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County Court Claim against unreasonable deposit charges
anyarella
Posts: 33 Forumite
14 months Assured shorthold tenancy started Sept 2009, end Jan 2011.
LL presented me with ridiculous charges for administrative costs in chasing up utility companies at £100 per company, totalling £300 (electric/water/council tax).
There is no clause in the tenancy agreement, which obligates me the tenant to provide the landlord with final bill statements. All bills were paid in full, in due time and I have rang up each company asking if there was any correspondence between themselves and my LL to substantiate the LL's claim. The answer was 'no' in each case, and as far as I know it is not standard practice for utility companies, if the bill is unpaid, to chase up the landlord, rather than the account holder. Thus the LL cannot impose such charges? Am I right in thinking all of the above?
Sofa with a slightly dented armrest- LL claimed that I have damaged the sofa and wished to replace it with a brand new leather sofa, initially pricing the top cost at £300, now LL changed a priced a new sofa at £449. The inventory I signed states ‘two seater black sofa’ there is no mention of the condition. Can this be argued as betterment? I am a conscientious tenant, the place was left sparkling (in much better shape than received and I have pictorial evidence of this), with absolutely no damage, and therefore I am obviously not prepared to pay for any of the charges. I know that the whole apartment block has this particular sofa and everyone has the same problem with the armrests, the foam inside just melts after some time.
My deposit is protected by a scheme, however LL presented these charges 3 months after I moved out of the property and now I cannot use arbitration to resolve the dispute. The only remedy available to me is placing a claim with a county court.
And finally, I moved out of the property 3 weeks before the end my tenancy (the full moths rent was paid). The landlord was fine about and aware of that fact. A new tenant moved in 2.5 weeks before the end of my tenancy. It was agreed over telephone and in an e-mail correspondence that the landlords were to reimburse me the rent for that time, as in essence she was getting double. She has now conveniently forgot about this. Where do I stand?
i) Any help and advice on how to start a County Court claim
ii) The wording of a letter before action
iii) Chances of success in: a) admin charges b) sofa c) rent refund
Many thanks in advance.
LL presented me with ridiculous charges for administrative costs in chasing up utility companies at £100 per company, totalling £300 (electric/water/council tax).
There is no clause in the tenancy agreement, which obligates me the tenant to provide the landlord with final bill statements. All bills were paid in full, in due time and I have rang up each company asking if there was any correspondence between themselves and my LL to substantiate the LL's claim. The answer was 'no' in each case, and as far as I know it is not standard practice for utility companies, if the bill is unpaid, to chase up the landlord, rather than the account holder. Thus the LL cannot impose such charges? Am I right in thinking all of the above?
Sofa with a slightly dented armrest- LL claimed that I have damaged the sofa and wished to replace it with a brand new leather sofa, initially pricing the top cost at £300, now LL changed a priced a new sofa at £449. The inventory I signed states ‘two seater black sofa’ there is no mention of the condition. Can this be argued as betterment? I am a conscientious tenant, the place was left sparkling (in much better shape than received and I have pictorial evidence of this), with absolutely no damage, and therefore I am obviously not prepared to pay for any of the charges. I know that the whole apartment block has this particular sofa and everyone has the same problem with the armrests, the foam inside just melts after some time.
My deposit is protected by a scheme, however LL presented these charges 3 months after I moved out of the property and now I cannot use arbitration to resolve the dispute. The only remedy available to me is placing a claim with a county court.
And finally, I moved out of the property 3 weeks before the end my tenancy (the full moths rent was paid). The landlord was fine about and aware of that fact. A new tenant moved in 2.5 weeks before the end of my tenancy. It was agreed over telephone and in an e-mail correspondence that the landlords were to reimburse me the rent for that time, as in essence she was getting double. She has now conveniently forgot about this. Where do I stand?
i) Any help and advice on how to start a County Court claim
ii) The wording of a letter before action
iii) Chances of success in: a) admin charges b) sofa c) rent refund
Many thanks in advance.
0
Comments
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Was your deposit lodged with one of the three deposit-protection schemes? If so, you should dispute any deductions which you don't agree with through the scheme. it will then be up to the landlord to substantiate any deductions with the arbitrators.
The utility companies: did you change supplier during your tenancy and did you provide your landlord with the information about which ones they were?
The sofa: you could argue that a dent in the armrest could be considered "fair wear and tear" and dispute that deduction. Should the arbitrators agree that it was not fw&t but damage, the landlord would only be able to claim from you compensation for amount of use of the item which you have deprived them of. Not the full cost of a brand-new one.
Overpaid rent: do you have proof that the property was re-let before the end of your term or some form of written confirmation that you would be refunded? If so, you will have to claim that separately, in all likelihood but I would forward details of it to the arbitrators as it could prove compelling evidence that the LL is not playing fair all round.0 -
BitterAndTwisted wrote: »Was your deposit lodged with one of the three deposit-protection schemes? If so, you should dispute any deductions which you don't agree with through the scheme. it will then be up to the landlord to substantiate any deductions with the arbitrators.My deposit is protected by a scheme, however LL presented these charges 3 months after I moved out of the property and now I cannot use arbitration to resolve the dispute. The only remedy available to me is placing a claim with a county court.
I think that one has been answered:D. OP has a duplicate thread running on this topic.0 -
Aha! Is there any particular reason for going down the County Court route rather than the Small Claims?0
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BitterAndTwisted wrote: »Aha! Is there any particular reason for going down the County Court route rather than the Small Claims?
The small claims track is one of the three tracks of the County Court! So your question is a non question:D0 -
OK. This has been reposted from the duplicate thread to ensure that one thread is complete.
In brief, you can launch your claim online using moneyclaimonline - otherwise you need to complete court form N1. Before you get that far, you should send a letter before action to your LL outlining your claim. This should simply state what you are claiming and give a deadline for payment before you go to court. Post up a draft and people will happily provide comments on it.
The answers to your specific questions are:
a. High chance of success.
b. High chance of defending the amount claimed, but obviously you may need to concede a reasonable amount for repairing the damage you did cause. EDIT: Assuming there is any damage - your post is ambiguous. If the sofa is not repairable then again a reasonable amount may need to be conceded - probably around GBP50, certainly not higher. Offer nothing in the letter before action and then be willing to negotiate. If LL remains unreasonable, let the court decide.
c. Low to nil chance of success. Sadly, courts only work in full rental periods or rent so they will probably not order repayment of a partial rental period. That said, you lose nothing by including the amount in your letter before action and you may get lucky at court if it gets that far.0 -
BitterAndTwisted wrote: »Was your deposit lodged with one of the three deposit-protection schemes?
My deposit is protected by a scheme, however LL presented these charges 3 months after I moved out of the property and now I cannot use arbitration to resolve the dispute. The only remedy available to me is placing a claim with a county court. Those are the rules of my deposit scheme.0 -
Write your "Letter Before Action" giving them ten days to return your money, sending two copies and send them by First-Class post from two different Post Offices on the same day, retaining proof-of-postage and if you get no joy serve the documents as N79 advised and fight this shyster tooth-and-nail!0
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Assuming there is any damage - your post is ambiguous.
In my opinion the sofa is defiantly repairable, it had a slight dent in it when I moved in and during the 14 months tenancy, I would argue due to wear and tear it had gotten slightly more noticeable. I am willing to negotiate, in fact when the LL first wished to take £300 from deposit for a new sofa, I was going to concede it as I was moving abroad, starting an internship and did not see a way or time to deal with this matter. But now it's simply unreasonable and I will fight it all the way as I didn't damaged the sofa.
Shame about the rent refund. Could I argue that the LL accepted early surrender by re letting the property, is it just the LL receives double rent?0 -
BitterAndTwisted wrote: »fight this shyster tooth-and-nail!
Love the spirit! Thank you, I am going to do just that.0 -
Shame about the rent refund. Could I argue that the LL accepted early surrender by re letting the property, is it just the LL receives double rent?
That's exactly what you argue - just don't be upset if the court decides against you as it is less than rental period of rent. The whole basis of English tenancies is the rental period and tenancies can only be whole numbers of periods. That is why there are constraints on when Ts can give notice. The court may feel that you and your LL should have arranged the termination to coincide with the end of a rental period. The earliest possible period to end the tenancy would have been the one in which you left - since you were in occupation for part of this period you should pay rent for this period.
Of course, if your LL annoys the court or if the court feels that it would be just to award the money then the rules can be bent - but it is not a sure thing!0
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