Negligence

While a valuer might be in breach of duty because he fell below the standard of a reasonable valuer in his methodology, that valuer would not be liable in negligence if it could be shown that, notwithstanding the error, the valuation figure that he produced was within a reasonable bracket.

Further, a judge at first instance should analyse a valuer’s liability by reference to the results route, not the methodology route. As a matter of general principle, the appropriate margin of error for valuations was the following: (i) for a standard residential property, the margin of error could be as low as plus or minus 5%; (ii) for a valuation of a one-off property, the margin of error would usually be plus or minus 10%; (iii) if there were exceptional features of the property in question, the margin of error could be plus or minus 15%, or even higher in an appropriate case.