Anyone who is involved in a traffic accident through no fault of their own is often entitled to compensation for the loss in value of their car in addition to the repair costs. The Federal Court of Justice has now formulated a guideline on this amount.
In the dispute over compensation after a traffic accident, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has published a decision on the estimation of the so-called commercial impairment. This refers to the loss in value of a vehicle that remains after an accident despite professional repairs and maintenance. Because the car is still an accident vehicle – which usually reduces the resale value.
The Karlsruhe Senate has now established in a guideline that the basis for estimating this commercial depreciation is a hypothetical sale of the vehicle. In doing so, the net and not the gross sales price is to be assumed. If the depreciation was estimated based on the gross price, an amount equal to the sales tax portion must be deducted.
In this specific case, a lessee had demanded compensation from the other party’s liability insurer after an accident. An expert commissioned by the woman determined a commercial loss of value of 5,000 euros. However, the liability insurer only reimbursed her around 4,200 euros – on the grounds that an amount equal to the sales tax had to be deducted. The woman was initially successful in her claim for the remaining almost 800 euros in court.
However, the arguments of the lower courts did not stand up to review by the highest German civil court. “Contrary to the opinion of the appeal court, an amount corresponding to the sales tax share must be deducted from the commercial reduction in value if it was estimated on the basis of the gross sales price,” the BGH ruled. It now depends on whether the reduction in value was estimated on the basis of the net or gross sales price in the present case. Since no findings have been made on this point in the proceedings so far, the case has been returned to the Coburg Regional Court.
Source: Stern
