Landlord trying to sue my son

Debt_Free_Chick

Zandoni wrote: »

Thanks meester,

Do you think that I should also put the full story of what happened in my sons defence or should that be saved for later. As I understand the MCOL process, it allows the claimant to see the defence so I'm not 100% certain how to play it at this stage.

You should give those parts of the story that are relevant to the claim. Effectively, the LL seems to be claiming that your son's comments were slanderous i.e. defamation. In law, you can only claim damages for slander if they lead to a financial loss.

Comments that are true are not slanderous - so your defence should only relate to evidence that supports the comments your son made. Don't muddy the waters by adding "and another thing ......". Just stick to those things which back up the comments made by your son.

If his comments were true and supported by evidence, then they were not slanderous and the LL is likely to lose.

Rabiddog_2

This is just a frightener to get your son to stop telling the truth (good on Him) and possibly to distract him from claiming for the lack of hot water.

All those "keep your head down and say nothing" types need to buck their ideas up and get some backbone .. they'd be the type to switch on the gas ovens, and claim they were only following orders.:(

Notlob

Rabiddog wrote: »

All those "keep your head down and say nothing" types need to buck their ideas up and get some backbone .. they'd be the type to switch on the gas ovens, and claim they were only following orders.:(

Why do you suppose this will help? Case in question has just created problems for the person with the "backbone" Now he potentially has to prepare for a defence, all that paper, sleepless nights etc. In retrospect, do you really think he wished he did it!

Notlob

ALIBOBSY

He has 14 days from the date of service (this should be on his paperwork) to make his intital response. He can in fact just acknowledge service and state he intends to defend (this can be done online if the claim is an online claim).
He then has another 14 days to make an initial defence statement, this does not need to include all your evidence.
You are just stating your defence and need to respond to each of the "points" he makes in his claim.
The court will send a copy of this to the LL and he has to decide if he still wishes to pursue. If he does he then has to complete an allocation questionaire, which is a more in depth version of his claim and he has to prepare his court bundle ie his "evidence". He also has to pay another fee to the court so he might drop out at this stage anyway.

If he does complete your son would then have the same AQ sent to him to complete with his defence and it would be at this point he submits his evidence you can also list dates you are unavailable to go to court.

After all this the judge would look at which court track to allocate the claim, most small claims stay at county court.
Eventually you would get a hearing date and then put your case before the judge.

The landlord would have to be pretty determined to get that far on what was probably just a spite claim and even then the judge would listen to both sides and make a decision.

good luck

ali x

markelock

what he can also do is attach his own counter claim at the same time? No point just defening an accusation, he can use the same time to confirm his own opinions.

landlord would appear, prima facie, to be a complete tawt.

If stating the truth (and if he has it in writing that what he said is the truth), then the LL has nothing to complain about, but, I suggest, something to worry about in terms of compensation.

Zandoni

Thanks everyone for your comments, much appreciated.

He does have a gas certificate.

We have decided not to counter claim. Although might use MCOL myself on him later.

Even though this is a pain in the bum, I am proud of my son and I am glad he done what he did.

tbs624

Zandoni wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your comments, much appreciated.

He does have a gas certificate....

:think: Interesting - a current gas safety certificate but the boiler system is "faulty"?..........

Highlighting in quotes is my own:

Zandoni wrote: »

On day one he noticed the hot water system wasn’t working properly. He tried very hard over the first month trying to get the Landlord to arrange its repair but he wouldn’t even admit that it had a fault, even though he had written proof from a heating engineer stating that it needed repair........
........ had repeatedly requested its repair but each time they refused to accept that it was faulty. ....

....so it needs repair but its covered by a gas safety certificate?

Zandoni wrote: »

....He has a letter from the letting agency stating the fault. He also has about 30 emails from the landlord where he goes around the houses stating that it's a setting issue, but he will not send an engineer even though he offered to pay if no fault was found.

AFIAA there can be known settings issues with some Gledhills.

Zandoni wrote: »

The environment health officer called around, he also couldn't get the landlord to make a repair either.......

EHOs have powers to enforce repairs by LLs who fail to comply with their legal obligations. Could it be that the EHO talked to the LL, went through the paperwork and could not pursue it, not least because there is a gas safety certificate, and that the system does in fact work, just not in the manner that your son would have liked?

Incisor

tbs624 wrote: »

:think: Interesting - a current gas safety certificate but the boiler system is "faulty"?..........

Highlighting in quotes is my own:
....so it needs repair but its covered by a gas safety certificate?

To be fair, there is not necessarily any conflict here. Most gas appliance failures which stop heating will tend to be of the failsafe variety, so will not prevent the issue of a gas safety cert.

For example, a pilot light failure would stop a boiler working, but if the failure is due to the thermocouple not cutting in, the pilot light goes out because the thermocouple does not hold it in - which is failsafe. AFAICS, this would not prevent a gas safety cert being issued. There is no gas leak, so no risk of explosion and no mis-combustion, so no risk of gassing anyone.

Zandoni

tbs624 wrote: »

:think: Interesting - a current gas safety certificate but the boiler system is "faulty"?..........

Highlighting in quotes is my own:
....so it needs repair but its covered by a gas safety certificate?

AFIAA there can be known settings issues with some Gledhills.

EHOs have powers to enforce repairs by LLs who fail to comply with their legal obligations. Could it be that the EHO talked to the LL, went through the paperwork and could not pursue it, not least because there is a gas safety certificate, and that the system does in fact work, just not in the manner that your son would have liked?

Gas safety certificate is what it says it only covers the safety aspect.

I'm pretty good when it comes to all things mechanical, I have even spoke to the manufacturers and they diagnosed the fault over the phone.

Also diagnosed by a heating engineer.

tbs624

And the EHO couldn't get the LL to do a repair for this "faulty" boiler?