Remortgage Valuations

tightbarsteward

My fixed rate is coming to an end with NR & am looking at remortgaging with a different lender. I am a little paranoid about the valuation.

About a year ago my mate who is a builder knocked part of an internal, load-bearing wall down to make the kitchen open plan. He is not over furnished in the brain department & mentioned nothing of building reg's. I new nothing of the need for them until a electrician came around to give us a quote & wouldn't do the job as we didn't have the regs for the wall. The work in the kitchen side isn't finished as I have not managed to find an electrician to put extra sockets in before I board & plaster it.

Anyone know where I would stand if the valuer/surveyor started questioning it? I may be worrying about nothing as I understand some valuations are done on a 'drive-by' basis. Also next door is up for sale at the mo.

chilli_dog

think if you get a valuer you will be ok, you may get trouble if they send out a surveyor.

Depends on your LTV foa a postcode valuation.

Who is you new mortgage going to be with?

Sleepy_2

Recently had a remortgage done with, er, a part missing chimney breast (with the help of "a builder friend"). We were able to plaster board over the area to make it look better temporarily and I too was a little paranoid...

but the Surveyor/Valuer wasnt a Structural Engineer and was happy that the house was still a works in progress and a £15,000 retention was held until a later reinspection...

would it be obvious to the Valuer (10 min quick valuation) that it was a load bearing wall?

tightbarsteward

chilli_dog wrote: »

think if you get a valuer you will be ok, you may get trouble if they send out a surveyor.

Depends on your LTV foa a postcode valuation.

Who is you new mortgage going to be with?

The LTV if I value my house the same as next door is up for is 52%

The new mortgage will be with the Abbey

chilli_dog

Lucky you 52%!!

I was with the abbey, unless they have changed its probably a valuer, but sleepy has a good point, they arent structual engineers but they arent thick!!

Might be worth while getting it checked out in the long run.

silvercar

Seems a fussy electrician if they won't do some work without seeing the building regs, unless the structure is actually unsafe.

Has the work been done incorrectly, or does it just not have the correct paperwork?

tightbarsteward

silvercar wrote: »

Seems a fussy electrician if they won't do some work without seeing the building regs, unless the structure is actually unsafe.

Has the work been done incorrectly, or does it just not have the correct paperwork?

My mate is an experienced builder & tells me he has done that particular job many times before. The extended opening was fitted with the correct type of RSJ to support the load.

I just dont have the paper work. However I think if I can manage to get the electrical work done then get my kitchen plastered I dont see any reason why I couldn't tell the valuer the house was like this when I bought it 3 years ago.

spark1

If you trust your mate, get building control round to pass the work already done, then get a spark to put the sockets in, get a certificate for the electrics, do the making good, then get building control back to pass it and issue a completition certificate, cause when I moved my mortgage to Abbey, the bloke they sent round to survey / value my house wanted to know the ins and outs of a ducks !!!!, he wanted to see my planning permission confirmation, building / double glazing completition certificates and I was only borrowing 25% the value of my house.

MortgageMamma

Abbey may not do a drive by val on this, they have not been doing many of those lately.

tightbarsteward

Could anyone also tell me if I need to employ a solicitor for a remortgage? I was just going to handle it myself.

herbiesjp

Some lenders and mortgage products allow for free legal fees, so you do not need to find a solicitor, however other deals will not include this incentive.

So you will need to double check whther the product you choose offers this benefit, and also number crunch as to whether it is better to go for a deal that does not include this benefit when compared to a deal that does.