Aggressive lawyer landlord

prudryden

Make them co-defendants on the claim form. On the claim form, name as many witnesses as you can think of - to include the new tenants. File a complaint to the Law Society for fun as well- they won't get involved but its still a nice feeling.

Hubert_Dalrymple

I quite agree. This has gone on long enough and they are treating you appallingly. File a Claim as soon as possible. You might want to claim interest on the sums claimed as well. The rate is 8% per annum simple and you can claim that back to the time when the money should have been paid to you. It will continue to accrue until the date of Judgment, should the matter go that far.

In the Claim Form, set out a clear but very concise summary of what the sums claimed are and what they are for. Include all of the relevant dates: when you moved in, moved out etc. You need to include the essentials, but don't go into too much detail: that is for later when you will need to prepare witness statements.

Your patience has been extraordinary and it is time this was sorted out. You may well find that once you issue the Claim, they will concede that they don't have a leg to stand on and pay up to avoid getting a CCJ.

macmonkey

Well, I have an update, thought you guys might like to know that I FINALLY got my deposit back in full! YEESSSS!!!!

Five months after my initial post, the money cleared my account today.

I emailed her a couple of more times and got no reply. Then realising that it had been nearly half a year since the contract officially ended I finally snapped and sent an email, warning of imminent court action to claim for deposit, expenses and the cost of the court claim. (I was going to just do it without any further warning as had been suggested but wanted the judge to see that I had been more than patient, and also tried to settle the dispute)

It probably helped that I had lots of photographic evidence of the property to show its condition when we left it (it was spotless) and attached a couple of images to illustrate the point. I also made it clear that I wasn't interested in any more dialogue as it was just stalling on her behalf. Seeing as it had been so long I guessed she finally realised I wasn't going to go away, she didn't have a leg to stand on, and my patience did have limits after all.

SO a huge "thank you" to all who offered advice on this thread. Virtual drinks all round :beer:

TokochickUK

I have only just read this and am really pleased to hear you finally recieved your deposit, sorry you have had sucha run around though xx hope your family and little one enjoy the spending hehe x

prudryden

Well done and good luck!

Ian_W

Well done ...
and thanks for the virtual drink :beer:

But time me thinks for a real one!

Infidel

I was ripped off by several landlords who stole my damage deposit and one even charged me £20 for complaining that the heating broke. I'll always be of the opinion that landlord types should be shot at dawn. However, congratulations to you.

Wings

Alan_M wrote:

Put it in writing, in a reasonable letter.

Write it in chronological order almost like a diary and stick to facts only.

Make it clear what you expect, i.e. rent renturned for the epriod which it had been re rented, refer to your verbal agreement, and the return of your deposit.

Do not threaten anything at this stage, see what response you get.

If you get a whole lot of nonsence, don't mess around issue immediately via small claims, be very clear in writing what you are claiming, and again stick to facts.

Be aware that Solicitors (I don't like the term Lawyer, its another Americanism !!!!!!!ising our Language) tend to use the threat of litigation quite freely as it scares the average joe, they daren't go against a solicitor who knows what they are doing! Don't be scared, if you are right and know you are right, but more importantly can prove it, you'll be surprised how quickly they'll fold.

Very good advice, put things in writing by recorded post, on the understanding that what and how you speak to the evil landlady will be read by the court. So in your letter state the facts and be polite friendly about the same, and giving notice that unless you receive the monies due to you within 14 days you will proceed with legal/court action.

Loretta

TJ27 wrote:

The fact that she's a solicitor is probably something which is in your favour.

I've served legal notices on several solicitors, requiring them to upgrade their houses. If they fail to do so we are able to prosecute them. If they are found guilty of a criminal offence, they are not able to practice any more. We've prosecuted solicitor landlords and not only have they been fined, they've had to upgrade their properties anyway, and they've forfeited their careers.

I'm not a legal expert and I don't know if your landlady has done anything criminal. But if she has, and you threaten to take her to court, I think you'll find that she'll be only too willing to comply with your requests.

I really wish this was true, the law society helps solicitors to do whatever they like

Loretta

TJ27 wrote:

Well I suspect that she hasn't actually done anything criminal but I just wanted to illustrate that the fact she's in the legal profession isn't anything to worry about.

We dealt with a solicitor landlord about six years ago. He had several really poor properties and knew that we were going to serve notices on them, which would cost him around a hundred grand to sort out. We served what's called a section 16 notice or a "requisition for information." This really was just to confirm that he did indeed own the properties.

He played a few games with us and he didn't return the completed S16. This is a document which takes about 30 seconds to fill in and sign. To his surprise, we took him to court regarding his 30 second oversight and won. The result was that he was landed with a fine of about a grand, still had to give us the required information, still had to spend the 100k on repairs and he got himself a criminal record into the bargain. So he was struck off and has not been able to practice since.

That's quite an expensive little mistake I think you'll agree.

I am very impressed, I would love to hear the details of this either as another thread or a pm to me

I have found that it is impossible to get anything done about a solicitor who has a criminal record connected to his job, his firm, who should not have been employing him without a practicing certificate and after being struck off
or from the Law Society who are either in a complete muddle or moe likely just there to cover a negligent or criminal solicitor's backside