Cases - Nash v Evens & Matta

Record details

Name

Nash v Evens & Matta

Date

[1988]

Citation

1 EGLR 130

Keywords

Negligence in valuations and surveys

Summary

In 1981 the claimants, with the aid of a building society mortgage, purchased a ground floor flat forming part of a pair of semi-detached houses, which were originally built in 1895. Given the age of the property, the defendant, like other surveyors who had inspected it at various times, assumed that it was a solid-wall house. However, some 2 years after moving in, the claimants discovered that the house had cavity walls and that the wall ties were rusting. The claimants brought an action against the mortgage valuer. They had not seen the mortgage valuation report produced by the defendant, but had relied on it indirectly in the sense of assuming that, if the building society would lend on the security of the property, it must have been approved by the surveyor. The judge held that the defendant owed a duty of care to the claimants but that he was not in breach of it. The judge was satisfied on the evidence that, given the limited nature of a mortgage valuation, there had been nothing to alert the defendant to any potential problem.

It was held that, given the limited nature of a mortgage valuation, a surveyor who did not discover wall-tie failure had not been negligent.