You have just received a property valuation report, or you are about to commission one, and you wonder what it must contain to be reliable. Each professional body has its own presentation standards, but they agree on the essentials. This article reviews the elements you should find, drawing on the Charte de l’expertise en évaluation immobilière (the French property valuation charter, 6th edition, November 2025), on the European Valuation Standards 2025 (EVS 2025) and, for court-ordered appraisals, on the French Code of Civil Procedure.
What a report must be before what it must contain
The Charte leaves the expert free in matters of presentation but sets four qualities (Title II, chapter 10, §10.1). The report must be clear, written in accessible language, including for technical aspects; precise, meaning that it answers the instruction exactly and completely; concise, detailed developments being placed in appendices; and formalised, so paginated, dated and signed. The EVS 2025 say the same thing in other words: the report must be written in terms that a person with no knowledge of the property or of valuation can understand (EVS 5, §4.1.4).
A good reading test: at the end of the report, do you understand why the expert arrives at this figure and not another? If so, the report does its job.
1. The scope of the instruction
The first part sets the work in context. The Charte (§10.2) places here:
- the identity of the client or instructing party and its connection with the property;
- the purpose of the report and its intended use (sale, partition, bank security, litigation, tax return);
- the precise designation of the property: address, land registry references, use;
- the standard or standards applied (Charte, EVS, others);
- the type of value sought and the assumptions adopted.
The purpose matters as much as the address. The same house is not valued in exactly the same way for an inheritance partition, for a mortgage security or for a neighbourhood dispute, because the basis of value may change.
2. The expert’s declarations
The Charte then requires declarations: absence of any conflict of interest, or the measures taken to neutralise one; the expert’s competence and independence; the dates of the inspection, of the valuation and of the drafting; the identity of the person who inspected the property; a statement of compliance with the standards applied; and a note of any departure or omission, with its justification. The EVS 2025 likewise require a statement of compliance and an explanation of any departure (EVS 5, §4.2.7).
These statements are not formalities. They engage the expert’s professional liability, which is a best-endeavours obligation (obligation de moyens, Charte, Title I, §2.2), and they tell the reader what can be relied on.
3. Documents and reservations
The report lists the documents provided and used, points out missing documents and their possible effect, and states reservations on data it could not verify. The Charte specifies that documents provided by the instructing party (tenancy schedule, plans, floor areas, surveys) are presumed accurate (Title II, §9.2.2); the expert says so, and indicates what has been checked personally.
The report also restates its restrictive clauses: no partial use, and use limited to the stated purpose. An extract taken out of context can say the opposite of the full report.
4. The basis of value
The report defines the value it is looking for. For market value (valeur vénale), the Charte (Title III, §1.1) and the EVS (EVS 1) refer to the definition of market value: the estimated amount for which the property should exchange on the valuation date between a willing buyer and a willing seller in an arm’s length transaction, after proper marketing, where the parties had each acted knowledgeably, prudently and without compulsion. Other bases exist (market rental value, mortgage lending value, prudent value, forced sale value under a special assumption) and must be named as such.
5. Analysis of the property
This is the descriptive part: location (surroundings, access, neighbourhood), legal position (form of ownership, co-ownership, easements), planning position (zoning, development potential, planned schemes), technical description (general condition, services, floor areas, layout) and, where relevant, letting position (current leases, income, charges).
The Charte recalls that the valuation of a building requires an inspection (Title II, §9.2.1). A note prepared without an inspection is a desktop opinion; it requires full transparency on the documents received and missing, and cannot claim the rigour of a full valuation (Title II, §8.6).
6. The valuation
The core of the report includes:
- a market analysis: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks of the property, with a mandatory comment on any unusual market uncertainty;
- the justification of the methods used (comparison, income, discounted cash flow, trading accounts, cost); the Charte recalls that no method is universal;
- explicit parameters (unit prices, rates, allowances) and detailed calculations;
- details of the comparables used, also required by the EVS (EVS 5, §4.1.2).
The report must clearly separate facts from opinions and flag anything discovered that could affect value: potential contamination, hazardous materials, title problems.
7. The conclusions
The report gives a clear and unequivocal opinion of value at the valuation date (EVS 5, §4.1.3). The Charte asks for amounts to be stated net of duties and costs and “acte en main” (all purchase costs included), for the tax treatment adopted to be specified, and for several scenarios to be set out where necessary. Any reservations, on the property, its use or the market, are restated at this stage.
8. Parties’ observations in court-ordered or joint private appraisals
When the appraisal is ordered by a judge, the expert must take into consideration the parties’ observations or claims and, when they are in writing, attach them to the report if the parties so request (Code of Civil Procedure, article 276). These written observations (dires) and the expert’s answers form part of the report. The expert may only answer the questions put by the judge and must never express views on points of law (article 238). Articles 232 to 284-1 of the Code of Civil Procedure govern the whole process.
In a joint private valuation, commissioned by two or more parties, the same logic applies by agreement: each party may submit its observations and the report answers them.
9. Appendices and signature
Photographs, plans, land registry extracts, title deeds, leases, surveys, transaction references: the appendices carry the documents on which the reasoning rests. The report ends with the date and the expert’s signature.
Content that adapts, principles that do not
The form of the report adapts to the client’s instructions, to the purpose and to the complexity of the property. The EVS specify that the content, length and level of detail must be agreed at the outset and confirmed in the terms of engagement (EVS 5, §4.2.3; EVS 4 for the terms of engagement). As the standards are updated regularly, it is worth referring to the current version: the Charte de l’expertise and TEGOVA’s European Valuation Standards.
Further reading
The Court expert and litigation support page describes how a court-ordered appraisal unfolds and how I assist a party. On the same theme: the independence of the court expert and what the EVS 2025 change.
What next
An expert has been appointed in your case, or an opposing report has just arrived?
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