Asset valuation is an element in many legal acts and procedures – such as inheritance proceedings, change in legal form of a company, mergers and acquisitions, etc. The end result of the valuation process is an appraised, or objectivized, property value, which is the appraiser’s estimate, as at the appraisal date, of the price the property would most likely fetch in the market, at the given place and time and under conditions of free competition, in an arm’s length transaction where both buyer and seller are appropriately informed and prudent, and assuming the price is not influenced by any unreasonable factors.
The purposes for which it is necessary or recommendable to have property appraised are expressly set forth in legislation including, for example, the Civil and Commercial Codes, the Securities Act, the Foreclosure Rules, the Code of Civil Procedure, etc.
