Darkness on the edge of town? Or is the calculation of consequential losses in dilapidations claims harder than it looks? (Part 2)
Abstract
This paper addresses one aspect of the quantification of damages for breach of the tenant's covenants to yield up the demised premises in repair at the end of the term: consequential losses. Part one of the paper summarises the different ways of quantifying such damages, shortly restating the contrasting rules in Joyner v. Weeks [1891] 2 QB 31 (CA) and in Ruxley Electronics & Construction v. Forsyth [1996] AC 344 (HL). It also summarises the general law on causation, remoteness of damage, and recovering the reasonable costs of mitigation. Part two of the paper then applies these principles to the specific issues arising in dilapidations cases: loss of rent, the inability to recover service charges, insurance and rates, liability for professional fees and preliminaries, the incidence of VAT, recovering the cost of preparing schedules, recovering the costs of re-certification and liability to pay interest. This paper was first presented at RICS Dilapidations Conference in 2015.
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Author's Biography
Nic Taggart has been consistently rated as a ‘top-tier’ junior for real estate litigation by both Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 for over 12 years and was Chambers and Partners’ Real Estate Litigation Junior of the Year 2011. He deals with all aspects of commercial real estate work, with an emphasis on work involving valuation disputes, such as dilapidations, lease renewals under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 and rent reviews. Being at heart an anarchist, he is also a dab hand at ‘Ground (f)’ claims under the 1954 Act, although he feels more comfortable talking about demolition than reconstruction. Nic is often involved in the sort of cases no one else in Chambers really wants to do, involving recherché matters such as the Electronic Communications Code, manorial and riparian rights and drainage. Nic is an editor of Hill & Redman’s Law of Landlord and Tenant, on the editorial board of The Conveyancer, a co-opted member of The Law Society’s Conveyancing and Land Law Committee, an equally co-opted member of the RICS Dilapidations Forum Steering Group, a contributor to Bullen, Leake & Jacob’s Precedents of Pleadings and a sometime visiting lecturer in property law at both the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford.
Citation
Taggart, Nic (2016, March 1). Darkness on the edge of town? Or is the calculation of consequential losses in dilapidations claims harder than it looks? (Part 2). In the Journal of Building Survey, Appraisal & Valuation, Volume 4, Issue 4. https://doi.org/10.69554/NZTS3914.
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