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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 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 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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EDIT2: OP has a duplicate thread running with the same query.
OK.
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 -
It's not helpful to start two threads asking the very same questions0
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I do apologise, I am new to this forum and somehow I have duplicated this thread. Is it best that I delete one of them right now?0
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Can someone help me to delete this thread, I have two identical threads by accident.0
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