The recent judgment handed down by Mrs Justice Lambert in
Swift v Carpenter [2018] EWHC 2060 (QB) marks only the
second occasion on which the Court has been asked to consider
accommodation claims in the context of negative discount rates.
In the present case, the claimant suffered serious lower limb
injuries in a road traffic accident and her claim included an
accommodation element, where it was claimed that the suitable
accommodation would cost £900,000 more than the accommodation
which the claimant had previously been living in.
The claimant proposed four alternative models for recovering
this loss:
- The first method proposed was based
on an interest-only mortgage. The claimant submitted that a basic
internet search revealed an annual interest rate of 3.8%. Applying
this percentage to the sum of £900,000 and multiplying by the
claimant's life expectancy using a discount rate of -0.75%
produced a final figure of £1.89m, thus presenting the
claimant with a
