PP 2003/23

Keeping your ear to the ground Q  Instructed by a seller, you put a property on the market at £1.5m even though a similar property is in another agent’s window at £1.9m. After careful consideration, although without reverting to your principal, you conclude that the other property has been overpriced. Events prove you wrong. Your property goes like a shot, and the other is sold for £1.7m. Does your principal have a claim in negligence? A  Yes, but it is important to identify the reason. Applying a margin of error of around 10%, it is not necessarily negligent to set the price at the lower figure – although query whether it is logical to adopt the test commonly applied in valuation complaints to a price setting exercise: see the strong critical observations of John Murdoch in Agents come under fire Estates Gazette 22 February 2003, p127. The error lies in not informing the seller of a significant event that might influence his instructions: see John D Wood & Co (Residential & Agricultural) Ltd v Knatchbull [2002] EWHC 2822 (QB); [2003] 08 EG 131.