Withholding rent for costs/compensation

jjlandlord

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

DO NOT withhold your rent! Well, not unless you want to be evicted as well as taken to court for the arrears.

Well, tenant can withhold rent to cover cost of doing repairs but he should be very careful to follow a strict procedure before doing so:
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repairs_and_bad_conditions/repairs_in_private_lets/tenants_doing_repairs

The procedure above from Shelter is based on legal precedents (though I do not have a direct reference)
Following that procedure should therefore protect tenant against rent arrear claims and related eviction procedures.

BitterAndTwisted

This tenant hasn't done any repairs.

may_fair

gerardflanagan wrote: »

We have opened discussions now. If we disagree on an amount and withhold, say, £1500 for electricity costs and damages, will that go to the small claims court if they try to sue us for rent arrears? The reason why I ask is because this site says:

https://legal365.secureclient.co.uk/legal365/index.cfm?event=base:article&node=A76076B76046D76675#link2

'If your claim is for less than £5,000, but includes a claim for personal injury, or for housing disrepair to residential premises and damages arising from the disrepair, your case will not be allocated to the small claims track unless the amounts claimed in respect of personal injury, disrepair and damages are each no more than £1,000.'

As I said in post #7:
One very important thing to bear in mind is that, if your counterclaim for damages is in excess of £1,000 it may not be allocated to the small claims track (because that's the limit for disrepair claims by T against LL in the small claims track)*. And in the other tracks court fees are considerably higher; you'd also be exposed to the LL's legal costs.

*See the Civil Procedure Rules - Part 27.

gerardflanagan wrote: »

Well, their claim will be for rent arrears but our counter claim once it goes to court will be for damages of over £1000?! So would it go to small claims or not? Why do they have this £1000 limit compared to the standard £5000?

Because disrepair claims are complex. It's not really something that the average litigant-in-person should attempt; you could easily lose a lot of money if the claim is not allocated to small claims, you represent yourself and the LL has counsel.

may_fair

jjlandlord wrote: »

The procedure above from Shelter is based on legal precedents (though I do not have a direct reference)

Lee-Parker v Izzet [1971] 1 WLR 1688