, this has some how turned into our problem. I would have thought that the surveyors would just arrange a new date? I even offered to pay for them to go back out and the answer was no. 

Feels like we are about to lose the house and wanted an outsiders opinion... sorry if this is long and doesn't make much sense its been a bit of whirlwind. Does anyone think there is anything else we can try?

kingstreet

A newbuild is usually valued off plan and using comparables, the recent sales of similar property. Are there no other recent completions?

Missbunny14

kingstreet said:

A newbuild is usually valued off plan and using comparables, the recent sales of similar property. Are there no other recent completions?

That's what we was told, so we didn't see an issue with this but apparently the surveyor didn't have all the information which is why the developers arranged the meeting with him. Every comparable the developers sent over to my mortgage advisor was embarrassing and in the end he agreed to send it because we had nothing else. They were comparables for different house styles built on the same development by a different developer. These were timber framed houses, ours is traditional and they were completed when we had the stamp duty break. 

There is one other person who has completed on a house identical to ours, however they were cash buyers who didn't need the survey. There are five other houses like ours on the development and none of them have had their survey yet. 

oz0707

I'd say the builder either has to agree with the values and sell it for 20k less or prove otherwise. I think your fighting for the wrong team here. Its in your interest to let the builder know you will walk unless they can either justify the price or drop it to the valuation. Desktop surveys are pretty common and I can't see it being much different to visiting a new build, especially If the surveyor has attended the specific site. 

RelievedSheff

It is pretty rare for a new build to be under valued which does seem to suggest that they are over priced.

Missbunny14

oz0707 said:

I'd say the builder either has to agree with the values and sell it for 20k less or prove otherwise. I think your fighting for the wrong team here. Its in your interest to let the builder know you will walk unless they can either justify the price or drop it to the valuation. Desktop surveys are pretty common and I can't see it being much different to visiting a new build, especially If the surveyor has attended the specific site. 

Don't get me wrong, we had a strongly worded discussion with the developers about their pricing however once they said the surveyor never even tried to contact them we felt like we couldn't fight against that. Our only option now is to try and get them to lower the cost i guess. 

comeandgo

So what price are the ones on the development like yours going for?  I know when ore new build was valued it was the first of its kind but others were planned for the next stage of houses and had sold at higher than ours was priced at so value was accepted.

user1977

Why would a site visit make any difference to the valuation? They know the location and the size - the condition of the property is assumed to be complete and brand new.

ccbrowning

Is it e-surv doing the survey? I'm having a lot of fun just getting them to carry one out on a new build we're looking at. Game of phone tag between everyone now for a week.

Worried we'll be in a similar situation as it's a small development of very expensive homes and we'll be one of the earlier surveys. I think a couple sold before, but at the start of year for less money.

I'd have a discussion about lowering the price or some upgrades on the house, although I doubt they will budge if they were never even contacted, as you suggest.

Missbunny14

comeandgo said:

So what price are the ones on the development like yours going for?  I know when ore new build was valued it was the first of its kind but others were planned for the next stage of houses and had sold at higher than ours was priced at so value was accepted.

All of the houses we saw comparables for were not sold by the same developer. There are three developers building on this site, our developer could only show comparables of two bedroom houses sold by another developer. They were cheaper than ours by about 25 grand if I remember rightly however these were brought at the beginning of 2021 and are not the same. 

Missbunny14

user1977 said:

Why would a site visit make any difference to the valuation? They know the location and the size - the condition of the property is assumed to be complete and brand new.

I don't know, It's not my job to know this information which is why I expected better answers than what I have received.