Astle & Ors v CBRE Ltd 5/11/15 (Ch)

In a surveyors’ negligence case the defendants’ application for summary judgment was unsuccessful. The claimant investors had invested in a trust which held the freehold of a property and a partnership with an interest in the acquisition and development of various sites. The trust and partnership had borrowed substantial sums from the bank in connection with which loan the bank had retained the defendant surveyors to provide valuations for loan security purposes. The valuations had been summarised in an information memorandum pursuant to which the investors had made their investments. The defendants argued that the losses caused following the collapse in commercial property values in 2008 was outside the scope of their duty to investors following SAAMCO. The investors had a real prospect of establishing that the loss they had suffered on their investment was attributable at least in part to the alleged inadequacies in the memorandum.