www.iva.co.uk

Well i started the ball rolling today regarding getting a valuation or attempting to. I contacted Borron Shaw and was told that a verbal valuation was free but it i wanted it in writing it would cost me £100 + vat, oh yes i have that lying around! Any ideas folks on how to get my house valued without it costing me money that i simply don't have?

As you are already in an IVA Orchid, get your IP to pay for it out of the estate funds.

Have you tried another agent? Round here they fall over each other trying to be over helpful. Never been charged a penny.

When we had ours valued we just told the agents we were considering selling and needed the valuation in writing for our records... It took them several weeks as the house is worth less than when we bought it so they obviously realized we probably wouldn't sell in the end and they'd make no money!!!

Fortunately, with mine, they send an agent round at the appropriate time who then reports directly back to them and presumably any fees will come out of my IVA pot.

Hi Mel, yes i'm in my first month of the 5th year and looking to having the house valued in order to establish whether there is any equity in order to attempt to go for a re-mortgage, so any advice would be very helpful. I do know however that because of the downturn in the market my house is worth £10,000 less than i paid for it 5 years ago as another house in my street has recently gone up for sale and it is the exact replica of mine.

As this is a requirement of the IVA, you should not have to pay for the valuation personally. Get your IP to arrange a drive-by valuation from a firm such as Countrywide Surveyors. They do them for my firm regularly at a cost of £70 including VAT.

Thank you Mel, i have emailed DFD with the above information in the hope that they pass in onto my IP Eleanor Mckinnon and give a favourable response. I will in the meantime enquire of other estate agents if they also require payment for this facility.

Ellie is a great IP and is sure to want to support this suggestion.

Many thanks Mel i shall let you know how i progressed.

I don't have to do this yet but glad to hear that we should be able to get it paid out of the IVA pot.

Our IP's expect us to be truthful to them so I'm sure they wouldn't want us to lie to an estate agent to get what's needed.

I am in rented so have not given the equity problem too much thought -- I didn't realise the IVA "pot" would ( ccould) fund the required valuations -- but, as usual, Mel makes complete sense.

I would imagine, as they are getting their fee, the agent would be more amenable to giving a genuine forced sale valuation (which, I imagine, would be lower than a valuation for a quick sale).

My company funds mine as well - the valuations are pretty spot on as well.

Just out of curiosity does anyone use Zoopla? I have found them quite accurate when it came to the valuation of my house. Unless Estate Agents are getting lazy and using that more often?

Estate agents are still being overley optimistic. Down here the prices realised are at least 10% down on the asking prices, sometimes more.

Zoopla (like Building Society's value tables) are spread over and averaged across too wide a range of properties to be accurate for valuation purposes and are also based on full market value.