Cases - Legal & General Mortgage Services Ltd v HPC Professional Services Ltd

Record details

Name

Legal & General Mortgage Services Ltd v HPC Professional Services Ltd

Date

[1997]

Citation

PNLR 567

Keywords

Negligence in valuations and surveys

Summary

The claimant lenders brought an action for negligence against the defendants, who had carried out a valuation for remortgage purposes of a bungalow on an unusually large plot of land. In little more than a year the borrowers defaulted and the claimants resold the property, following a disastrous fall in the residential property market, for approximately one-half of the defendants' valuation.

While the judge held that the defendants were not liable, since their valuation fell just within the appropriate 'bracket', he also provided some useful guidance on the position where this is not the case. The judge said that, as soon as a valuation is shown to fall outside the bracket, the claimant will have discharged an evidential burden. It is then for the defendant to prove that, even though his valuation is outside the range within which careful and competent valuers may reasonably differ, he nonetheless exercised the appropriate degree of skill and care. The judge adopted a bracket equating to approximately 14.3%.