Valuation down valued by 100,000 21 October 2022 at 12:26PM in Mortgages & endowments 29 replies 3.1K views

K_S

sarah_blue said:

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! 

@sarah_blue Given that you already own the property, what has the Val been done for? Is it for your remortgage or are you the vendor and it's the buyer's lender that had it downvalued?

If it's a remortgage, how much of an impact does the valuation have on what you're trying to borrow and the cost of it? If it does have a material impact then it might be worth getting your broker to look at alternate lenders that use a different surveyor panel for their valuation. There's no guarantee that that will return a different result, but it has often salvaged my clients' purchases when the first lender has materially downvalued it.

If you're the vendor then it's a bit more tricky as you don't have much control over what lenders the buyer uses.

sarah_blue

GAMBITv5 said:

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!

As I said this wasn’t an estate agent, inflated or otherwise it was a valuation for a mortgage lender less than a year ago. Prices in our area (commuter belt in the Home Counties to London with a train station in the village) have continued to rise since that last valuation.

sarah_blue

@K_S thanks - we own the property. The previous valuation was by nationwide for a remortgage. I think the difference was that they used a reputable valuation company. We’ve managed to find out who the valuation company for the recent valuation are and I’m not sure how they are still in business! The reviews are absolutely terrible with this issue all too common!

K_S

sarah_blue said:

@K_S thanks - we own the property. The previous valuation was by nationwide for a remortgage. I think the difference was that they used a reputable valuation company. We’ve managed to find out who the valuation company for the recent valuation are and I’m not sure how they are still in business! The reviews are absolutely terrible with this issue all too common!

@sarah_blue Ah ok, so you're the vendor in this sale. Not a lot you can do unfortunately besides pushing the buyer to try with another lender.

sarah_blue

@K_S sorry - misunderstanding! We own the property and are remortgaging to consolidate existing mortgages and release a little capital! We could look at other lenders it’s just that recently, obviously, lending has gone bonkers and this offer has been on the table a while it’s just that the valuers already 3 weeks behind schedule owing to the fact they couldn’t get their act together in the first place - whole experience with them has been an utter s*** show tbh. As I say looking at the reviews no idea how they are still in business!

mi-key

Ignore Zoopla, their valuations are very strange. They value mine at £339,000 - £414,000 ! Which it definitely isn't, it is more like £280 - £300 based on recent sales in the street and similar properties in the other streets on my estate 

Did the valuers actually come into the house and look at it, or just do a drive by ( or probably from their office chair ) valuation? 

mi-key

It is better to look on rightmove at recent sold prices to get a real idea. If Zoopla say the ones either side are worth £500K they are probably actually worth £400K 

Also as others said, does the valuation actually make any difference to the remortgage offer they are making? This would depend on the equity you have etc.. It could be that it would end up being the same even with the lower valuation

simon_or

sarah_blue said:

@K_S sorry - misunderstanding! We own the property and are remortgaging to consolidate existing mortgages and release a little capital! We could look at other lenders it’s just that recently, obviously, lending has gone bonkers and this offer has been on the table a while it’s just that the valuers already 3 weeks behind schedule owing to the fact they couldn’t get their act together in the first place - whole experience with them has been an utter s*** show tbh. As I say looking at the reviews no idea how they are still in business!

Valuations are very subjective. There's not a great lot you can do besides find another bank.

I hope you're using a broker because they need to make sure that the chances of the other bank using the same valuer is minimal.

I had a similar issue for a BTL purchase last year where Accord valued it 15% lower than the purchase price and Skipton valued it at the purchase price, just 2 weeks apart, after my broker suggested getting a second app in if I wanted to continue with the purchase.

sarah_blue

simon_or said:

sarah_blue said:

@K_S sorry - misunderstanding! We own the property and are remortgaging to consolidate existing mortgages and release a little capital! We could look at other lenders it’s just that recently, obviously, lending has gone bonkers and this offer has been on the table a while it’s just that the valuers already 3 weeks behind schedule owing to the fact they couldn’t get their act together in the first place - whole experience with them has been an utter s*** show tbh. As I say looking at the reviews no idea how they are still in business!

Valuations are very subjective. There's not a great lot you can do besides find another bank.

I hope you're using a broker because they need to make sure that the chances of the other bank using the same valuer is minimal.

I had a similar issue for a BTL purchase last year where Accord valued it 15% lower than the purchase price and Skipton valued it at the purchase price, just 2 weeks apart, after my broker suggested getting a second app in if I wanted to continue with the purchase.

Thanks - getting a decent rate on a mortgage at the mo is not easy though so was hoping to resolve this because we got a good rate locked in prior to the recent turmoil! 

I understand that these things can be subjective I just can’t understand how they can be so wildly inaccurate! It’s literally a lot less than anything on the street has sold for even houses much smaller than ours! 

Suitcasesparks

sarah_blue said:

@K_S sorry - misunderstanding! We own the property and are remortgaging to consolidate existing mortgages and release a little capital! We could look at other lenders it’s just that recently, obviously, lending has gone bonkers and this offer has been on the table a while it’s just that the valuers already 3 weeks behind schedule owing to the fact they couldn’t get their act together in the first place - whole experience with them has been an utter s*** show tbh. As I say looking at the reviews no idea how they are still in business!

I wouldn't read too much into the reviews of valuers, they're hardly representative. The only people motivated to post a review are those annoyed about their house being down valued!