Cases - Baxter v FW Gapp & Co Ltd

Record details

Name

Baxter v FW Gapp & Co Ltd

Date

[1938]; [1939]

Citation

4 AII ER 456; 2 AII ER 752, CA

Legislation

Civil Procedure Rules

Keywords

Negligence in valuations and surveys

Summary

The defendant, having carried out a mortgage valuation for the claimant lender in a locality of which he had no particular knowledge, failed to take account of certain comparable properties. The defendant was unaware of these comparables, but they would almost certainly have been familiar to a local practitioner. The Court of Appeal held that the defendant's lack of knowledge of the local market amounted to negligence. (Note that lack of relevant local knowledge would also constitute a breach of the RICS Valuation – Professional Standards 2012).

However, where the valuation is of an unusual or unique asset for which there is not a general well-known market, the range of values within which reasonably competent professionals could differ may be broader than might be expected in a case where there is a more actively traded market in the assets concerned.