When you hit someone on the road, and his bicycle became damaged and unrepairable, how much should you compensate for the damage?
According to Japanese law, compensation for property damages should be based on its market price. If a bicycle becomes damaged and unrepairable in a traffic accident, the amount of compensation is based on the replacement price of the used bike. Mainly, that is the market price of the used bicycle just before the accident. If only the bicycle basket is damaged, only the basket is subject for compensation.
However, in actual practice in traffic accident cases where a bicycle became damaged, people sometimes adopt rough estimates like JPY10,000 as its market price or like JPY42,000 as its purchasing price. It depends on each accident case.
From a legal point of view, the value of the damaged bicycle is calculated from its service life. The service life depends on bikes, but it’s two to five years on average. If adopting the declining balance method, the calculation for compensation is as follows:
|
Acquisition price |
JPY50.000 |
| Period of use | 2 years |
| Service years | 5 years |
50.000 * 0.398(The value after 2 years) =JPY19.900
Rough estimates of the market price of the used bike, the purchasing price, or price adopting the declining balance method. Which price to adopt depends on a voluntary insurance company a perpetrator has.