JHWalter - Adding Value to Property & Business

At JHWalter we have a team of chartered surveyors and rural business consultants offering independent advice as expert witnesses in agricultural matters and commercial, residential and agricultural property. Each expert witness is experienced in taking instructions, interpreting the evidence and preparing opinion about liability and/or quantum on behalf of claimants and defendants as well as acting as Single Joint Expert. At all times, they are mindful of their duty to the court where they may be cross-examined on their views. Since 1999, the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) have developed court proceedings (including the role of the Expert) to narrow the issues, ensure professional opinion is robustly held and make sure that litigation is proportionate. Our team of expert valuers, surveyors and business consultants pride themselves on true independence and well founded opinion based on the evidence they have gathered.

Why Choose JHWalter?

• Expert valuation of agricultural, residential and commercial property
• Advice backed by experience on agency, rent review and property management
• Skilled advisers in rural and agricultural matters
• Know-how in arable and stock farming as well as food based business
• Knowledgeable professionals who are active in their field
• Understanding of the issues and the process of litigation
• Decisive advice accounting for the client’s objectives within the framework of CPR

Chartered Surveyors

As Chartered Surveyors, we advise on disputes in the following areas:
• Valuation for all purposes including matrimonial, litigation, taxation, sale and purchase
• Agency
• Rent review/lease renewal
• Property management

The type of property on which we can advise:
• Shops/retail property
• Industrial property including factories and warehouses
• Office and business premises
• Leisure property including public houses
• Agricultural property including country estates, farms, small holdings and glasshouses
• Intensive livestock units. Pigs and poultry.
• Food production facilities. Abattoirs, factories, produce stores, cold stores
• Equestrian property
• Residential property including houses, flats and investment property

Our area of coverage includes:

• East Midlands
• Lincolnshire (including North and North East Lincolnshire)
• Nottinghamshire
• Leicestershire
• Northern Cambridgeshire
• South Yorkshire

Some Recent Cases

When a Building Survey missed certain defects in a retail property, advice was needed on the extent to which the purchaser had lost and the extent to which mitigation of loss was possible.

A building plot was acquired with planning permission for a substantial detached house. The approach to the property was via a right of way which did not allow the buyer a sufficient level of access for the development. Advice was given whether the development proposals could be re-planned to avoid a loss and, if not, how much the loss was at various dates.

One of the assets of a matrimonial settlement was a detached house in the Lincolnshire Wolds. It had an agricultural occupancy condition but no land to make a viable agricultural holding. As single joint expert, opinion was needed on the value of the asset.

Litigation arose in connection with a 250 acre arable farm in East Yorkshire let on a secure lifetime tenancy (Agricultural Holdings Act 1986). It included a substantial house, traditional brick buildings and modern farm buildings erected as tenant’s improvements. Complex advice was sort as single joint expert as to the value of the property.

Due to a conveyancing error, a buyer was able to use garden land as a building plot without the intended restrictions and development clawback. Guidance was required on the implications of an unrestricted sale and the losses incurred by the previous owner.

Henry Denchfield is an accomplished rural business consultant and has been taking expert witness instructions for the past 17 years. He is now a very experienced expert wintess investigating and preparing reports on behalf of both claimants and defendants and as Single Joint Expert. Henry has also acted as an Expert Advisor at Mediation; his cover is nationwide. Henry has been a Member of the Academy of Experts since 1991 and is also a Member of the British Institute of Agricultural Consultants. He is trained in the legal aspects of report writing and in the functions and responsibilities of the Single Joint Expert. His reports and evidence have covered subjects including:

• Crop and animal loss
• Rural business management
• Flooding from farmland
• Accident and injury
• Matrimonial proceedings
• Fire and theft

In a high profile case in the Leeds High Court a farmer alleged that his farm business had been managed negligently by receivers appointed by one of the clearing banks. In his judgement following a twenty day trial Judge Langan said that Mr Denchfield was, “an agricultural consultant of many years experience,” and stated that, “if an expert witness as impressive as Mr Denchfield expresses a view on agricultural mismanagement…....the court should be slow to depart from his opinion.” As a rural business consultant Henry’s experience covers principally, executive farm management, strategic business planning, joint venture farming, landlord and tenant issues and insolvency support. Henry Denchfield has considerable commercial experience having been resident and in business in Lincolnshire for thirty-five years.

Some Recent Cases

A villager sued after pig slurry flooded into his home from a neighbouring outdoor pig unit and, as a result of a favourable out of court settlement, received substantial damages as well as agreement to certain land management undertakings to prevent recurrence. Henry investigated and prepared reports on behalf of the claimant.

Prepared report on behalf of a farm worker who was attacked by a bull causing him serious injury. The matter was settled out of court.

Reports have been prepared for a number of farmers addressing quantum issues of loss of potato, shallot, and sugar beet crops. All were settled out of court.

Henry prepared initial and supplementary reports and gave evidence in Dartford County Court on behalf of a claimant whose property had been flooded by muddy water running off a maize field. This was a four-day liability trial, with judgement in claimant’s favour.

A report was prepared on behalf of a defendant, investigating a landfill site and alleged breaches of covenants under licence regarding tipping and reinstatement to good agricultural condition. The matter was settled out of court.

Henry was appointed as Single Joint Expert in a case where the claimant farmer was alleging losses in a potato crop following flooding from the highway; the local County Council was the defendant, and the matter was settled out of court.