Landlord had a valuation done but won't say why.

[AmethystRain]

I live in a part of Leeds that is still relatively reasonably priced. Just a few miles outside the city centre. I've been renting a small two bedroom terrace for the past 10 years privately from the same landlord. He is fairly easy going and I rarely hear from him and if there's a problem he's usually pretty fast at sorting it out. I'm happy here and would like to stay if I can.

A few weeks ago he told me he wanted to get the place valued. I asked him if he was planning to sell and he said he wasn't sure what he wanted to do, he just needed a valuation, but that if he did decide to sell, he would give me plenty of notice.

I've started looking for a new rental, just ads online and the prices are ridiculous. I've never had a rent increase and it looks like even the tiniest studios are going for £600 or more!

So the estate agent turned up yesterday and it was a really strange "valuation". He barely looked at the outside of the house and when I pointed out the issue with the damp that's a recent problem in the kitchen, he seemed completely disinterested. Bizarrely he asked me if the gas cooker belonged to me. Its ancient! If it were an Aga or similar then I might have understood why, but why on earth ask about an old appliance for a remortgage.. or even a sale. He also asked about my washing machine. Its not an integral appliance so I thought that was odd too.

He was in the house for all of 10 minutes. Anyone else think it really odd? Surely an agent looks at location, structural integrity, interior decorating standard and maintenance etc.? And measures the rooms?

I don't know whether I should try to move out ASAP or wait for my landlord to decide to sell.... or not. I feel like I'm in limbo and the way the agent carried on it makes me wonder what is going to happen...

Valuations don't take long. They can get most of the information they need without even seeing the property.

Your LL's words suggest he might be thinking of selling but isn't sure. The other reason to get a valuation done is if he is thinking of remortgaging to get money from the bank for another project, without selling.

Sounds pretty normal. Valuations don't take long. It's a bit odd to look at what appliances are staying at that stage but sometimes they go into that level of detail in the listing. Room measuring would be done separately if your landlord decides to instruct that agent. Structural integrity would be considered by the buyer's surveyor.

Could be any of the things above, or they are getting divorced and needs it for financials.

I had valuations on my own house on Saturday, they each just looked at every room briefly and then chatted with me about things like the appliances (gas or electric cooker, that type of thing) the boiler and whether the loft was boarded/had a ladder etc. The photographer for the agent I picked came round yesterday and he did the measuring for the floor plan.

i do have a rental property as well, and I got that valued recently too, partly to make sure my insurance was still providing adequate cover, and partly because I was thinking about possibly selling it so that I don’t have to pay ridiculous amounts of stamp duty on my new house. Mine’s an HMO though so definitely would have gone to another landlord type. Yours really may not have any firm plans right now, but I totally get the anxiety about it. I hope he makes a decision soon and tells you either way so you’re not left in limbo.

It is probably a valuation for the rentable value, not the sale value and the landlord may want to put the rent up to market rates. Or it might be a sales valuation, but if they are interested in the white goods my money is on a rental valuation.

Valuations are for different reasons not just for selling, he might want to remortgage or need it for a divorce financial settlement. He also might want to use the house as a secured asset against a large loan hence the valuation.

However, it might be sensible for you to start planning for a worst case scenario situation. Ensure you have enough deposit for a new rental property & start looking for houses. You might not need to but it won't hurt being prepared just in case.

I'm getting valuation done for divorce settlement. Maybe he doesn't want to say that?

We had a valuation the other day where they didn’t even go upstairs 😄in fairness we only bought the place 2 years ago so they just asked if it’s broadly the same as when we bought and we said yes and they crunched the numbers based on uplift in the market in that time.

If you’ve not had a rent increase in a decade your landlord has been very generous - as a PP says I’d get myself organised just in case as it’ll be a nasty shock going from 2012 prices to 2022 ones.

Even if he’s thinking about selling it, there’s no point looking at other specific properties as they are going within days anyway in Leeds. I suppose you could just put some money aside, if possible for you, for additional deposit/moving costs in case he gives you notice.

Remortgage?
Insurance?
Divorce?
He should tell you if he is planning to sell though. Especially if you have lived there 10 years.

If you've not had a rent increase in 10 years and have discovered that other rental properties cost a lot more, could your Landlord have realised the same thing and be getting the place valued for a rental price more in line with current value? As EA was asking about cooker, that sounds like it's about rent not sale.

That's an estate agent's market appraisal for rental or sale, ie how much do they think they could achieve/what would they market it at.

It's not a valuation for sale or remortgage (that couldn't be done by an estate agent).

So LL is either thinking about selling or thinking about putting the rent up.

We had our house valued recently. Estate agent didn't even want to see it all. I explained we need a bathroom re-doing and one of the windows replacing. Said 'If you are wanting to sell don't bother doing anything. You'll get at least xxx and it'll sell really quickly. We've got buyers waiting for houses like this.' and left. 10 mins max.
Perhaps your landlord wants to mortgage it to buy another but to let? He should tell you though.