On 6 November 2024 Lord Richardson delivered a judgment in a valuation dispute. The pursuer (Dale House Developments) was formerly the proprieter of a dilapidated property it had purchased in 2014 and shortly after agreed to sell it to Legal & General Assurance Society Limited. The pursuer was entitled to receive what was described as the “Profit Share” in
certain circumstances as of the valuation date as per details in the sale missives and if they couldn't agree the missives agreed for an Independent Valuer to be appointed. Mr Kenneth Thurtell of Gerald Eve LLP helped with appointing the first defender, Brian Ronnie, who was a member of the second defender, Ryden LLP.

For the pursuer a valuation was prepared by Ken Thurtell of Gerald Eve LLP. For L&G, they were prepared by Niall Bryers of Jones Lang LaSalle. The submission made by Mr Thurtell proposed a market valuation of the site based solely on a mixed office/retail use in the sum of £9,100,000. The submission from Mr Bryers included a valuation of the property based on re-developing it as a hotel as well as office/retail use. The L&G hotel valuation was based on a planning application which had been jointly submitted by L&G and Meininger Hotels. The Meininger scheme was based upon the proposed hotel containing 160 bedrooms. In terms of his submission, Mr Bryers was of the view that £2,000,000 was a reasonable valuation. The first defender assessed the open market value of the property on 16 September 2016 as being £3,900,000 based on an office and leisure scheme. In his valuation, the first defender considered the development of the property based upon the Meininger scheme the property’s residual value was £2,576,000 . The first defender concluded that valuing the property on the basis of office/retail use was likely to produce a higher value. On the basis of this valuation, the pursuer was not entitled to any profit share in terms of the missives.

In July 2019, L&G concluded a sale of the property to Bloc Glasgow Limited at a price of £8,750,000. Bloc purchased the property in order to develop it for use as a hotel with
associated retail space. The pursuer contends that the first defender failed to carry out the valuation in terms of the missives and failed to adhere to RICS Red Book standards. Debate on residual valuation method, comparables with other nearby hotels.