Under Valuation And Error
Under Valuation And Error
It is high time, in the UK, things changed with the selling and buying process, relating to residential property. There are many things wrong, and one of them is the fact a buyer can instruct a surveyor to inspect and report on their intended purchase, and that this often comes with a personal valuation from the person who is on site for the survey. The report and valuation are never shown to the seller, and rarely to an agent or solicitor acting on behalf of the seller. So, the only people who are privy to this report are the very people on the other side; the buying side!
This is open to issues, questions and the possibility of incorrect surveying and inaccurate valuations. And this is what happened to me, when I was selling my property!
Purslows suggested, in their report, that their 'may be' issues, when they had no proof that there were! This is common practice, to protect the surveyor from a claim, should an issue be proven after purchase. It is a total con! Why? Because basically they cover everything, when, in most cases, nothing needs to be referred to. This then 'leads' a buyer into suspecting there are problems, when none exist! I KNOW this happened with the report on my property, but worse still I knew they undervalued, as the figure given to the buyer was disclosed to me, and it was way below the market figure for my area, and road! Purslows DID NOT take into account the fact that a number of other houses had sold, within a very short distance of me, and all of similar size, and state of repair, for around the same price, and these figures had not been published by Land Registry! So, they were using sales figures at least 6 months out of date, and the fact that few sales had occurred in the run up, meant they were, actually, basing their 'average' on even older sales figures, but alarmingly they were using an average of all kinds of properties in the locality, including unmodernised, which historically were selling for substantially less! Thus, their figures were wrong! This is exactly what the infamous Zoopla do, with their on-line and contentious valuations; they take a whole area, not just one road, and they mix up all the properties, and then give an average! This 'average' is not based on like for absolute like, nor absolutely precise dates, nor anything other than a rough grouping, which is inaccurate.
I suspect (I know) that lenders do ask for property valuations, and quite rightly; because money is being leant, and should prices be very high, and their follows a slump, then negative equity and possible foreclosures mean a negative recoupment. So, whilst I see and know this, this company seems notorious for their undervaluing, and when there are no lenders in site, in this instance!
This is common practice with this company, and I must say estate agents in the area seem to know this, and it is high time they became accountable for this secrecy and action that is not based on anything, other than their own thoughts, and miscalculations. As a seller and a buyer I would not use them, not based on what I now know and have experienced. And anyone selling does have the right to refuse them, as I will do if I ever sell again.