Valuation down valued by 100,000 21 October 2022 at 11:26AM in Mortgages & endowments 29 replies 3.1K views

sarah_blue

Hello - hope someone able to help. We have a mortgage offer which was ready to go subject to our house valuation. The valuation however came back 100,000 less than the last one under a year ago (by nationwide) when property’s in our area are actually going up! In fact it’s less than the street value and our house is the largest on the street and has the most recent renovations. Add to that the fact that the valuer knew the previous valuation and said at the time he couldn’t see it being significantly different and things seem a little off. Mortgage company is saying that the valuation cannot be challenged. Is this really how things are done in the mortgage world? Is there any grounds to make a challenge and what would that look like? Any advice gratefully received! 

ACG

Some lenders allow you to appeal a valuation, but it gets referred back to the surveyor. You are asking the surveyor to admit they got it wrong. In order to do that you need to provide evidence that they have not already seen. I have never had an appeal overturned in almost a decade. 

Easier to find a different lender. 

Sea_Shell

What's that as a percentage?

london21

What was the property listed for?

100k from a £1 million pounds property different to that of £300k property. 

housebuyer143

Are you sure it isn't a typo? Maybe the person typing the report pressed the wrong number on the keyboard. I bet it happens.
Can you ask them to go back to surveyor and double check?
How much is your house worth? What percentage is £100k in the scheme of things?

sarah_blue

25% reduction. Our house was valued at 420000. The houses either side of us are valued at over 520000 on Zoopla. Neither are as big and we had the whole place renovated 2 years ago - every single room. It’s in much better condition than either of the other 2. It’s only being valued 10,000 more than its price on Zoopla which is based on a 3 bed, one reception with a downstairs bathroom. It’s now a four bed, 3 bathroom with 4 rooms down stairs and a huge kitchen/ dining room…

dunstonh

The valuation however came back 100,000 less than the last one under a year ago (by nationwide) when property’s in our area are actually going up!

Lenders operate different pricing criteria to surveyors to those used by estate agents.   In periods of rising markets and good economic data, the lenders tend to be more lax on valuations.  In periods of economic stability and fears of a house price crash, they tend to be much tighter on valuations.

 Is this really how things are done in the mortgage world?

Its been like that for decades.

sarah_blue

Thanks Dunstonh - in fact the last valuation was carried out by nationwide for mortgage purposes not an estate agent. For estate agent purposes the valuation is actually 560,000

we aren’t looking for an estate agent equivalent just something realistic… 

housebuyer143

sarah_blue said:

Thanks Dunstonh - in fact the last valuation was carried out by nationwide for mortgage purposes not an estate agent. For estate agent purposes the valuation is actually 560,000

we aren’t looking for an estate agent equivalent just something realistic… 

I personally think a 25% downvalue especially when you make it bigger is crazy.
It might be worth going to a different lender, one who uses a different surveying firm.

GAMBITv5

I wouldn’t pay any attention to Zoopla. They valued my house (waiting to exchange) at £425k. We sold for £375k based on 5 independent valuation by agents and RICS

this was also before the hoo-haa economy crisis took place too… looks like a classic case of estate agents trying to overvalue for commission!

kingstreet

What are the comparables? That's actual recent (last six months) sales of similar property in the vicinity (upto 0.5m).

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices.html