We look at Terry’s complaint about the valuation of a property he wanted to buy, which was carried out by an independent surveyor.
What happened
Terry applied to his bank for a mortgage, so the bank instructed an independent surveyor to value the property. The surveyor was qualified through RICS and had no links to the bank.
The surveyor valued the property much lower than the asking price Terry had agreed. The bank’s mortgage offer was based on the value stated by the surveyor.
As the seller wouldn’t budge on the price, Terry didn’t have enough money to buy the house. He complained to the bank that the valuation was wrong.
What we said
We noted that an independent surveyor did the valuation and referred Terry to RICS to deal with that aspect. We didn’t hold the bank responsible for the report’s contents, and thought it was reasonable for them to use the expert report to decide how much they would lend.