Formal Valuation of property for divorce - ex choosing inappropriate agents. Any advice?

[veryconfusedatthemoment]

Briefly, we have completed form Es, had our 1st court appt and are now following court directions before heading back to court in sept for FDR hearing.

One of the court directions was to get the family home and ex's new property formally valued. Sounds straightforward? No - ex legal team proposed 2 inappropriate agents for the area - they simply dont cover the area where I live or the type of house. So I proposed alternatives and provided evidence as to why they might be better choices (ie many similar houses on the books in my village). These choices have now been rejected (with unpleasant digs from ex's legal team) and also threats.

If we cannot agree then we have to get the court to decide. My barrister was furious (partly with me) that this matter couldnt be easily settled, avoiding cost. Fair enough on the cost but I am being bullied by ex (on many other matters) and did want to stand my ground to show that I get a say in my divorce too. I'm not overly confident in my solicitor - they write very long winded letters but which also seem to contain inaccuracies. I had to hire them to help me with some of the earlier hassle I was getting from ex and his legal team.

Is this common? And is there anything I can do?

[GooseyLoosey]

Not my field of law but wonder if it is possible to agree to get a third party to nominate an estate agent. Is there an Institute of Chartered Estate Agents or such like, and if so, perhaps you could agree to use their nomination.

Otherwise, maybe you could select 3 agents each and either use the mid range valuation from all 6 or the average (depending on what you want and what the range is likely to be).

[Collaborate]

Awkward.

Are you sure they don't cover the area? Estate agents have valuing departments that usually cover a far wider area then the EA shops. Unless your house is partiucularly unusual, surveyors are comfortable with most types of properties.

Find out by ringing the surveyors (not EA office) of those proposed by H whether they routinely value properties in your area. You might be surprised. Find out also whether they are on the panel of mortgage lenders. They probably will be.

[veryconfusedatthemoment]

thank you both for your thoughtful replies. I had called the original suggestions from H (although EA office, not surveyors) and although only a few miles away were so vague about where I live. His next round of suggestions are the very top end EA - where average house for sale on their website is about 3 times my est value.

I would have like to averaged 3 - seems perfectly sensible to me , but we are having to formally engage at enormous cost (one quote was £2000 + vat). My house is a modern box on an estate - shouldnt be that hard to value.

Collaborate: being on the panel of mortgage lenders - is there a different code of practice or something?

[Collaborate]

No - just that they'd be called upon to value a wide range of properties.

Round my parts you pay around £300 plus vat for a surveyors valuation. £2k is far far too much.