Surveyor and valuer Edward Symmons & Partners has successfully defended a £575,000 negligent valuation claim brought by Lloyds TSB Bank plc.
The case centred on property known as the Sanderson Centre, 15 Lees Lane, Gosport, Hampshire, which, in September 1998, was valued for the bank by Stephen Skinner, an associate with Symmons.
Skinner considered that the value of the property on an open market basis was £525,000. However, the bank claimed that, in reliance upon the valuation report, it had sold the benefit of its security in the property by transferring its legal charge to a buyer for £525,000. In the circumstances, it sought damages for loss and negligence for the difference between in the valuation and the sum of £1.1m.
Rejecting the claim, Judge Richard Seymour QC said that “it has not been demonstrated that Skinner’s valuation fell outside the permissible range of non-negligent valuations of the property in September 1998”.
The judge added that he was not satisfied that the allegations that Skinner had been negligent in his valuation of the property held substance.
Lloyds TSB Bank plc v Edward Symmons & Partners Queen’s Bench Division: Technology and Construction Court (Judge Richard Seymour QC) 12 March 2003.
Stephen Lennard (instructed by Eversheds, of Cardiff) appeared for the claimant; Timothy Harry (instructed by Williams Holden Cooklin Gibbons) appeared for the defendant.
References: PLS News 13/3/03
