date of marital home valuation

When considering the value of the marital home for ancillary relief purposes, do you use the value at the time of separation or at the time of the agreement? With the current house price situation there could be quite a difference.

Sadie

Hi Sadie,

I don't know the answer to that one either and would be very interested to hear.

The only thing I can tell you is that the marital home was valued this week by a single expert surveyor - we had a court order to do so.
I was under the impression that the value given by the surveyor was valid for six months. When I asked him about it, he said that nowadays it was more like three months, given the market.

If I were you and if the ancillary relief process drags on, I would get estate agents' valuations every 3-4 months. I know these are not considered as being as accurate as a surveyor's, but it would give both of you a clear indication of the reduction in your particular house and, more importantly, the size of the decrease.

Hope this helps.

Red XX

sadie,

im going through much the same process myself atm,i separated in sept....the house was valued by 3 estate agents in feb ,again in april and again,lol....3 weeks ago......in that time the value has dropped significantly in that time ...

i have been told that its the value at the agreement time and also to get valuations every 2 mths until settled,as everything is changing so quickly currently.

hth
luka x

I think (?) valuations submitted with form E are supposed to be within six months. We sperated last July, (had active valuations in May 07, Aug 07) However, we've also been instructed to spend £££££ thousands on an Expert Witness Surveyor since there is a big descrepency in Form E valuations.

I do not know if this applies totally to you

but My husband has the FMH to sell. At the time of the court order it was valued and a figure agreed but not written into that court oder. But written into that court order was the proceeds to be sorted at the time of sale, not the price that had been agreed. So confusing. He made her an offer over a year ago to buy her out at the figure they had agreed in court, she said no. so the house was put up for sale at £212,000 in May 07. Since then the prices have dropped and the house has had to be dropped to £179,995. As the property HAS to be sold it has to go with the market value. She will only get her percentage of the sale, not the amount in an agreement. Had she taken her money in the first place she would have had a reasonable figure, she stalled the house sale on £212,000 too by being obstructive. so she will lose out now, and have to take it on sale. It is so confusing. Is there a court order in place on this?
Zara

Hi, unless the value of the FMH is agreed then a new valuation will be ordered by the court during AR proceedings, i split from my x in july last year the valuation will be done this month as we couldnt agree and an order was made by the court.
the valuation will be done by an independant valuer, if you both cant agree a valuer one is appointed by the court.
hope this helps
kind regards
dawn

Thanks for your replies, everyone. I thought that was the case but just wanted to check, as we've been separated over a year and the value of the house has gone down a lot in that time. As I am buying him out, the lower the better, so it's good for me...

Best wishes,
Sadie