Please help re flat deposit

EagerLearner

Hi C - I don't see anything re solicitor, but who knows. Invoice from solicitors is addressed to the letting agent, which they have passed on to her, and she has included in her counterclaim.

Her counterclaim costs are:

The remainder she claims we owed
solicitor fees
court fees of £65 + £80.

hjb123

If you have no representation could you maybe get some help from a law student who wants some practice or something? Who could advice you of legal points etc?

I would have said if the photos arent dated then they are a big shaky as evidence.

Also I wouldnt have thought the text messages can count against you - if anything I would have said that they were against her as she was having to be chased to maintain the property and that there was damage and problems at the time

irnbru_2

Regarding the counter claim: surely by retaining the whole deposit on 15th August this constitutes completion of the agreement i.e. she's already settled.

IMHO, the deposit represents the upper limit of your liability.

EagerLearner wrote:

Invoice from solicitors is addressed to the letting agent, which they have passed on to her, and she has included in her counterclaim.

I take it this is for the solictor who turned up with the LA? If so, legal representation is not required for SCC.

RabbitMad

Just a thought about the solicitors costs on the counter claim.

If they are for the costs the letting agent incured and forwarded on to the Landlady in defending themselves against your case, then they are irrelavent. Those costs are between you and the letting agent.

When the case against them was dismissed were costs awarded to them? Did the judge ask you to pay for them? If not then I think its the letting agents loss. They should have claimed them.

(sorry if this question is answered inone of the previous 1,200 posts but I went on holiday and when I came back the thread had jumped forward about 20 pages which I just skim read)

Oh, and I don't think she should be able to claim the £65 for getting the judgement set aside either.

barnaby-bear

RabbitMad wrote:

Just a thought about the solicitors costs on the counter claim.

If they are for the costs the letting agent incured and forwarded on to the Landlady in defending themselves against your case, then they are irrelavent. Those costs are between you and the letting agent.

When the case against them was dismissed were costs awarded to them? Did the judge ask you to pay for them? If not then I think its the letting agents loss. They should have claimed them.

Agree and small claims specifically suggest NOT using solicitors

barnaby-bear

RabbitMad wrote:

Just a thought about the solicitors costs on the counter claim.

If they are for the costs the letting agent incured and forwarded on to the Landlady in defending themselves against your case, then they are irrelavent. Those costs are between you and the letting agent.

When the case against them was dismissed were costs awarded to them? Did the judge ask you to pay for them? If not then I think its the letting agents loss. They should have claimed them.

Agree and small claims specifically suggest NOT using solicitors

barnaby-bear

RabbitMad wrote:

Just a thought about the solicitors costs on the counter claim.

If they are for the costs the letting agent incured and forwarded on to the Landlady in defending themselves against your case, then they are irrelavent. Those costs are between you and the letting agent.

When the case against them was dismissed were costs awarded to them? Did the judge ask you to pay for them? If not then I think its the letting agents loss. They should have claimed them.

Agree and small claims specifically suggest NOT using solicitors

RabbitMad

Had another think about this and re-read your 1st post after you got the documents. Sorry for putting the next bit in bold but it is really important.

DON'T JUST FORGET ABOUT THIS! YOU MUST FILE A DEFENCE

Otherwise she'll get a default judgement against you and you'll owe her £546.

Your defence to her counter claim (for the damage bit) could be that she stopped corresponding with you when trying to sort out the costs for the cleanning that you accpeted. She didn't chase for the rest of the money and the Letting agent only recommneded cleaning the property.

Your defence against the cost of getting the judgement set aside should be her letter of the 11th Sept asking you to negotiate.

You haven't tried to double claim, you claimed against them jointly and the judge held that the letting agents were not responsible.

I mentioned the solicitors cost above in a previous post, and if she hadn't included these costs the cost for filing a counter claim would have only been £30.

I also think that you should get some free legal advice from somebody qualified to help you craft your defence.

barnaby-bear

RabbitMad wrote:

Oh, and I don't think she should be able to claim the £65 for getting the judgement set aside either.

Ditto - she legally obliged to give servable address, you served to provided address.

Sounds to me like the letting agents have charged HER for their defense!

browolf

after the last court appearance it seems to me that regardless of where the right and wrong is it all depends on the judge. The last one seemed to let some things pass that could have been questioned more thoroughly.

i would think your defence needs to be as concise as possible so as not to cloud the water, theres enough of that from the LL.