Pollyana

One of the stones in one of my cherries just came to light.....

I know the Aussies have rules for everything, and some of them make sense, but.....at our last post office I nearly came to blows with the dappy bint over whether a British passport was legal ID (not once, but everytime I took a parcel in!)
At our new Aus Post place, I am trying a send a standard sized card to my sister, stuck to the front is a piece of stiffer card that bobs about, kind of novelty bird. Very small bird, about 1 cm high, sitting flat against the card.
They want ID, a full customs declaration, and it has to go as a packet!
Its a piece of cardboard for goodness sake, hardly a threat to the international postal service

Anyone else encountered a daft rule today.......

hevs

Not exactly, but the valuer came to value our house and when i asked him what he thought it was worth he said he didn't have a clue and would need to contact the local council to see what other houses have sold in the last 3 months (Its not like its real estate central here, I think only 2 houses have sold since we moved in )

Bed Of Roses

EEEEKKKK scarey world this!!!!!!!!

Just had Bramptons in and they said the same thing!!!!!!!
only were 12000 miles away, hello hevs puttin it on the market!

Poll at least you knew what they were trying to tell you in your local post office,
a. our 2 local ones have been closed down
b. couldnt understand a word been said last time i was in posting a parcel within the Uk!

see ya both

Nige'

hevs

LOL, its a small old world Nige Hows it going??

MrsDagboy

That's part of the way that valuers value property, so no surprise there!

hevs

Well maybe not to you Mrs DB, but as this has never happened to me during a valuation before therefore I found it surprising.

Badge

I suppose you'd have expected them to have done the lookup *before* they come around so that you can pester them on the spot.

But, I guess the way they do it is the way they do it, the bastards. They would say, well, "I came around to look at your joint before I did the lookup" Either way it will still take as long.

Badge

hevs

LOL, yeah bastards! To me the norm would be to do it first then you don't look stupid. I'm here to value your house, but i aint got a clue how much its worth Doh .....

kirsty&al

I've got a couple that used to annoy me in the UK.

1) Although the UK introduced nice photo ID driving licences that fit in your wallet, you still had to take the big piece of paper driving licence when hiring a car in the UK.

2) I lost the paper counterpart to my licence and wanted another one quickly (as I was about to hire a van in the UK). You could order a new licence over the internet (and receive it in a few days) if you had lost both the photo id and the paper copy, however, if you had lost only one of them then you had to fill in form XX(non-existent) at the post office and wait weeks for delivery. As there was no price difference I accidentally lost the ID part as well

Cheers
Alistair

kirsty&al

I think it's easier for estate agents in the UK because in most areas a lot of the houses are very similar (barring small differences like loft extensions, etc. which can be easily estimated).

In Oz there are a lot of areas with very different styles and quality of house (e.g. shacks next to BV) so they have fewer reference points.

Having said that he should have had some clue.

Regards
Alistair

hevs

Yeah, you'd have thought so The BV next to my shack must be worth heaps

Badge

Actually, they would look stupid if they gave you an instant valuation that might be wrong. They come to look at it to see the worth of it as it stands, (ie the state and interior) the other part is the lookup to see the general comparison. Either could be done first. The valuation is done when they get back to the office after the 2 parts are complete, otherwise they have made a decision on the spot.

In theory, they don't have to tell you until they have finished their valuation, why should they - they might want to assess it after reflection.

People telling you on the spot in England are just telling what they think, and they may change their minds after a cup of tea down the office. Why tell you and get it wrong?

Of course, I'd like to give it a ballpark figure though just to keep the person happy.

God, I'm good today.

Badge

Bordy

Same happened to us when we applied for a little increase on the house loan after we built our house, we wanted $20,000 to put in a driveway.
Cost us around $150 to get the house valued & he came around looked at it & asked if we had any idea what the houses around us had sold for.
How do you get a job as a valuer, I think I could do that one.

hevs

Blimey, what you been eating?? A ball park figure would have sufficed

kirsty&al

I never said which was better

A