How is a construction defect claim valued in California?

The primary and most commonly used measure of damages in a California construction defect case is the cost of repair, meaning what it would actually cost, in dollars, to fix the defect properly, established through written estimates from licensed contractors qualified to perform that specific type of repair work. Courts and pre-litigation processes both respond more favorably to two independent estimates rather than a single one, since a lone estimate can read as just one contractor's opinion, while two similar estimates read as a credible, corroborated range.

In the relatively rare situation where the cost of repair would be wildly disproportionate to the actual harm caused, for instance a cosmetic issue that would require essentially rebuilding an entire structure to fully correct, courts may instead use diminution in value, meaning the measurable drop in the property's market value caused by the defect, as the alternative measure of damages instead of repair cost.