Mortgage Approval in principle - cheque for valuer?

thejuggler

Registered User
Messages
133
Am applying for this at the moment before I go househunting. The bank sent out the mortgage pack and gave me a list of things which were required, namely payslips bank statements, salary certs etc. I sent off all the items and now they have come back to me looking for utiity bills and photo id (not a problem) and a cheque made out to the valuer for €130.

Is this standard practice for mortgage approval in principle? I am of the opinion that as there is as yet no property to value I should not have to send them a cheque (which they will no doubt lodge to their account in the meantime) before I ever choose a house.
 
thejuggler said:
Am applying for this at the moment before I go househunting. The bank sent out the mortgage pack and gave me a list of things which were required, namely payslips bank statements, salary certs etc. I sent off all the items and now they have come back to me looking for utiity bills and photo id (not a problem) and a cheque made out to the valuer for €130.

Is this standard practice for mortgage approval in principle? I am of the opinion that as there is as yet no property to value I should not have to send them a cheque (which they will no doubt lodge to their account in the meantime) before I ever choose a house.

yep , sounds like PTSB... same thing for me....they didn't cash the cheque until the valuation was done...
 
Exact same for me with TSB...sent them cheque for €130 when applied for mortgage back in October, they will only be valuing in the next couple of weeks and the cheque is past the 6 months date now so i will most likely hav to send another cheque.

If I was applying again I wouldnt bother sending this in until I found a property.
 
We didn't have to send it in until we had the house chosen and booking deposit down, and even then it wasn't immediate. Another money making scam if you ask me, Broker told us it takes all of 5 minutes to do, but has to be done nonetheless. Also watch out for the other one, some sort of check to make sure the property is structuraly (sp) safe etc, can't remember what it was called, just remember that it was about €400. We insisted that we didn't need it as the house is just 2 years old and partner is a builder anyway.

There are loads of these sneaky charges thrown in, be prepared! Do you have a broker or are you going straight to bank? Personally couldn't have done it without our broker, so many forms etc, it cut out half the work for us.

Good luck with it all!
 
Yes its tsb - will challenge them about the cheque - don't see point in sending it in until we find a property we want to buy
 
Is there any benefit of going directly to TSB as opposed to through a broker? I'm only saying this as I am using a broker at the moment and have approval from TSB among others. I asked my broker would I give her a cheque for the valuation when we put the deposit down on the new house and she said they would cover it for us. They are also giving me back €800 towards whatever we want for giving them our business. I presume this is like one of those kind of giving you back the commission type of thing but I am delighted as the broker we used for our current house was rubbish!
 
thejuggler said:
Am applying for this at the moment before I go househunting. The bank sent out the mortgage pack and gave me a list of things which were required, namely payslips bank statements, salary certs etc. I sent off all the items and now they have come back to me looking for utiity bills and photo id (not a problem) and a cheque made out to the valuer for €130.

Is this standard practice for mortgage approval in principle? I am of the opinion that as there is as yet no property to value I should not have to send them a cheque (which they will no doubt lodge to their account in the meantime) before I ever choose a house.

try first active they wont require this money till u have house
 
lmd said:
Is there any benefit of going directly to TSB as opposed to through a broker? I'm only saying this as I am using a broker at the moment and have approval from TSB among others. I asked my broker would I give her a cheque for the valuation when we put the deposit down on the new house and she said they would cover it for us. They are also giving me back €800 towards whatever we want for giving them our business. I presume this is like one of those kind of giving you back the commission type of thing but I am delighted as the broker we used for our current house was rubbish!

Sorry for going off thread, but thats sounds great lmd, what broker was that with?

Also juggler I would also highly recommend going through a broker as they will get the best rates and benefits from all banks, although some are biased towards certain banks. We used Rea who gave us the option of at least 6 banks and as FTB's on 100% mortgage, thought this was pretty good.
 
easymortgages.ie are the place, and Tanya is the girl I was dealing with. They are based in Tallaght as that's handy for where I work, however that girl Tanya offerred to meet me halfway between her work and mine to make it easier at lunchtime! I have to say after our last broker she was just so helpful and answered any questions at all. She never even mentioned the refund they would give us until I asked her if she needed the money for the valuation when she informed me they would cover it and give us $800 euro when the mortgage comes through.
 
What does it matter when the cheque is sent? If it is not cashed until the valuation is done, then what's the issue? Or if you have to pay it anyway, then so what?

I certainly wouldn't go to another lender just because they don't ask for this cheque upfront (unless of course they are offering better rates as well).

What I would do is try and avoid the valuation charge altogether by haggling with your lender if at all possible.
 
A valuation can't be avoided, the lender insists on it for their security - they want an independent report to ensure that the purchase price of the property is not above the fair market value. After all, considering the average mortgage the lender has a lot to lose if the borrower defaults on repayments!

Usually the lender will not request a valuation report until after they have issued you with an approval in principle and you have found a house and are ready to proceed to loan offer. If you are reluctant to pay this to the lender you can agree for you to arrange it yourself - be careful though as the valuer needs to be on the lender's panel, you should probably just get the bank/broker to organise it for you.

rox:[i said:
Also watch out for the other one, some sort of check to make sure the property is structuraly (sp) safe etc[/i]

There are loads of these sneaky charges thrown in, be prepared!

Most lenders RECOMMEND a structural survey simply for the borrower's protection. I don't see how this can be seen as a "sneaky charge", the lender isn't going to gain anything by it being carried out.

Also for the broker who refunded €800, did they charge a fee for arranging the mortgage?
 
Hel_n said:
rox:[i said:
Also watch out for the other one, some sort of check to make sure the property is structuraly (sp) safe etc[/i]

There are loads of these sneaky charges thrown in, be prepared!

Most lenders RECOMMEND a structural survey simply for the borrower's protection. I don't see how this can be seen as a "sneaky charge", the lender isn't going to gain anything by it being carried out.

quote]

Hi Hel n

Welcome to the board!

Sorry if I came out wrong with above quote, I didn't mean that the lenders were sneaky with the charges, I know they don't gain anything, just that as a FTB you are unaware of all these things that come up. Maybe I should have said 'extra' or 'other' charges. Sorry if I offended anyone.
 
Back
Top