Surveyor’s negligent valuation of property
Mr and Mrs T suffered loss as a result of the overvaluation of a buy to let property that was overvalued by over 38%.
The solicitor failed to tell our clients that the vendor did not actually own the property but had arranged to buy it from an elderly couple on the same day in a ‘back to back transaction’ for a price 44% lower than the valuation.
We advised the claimants to pursue the claim against the valuer on the basis of a straight overvaluation. The claim settled for £15,000. The claim was complicated by the existence of an exclusion clause on the face of the valuation and the fact that this was a buy to let property. In other words the defendant might have been able to argue that this was a commercial transaction and therefore that the exclusion clause was fair.
Mr & Mrs T