Cheque From LL A Week Before Hearing

Timewarp

Hi,

We're taking our ex-landlord to court as he didn't give us the bond back after we moved out. We've just received a cheque, but it's £30 short, and also the court date is in 5 days.

Any advice on what to do? What happens if the cheque bounces (as I've heard that they can take 10 days to bounce even though they may show in your account after 3).

I'm thinking we should tell the court that we've got the cheque but we want to pursue the rest of the money and that we're worried about the cheque bouncing if we cancel the hearing.

I know it's only £30, but this is principle and he's the one who should be paying if he's to avoid a CCJ.

Thanks in advance (again!).

Rob

Guy_Montag

What is the £30 witheld for?

(I would hammer the LL though)

silvercar

The risk to you is that the landlord tells the court he made you a reasonable offer and you are wasting the court's time by pursuing a case for £30.

Cheeky of the LL IMHO.

Guy_Montag

silvercar wrote:

The risk to you is that the landlord tells the court he made you a reasonable offer and you are wasting the court's time by pursuing a case for £30.

Cheeky of the LL IMHO.

surely this is the point of the small claims court? Small claims & stopping !!!!!!!s getting away with crap like that.

Timewarp

silvercar wrote:

The risk to you is that the landlord tells the court he made you a reasonable offer and you are wasting the court's time by pursuing a case for £30.

Cheeky of the LL IMHO.

It seems he's miscalculated I reckon. We can't be wasting the court's time if we paid for the court hearing.

Am I right that the £80 court fee we have already paid will not be refunded if we settle out of court?

olly300

As I remember you did nothing wrong in your house and the landlord was taking the p*** and not actually conforming with your tenancy contract i.e. giving you a written statement of what was wrong when you left the house even though he and his agents had lots of chances to inform you while you where in it.

I can't remember exactly what the legal situation is if he pays you off before hand but I think it is that you can only pursue him in court or via the court bailiff for the £30 and costs that he would be ordered to pay if you win your case. If the cheque subsequently bounces for the bulk of the money owed to you or he stops the cheque (which is likely), you will have to submit a new claim.

I wouldn't cancel the hearing for these reasons:
1. £30 short is not a reasonable offer when you did nothing wrong and can prove it. It's not called the "Small claims" court for nothing.

2. The landlord offering you the money is likely to get a ploy to get you to dismiss the case as he doens't want a County Court judgement against him and he has obviously taken legal advice. If you dismiss the case it is likely that the landlord will stop the cheque or the cheque will bounce and I am sure you will be estoppelled under English and Welsh law from bringing a new claim about the bounced/stopped cheque due to dismissing the initial proceedings to claim all the money owed to you.

3. If you continue with the claim the landlord is likely to give you the £30 on the day and pay the costs but do it in such a way as not to get a County Court judgement against him i.e. offer you the money before the judge gives a verdict - it happens. Plus if you do this the cheque for the rest of the money is less likely to bounce/ be stopped as he knows you will pursue him in court. Also if you go to court the landlord still will have to explain to the judge why he couldn't return all your deposit and as he was making up different stories he is likely to lose. Even if you do lose over £30 and the cheque bounces you will still be able to pursue him for the rest of the money.

4. No he doesn't have to pay the court costs if he implies the cheque is for full and final settlement for legal proceedings. Did he sent you a letter with the cheque? Even if he has, write a letter to him if you can get it to him before the court date, asking for all the money in full. Until then I wouldn't contact the court I would just ensure that all the new paper work i.e. copy of cheques, any letters written is taken with you to the court. The landlord is likely to have informed the court himself that he has given you a "reasonable" offer to get the case dismissed so I wouldn't contact the court.

No judge will think you are wasting their time as they would have seen this trick before i.e. offering and senting cheques for the majority of the money so they don't clear just before the court date. Plus your landlord needs to be taught that being a landlord is a proper business and he cannot just cheat people for no reason.

Timewarp

olly300 wrote:

4. No he doesn't have to pay the court costs if he implies the cheque is for full and final settlement for legal proceedings. Did he sent you a letter with the cheque? Even if he has, write a letter to him if you can get it to him before the court date, asking for all the money in full. Until then I wouldn't contact the court I would just ensure that all the new paper work i.e. copy of cheques, any letters written is taken with you to the court. The landlord is likely to have informed the court himself that he has given you a "reasonable" offer to get the case dismissed so I wouldn't contact the court.

Thanks a lot for your advice.

No, nothing in the envelope apart from the cheque.

Whatever happens now the court keeps the £80 (I do believe?). So we must make sure that whatever he offers us includes what our initial claim was plus the £80 fee (as originally submitted in our claim).

scorpio_princess

Rob_Leeds wrote:

Thanks a lot for your advice.

No, nothing in the envelope apart from the cheque.

Whatever happens now the court keeps the £80 (I do believe?). So we must make sure that whatever he offers us includes what our initial claim was plus the £80 fee (as originally submitted in our claim).

Not sure if this is relevant, but I sometimes have to place a CCJ on customers that don't pay (debt chasing can be soooo tedious and sould destroying - 'cheque's in the post' 'the boss is on holiday' etc etc). We always get this fee paid back by the customer who owed the money, even if they time their cheque payment so it looks like they sent it before the CCJ was issued - we simply return the cheque and remind them of the CC fee. There's no end of tricks people can pull - we even had the head of the 'legal deapartment' of a very large local company who couldn't even calculate the interest we were owed properly!

Stick to your guns, see it through - no matter how much of a slippery eel this LL seems to be, i'm sure justice will prevail.