BRATT v JONES

[2024] EWHC 631 (Ch), Chancery Division, His Honour Judge Cawson KC sitting as a Judge of the High Court, 22 March 2024

Valuer – Negligence – Whether focus when seeking to establish liability should be on the end result of the valuation or the process by which the valuation was conducted (the Bolam standard)

The claimant brought an action in negligence against the defendant in relation to the latter’s determination, as an expert valuer, of the value of freehold development land in Oxfordshire. The valuation was provided in the context of an option agreement concluded between the claimant and Banner Homes Ltd, under which the latter was entitled to exercise an option to purchase the land at a price representing 90 per cent of the market value. In the event that the parties failed to agree the market value, it was agreed that the price would be determined by an expert valuer and the defendant was appointed as that third-party valuer. The defendant valued the site at £4,075,000 but the claimant’s case was that the true value of the land was between £7 million and £8.6 million. Given that the defendant’s valuation fell outside that bracket, the claimant alleged that the defendant had been negligent and was liable to him in damages for the difference between 90 per cent of the true value of the land and 90 per cent of £4,075,000.