What's the worst that can happen now?

truman_sparks

no,
my understanding is it doesnt go to court. there would be a sit down and it would try to be resolved, then it would go to court if unresolved, (he may be advised he would lose), the process is not fast so next week just shows its all hot air. He would need to provide all contract info to back up his claim he would also need to show he has tried to resolve the issue, has he written to you? he would need to have. You would also be given time to prepare, again proving all the next week stuff is bollox.

If they think he is not being genuine they will find in your favour reagrdless of you walking out if you had good reason, landlords have a bad reputation and they must prove conclusively their claims to additional fees/charges/penalties.

I firmly believe he will do nothing but bully you, he probably thinks it will work.

Ignore him or tell him to get on with it.

either way, i will eat my hat if he does it, and i will eat yours if he wins!

top_drawer_2

I hope so, he ruined my day... Ive had to sit through a day of lectures worried that i'm going to lose 2 weeks wages!! I can neigher afford to do it nor does it seem fair all things considered.

I think he means small claims court, its informal but its still basically a court. He hasnt written to me, I declined to give him my address as I found him quite threatening.

He sounded pretty calm and confident this afternoon on my answerphone though so its really shook me.

Jen

Jen

truman_sparks

Its small claims im talking about. It takes several weeks 4+ or a couple of months and he still needs to prove his claims and show beyond doubt his entitlement and his attempts ot resolve it.

unless hes got all documents proving entitlement and dated letters sent asking for the 25 pounds at the times of the so called late payments he will be shown the door.

sleep easy.

hes got nothing on you and he will do nothing, Ignore and he will go away.

No hats for me to be eating anytime soon!!!

Edit, he has to sound confident, its all he has.

Imp

You need to give him an address at which he can serve notices to. If you don't, you will never know if it has taken you to court and you could end up with a CCJ against your name. That will just ruin your credit record for seven years. If your parents are more able to stand up to his bullying nature, it may be worthwhile asking appearance if you can use their address for this. It shouldn't affect their credit rating.

It sounds like he is an old-fashioned bully. He hasn't complied with deposit scheme requirements, then you will be rewarded three times the deposit. With any luck, you can make him change his bullying ways for future tenants if you do sue him. Make him show a little bit of humility.

Good luck, and keep us informed

truman_sparks

The action has to be served on a person at an address. it cant just be filed against a name, no address no claim.

With all due respect, i would certainly not offer your parents address or your own.

just ignore him.

lil_me

top_drawer wrote: »

I wrote to each of the tenency schemes and only got a letter back from one saying they had no record of anything with them.... I guess I will have to write to the others again. On the phone he said See ya in court next week... can he really arrange it all that soon?!?!

You can email the other TDS schemes to find out if your deposit is with them. He might be able to arrange it that quick but does sound a bit of a hot air blower based on the info you have given. Without full details of the whole situation etc noone can comment where you will stand but I would say if you know you are right, never be bullied, courts aren't unreasonable.

loz55_2

can i take my landlord to court for not doing the repairs, this has been going on since March this year and now I have water running down the kitchen wall into the light socket and a big gaping hole in the sitting room ceiling where it came down duew to heavy rain and the slates missing from the roof plus there are other repairs although i have reported them to his agents and hisself nothing is being done

truman_sparks

It is most definatley rubbish,

He has no address for the court to send the papers to, so the claim cannot be filed with the court.

If papers are served on you, you are allowed suitable time to respond. ie settle or dispute and on the process will go,

This cannot end up in a court next week. FACT.

truman_sparks

loz55 wrote: »

can i take my landlord to court for not doing the repairs, this has been going on since March this year and now I have water running down the kitchen wall into the light socket and a big gaping hole in the sitting room ceiling where it came down duew to heavy rain and the slates missing from the roof plus there are other repairs although i have reported them to his agents and hisself nothing is being done

The best way imo to deal with this is put it all in writing, to both the letting agent and landlord. include a reasonable timescale to allow works to be done.

Tell both you will be advising your local authority, they will have a tenancy relations officer/environmental health remit where health and safety is breached in private housing they will investigate.

Look at the shelter website and consider CAB. as always, photos, dates and records of letters will go along way to win you any dispute should you need to fight one.


TS

EDIT; there is a process where you get quotes and have the work done yourself and then withold rent untill the debt for the work is paid. Be careful with this though, it needs to be very carefully followed to ensure its done correctly.
Just Witholding your rent untill work is done sadly puts you in breech of your tenency agreement and you risk eviction. so get proper advise from where i have mentioned before doing anything.

But yes, in theory you could take him to court if other attempts have failed.

my opinion is just an opinion, nothing more or less!

stevetodd

top_drawer wrote: »

hello,

I lived in a rented property for around 6 months, there were endless problems and I gave notice. The bank messed up the final rent payment and it didnt go out of my a/c. My LL then demanded £55 as a "late payment" fee and so I decided to move out sooner than I wanted and let him keep the deposit (equal to a months rent) and tell him to whistle for anything else. I sent the keys back to his home address via registered/recorded delivery.

He has rung me on seveal occassions demanding his money. I am worried what else he could do?

If he went to small claims court what would happen? would it be worth it?

Please dont be too harsh as I already know "doing a bunk" is really not good.

Thanks

Jen

Hi Jen,
I am a landlord, this is how I see it:

Firstly starting with the landlord, did the rental agreement specifically allow for him to claim a late payment? He can't just decide that he will fine you, especially as it appears as if it was just an oversight at the bank. My agreements always have this clause, but it's £10 and I have never imposed it because usually if one of my tenants are late with the rent they have already warned me there is a problem and assured me the payment will be made, so I don't feel the need to demand £10. I would if the sitaution turned nasty. I think £55 is excessive. This actually happened to me a couple of months ago and it caused the bank to charge me £35 for going overdrawn (it happened when there was a lot of money movement in my current account) even then I did not charge them, I did however later manage to get my bank to drop the charges (as I usually have a good balance).

If he has not protected the deposit he is unlikely to iniate proceedings against you, as you have him on procedure.

If he did protect your deposit, he can take you to court (I have just done this myself last month), he does not need your address, he can obtain a county court judgement against you. If you then did not pay this within one month it would remain on your credit rating for 6 years. Although as I said above if he did not follow the correct procedure with your deposit he is very unlikely to do this. It might be advisable to spell this out to him to avoid him instigating a small claims action out of ignorance. Having a CCJ on your credit rating is bad, it would make it difficult to get credit cards, open bank accounts, get a mortgage or other loan.