Liability of Estate Agents when carrying out Valuations

C

Card

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Is an estate agent liable if they value a property incorrectly? I know the whole issue of whether they had acted intentionally or negligently in doing so, would come into play. Do they have insurance against such instances occurring?
 
Given the near-complete absence of any form of regulation of the industry, or formal accreditation of its members, I suspect not...

In any case, a basic tenet of the Law of Torts is that you would have to prove that you had suffered material loss/damages directly and exclusively as a result of said mis-valuation.

Probably, all you can do is complain about it to the IAVI — for what it's worth...(?)
 
Interesting question. In what context has this arisen? Was the valuation carried out for you or for a bank?
 
it came up actually in the context of a non-business conversation with an estate agent, I suggested that unless they had acted wrongly intentionally or negligently in carrying out the valuation they should be okay. I was just wondering whether anyone had any experience of this issue?

They would carry out valuations in a range of different situations. I had assumed that it would have been covered by whatever professional indemnity insurance they would need?
 
Vanilla said:
Was the valuation carried out for you or for a bank?
Click to expand...
Because the same estate agent will invariably quote wildly different figures, depending... (Q.E.D.?)
 
Indeed,in general high for the bank, much more moderate for the Revenue...
 
Card said:
Is an estate agent liable if they value a property incorrectly? I know the whole issue of whether they had acted intentionally or negligently in doing so, would come into play. Do they have insurance against such instances occurring?
Click to expand...

Interesting one. I think a valuation is a valuers best estimate only of what a property would fetch on the open market and that is just an opinion until such time as the property is actually sold. An opinion is quite subjective and can vary from person to person. A once off property on a great road could have wildly varying value depending on whether there was more than one hugely wealthy purchaser interested A 4 bed semi on an estate with similar properties also for sale will be much easier to value.

mf
 
Apologies in advance mf1, however, when two solicitors reply to a thread like this and both find this question interesting, I can't help but wondering if we aren't just a little bit sad.
 
For God's sake keep the lawyer jokes for , or Clubman will be down on you like a ton of ...Pampers?
 
Ehrm, I think that's technically illegal, mf1. Perhaps not for long, 'though, if Mee-hawl Muck-Do-Well gets another term?

To Card - apologies for hijacking/ambushing the thread, but I hope that in the course of all this idle banter your original query has been (kind of) answered...? You didn't give a lot of detail about the precise circumstances. Was it over-valued? under-valued? What happened subsequently?
 
As mentioned above it came up in the course of a general conversation with someone in the industry, rather than a specfic situation
Thanks for all the replies!
 
There can't possibly be any estate agents on this site! They're regularly pilloried by everyone! But maybe they all have brass necks?
 
Gordanus said:
But maybe they all have brass necks?
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I suspect that's the only required "qualification", really... Heck, I might take it up as sideline meself, one of these days!
 
Now form a nice orderly queue.....

I am an estate agent!!



Basically to answer the original question, a house is worth what the highest bidder will pay for it,

When you do a valuation to sell a property you advise what you think the property should be advertised as, the asking price, this is usually what you would expect it to achieve, as a previous poster said this valuation is normally based on recent sales on similar properties in the area, its not an exact science but an indication. A seller would have to allow for variations in the market at any given time and also in advertising at an attractive price to interest buyers in coming for a viewing
 
EAs compete against each other, so they tend to over-evaluate your property to get the business.
I have proof of such practices from DNG and Property Partners....and I am sure they are not the only one.

If EA1 gives estimate of €250k, and EA2 of €275, and considering that they all charge the same commission, don;t you think EA2 will be given the job of selling the property?
And weeks/months later, EA2 will reduce the price to €250k to attract buyers....

I got a flyer from DNG recently in my letter box. It basically state that they will achive higher prices than any other EA when selling your property.
Thing about it, why would a buyer go to them then ???

The lack of regulation does not help.. just browse through AAM and see the horror story about ghost bidders turning up at the last second.

At the end of the day, the "market" decides, not the EAs....
 
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