Negligent valuation

Goldstein v Levy Gee (a firm) ChD TLR 16 July

In an action in tort against a professional valuer, even if the reasoning process by which the valuer had reached his figure was manifestly incompetent he would not be negligent if that figure fell within a bracket of figures which a reasonably competent valuer could have reached. Where the end figure was made up of a number of independent variables, in order to calculate the margin of error for the end figure one had to enter the lowest non-negligent figure for each of the variables followed by the highest non-negligent figure for each variable. In the present case, on that basis, the defendant’s valuation fell within the permissible margin of error even though the reasoning process by which the figure was reached was manifestly incompetent.