A court Order issued after my recent FDA states that both parties shall instruct a single joint chartered surveyor to value a couple of mine and my ex's properties.
I am a LiP, whilst my ex is represented by a solicitor.
His solicitor has presented mw with a choice of chartered surveyors to choose from. Naturally, I contacted my own chartered surveyor and spoke to a couple of the surveyors on the list provided to me.
I've now learnt that I shouldn't have spoken to the surveyors on the list. However, in ignorance of this, and wanting to know whether the surveyors were actually any good and had been given the correct details by my ex's solicitor I contacted them.
Whilst I understand that I am meant to be given a chance to view the joint letter of instruction (when one expert has been identified), should the solicitor have provided me with the details on which basis the list of chartered surveyors were produced? They would have needed to have contacted each surveyor in order to get a price (the prices were included on the list provided to me).
The order will have specified how the selection of the joint expert should be done. There is no need for any justification for the selection.
I would think it is quite reasonable for you to do some research to etablish the credentials of the experts provided rather than make a choice based on price alone.