Horsham is currently acting as an Expert Witness in a particularly unusual retrospective valuation case. A homeowner was repossessed by a building society in the early 1990's after falling significantly into arrears. The building society, and its representatives, including the estate agents and the surveyors who inspected the property during and after the repossession, reported that significant damage had been caused to the property by lack of maintenance and ill conceived structural alterations. As a consequence when the property was eventually sold by the building society very little equity remained to return to the original owner. Since the resale was completed in the mid 1990's, the original owner has alleged that the property was under sold.

Prior to the sale, employees of the lender carried out all the valuations at the time and to defend the case, it was clear that an independent retrospective valuation on the property would be required. Our Horsham office was instructed to provide the expert advice needed.

What made this valuation particularly unusual was the fact that the house has since sold at least once, had been completely modernised, and the current owners were not allowing access. Also the property could not be seen from the road!

With a little detective work it was possible to contact the first purchasers who gave our surveyors background information on the condition of the property at the time of their purchase. We were also able to establish the amount of money spent on repairs and the price the property achieved when it was sold years later.

With the help of various indices tracking residential property values, and by comparing the values of similar properties sold in the early 1990's to the value of similar properties sold at the present time, it was possible to carry out a mathematical exercise to establish what would have been the likely value of the subject property, in good condition, at the time of the repossession. We then deducted from this figure the cost of the repair and modernisation work said to have been expended by the purchasers, and arrived at a figure not dis-similar to the price the property was sold for after repossession.

Our surveyor is confident that he will be able to act as an Expert Witness in court on the basis of a retrospective valuation that has been prepared without the benefit of internal or external inspections of the property.

Our Horsham office was approached by a couple that had purchased a dwelling and were carrying out significant modernisation and improvement works. The specification was straightforward enough, extensive damp proofing and replastering, replacement windows, partial replumbing, installation of new kitchen and bathrooms etc. The homeowners, however, had one very specific requirement. They requested a particularly high standard of work and were prepared to pay for it. For example, they required totally blemish free and plumb plastering, absolutely straight decorative lines, an ice rink finish to the polished floors etc. Unfortunately, the builders they employed were full of promises but lacking in delivery. Workmanship was shoddy, even by average standards, let alone the high quality demanded by their clients. Inevitably the relationship between the builder and the client collapsed and lawsuits were soon flying around.

Once again we were brought in as independent expert witnesses to establish the reasonableness of the clients' original demands and comment fairly on the quality of the workmanship.

It was crystal clear that the workmanship was poor, and the clients' demands, whilst seemingly excessive, had been agreed upon before contracts were signed. Our independent report fell fairly and squarely upon the side of the homeowners and formed the basis for an out of court settlement.