A friend going through divorce has to have his house valued. Agreement was reached on a particular surveyor. His fee will be £1000 if given the go ahead.
Needless to say alternative surveyors are being sought.
What exactly is involved in a house valuation? Must be more to than wandering about and then making a guess.
mark
Bloody Hell!
Wet finger in the air combined with local knowledge.
Just tell him to pretend he's selling up and get a few local estate agents round to value the house. Take the average and subtract 10% for a more realistic sale price, as opposed to asking price. Let the ex-to- be have a say in the choice of agents to avoid any comeback.
MBQ
Nope - wandering about and making a guess is pretty much it. That - and looking at estate agents details of similar properties in the area.
A grand is the sort of price for a full structural survey. A valuation would be under a ton.
I just used a local estate agent for my divorce valuation - didn't cost a penny. I'd guess one of them must be demanding a full structural survey for some reason?
Tricky - easier if you sell and then split the proceeds, especially in a moving market. I assume one of them is buying the other out and they can't agree a price (much the cheapest way of doing it).
It's no different from buying a house (or shouldn't be) and the costs depend on the survey done, not the valuation (or should). All dependent on house value possibly: "Building society survey and valuation" (worthless), few hundred. "RICS homebuyer's report and valuation" (worthwhile) several hundred. "Full structural" (only worthwhile in special circumstances) £1000plus.
I would say, for a divorce, £1000 was too steep (unless it's a monster house).
The two parties should agree (tricky :o( ) to get three estate agents valuations, take the average and subtract, say 15% and use that figure - that should be free and close enough.
You don't *have* to do any of this a special way, the two parties just have to reach an agreement to go in the consent order. They should not allow themselves to be bullied by solicitors (who probably drink with the surveyors). The solicitors work *for* them and give proper advice (hopefully). Generally it is wise to follow their advice but you don't have to.
Impossible to be sure in today's market. At the peak of the market the condition of the house didn't seem to make any difference round here - unless it had serious flaws.
If you watch any of those property programs where they do up a place and get valuations before and after it appears to be little more than a lottery judging by the wide variation in estimates from local estate agents. No one can ever know exactly what a place is worth until it's actually sold and the actual buyers in the market at that time reveal themselves.
I can't see why a sensible option for court wouldn't be to just get several free estate agent's valuations and average them. Paying a small fortune for something that can't be taken as any more accurate seems pointless. Surveyors don't have any better access to the crystal ball of house valuations than estate agents or anyone else. In fact I think in general they'd have less knowledge of local market conditions. Their primary expertise is structural integrity.
(presuming typical semi sized house) £150 is more than reasonable for a good valuation on a house. This will involve having a very good look around the house to find any faults etc. A structural survey can be had for £350, so your Surveyor is taking the piss. My mate works as a Surveyor, he says there is very little work out there, and what is there, has to be done at a discount to usual prices. What are termed as 'drive-by' valuations are now £50+vat. He does actually stop and has a quick look around the house to see the general exterior state, then he does a search of previous sale prices in the area to give a guide to the sale price, he doesnt say £100K, he'll say between, say, £85 and 115k.
Pay more and you get a more detailed valuation with sale prices of local houses. Alan.
Just had a couple done, market valuations by chartered surveyor, £175 + VAT. Valuation is made on the basis of comparables. Not a great deal to it, but I needed them to be impartial/chartered for some legal stuff. Estate agents are what it *might* sell at, surveyor is a professional estimate of what it *is* worth. Apparently. I could have haggled over the price.
Rob
... but you can discover FAIRLY recent "sale prices of local houses" for free just by browsing
In an "estate" location like where I live it's not rocket science to drive around a bit and find which house numbers are the same "model" as yours, then look 'em up on the list.
Regards, Simon.
The house is detached and biggish. It is an old house with no comparables in the area. All communications are via solicitors.
mark
Simon Stroud coughed up some electrons that declared:
Cheers
Tim
Estate agents can give an estimate, but what is their value based on if there are no local comparables - ie it wont be very accurate. Then there's the reality that EA estimates are currently rather unrealistic, ie the figures in the windows arent selling many houses. So you need to come up with something the 2 of you may be prepared to accept, and know ahead that its not going to be accurate. That or just make an offer.
Maybe a better way to value is to look for comparables in similarly pricesd areas at auction. Those are real world sale prices.
NT
Shame the figures aren't up to date. Six months is a long time in the current climate. Why solicitors aren't obliged to notify the land registry on completion is a mystery.
They do AFAIK, immediately - the concluding part of a sale these days is the legal transfer using a TR4 form which goes to the Land Registry.
If you want to simply transfer title, you can get a TR4 and DIY it.
Of course, the solicitors handle the complicated bit of money transfer and making the whole thing as secure and as "atomic" a transaction as possible.
Not sure how you DIY that bit, but it's probably possible...
I think it's just the LR being slow, releasing data in aggregate batches or something...
Cheers
Tim
I thought they did it every three months.
MBQ
Neither my house, nor my neighbour's house, both of which were bought around 3 years ago, show up on the LT registry. I've come across lots of other properties too that don't show up. Maris
email addresses for spamming scum.
And ... comes up with a nonsense valuation. Ergo, heap of poo.
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