Property law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Property law - Essay Example Therefore, the valuer or surveyor’s only real obligation is to the truth, in that the appraisal must be accurate and not inflated. There are a number of factors that goes into this, as discussed below. Moreover, real estate agents and brokers also have a duty to the truth. This means that they, like the surveyors and valuers, must do extensive research before selling a house, and if they make a material omission or false statement of fact, they will be liable, and this liability is strict. This means that there is liability, regardless of whether the statement is innocent, negligent, reckless or intentional. Therefore, anybody in real estate has a duty to anybody who might be affected by their statements or appraisals, which means that anybody in real estate has the duty to do a thorough and diligent search before committing themselves to selling a house, in the case of real estate agents, or valuing a house, in the case of surveyors or valuers. Two Types of Liability The Prop erty Misdescriptions Act 1991 is an Act that governs many different types of ethical breaches a surveyor might encounter or commit. It states that, when a real estate professional makes a false or misleading statement during the course of a business transaction, the person who made the statement is guilty of an offence under this Act (Property Misrepresentations Act 1991 Â § 1(1)). The same goes for an employee – if an employee makes a false or misleading statement during the course of a business transaction, that employee can be guilty under the Act, whether or not the employer is involved with the breach (Property Misrepresentations Act 1991 Â § 1(2)). The misleading statement must also be material, not trivial, and this is judged by the perspective of the reasonable person (Property Misrepresentations Act 1991). Whether or not the statement is misleading is also judged from the perspective of a reasonable person (Property Misrepresentations Act 1991). Moreover, the Act i s one of strict liability, which means that any statement can be actionable, not just statements that are negligent, reckless or intentional (Property Misrepresentations Act 1991). Therefore, under the Property Misrepresentations Act, a real estate professional, any real estate professional, must be very careful with what they tell prospective buyers. Because the Act is one of strict liability, which means that a real estate professional can still be found guilty under this Act, even if that professional is not aware that the statement that he or she is making is false, that means that one of the major responsibilities that a real estate professional has is the duty to ensure that their statements are true and that there are no material omissions. This would mean that extensive research must be done during any transaction, including title searches, surveys, accurate property appraisals and the like. That said, surveyors may be at risk of negligence. According Murdoch (2005) surveyor s may be guilty of negligence when they do not use skill in preparing their reports and the homeowner relied upon the surveyor’s report (Murdoch, 2005, p. 1). Historically, however, the homeowner would not be able to recover damages from the surveyor, as there was no privity of contract between the homeowner and the surveyor. The privity of contra