Stevens v Equity Syndicate Management [2015]: What It Settled
Stevens v Equity Syndicate Management fixed the working definition of the basic hire rate: the lowest reasonable rate quoted by a mainstream supplier — or a reputable local one — for hire of a vehicle comparable to the claimant's, in the claimant's locality. It converted the rates exercise from a debate into a method.
§ 01What was the case about?
A conventional non-impecunious credit hire claim in which the parties' rates evidence produced a spread of possible basic hire rates. The question was which figure in the range the court should adopt: an average, the claimant's most favourable comparator, the defendant's lowest, or something else. The recorder had taken the lowest; the claimant appealed.
§ 02What did the court decide?
The Court of Appeal, in a judgment given by Kitchin LJ, upheld the lowest-rate approach and stated the search directly: the object is to find the rate the claimant, acting reasonably, would have paid — and a reasonable person shopping for equivalent hire takes the lowest reasonable price available. So the BHR is identified from quotes of mainstream suppliers (or, failing them, reputable local suppliers) for a comparable vehicle in the claimant's locality, taking the lowest reasonable figure. Outliers and non-comparable terms fall out of account as not “reasonable” comparators.
§ 03What did it change in practice?
It gave every credit hire trial a common formula, and shifted the fight onto whether comparators qualify: is the supplier mainstream or reputable, the vehicle truly comparable, the locality right, the terms equivalent? Rates reports are now built and attacked to the Stevens standard. For claimants, it hardened the incentive that already existed after Dimond: the full credit rate is recovered through impecuniosity or not at all in most cases.
§ 04Which later cases applied it?
McBride v UK Insurance (2017) applied and adjusted Stevens for the hard cases — nil-excess hire and prestige vehicles with thin comparator markets — confirming the method bends to the evidence rather than breaking.
§ 05Related reading on this site
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