Time to switch? And how sympathetic are valuers?

Seaniemed

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Hi all, AIP obtained from KBC underwriters.
Have engaged solicitor and waiting for valuer to arrange appointment.

My query is twofold:
1. In what sort of timeframe can I expect the switch to occur? Part of the switch is equity release for renovation work so I'm keen to get going on that before August.
2. The switch is dependent on a value of 430k from valuation. I paid 410k in March 2019, and with a new kitchen/flooring and BER improvements D1-> C1-2 I would hope a valuer would agree that value could be 430k? The mortgage is for 344k so there's plenty of equity in the house itself.

I'm just wondering what other people's experiences have been. I realise if I put it on the market I might not get 430k but don't valuers go by PPR in the area?
 
I am in same position. Valuer rang a couple of weeks ago and said no on-site valuations were going ahead until advice changed from professional body. Not sure whether the recent update from Govt will change this, but I will contact him this week to see.
I would hope they would use existing house sales on the property register as a guide and not try to second guess the Covid effect.
 
When we got AIP with KBC it took about 4 days for the valurer to be appointed. I contacted them directly once I knew who they where and had them call round. This was on the 24th of April. KBC has the paperwork a few days later and about 8 days later we had the official offer pack from the Bank to the solicitor.

Valuation was what we needed/expected and it just has lots of tick boxes about how saleable the property is based on current condition and retail income for the area.

It also details recent sales on the price register as a comparison and justification for the valuation. And there is also a note about Covid 19 in the “other factors” section stating it may have an impact on property values.

The estate agent did ask me what I “needed” the valuation to be, in my case the answer didn’t matter as the LTV for the new mortgage was always going to be in my favour even if the house was valued way lower then anything else in the area.

ive not actually managed to move the mortgage yet because there seems to be some paperwork missing from when we bought the house 8 years ago and I’m now trapped between two solicitors arguing about wether or not some declaration should have been on file.
 
When we got AIP with KBC it took about 4 days for the valurer to be appointed. I contacted them directly once I knew who they where and had them call round. This was on the 24th of April. KBC has the paperwork a few days later and about 8 days later we had the official offer pack from the Bank to the solicitor.

Valuation was what we needed/expected and it just has lots of tick boxes about how saleable the property is based on current condition and retail income for the area.

It also details recent sales on the price register as a comparison and justification for the valuation. And there is also a note about Covid 19 in the “other factors” section stating it may have an impact on property values.

The estate agent did ask me what I “needed” the valuation to be, in my case the answer didn’t matter as the LTV for the new mortgage was always going to be in my favour even if the house was valued way lower then anything else in the area.

ive not actually managed to move the mortgage yet because there seems to be some paperwork missing from when we bought the house 8 years ago and I’m now trapped between two solicitors arguing about wether or not some declaration should have been on file.

Did your valuer enter your house or was he able to value the house from a distance or using price registers?

My valuer has said that his Institute has been quite clear that no visits, which require access to the house, can take place during this lockdown period. He said they are hopeful that the next phase (June 8) will allow valuations to resume.

He spoke to KBC who said they will only accept valuations which involve a full inspection of the inside of the house.

If KBC are encouraging valuers to go to occupied houses and enter them, they are in violation of the current regulations. Your valuer is also contravening the regulations of his own professional body, and, by the by, breaking the law, if he visited an occupied house during this period.

I should say that is my understanding of the current situation, open to comment or correction.
 
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Did your valuer enter your house or was he able to value the house from a distance or using price registers?

My valuer has said that his Institute has been quite clear that no visits, which require access to the house, can take place during this lockdown period. He said they are hopeful that the next phase (June 8) will allow valuations to resume.

He spoke to KBC who said they will only accept valuations which involve a full inspection of the inside of the house.

If KBC are encouraging valuers to go to occupied houses and enter them, they are in violation of the current regulations. Your valuer is also contravening the regulations of his own professional body, and, by the by, breaking the law, if he visited an occupied house during this period.

I should say that is my understanding of the current situation, open to comment or correction.
They entered the house and did the full required inspection/valuation, he was working on behalf financial body and as such deemed himself "essential" - I don't think KBC encouraged him one way or another, I had no issue with him coming to the house and can't speak to his contravening his professional body regulations.
I was glad to get it out of the way and let me move onto the next headache in the process.
 
They entered the house and did the full required inspection/valuation, he was working on behalf financial body and as such deemed himself "essential" - I don't think KBC encouraged him one way or another, I had no issue with him coming to the house and can't speak to his contravening his professional body regulations.
I was glad to get it out of the way and let me move onto the next headache in the process.
Fair enough. I might try that with my valuer, but he seemed pretty adamant that it was, currently, illegal to do valuations, as it wasn't an essential service required to maintain the financial services industry.
 
Fair enough. I might try that with my valuer, but he seemed pretty adamant that it was, currently, illegal to do valuations, as it wasn't an essential service required to maintain the financial services industry.
The business of business is business. If we don’t make an effort capitalism will fail.....etc etc etc.

Best of luck with it, I’ve found the whole process tedious but it’s highlighted an issue with the paperwork for my house that at least I have the energy and time to try and resolve now while I’m not under pressure.
 
Can anyone tell me if KBC stick to their 10 business days in obtaining AIP? We finally have our full mortgage application gone in since yesterday and they got back to me saying we would have our decision on 10 business days. Just wondering if they might be quicker than that?
 
Can anyone tell me if KBC stick to their 10 business days in obtaining AIP? We finally have our full mortgage application gone in since yesterday and they got back to me saying we would have our decision on 10 business days. Just wondering if they might be quicker than that?
My experience with KBC is that you have to poke a bit to see progress. They needed some extra info from us a few time in the process and I was only asked for this after I asked how it was progressing.
I’d suggest maybe not waiting the full 10 days for an update :)
When all was sorted and file went to unnderwriter we had formal offer in about 3 days.

hope that helps, mileage may vary.
 
My experience with KBC is that you have to poke a bit to see progress. They needed some extra info from us a few time in the process and I was only asked for this after I asked how it was progressing.
I’d suggest maybe not waiting the full 10 days for an update :)
When all was sorted and file went to unnderwriter we had formal offer in about 3 days.

hope that helps, mileage may vary.
Agree, you need to call your mortgage contact in KBC every few days to chase them up.
 
Thanks for your replies. Will give them a call or email the middle of next week. They rang 2 weeks ago regarding the queries they had and had to get a letter from VW bank in relation to my husbands car. It's been over a month since we started the process so I suppose they could come back looking for more recent payslips and that. Not sure how itll go. We are only looking for 99k on a 400k property but have recently paid a chunk off the mortgage and a personal loan from cash we had saved and a gift from my parents. So they had alot of questions regarding this. We shall see what they say.
 
The business of business is business. If we don’t make an effort capitalism will fail.....etc etc etc.

Best of luck with it, I’ve found the whole process tedious but it’s highlighted an issue with the paperwork for my house that at least I have the energy and time to try and resolve now while I’m not under pressure.

Got the valuation completed yesterday. I guess the guy was following the rules correctly.
Hope you don't mind me asking how your application is going.
Do you have any idea of the timeline from valuation to drawdown?
 
Got the valuation completed yesterday. I guess the guy was following the rules correctly.
Hope you don't mind me asking how your application is going.
Do you have any idea of the timeline from valuation to drawdown?

Valuation was 24th of April. Switching next week.
I’d say we lost 10 days chasing paperwork for the solicitor (should have been easy but it seems when we bought the house our solicitors didn’t do a few things correctly so I found myself scrambling around looking for email addresses of the last owner to get a NPPR exemption cert) and this week the home insurance company done a pile of silly things (wrong address/wrong name/ wrong value each at different stages) and Covid is to blame for everything :) so for us 6 weeks from valuation but My solicitors said if all papers had been in order 4 weeks is normal.

I’m glad I’m not under pressure doing this - just a switch and no one waiting on us to close
 
Just to conclude this loop.

I got the KBC mortgage drawdown at the end of September.
3K dropped into my current account a couple of weeks later.

Solicitor fees, valuations and other documentation came to just under 1000 Euros. So a tidy profit over 2k for the switch.
 
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