VALUER’S FEE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26214, 26 July 1946, Page 9

VALUER’S FEE

'DISPUTED IN COURT INVERCARGILL HOTEL DEAL (P.A.) INVERCARGILL, July 25. What was described by counsel as a case of vital importance to property valuers throughout New Zealand was heard in the Magistrate’s Court by Mr R. C. Abernethy to-day. The case was a claim by Proctor Henry Nicholson, commission agent, of Invercargill, against William Thomas Stroud, retired, fdr £l6 16s, the balance of a fee said to be due for a valuation carried out at the Milford Hotel, now known as the Cecil Hotel, at Invercargill. The plaintiff claimed that he was entitled to £3l 10s In accordance with the scale of fees of the New Zealand Institute of Valuers, and the defendant's case was that all he was required to pay was £l4 14s, the amount fixed by the registrar of the Supreme Court. The case arose out of the taking over of the Milford Hotel by the Invercargill Licensing Trust in 1945. The plaintiff was employed by the defendant to value - the property with a view to appearing before a special Arbitration Tribunal set up to fix the price for the property. The plaintiff's valuation was £28,977, and the price fixed by the Arbitration Tribunal was £29,000. The plaintiff claimed that the fixing of the fee by the registrar should not affect any contract whether expressed or implied between him and the defendant.

” This case 1s vital to valuers throughout New Zealand,” said Mr J. Mills for the plaintiff. "If the institute's fees can be upset, then the position of valuers will be most unsatisfactory. This is the first occasion, certainly in Invercargill and, I think. In New Zealand, that the institute’s scale of charges has been disputed since the scale came into operation 10 years ago.”

The magistrate reserved his decision