CONTENT LIVING PTY LTD and ROBERTS

In the Supreme Court of Western Australia, Content Living Pty Ltd and Mr. Roberts, as plaintiffs, sought leave to review a decision regarding compensation awarded for misleading and deceptive conduct under the Building Services (Complaints Resolution and Administration) Act 2011 (WA). The defendants were a service provider, who had installed a faulty heating system in a residential property. The plaintiffs claimed that the defendants engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by failing to provide a system that met advertised specifications and that they suffered losses as a result.

The legal issues before the court were whether the plaintiffs had established that they relied on the defendants' representations, whether the chain of causation was broken by other intervening factors, and whether the measure of damages was correctly assessed based on the cost of achieving conformity with the representations. The court needed to determine if the plaintiffs' reliance was reasonable and if any other factors intervened to break the chain of causation between the misleading conduct and the plaintiffs' losses. Additionally, the court had to examine if the damages awarded were appropriate given the nature of the breach and the plaintiffs' losses.

The court held that the plaintiffs had established reasonable reliance on the defendants' representations regarding the heating system's performance. The court found that the chain of causation was not broken by any intervening factors, and the measure of damages was correctly assessed based on the cost of achieving conformity with the representations. The court emphasised that the plaintiffs were entitled to compensation for the cost of rectifying the defect to meet the advertised specifications. The court granted the application for leave to review and allowed the plaintiffs to seek compensation for the cost of achieving conformity with the representations.

The court ordered that the defendants pay the plaintiffs the sum of $50,000 as compensation for the cost of achieving conformity with the representations, along with interest and costs of the review.