Surveying companies must be 'shaking in their boots' following on from the recent court case.A landlord has won his case against a surveyor who had estimated the rental income on a new-build flat, paving the way for future challenges from other aggrieved investors.
The landlord Emmett Scullion bought an apartment in Cobham, Surrey following a valuation from local surveying firm Colleys, now part of Lloyds Bank.
The surveyor put a valuation of £352,950 on the property and estimated the flat could achieve a rental figure of £2,000 pcm.
The novice landlord purchased the flat based on these figures only to find that he could barely achieve a rental figure of £1000 pcm, half the amount indicated by the surveyor.
The landlord was then forced to sell the property at a loss. Following a long legal battle the has just been awarded £72,000 by the courts, who decided that Colleys owed him a duty of care.
Read more in the Guardian
With this legal precedent set, let the flood gates open.............
Read the judgement
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I had not clicked that Colleys were now part of LloydsTSB - We have experience of Colleys for all the BMS Mortgages we hold, but of course BMS are part of Halifax and therefore HBOS, who are now owned by Lloyds-TSB so when they make such an error it makes it even more serious when they could potentially affect a huge percentage of the BTL market in their client dealings. Landlords beware!
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