[2023] UKUT 153 (LC)

The claimant adduced expert accounting evidence to support a claim for temporary loss of profit at £287,552 and permanent loss of profit at £1,386,925. The respondent’s accounting expert assessed the claim for temporary loss of profit at £150,093 and the claim for permanent loss at nil.

It was the respondent’s casethat the claimant had received value for money in taking on the relocation premises with higher overhead costs, because there were benefits in that property which made incurring them worthwhile. Moreover, the claimant had not discharged the burden of proof upon it that no alternative relocation properties were available which would not have required higher overhead costs to be incurred.

Both parties adduced expert valuation evidence to assess, first, whether the claimant had paid market value for the relocation property and, second, whether there may have been less expensive suitable alternative properties available at the time of relocation which the claimant could have taken.

We first review the accounting evidence to determine the temporary loss of profit suffered by the claimant. We then review the valuation evidence to determine whether any permanent loss of profit is eligible for compensation in the light of the guidance in Service Welding and Bibby. Finally we return to the accounting evidence, to determine the permanent loss of profit.