000			01700cam a2200241 4500
001			WB3709-21
008			000000n2001 000 0 eng u
035			_a(Sirsi) u111218
245			_aSurveyor negligence
260			_c2001
490			_aEstates Gazette Case Summaries _v[2001] EGCS 21(1) (24/02/01)
520			_a"Etam plc v Baker Almond (a firm)" ChD 29 January 2001. Etam (E) instructed Baker Almond (BA) to contact the owners of an old department store (K) with a view to purchase. BA made four offers on E's behalf, none of which were accepted. When K agreed to sell the premises to E through BA the surveyor wrote a 'letter of comfort' to E which stated, inter alia, that the price of £2.705m was justifiable as the store had an annual rental value of £125,000. A subsequent retrospective valuation, commissioned from DTZ by E, valued the store at £1.5m at the time of purchase in 1985. In 1999 E began proceedings, claiming that the advice in the letter had been given negligently. BA contended that this was not the case and that the claim was statute-barred. The claim was dismissed on the grounds that the valuation was not one that a reasonably competent surveyor could not have reached in the circumstances and that the limitation could not be disregarded as E should have sought expect advice when the alternative valuation was received in 1987.
590			_aWB
650			_aCOMFORT LETTERS
650			_aETAM PLC V BAKER ALMOND (A FIRM)
650			_aLIMITATION
650			_aLIMITATION ACT 1980 S14A(10)
650			_aNEGLIGENCE
650			_aRETAIL PROPERTY
650			_aValuation _96273
690			_aPROFESSIONAL PRACTICE-NEGLIGENCE-CASE LAW
942			_n0
999			_c66263 _d66263