Valuing the inconvenience resulting from the temporary unavailability of one's property

A tort or breach of contract may deprive the owner of certain property temporarily of the use of the property, without the wrongdoer making use of the property himself or herself. Where the unavailability of the property to its owner has not generated tangible financial loss, which could be the subject of special damages, general damages for the loss of use, or the inconvenience of not having access to the property, may be awarded. The courts have used various methods to calculate such general damages, but they have often not explained why one particular method rather than a different one was used. This article examines the five methods that have been considered by the courts: wasted expenditure, depreciation, interest on the capital value, letting value and the hypothetical cost of renting a substitute property. For each method, its acceptance or rejection by the Australian courts will be reviewed and its propriety as a matter of principle will be discussed.