What makes a valuation hold up in court

By Parish Rao · 24 August 2026 · 6 minute read

Outside a court, a valuation is a professional opinion. Inside one, it is evidence, and the other side's advocate is paid to dismantle it. That changes what the report has to contain.

How a report gets attacked

Cross examination in a valuation matter follows a predictable pattern. The advocate is not usually trying to prove a different number. They are trying to show that yours cannot be relied on.

The questions are simple and hard to answer badly: Did you visit the property? On what date? What did you measure? Which sales did you compare it with? Can you produce those documents? Why did you ignore the tenants? How did you arrive at this figure, exactly?

A report that cannot answer these in specifics is finished, whatever number it carries.

What survives

• A documented inspection. Dated photographs with location recorded, and measurements taken on site rather than copied from documents.
• Registered comparable sales. Named transactions from the relevant period that the other side can go and verify. Verifiable is the point.
• A stated method. Written so that another valuer could follow the same steps and reach the same figure.
• Visible arithmetic. Every calculation shown, so nothing rests on the valuer's assertion.
• Honest treatment of the negatives. Tenants, encroachment, poor condition, title problems. A report that acknowledges what reduces value is far more credible than one that does not.
• Land and building separated where the property calls for it, particularly with older buildings.
• A valuer who will appear. A report nobody will defend in person is worth very little.

What falls apart

Reports produced without a visit. Round figures with no working. Comparables that are vague, unnamed, or drawn from a clearly superior locality. Silence about a tenant everyone knows is there. A valuer whose registration does not cover the purpose, which we cover in who can sign a valuation report.

And the most common of all: a figure that is obviously the number the client wanted. Judges see these weekly. They are recognised instantly, and they damage the party that filed them.

The uncomfortable truth about partisan numbers

If both sides commission a valuer and instruct each to help their case, the court receives two numbers far apart and trusts neither. The usual result is a court appointed valuer, more delay, more cost, and a figure neither side influenced.

Which raises an obvious question. If the outcome is an independent number anyway, why pay twice to get there slowly? Our post on appointing one valuer jointly looks at the alternative.

What to ask a valuer before you engage them

• Will you visit the property yourself?
• Will the report name the comparable sales it relies on?
• Will you appear for cross examination if required?
• Have you given evidence before, and in what kind of matters?
• What is your registration, and will it appear on the report?

Anyone who hesitates on the third question is not the right choice for a contested matter.

Read how we prepare court valuations, or have your advocate call us about the matter.