Land Valuation rejection at the Ministry of Finance

[marcop2487]

Good morning folks,

I'm in the process of buying some land from a vendor but he had some issues with the probably undervalued/outdated private valuation figure which was rejected by the Ministry of Finance's valuation division and is now being revalued by the Government's state valuators in order for the documents to be stamped.

1) Has anyone here done a private valuation after their valuation was rejected?

2) Was the new/updated private valuation accepted by the Ministry of Finance in order to process stamping and pay the stamp duties?

3) Would getting a private valuation done upset the government valuation officers where they could potentially sabotage/deliberately delay the timeframe for me getting the stamping of documents and payment of duties.

[cadence]

Goodmorning,

Firstly when sending documents to be stamped by ministry of finance (valuation division) it is essential that you have an approved valaution report by a recognized firm e.g Terra Caribbean, Raymond and Pierre etc..

Failing that, Valuation supervisors will stamp the application according to their determined value which most times are on the higher scale due to (more revenue) which is in their interest.

I highly do not recommend that you appeal the valuation set my the valuations officers unless it is really way out of range and you have proof from a reliable source that your property is valued alot less.

Remember there maybe an additional upfront cost at this stage but the advantage is in the event of resale your deed is adjudged at a higher value (worth more $) !

[marcop2487]

Hey Cadence,

Thanks for your advice.

Do you know how long the govt valuation department may take on average to revaluate the land?

Some folks are saying that it can take from one to six months.

Personally I dont mind paying out of pocket for a valuation from Raymond and Pierre or other top tier valuators which may be recognized by the valuation department. However, from your post it appears that even that may be disregarded at this stage by the state valuation department.

[ProtonPowder]

The ministry valuation staff not going to raise the adjudged value far above comparable evidence just because. Remember they do not charge for their services, whereas private valuers do. Private valuers charge a fraction of the derived value, so realise there is more incentive there to overvalue compared to the ministry.

Also, nobody sitting around rubbing their hands trying to make the government more money in stamp duty, that sounds like it comes out of a newspaper comic strip. Is the exact same staff with no new hires in their section for about 10 years.

[*KRONIK*]

The ministry valuation staff not going to raise the adjudged value far above comparable evidence just because. Remember they do not charge for their services, whereas private valuers do. Private valuers charge a fraction of the derived value, so realise there is more incentive there to overvalue compared to the ministry.

Also, nobody sitting around rubbing their hands trying to make the government more money in stamp duty, that sounds like it comes out of a newspaper comic strip. Is the exact same staff with no new hires in their section for about 10 years.

Yuh wrong hoss!

One of our clients buys large parcels of land to subdivide and sell back, as a side business for their company.
I had to take the valuators to the site and on the ride up, they basically told me they researched the company and found that they are buying up land to sell back and told me that they gonna put a high value on it because the company gonna make a lot of profit on the land sale in the future.

These valauators dont play around. You may meet the occassional slacker but most who i dealt with are very “by the book”.


But i agee with you on the private valuation. They charge you based on a percentage of the land's value so its in their interest to plut a high value

[The_Honourable]

Yuh wrong hoss!

One of our clients buys large parcels of land to subdivide and sell back, as a side business for their company.
I had to take the valuators to the site and on the ride up, they basically told me they researched the company and found that they are buying up land to sell back and told me that they gonna put a high value on it because the company gonna make a lot of profit on the land sale in the future.

These valuators don't play around. You may meet the occasional slacker but most who i dealt with are very “by the book”.

But i agree with you on the private valuation. They charge you based on a percentage of the land's value so its in their interest to put a high value

Dude wtf... you serious?

So essentially they charging based on future value and not the current market value? And when the land does subdivide, the new owners of each parcel going to get hit with higher updated valuations anyway?

[*KRONIK*]

Yuh wrong hoss!

One of our clients buys large parcels of land to subdivide and sell back, as a side business for their company.
I had to take the valuators to the site and on the ride up, they basically told me they researched the company and found that they are buying up land to sell back and told me that they gonna put a high value on it because the company gonna make a lot of profit on the land sale in the future.

These valuators don't play around. You may meet the occasional slacker but most who i dealt with are very “by the book”.

But i agree with you on the private valuation. They charge you based on a percentage of the land's value so its in their interest to put a high value

Dude wtf... you serious?

So essentially they charging based on future value and not the current market value? And when the land does subdivide, the new owners of each parcel going to get hit with higher updated valuations anyway?

No, they didnt skyrocket the value based on that. What they did was pay more attention to the selling points of the land.
The value they gave was the max value, not the minimum value as you would typically expect for a piece of forested land. If they had not known the purpose, they would have surely given a lower value. But it wasnt something worth contesting.
The point i was was trying to make was not to under estimate the government valuators, they actually do their homework and are not the typical “government 8-4 zombies”

[marcop2487]

Thanks Kronik,

I'm buying the land in a residential area which has been around for 12 years now. I've a few friends living in there and paid about $120 a square foot 2 years ago.

The value according to my sources are saying that its between $125 to $130 now.

I'm a bit surprised that the government making a scene for an extra $2k to $3k in stamp duty revenues.

That being said, I've spoke with a few valuators who are suggesting that I can do a private valuation and still submit it. I assume they'll put the highest value so that the document can get stamped.

[ProtonPowder]

The ministry valuation staff not going to raise the adjudged value far above comparable evidence just because. Remember they do not charge for their services, whereas private valuers do. Private valuers charge a fraction of the derived value, so realise there is more incentive there to overvalue compared to the ministry.

Also, nobody sitting around rubbing their hands trying to make the government more money in stamp duty, that sounds like it comes out of a newspaper comic strip. Is the exact same staff with no new hires in their section for about 10 years.

Yuh wrong hoss!

One of our clients buys large parcels of land to subdivide and sell back, as a side business for their company.
I had to take the valuators to the site and on the ride up, they basically told me they researched the company and found that they are buying up land to sell back and told me that they gonna put a high value on it because the company gonna make a lot of profit on the land sale in the future.

These valauators dont play around. You may meet the occassional slacker but most who i dealt with are very “by the book”.


But i agee with you on the private valuation. They charge you based on a percentage of the land's value so its in their interest to plut a high value

This is not a typical case, and I guarantee a private valuer would have done the exact same thing.
Also, the thought that a valuation assistant would be maliciously squeezing the dollars out of every stamp duty file that come their way is stupidness, they dont get paid commisions.

And @op, you overthinking this too much, idk why you so fraid. Only a very few make it to the division's desks, and chances are when you go to register the change of ownership for WASA, they would just end up registering the consideration to be used as their comparable evidence for files further down the line.

[marcop2487]

Appreciate the contributions everyone. Hopefully others in my shoes in the future can use this thread for reference.

Blessings.

[marcop2487]

Also, I'm not afraid of the valuation but the time it takes for a state valuator visit the site and send the paper work back to the attorney for me to purchase the property.

I'm leaving the matter in the hands of God now.

[The_Honourable]

Yuh wrong hoss!

One of our clients buys large parcels of land to subdivide and sell back, as a side business for their company.
I had to take the valuators to the site and on the ride up, they basically told me they researched the company and found that they are buying up land to sell back and told me that they gonna put a high value on it because the company gonna make a lot of profit on the land sale in the future.

These valuators don't play around. You may meet the occasional slacker but most who i dealt with are very “by the book”.

But i agree with you on the private valuation. They charge you based on a percentage of the land's value so its in their interest to put a high value

Dude wtf... you serious?

So essentially they charging based on future value and not the current market value? And when the land does subdivide, the new owners of each parcel going to get hit with higher updated valuations anyway?

No, they didnt skyrocket the value based on that. What they did was pay more attention to the selling points of the land.
The value they gave was the max value, not the minimum value as you would typically expect for a piece of forested land. If they had not known the purpose, they would have surely given a lower value. But it wasnt something worth contesting.
The point i was was trying to make was not to under estimate the government valuators, they actually do their homework and are not the typical “government 8-4 zombies”

Thanks man... thinking about doing the same in the future; buying up lands, sub divide and sell.

[nervewrecker]

They moving thirsty this rounds. I paid according to what was the sale value of the land. The other buyers get rape. They were asked for some valuation to be done or some shiz so.
One valuator came, young lady, I believe she was fair, polite, humble and understanding. I think raymond and pierre. Took her with my pickup truck.
Another fool came to value another piece, I wasnt there. Thats another story.

[marcop2487]

They moving thirsty this rounds. I paid according to what was the sale value of the land. The other buyers get rape. They were asked for some valuation to be done or some shiz so.
One valuator came, young lady, I believe she was fair, polite, humble and understanding. I think raymond and pierre. Took her with my pickup truck.
Another fool came to value another piece, I wasnt there. Thats another story.

I guess the sale value was based on a relevant valuation estimate.

[nervewrecker]

They moving thirsty this rounds. I paid according to what was the sale value of the land. The other buyers get rape. They were asked for some valuation to be done or some shiz so.
One valuator came, young lady, I believe she was fair, polite, humble and understanding. I think raymond and pierre. Took her with my pickup truck.
Another fool came to value another piece, I wasnt there. Thats another story.

I guess the sale value was based on a relevant valuation estimate.

nope, not at all.