Lenders are demanding fresh appraisals and inspections for homes in the flood-affected areas of Calgary and High River – with several deals waiting upwards of five days for an appraiser to become available.
Lenders are demanding fresh appraisals and inspections for homes in the flood-affected areas of Calgary and High River – with several deals waiting upwards of five days for an appraiser to become available.
“We are about one week out on appraisals here,” says Skye McLean, a mortgage agent with Atlantic (HS) Financial in Calgary, Alberta. “A lot of the lenders are asking for appraisals and re-appraisals of properties affected by the flooding. And they are asking for full appraisals – that has slowed things down considerably.”
McLean has herself had “four or five” residential properties undergo a re-assessment because of the flooding that hit southern Alberta last month, devastating Calgary’s downtown commercial district and the neighbouring city of High River.
“The banks are worried about the value, understandably,” she told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “It’s great for the appraisers – they are keeping very busy!”
A Calgary appraiser was reported to have been asked by a lender to check on damage on more than 50 homes. Recent residential sales figures going back to the beginning of May show there are 947 properties in the flood-affected areas of Calgary, and 58 in High River that are potential candidates for new appraisals.
A TD Bank spokesman said that all purchase and refinancing transactions in southern Alberta are being reviewed on an individual basis.
“Most lenders are expecting reappraisals to be done,” says McLean. “Especially TD.”
Scotiabank says it is not automatically ordering new appraisals to be done on all deals in the flood-affected areas. Any deals the bank is taking a second look at will be done “at our expense,” Scotia spokesperson Michelle Henderson confirmed.
The province’s government-owned bank said it will be going ahead with mortgages that were in the works before the flood, with ATB Financial executive vice-president Rob Bennett telling reporters “We have not held back funding on any specific deals that we had committed to, and we have not required new appraisals on those files.”
