Valuers and the scope of the duty of care

In Hope Capital Ltd v Alexander Reece Thomson LLP [2023] EWHC 2389 (KB), Constable J held that the claimant had suffered no actionable loss as a result of the defendant valuer's admitted breach of its duty of care when valuing a property on the basis of which the claimant had advanced a bridging loan to a borrower which defaulted and, upon default, the value of the property was found to be inadequate to pay off the loan. In so concluding, Constable J rejected the submission advanced on behalf of the claimant that this was a "rare" case in which the valuer had accepted responsibility for all the consequences that followed from entry into the bridging loan. Rather, this was a typical case where the purpose of the valuer's advice was to provide the lender with an opinion on which it was entitled to rely in relation to the then current market value of the property offered as security for the loan. On this basis, there was found to be no actionable loss suffered by the claimant. It was also held that the claimant was not entitled to recover as damages the loss of contractual interest on the bridging loan nor was it entitled to recover in respect of the loss of profits on the successful bridging loans which it claimed it would have concluded had it not entered into this particular bridging loan.