Please help re flat deposit

damo101

If she does submit photos you can always question the date they were taken assuming there's no time stamp on them. No matter what she says, ignore all the messing about trying to locate her address and focus on the deposit and repairs.

Maybe bringing up the hassles of addresses would deflect from your case and make it seem that you may have persued it for personal reasons (rather than getting your deposit back).

Best of luck, i'm sure it'll work out - the address thing is bound to be a small thing in the big picture (even it was hugely frustrating)

Damo

prudryden

clutton wrote:

how terribly disappointing for you - but, as ever, you are not too downhearted !

re "being the other side" - i think you must assume that she will lie thru her teeth, invent damage and may well produce doctored "photos".

A friend who has taken 10 people to court thru his business has lost 5 won 5. His view is that it is nearly always one person's word against another. Your own obvious honesty and integrity has shone thru on this thread - why should it not do so in court ? Judges are very good judges of character - they have seen it all.

Any judge is going to wonder why you would go to ALL this trouble, time, expense, frustration, time off work etc etc if you were not truly convinced that you are entitled to the deposit back.

Your wonderful courage has inspired me to issue a summons against someone who has been taking the mick for months - so whilst you were in court today, i was in the court offices !!! thank you.

True words by your friend. One never knows how a judge will rule on the day. I've had 5 legal suits in the last two years, 4 as plantive, one as defendant (none to do with property/letting). Fortunately, all were settled just before court day, and again fortunately to my satisfaction. But I can tell you, defendants will lie even under oath in depositions. Even had an opposing lawyer lie to the judge to get a continuance. Most lawyers, if honest, will tell you they win 50% and lose 50%.
Generally, always better to settle out of court, if possible.

EagerLearner

Thanks Damo - I know what you mean - that's actually what we said to eachother when we left court - at least now the Letting Agent aspect, and the Address aspect are out of the way, we can focus on the unfair deposit deductions.

Can anyone clarify whether a landlord is supposed to present 3 copies of estimates before carrying out repairs?

Even if not, is the landlord meant to consult with us first?

It seems we received the list of deductions on the 14th August and they refunded her all that money on 15th August, so we didn't get a look in. Yes, the contract says she can make deductions, but without even consulting us?

Plus then there's the letter of 11th September wanting to negotiate.

What about the fact that she used Gloria to paint the flat and Gloria's address is same as LL c/o address for correspondence?

Sorry - my head is full of so many questions - I will calm down I promise.

We're off to a Marroccan or a Sushi meal tonight to reward ourselves :T (we had already planned to celebrate or commiserate today's events), a little drink will be in order (little because I ate far too much nice food in Thailand and had too much to drink, too often )

EagerLearner

prudryden wrote:

True words by your friend. One never knows how a judge will rule on the day. I've had 5 legal suits in the last two years, 4 as plantive, one as defendant (none to do with property/letting). Fortunately, all were settled just before court day, and again fortunately to my satisfaction. But I can tell you, defendants will lie even under oath in depositions. Even had an opposing lawyer lie to the judge to get a continuance. Most lawyers, if honest, will tell you they win 50% and lose 50%.
Generally, always better to settle out of court, if possible.

Yeah - like today - she completely slithered through the questions and never gave him a direct answer to things like 'what is your current residential address?' and 'So exactly when was your property empty?' etc...

She went as far at one point to say 'the flat used to belong to my father who sadly passed away - oh, was my father ever your landlord?' We replied between clenched teeth that no he wasn't. I felt like saying 'we started renting from YOU in 2004 and your father had been dead for years, plus you'd had another tenant before us!' :mad:

Who knows, she may well try to settle out of court given that she sent us that letter wanting to negotiate. That would be my preference right now - even if we split it down the middle.

bs0u0128

'I felt like saying 'we started renting from YOU in 2004 and your father had been dead for years, plus you'd had another tenant before us!' '

why didnt u

thesaint

EagerLearner wrote:

Excellent :beer: I wasn't aware of that. I guess that means then that the CCJ could well revert back to the *real* address if we win? The c/o address is only for the purposes of correspondence for now - as I understand it?

The C.C.J. is attached to her name on her credit file.
She can move 50 times between then and whenever it is paid/falls off her file, it will still be there.

thesaint

EagerLearner wrote:

What about the fact that she used Gloria to paint the flat and Gloria's address is same as LL c/o address for correspondence?

Sorry - my head is full of so many questions - I will calm down I promise.

QUOTE]

I don't think that this will make any difference to your case. It may sway the Judge to have doubts about her trustworthiness, but I doubt it will have a material effect on the ruling.

EagerLearner

Thanks TheSaint - yeat another learning curve for me as I really thought it was the address that counted. Would we have managed to get the CCJ against her though if we hadn't had this real address?

EagerLearner

bs0u0128 wrote:

'I felt like saying 'we started renting from YOU in 2004 and your father had been dead for years, plus you'd had another tenant before us!' '

why didnt u

We wanted to keep calm and show the judge a united front rather than pick at her statements - we could have interrupted her several times but we thought it best to keep schtum and try to only comment on the really untrue stuff, rather than petty things she was trying to rile us with (at one point when the judge mentioned we should ahve filed at the LA address if we had no address for her, she pointed to the Tenancy Agreement and said to Mr EL 'That's a copy of your Tenancy Agreement' to which he cooly replied 'We already have one').

barnaby-bear

damo101 wrote:

If she does submit photos you can always question the date they were taken assuming there's no time stamp on them. No matter what she says, ignore all the messing about trying to locate her address and focus on the deposit and repairs.

Maybe bringing up the hassles of addresses would deflect from your case and make it seem that you may have persued it for personal reasons (rather than getting your deposit back).

Best of luck, i'm sure it'll work out - the address thing is bound to be a small thing in the big picture (even it was hugely frustrating)

Damo

She'd also have to submit proof of condition prior to the tenancy.
A new radiator cover because of an extra mark is betterment etc.
You were there long enough for most to be attributable to fair wear and tear - posted some links of precedence as set by tenants deposit scheme and OFT on the eager learner help me thread....