Divorce - valuing house as marital asset - STBXH in alternate reality

[Moanranger]

In process of splitting up so H wants to buy my equity in a flat, then I am to purchase a house. I suggested getting 3 local valuations and take the average. Now that I have got them, STBXH says these should be discounted as houses generally sell for less than asking price!! WTF!
Is this not the accepted way to value a house in these circumstances? I may need to get a lawyer to write him a letter (cost, cost, cost..) Am I not right, here?

I think your H is right. You think you're getting a valuation but you're not. They're telling you (usually) what you should market it for. If you want to know how much it's actually worth you'll have to pay a surveyor. Given I presume you're talking if equity in the tens of thousands, and avoiding a dispute with H, I'd pay for a proper valuation if I were you.

Yes, I agree with Collaborate. If you've had estate agents giving you their free estimate of what the house is worth, that's what they suggest you market it for. It would be very unusual to achieve the asking price, especially atm.

A surveyor, doing a proper valuation would have to provide recent comparable sales to tell you what the house is actually worth.

Ok, so who do I actually contact? Where do I find such a being?

My DPs ex was awkward with valuations.
We were quite honest with estate agents as to why we wanted the valuations and they gave us realistic prices.
We also looked at sold prices on Rightmove and put those forward.

Can your mortgage company provide a valuation? When we recently approached our mortgage company for a quote when we were looking at moving, they already had an approximate valuation based on sale prices in the area.

That's the royal "we", by the way.

Look on Zoopla or Mouseprice for sold prices.

H is right.

Let's say you were selling but not getting divorced.

You get 3 agents in.

Values are:

£250,000

£240,000

£230,000

You go with the agent who advises £240,000.

But you don't expect to actually be paid the full asking price do you?

Just google for a chartered surveyor mke sure they're a member of RICS though and phone them up!

Check recently sold prices on rightmove and zoopla to check you're in the right ball park.

I just had a property survey/ valuation done and it cost around £250. An independent valuer might be the way to go if you can't mediate.