Remortgage valuation

[cunningplan101]

When you've had a remortgage valuation in the past, have you provided the valuer with any additional information supporting the valuation? For example, details of comparable properties recently sold, or extra info about the property that's not immediately obvious (such as share of freehold if it's a flat, etc), or details of improvements you've made since purchase/last valuation, or anything like that?

Or do you think giving info like that might annoy the valuer - seem like you're being pushy or trying to do their job for them?

We have just had our house valued for remortgaging. We had a rough idea of what it was worth and had had it valued by an local agent who valued it at 50k more than we thought. When the valuer can out he asked us outright what we thought it was worth and what we needed for the remortgage (we were going for a lower LTV) the answer to both was 550k. The value came in at 550k which was the same as the agent had valued.
I would speak to the valuer, they are usually pretty amenable.

I have to say Havetowearheels' experience sounds really poor in my view - I would say (without obviously knowing all the details) the valuer sounds really unprofessional. It may of course be an absolute coincidence that the value given was what was needed / what owners thought it was valued at, but generally speaking valuers should disregard owners interpretation of value / what is needed for the mortgage. They are there simply to give their professional opinion of value for the bank's purposes.

In terms of you OP giving them information, a professional valuer should have all of that information to hand - share of freehold etc (would usually be provided by mortgage company), improvements that impact on value should be obvious.

Last time we did a remortgage, we had to 'appeal' the first valuation given because, essentially, the valuer did a 'desktop' valuation i.e. sat at desk and went on zoopla / sold house prices and came up with a completely inappropriate value for our house because she / he didnt bother to visit our road or even look on google maps to work out which house was ours....

Our road is made up of terraced period properties on the lower half, to detached, larger period properties further up the road. Prices range from £250k to £550k on the same road.

Our property is one of the larger, detached houses but because the desktop valuation was based on an average sold price on the entire road, our house was undervalued.

We had to ask the valuer to come out and do a proper on site valuation, which eventually happened and valuation was fine in the end.

Anyway, not sure whether giving them actual sold house prices etc will help, but some sort of comments regarding the house might save the faff we had re: the above

In the end, I had:

• a copy of the last valuation (when we bought), which was higher than the eventual purchase price as we ended up renegotiating
• a copy of planning permission we've obtained since buying
• a printed sheet with brief list of improvements we've made since purchase (e.g. new hardwood flooring) plus some comparable sold & sold stc properties in the area with some brief reasoning for each comparison

I put them on the kitchen table and then, towards the end of the valuation, I just mentioned them sort of casually: "I didn't know if you'd need these, but just in case ... " The valuer said they'd be useful and took them all with him - didn't seem annoyed by it at all.

Haven't heard back on the valuation yet - hopefully tomorrow! Fingers crossed.

Oh and the valuer didn't seem to have any info from the mortgage company beyond what I'd valued it at. The night before he came, he rang to confirm the appointment and asked if it was leasehold - I said yes but with share of freehold. Then at the actual valuation, he again asked who the freeholder was when we were chatting.

So I think quite a good thing that I wrote it down too for him. I get the idea that mortgage valuers are quite overworked at the moment. He was really nice though - pointed out a couple of things to me that needed fixing. He didn't need to do that as he's basically working for the bank.

They are usually a good breed IMHO and will listen to what you have to say. Hope you get the valuation you need