Search results

Traces the development of the principles of professional negligence especially in the 1980′s and to reappraise them in the 1990s. Illustrates with cases designed to show perceived trends and which are deemed significant to practitioners. Concludes by observing an uncomfortable hardening of the courts′ attitude towards professional negligence.

Explores judicial attitudes in professional negligence cases affecting liability for property investment advice. Focuses on the standard of work required to discharge the legal duty of care and on apparent contradictions in approach by the courts. Reviews a series of cases which are taken to exhibit traditional attitudes to professional liability and studies modern cases which are irreconcilable with those attitudes. Includes liability to third party mortgagors and to third party mortgagees in an analysis of the duty of care, and considers the implications of the perceived expansion of the advisor′s professional duties, which include potential conflicts of interest and the dichotomy between the standards current among professionally qualified and unqualified practitioners. Suggests that judicial attitudes are influential in shaping the practice of property investment advice, but that this intervention is fraught with difficulties as it creates uncertainty among professional advisors about the nature of the tasks undertaken.

Discusses the duty of structural surveyors to interpret their findings in reporting to their clients, using examples from legislation and specific cases. Suggests that current attention of commentators is focused on observations of defects, but that too little attention has been paid to the question of interpretation of those findings made. Concludes that such interpretation is regarded as a positive legal duty incumbent on structural surveyors.

Gives an account of the phenomenon of increased use of collateral warranties within the property industry as a means of affording a recourse against building producers. Outlines the legal situation which has led to concentration on the device of collateral warranties. Explains the legal nature of such warranties. Considers some of the issues and difficulties which have been identified since their use has increased.

Considers recent case law to the effect that duties of care may be owed by those engaged in administration and sale of assets to people affected by the outcome of their efforts. Considers potential liability of professionals, particularly chartered surveyors advising on such disposals. Concludes that a receiver′s duty of care should be regarded as equivalent to that of mortgagee.

Discusses the legal relevance of two factors in determining the obligations of the structural surveyor – the time available for the task to be executed and the price or fee agreed as remuneration. Studies the judicial attitudes with reference to actual cases where reliance on time and price has been adduced by surveyors as factors allegedly limiting their obligations and thus their legal liability in negligence. Suggests that such reliance is unsound and that the courts are generally hostile to the professional′s use of the factors of time and price as restrictive of responsibility.

This paper forms part of a larger funded research project conducted jointly by the University of Reading and Oxford Brookes University. The purpose of the project was an investigation of negligent valuation and advice, in relation to commercial property lending. A major interview exercise to obtain data relating to commercial loan valuation practice was undertaken. This work, and its initial results, have been reported elsewhere and do not form the main subject matter of this paper, but are referred to. The second part of this project derived from a comprehensive literature search in the area of setting up of a data‐base of sources for research and possible commercial exploitation. It is the database, the rationale for its creation, its features, and prospects for use which are the subject matter of this paper. The paper considers the background to the most recent decisions; the importance of the case law in understanding valuers’ liability exposure; the compilation of the database; the intentions as to its operation and use; and conclusions on the extent to which the project’s objectives regarding the database have been achieved and its potential for further development in the future.

Argues that the requirement for references from prospective tenants by property managers is a legal obligation. Considers the nature of the property manager′s duty to obtain references, as well as the nature and extent of this duty, using case law examples. Concludes that the property manager has an interpretative, rather than express function concerning tenant suitability, making the term “professional” appropriate to his function in such situations.

This paper addresses the performance, training and organisation of expert valuation witnesses in the UK. Previous research, based on analysis of professional negligence cases in the UK courts, had found that expert valuation witnesses do not always perform rationally, for example informing courts that valuations can be undertaken within acceptable tolerances of valuation accuracy, while giving expert evidence that differed by more than these tolerances. There was evidence that, while well aware of their overriding duty to the court or tribunal, expert witnesses were frequently producing client‐biased valuations. Such findings provoked questions as to whether standards would be improved by two recently proposed alterations to current practice: either the introduction of a system of compulsory training and accreditation for such witnesses, or a change from the process by which expert valuation evidence is normally presented (one expert witness for each party to a dispute) to the use of a single expert, appointed either by the parties jointly or by the court. A case analysis is performed and conclusions discussed.

Examines the phenomenon of cross‐border property lending and some issues regarding lending procedures and decision‐making processes in the context of the relationship between lender and professional adviser. Commences by placing these procedures and processes in the context of the development of cross‐border European property investment and finance. The UK has been a popular destination for overseas investors and lenders over the last decade and is therefore used as a case study to examine the additional institutional risk that overseas lenders may face when operating outside of their own country and obtaining advice from home professionals. The research identified a lack of clarity in roles and relationships between lender and adviser, difficulties in communications both internally and between overseas branches and headquarters and failures in provision and interpretation of advice. Concludes by identifying the issues which may need to be addressed generally by lenders and their advisers, when lenders are operating in overseas markets.