Accord Mortgages will now pay the full amount of the standard valuation charge for all residential borrowers choosing a product with a free standard valuation.
Previously, the lender paid any standard mortgage valuation charges on behalf of borrowers for properties up to the value of £1 million, reaching a charge of £695. Borrowers with properties valued above this amount were required to pay the difference.
Those with larger loan sizes will not incur any costs if they take a free standard valuation option with their mortgage. For instance a borrower with a property worth £1.6 million will make a saving of £370.
Landlords will be unaffected by the change as Accord does not have a cap on valuation fees for buy-to-let mortgages.
David Robinson, national intermediary sales manager at Accord, said: “Free should mean free, so taking on board feedback from brokers, and in the interest of treating our customers fairly we’ve made the decision to remove our standard valuation fee cap.
“House prices continue to rise2, and we’ve seen the average loan size on mortgage applications increase therefore we feel it’s unfair to disadvantage those shelling out more money to buy a home.
“We hope our new ‘one size fits all’ approach to valuation fees will help those looking to take out larger loans, especially homeowners in London where house prices can easily exceed £1 million.”