Help To Buy Valuations Shrewsbury

What is a Help to Buy Valuation?

Help to Buy is a government scheme that allows purchasers meeting certain criteria to share ownership of their new home with the government. If you have purchased a home using this scheme, you will need to get an independent valuation when you come to sell the house or repay the government loan. Whether you are re-mortgaging or selling your property, you must instruct a RICS regulated independent Chartered Surveyor to carry out a valuation. Alpha Chartered Surveyors are an experienced firm of RICS Chartered Surveyors offering a wide range of residential surveys and valuations including Help to Buy valuations.

When is a Help to Buy Valuation required?

If you are looking to sell, re-pay, part pay (known as staircasing) or re-mortgage your property, you will need an independent RICS certified surveyor to carry out a valuation.

Full redemption – where you pay your equity loan back in full, with or without selling your property
Partial redemption – also known as staircasing, this is where you pay back part of your equity loan without selling your property
Property Sale – If you choose to sell the property against which your loan is secured, you will be required to repay your loan in full

What are the valuation requirements?

Target HCA, who administer the Help to Buy scheme on behalf of the government, set out a number of requirements that the valuation must meet in order to be accepted. Those requirements are as follows:

• The Valuer must be registered with the recognised qualification of RICS
• The Valuer must be independent to an estate agent
• The report must be on headed paper, signed by the RICS surveyor and addressed to Target HCA
• The Valuer MUST provide at least three comparable properties and sale prices
• The comparables provided must be like for like in terms of property type, size, and age and within a 2-mile radius to the property that is being inspected
• The Valuer must not be related or known to you
• The Valuer must inspect the interior of the property and provide a full valuation report
• Valuations carried out for bank or mortgage purposes are not acceptable 
• A copy of the valuation report must be supplied to Target; the inspection date must be shown on the report
• If the valuation report does not meet the above guidelines, you will be required to liaise with the RICS valuation surveyor for rectification; any additional costs incurred for this will be your responsibility

Alpha Chartered Surveyors fulfil all of the above requirements, so you can be confident that our RICS valuation will be fully compliant with the Help To Buy (Target HCA) requirements.

What does the valuation involve?

A Help to Buy valuation is very similar to a mortgage valuation. We will visit your home to carry out an inspection and use our local market knowledge to put a value on your property. We will research the values of similar properties and take into account market conditions.

How long will the inspection take?

A typical inspection takes around 30 minutes, but it can vary depending on the size of your property.

When will I receive the report?

We like to visit Help to Buy valuations within 2-3 working days and sometimes sooner dependent on location and availability. The inspection itself will take around 30 minutes and we’ll send you a copy of the report within 5 working days at the very latest – often sooner.

How long is the report valid for?

Target state that the valuation is only valid for 3 months. After that, we will need to reconfirm the valuation and after 6 months we may need to perform a new valuation as values can change quickly. At the end of 3 months, if an extension is required (normally valid for 1 month), Target will accept a simple letter from us, but it must be provided to them within 2 weeks of the end of the initial 3 month deadline. We provide the extension letter to you free of charge.

What happens if you disagree with our valuation?

Our Help to Buy Valuation Reports represent a fair reflection of current market value based on our professional intelligence and market experience. If you feel that there has been a mistake or there’s something we need to look into, then just get in touch via telephone or e-mail. We are a friendly, family-run business and customer satisfaction is our top priority.