we are purchasing a 25 percent share in a housing assocaition property this is with de montfort housing they have valued our share at 31 250 however today we received a call from a mortgage provider saying that their independant valuer has valued the share at 28 750 this is a difference of 2500 we now have to go and ask the housing association if they will lower their price if not we will have to pay our mortgage advisor the difference of 2500 which we really cant afford at the moment as we are already putting a 20 percent deposit down towards our mortgage i was womdering if anyone had any ideas of what the housing association would do and if they are likely to lower their price we dont really want to be paying more for a house that its actually worth thanks

I suggest that you call the housing association and tell them about the lender's valuation. Tell them that you are concerned that you are paying too much for the property and ask if they will consider a reduction in the selling price. Offer to provide them with a copy of the valuation.

The Housing Association may be able to give you documentary evidence of recent sales. These will either confirm the lender's valuation (so ask for a price reduction) or confirm the valuation as reasonable (in which case take that to your lender to make the case for an inaccurate valuation by their expert). You can get recent sales info from sites such as upmystreet and right move.

Remember, the difference in valuations is £10,000. If the lenders valuation is correct and you raise the extra £2,500 the house will need to go up in value by £10,000 before it's worth what you paid for it. Less the dreaded stack of fees that go with this horrid process.

Hope that helps.

J

thanks for your help im sure it will work itself out in the end , we have sent our letter of to de montfort now just waiting for a reply will keep updating.

hello, I was in this same predicament, basically our shotfall was 30,000 which on our share amounted to 10,000 shortfall. Luckily this happened to 3 other flats before ours so the HA was very very quick and it took them 7 days to authorise the shortfall. To be honest within this climate they will not want to loose a sale. It can however take upto 6 months for the authorisation, I would suggest just being firm at the end of the day you do not want to buy an apartment no matter on what scheme that is not worth the money and let them know you will just go elsewhere. I am sure they will down value on a small figure like that.

I would suggest researching prices around that area and then sending them in to back up your case as now we have got our apartment for 10,000 less than the average around that area.

Good luck and anymore questions on shared ownership dont hesistate to ask as I have just completed and know the stress and complications that come across.

Hi Josh,

Thanks for your post, I was just wondering about the resolution. Did the HA reduce the price by 30K and therefore the necessary contribution by 10K? (The best outcome for you), or did they only reduce the amount that you had to contribute by 10K and keep the value the same (so you had a lower %)?

Thanks

Sparky.

they reduced the price by 30k so still have the same % but now my mortgage, rent and service charge has gone down which is a bonus. And now the purchase price is lower than what most similar properties have been selling for in that area!

Excellent! Seems like you've got a good chance to save some serious money zmann!

Sparky

Hi, I work for a large Housing Association in the homeowners section and we have been having problems with valuations for 12 months now. On one of our developments a property was valued at £75k and the buyers lender also valued it at the same price. Then 2 months later the house next door was valued at 75k but then the same valuer for the lender who had valued the other property 2 months previous only valued it at 60k.!!! When we queried this with the lenders valuer he said he was advised to reduce it by the lender..... We haven't reduced the prices any of our developments so the sales are falling through. Our financial director will not reduce the prices because we cant afford to.. We are just riding out the storm.

Good luck with yours.

hi just to let everyone know the housing association and my lender both refused to budge on their valuation so i ended up paying the diffrence which im not very happy about but their were other people waiting for a house and i didnt feel safe calling their bluff as i did not want to lose the house.so i brought a house that is not worth what i paid for it,but were in now and hopefully house prices will level of soon and one day we might make a profit