SURVEYOR NOT LIABLE FOR FALL IN MARKET

In Scullion v Bank of Scotland (t/a Colleys) [2010] EWHC 2253 (Ch), [2010] All ER (D) 87 (Oct), Richard Snowden QC, sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court, held that the claimant purchaser of a buy-to-let property was in principle entitled to recover damages from the defendant surveyor in respect of the defendant’s negligent over-statement of the market value of the property and his overstatement of its rental value. But the claimant was held not to be entitled to recover damages in respect of any fall in the value of the property which was attributable to market movements in the period between the acquisition of the property by the claimant and the date on which he was able to sell it.