Chris Thorne tells BVWire—UK that ‘most valuer’s Inboxes at the moment are full of comment about the difficulties of undertaking valuations,’ but he’s still receiving requests for advice about ‘providing a suitable warning in their reports that their valuations are subject to material valuation uncertainty.’

The requirement to include such advice under certain conditions is of course not new. The RICS Red Book first started including the need for comment on ‘abnormal uncertainty’ in the 1990s. Nevertheless, I know from recent experience of helping firms with their report templates and reviewing completed reports that this is an area which many valuers struggle with.

Before anyone had heard of a virus that would cause the shutdown of large swathes of the world economy, Thorne started to write a briefing for valuers aimed at helping them better understand the purpose of uncertainty clauses. The result, updated for current conditions, was released last week on Amazon. ‘Valuation Uncertainty—Reporting the Unknowable’ is available as either an e-book or paperback.