Please help re flat deposit

clutton_2

when you write to her, do not specify an exact amount, simply say you will be reclaiming the deposit amount as per AST, plus all the consequential losses you have incurred in trying to get this back. She will then have no idea how much this might be. You are Perfectly legally entitled to claim ALL the expense this woman has put you to - postage, phone calls, journeys to where-ever, your time, time off work, - etc etc The judge may not grant it all to you, but, he will be bound to accept that some Consequential Loss has occurred.

Don't put Without Prejudice whatever you do - if you do, you cannot then show this letter to the Court to prove that you are doing this by the letter of the law !!!!!!

i am a good landlady and ones like this, make me mad, as we all get tarred with her bad brush

good luck

EagerLearner

Hi Clutton, thanks for your help - it's important that we do things correctly so thanks again. Just a few questions:

- What is 'AST'?

- Re costs: I estimate 3 hours of calls to Letting Agent, Shelter, CAB etc, 2 hours of travel to letting agent, estate agents etc in lunch hours, 2 hours off work to attend Estate Agents for advice, 2 hours writing e-mails, £8 special delivery and £2.00 1st class postage. How much would that be in expenses do you think? Presumably we'd also claim back the court filing fee?

- As she has only verbally mentioned cost breakdown, not in writing, what do we fill in on the court form? Just that we want £625 + expenses + filing fee?

Thanks :T

clutton wrote:

when you write to her, do not specify an exact amount, simply say you will be reclaiming the deposit amount as per AST, plus all the consequential losses you have incurred in trying to get this back. She will then have no idea how much this might be. You are Perfectly legally entitled to claim ALL the expense this woman has put you to - postage, phone calls, journeys to where-ever, your time, time off work, - etc etc The judge may not grant it all to you, but, he will be bound to accept that some Consequential Loss has occurred.

Don't put Without Prejudice whatever you do - if you do, you cannot then show this letter to the Court to prove that you are doing this by the letter of the law !!!!!!

i am a good landlady and ones like this, make me mad, as we all get tarred with her bad brush

good luck

clutton_2

AST = Assured Shorthold Tenancy - your tenancy agreement. Yes you need to quantify your costs on the court forms - cost your own time at say £15ph or more if you think you earn a lot more than that - a judge is looking for reasonable costs - don't forget petrol costs/bus/tube costs/ interest you have lost on this money/visits to the doctor for stress (joking !") !!! yes do claim back the court fees

What i meant, was you do not have to tell her in a letter how much you are claiming, its up to you really - two ways of looking at it - if you tell her the amount in advance it may shock her into paying up on the deposit; if you don't tell her in advance and she appears in court she will almost certainly get a CCJ against her name which will stop her getting credit/mortgages in the future.

If she does not know that this may be the result of her intransigence, now may be the time to tell her !!!!

silvercar

As far as recorded delivery goes, you can go to the sorting office, view the outside of the letter and decide not to accept it!

Bargain_Rzl

Off-topic I know, but the reason you have three stars is that you get the third automatically at 550 posts. The fourth comes at 2,000. Good luck with the landlady, I've been following this thread and wish you all the best

EagerLearner

clutton wrote:

if you don't tell her in advance and she appears in court she will almost certainly get a CCJ against her name which will stop her getting credit/mortgages in the future.

If she does not know that this may be the result of her intransigence, now may be the time to tell her !!!!

Thanks Clutton - I don't know what to do - whether to tell her that if she goes to court she will get a CCJ or not tell her... Seeing as we can't 'find' her on any public records, I suspect she may not even pay bills herself, maybe has someone do that for her to avoid tax or something, I don't know - she just seems well off and has at least 5 properties she lets out. So maybe the CCJ wouldn't affect her?

EagerLearner

silvercar wrote:

As far as recorded delivery goes, you can go to the sorting office, view the outside of the letter and decide not to accept it!

Hiya silvercar - weird thing is the envelope didn't even have our details (I did that so she couldn't reject the letter on delivery). I just think that as they're in the countryside they haven't bothered to go to the sorting office. Plus the fact that that c/o address combined with her name on the envelope will tell the landlady it's something to do with a property, which she is probably choosing to ignore. Anyway, the 2nd letter will surely have been delivered, OH hasn't had any text yet though, nor have I had an e-mail (after she asked for my e-mail address recently).

EagerLearner

Bargain_Rzl wrote:

Off-topic I know, but the reason you have three stars is that you get the third automatically at 550 posts. The fourth comes at 2,000. Good luck with the landlady, I've been following this thread and wish you all the best

Is that 550 relating to posts you have started yourself, not all the ones you have contributed to?

Thanks for letting me know & for sticking with me on this mission :j

Bargain_Rzl

EagerLearner - POSTS, not THREADS. So that's all the posts you've ever contributed - your total (beneath your avatar and location) is currently standing at 582 as I type this

nrsql

>> whether to tell her that if she goes to court she will get a CCJ or not tell her...

I think that would sound a bit threatening - something a dca would send.
She should know that this is the case - if she has 5 properties shes probably done it to tenants in the past - and it's not up to you to say what the courts will do.