Cases - Ezekiel v McDade

Record details

Name

Ezekiel v McDade

Date

[1994]; [1994]

Citation

1 EGLR 255; 2 EGLR 107, CA

Keywords

Negligence in valuations and surveys

Summary

The defendant surveyor was held liable for negligence in failing to discover, in the course of an inspection for mortgage valuation purposes, that a heavy concrete purlin in the roof-space was unevenly positioned with the result that there was a gap of 40mm at one end. In coming to this conclusion, the judge accepted that, in carrying out a mortgage valuation, a surveyor is only expected to make a 'head and shoulders' inspection of the roof-space. Having himself inspected the property, the judge concluded that such an inspection (which he doubted the defendant had in fact made) would have enabled the surveyor to see the structural problem.

The Court of Appeal held that damages for legal and other costs incurred in moving into and out of a defective property are similarly recoverable by a purchaser who is forced to leave because the house is repossessed by a mortgage lender.