Description
The Court of Appeal considered the proper measure of damages for property owners who have suffered damages as a result of negligent design and construction of piling supporting their homes. Some piles settled causing significant cracking which while not structural was sufficiently serious to render most houses difficult to mortgage or sell other than at very low prices. The judge's decision that the proper percentage discount figure of 32.5% for one sub-set of properties was within the reasonable band within which the discount could have been assessed notwithstanding that it was greater than the experts' figures. Where the judge had rejected a separate award for the costs of re-piling, his subsequent award for three sets of further remedial works based on the assumption that the homeowners would not be able to move for 20 years was principled and did not amount to double recovery, the initial diminution in value not having accounted for the prospect of subsequent re-piling works.
