Harcourt Fine Art Valuers

The Problem#

• Harcourt Fine Art is a three-person firm specialising in probate valuations for paintings, prints, and sculpture
• Solicitors send them to the deceased’s home, they photograph and value each item, and they produce a valuation letter — a PDF listing descriptions and values
• The solicitor then re-keys every figure into their estate schedule — for a house containing 40 framed works, this takes hours
• When HMRC challenges a valuation, the solicitor must trace back to the PDF to find the valuer’s reasoning — made harder when multiple valuers (art, jewellery, antiques) each submitted separate PDFs with different formatting

How They’d Use INHERIT#

• Harcourt returns structured valuations using valuation.json, with each item as a Valuation entity referencing the asset.json entry via entityId
• Key fields include providerType: "professional_valuer", method: "expert_opinion" or method: "comparable_sales", valuationPurpose: "date_of_death", valuedAmount (in integer minor units), and confidence
• The valuerRegistration object carries Harcourt’s professional credentials (RICS membership, SoftAA accreditation)
• Comparables[] on each valuation reference recent auction results: platform: "Bonhams", platformListingId, salePrice, saleDate, matchConfidence — ready for HMRC scrutiny
• Images are attached via common/media.json with viewType (overview, detail, signature, condition)

The Integration#

• Harcourt receives the relevant assets[] from the solicitor’s INHERIT document (or creates new asset entries during the home visit)
• They populate the valuations and return the enriched document
• The solicitor’s system imports the valuations directly — no re-keying, no PDF

The Business Case#

• Harcourt values approximately 300 estates per year, averaging 15 items each
• Producing a PDF valuation letter takes 2 hours per estate; structured INHERIT output takes the same time (the valuation work is unchanged) but eliminates the solicitor’s 1–2 hours of re-keying per estate
• Across Harcourt’s client base, that is 300–600 solicitor hours saved annually
• Competitive advantage: solicitors prefer valuers who return data they can import directly — Harcourt wins more instructions

Before / After#

Without INHERIT:

1. The solicitor sends Harcourt to the deceased’s home to value 40 framed works
2. Harcourt photographs each piece, researches comparables, and produces a 12-page PDF valuation letter
3. The solicitor’s paralegal spends 2 hours re-keying every description and value into the estate schedule
4. HMRC challenges three valuations — the solicitor searches the PDF for Harcourt’s reasoning, then phones Harcourt for the auction comparables
5. The whole process repeats for the jewellery valuer and the antiques valuer, each with a different PDF format

With INHERIT:

1. The solicitor sends Harcourt the estate’s assets[] as an INHERIT document before the home visit
2. Harcourt values each item and populates valuation.json entries with comparables and images
3. The solicitor imports the enriched document — every figure flows into the estate schedule automatically
4. HMRC challenges three valuations — the comparables, credentials, and methodology are already structured and auditable