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Negligence of Surveyor

Posted by: admin    Tags:      Posted date:  October 28, 2011

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A recent case held that a potential buyer of property should not rely on the valuation provided by the lender but instead should get their own valuation carried out. In this case it was a Buy to let mortgage and the surveyor who had been instructed by the lender had been overly optimistic about the possible rental income which could be generated from the letting of the property. In actual fact the buyer could not even raise enough of rental income to service the monthly mortgage costs. The Buyer had relied solely on the valuation which the surveyor had carried out on behalf of the lender.

The buyer took the lender to court for professional negligence and won in the first instance. However the Court of Appeal overturned the decision. It held that the buyer was making a commercial decision and should therefore have made his own inquiries including a survey for his purposes.