property valuation

[botwood]

last year my daughter purchased a house for �239,000. they have recently got into financial difficulties and need to resell the house only to be told that it was overvalued and that it is actually only worth �225,000 that the estate agent who is still selling these properties at �239,000 is over pricing them. how come the building society upheld the valuation. is there any way she can sue them

[mountainboo]

As a property proffessional for 11 years i came accross this many times, and although the agent overpriced it the surveyor is ultimately responsible and must provide comparable evidence to the lender i.e 2 or 3 similar properies that have SOLD (being on the market is not a comparible indicator to price as essentially anyone can ask anything pricewise however a SOLD price , prefferable an Exchanged and completed SOLD price is the ultimate in comparible evidence)
So the liability lies with the valuation surveyor, and if he hasnt provided comparibles to the lender you may have a case against them. The Estate Agent is only resposible for mis-descriptions and other undisclosed details under the Estate Agents Act 1979 and Property Misdescriptions Act 1991.
Essentially the surveyor should knock down overpricing.
Good luck, from Mr Mountainboo!

[botwood]

Thanks for the advice I will pass this on to my daughter.

Kind Regards

[Oneeyedvic]

Sorry, but a property is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. If you had 3 surveyors round from different companies, they would value the property at 3 different prices.

Who told you that the property s worth only �225,000? If an Estate Agent still has them selling for �239,000 then presumably that is what they are worth.

A building society may also have just asked for a 'drive by' survey to take place. They would therefore have asked the surveyor if the price is sensible and in line with current prices. If there were no comparables at the time, then the surveyor could easily have agreed with the higher price.

[dolly pond]

i agree with mountainboo, surveyors and us estate agents do different jobs, although we use comparables of sold properties, we do not go much further than that.
prices have changed recently and if theres loads of similar ones on the market, this will bring down prices.
as mountainboo said, ask the surveyor for his proof.

[botwood]

There are two estate agents still selling the properties at �239,950. There were 3 properties left and 2 have just sold yesterday. My daughter has had 4 valuations by local estate agents and they have all said that the marketing agents are selling the properties way too high for the area and the maximum they are worth are �225,000. At the time she purchased the house I cannot see where they got their comparable evidence from. I have advised my son-in-law to write to the surveyors requesting evidence of their 3 comparables as only one property had sold prior to my daughter moving in.

[rojash]

But if the agents have just sold two for 239,000 each, then that's clearly what they will fetch. It seems to me that the problem is not that it was overvalued originally, but that whoever is saying it is worth 225,000 is undervaluing it.

[botwood]

That would seem logical but the estate agents are adamant that the property is only worth the lower price. Apparently there is another development locally where they have had the same problem and they are suing the builders. Unfortunately this is a private builder. I think it is going to be watch this space and see if she can sell it at a lower price than the builder is asking but higher than what the agents are valuing the property for.

[Oneeyedvic]

Sorry, but itsounds to me like the local estate agents have their noses out of joint as they don't have the business.

How they can honestly say that a property is not worth a price when there are a load of properties selling for that price is plain ridiculous.

[dolly pond]

they may well sell for 239k but see what they get valued at by the surveyors. i could offer 267k cos i love the house and its perfect, cos i know no better! but it doesnt mean the surveyor will agree!!!! take no notice of the estate agents and go onto rightmove.co.uk and look up sold prices, its only helpful if u know the size and accomodation of the house, but its factual info from land registry.

good luck