Comparable evidence pack

A comparable is only as good as the record behind it

Why the Red Book question is not the number, but where the number came from.

Propalt Team · For surveyors

The valuation figure is rarely the part that gets challenged. The comparable schedule is. When a lender's review panel, a litigation opponent or a client's solicitor takes a valuation apart, they start with the evidence: which sales, at what date, of what type, at what size, and how close to the subject. A figure with weak provenance behind it is a figure you cannot defend, however sound the reasoning on top of it.

You already know this, which is why comparable gathering eats the hours it does. The point here is not that surveyors need reminding to source their evidence. It is that the sourcing itself can be structured so the trail is attached from the start, rather than reconstructed later when someone asks.

The set you cite should be the set you chose

A comparable schedule carries weight when every entry can be pointed back to a registered transaction. This skill returns sold price, sale date, property type, floor area and distance from the subject for each comparable, each traced to HM Land Registry. That last column matters more than it looks. Distance and floor area are the two fields that let you show a reviewer you selected for genuine similarity rather than convenience.

Because the output is filterable on type and size, you narrow the pool before you cite it. A three-bed semi valuation does not need flat sales two miles away sitting in the schedule as noise. Filter to matching type and a sensible size band, and the set you present is the set you would have chosen by hand, assembled in a fraction of the time.

The rows above are illustrative. What is not illustrative is the principle: each field is drawn from the registered record, so the adjustments you make from it start on firm ground.

Evidence that survives the review

The value of provenance shows up at the moment of challenge. When the schedule already carries sale dates and floor areas from the register, you are not defending a recollection. You are pointing at a record. That is the difference between a comparable that supports a Red Book valuation and one that merely accompanies it.

The number gets remembered. The provenance is what gets tested.

Attach the trail while you build, and there is nothing to rebuild when the question comes.

Cite the record, not the recollection.

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Comparable and property data is drawn from HM Land Registry and the Propalt intelligence layer. Figures shown are illustrative. This article is general information for surveying professionals.