Illegal eviction and deposit deductions

Nat1977

Hi,Long story, but will try to keep it as short as possible.

Tenant and landlord mutually agreed to end tenency early for personal reasons. Agreed date was 24th May. Actually moved out on 1st May, but kept going back and forth to previous property and was intending to fully clean and do gardening, etcetera before 24th.

tenant turns up on 4th May to find locks have been changed and gets home to find an email from landlords agent advising that new locks to be charged to tenant as keys had not been retuned and that all cleaning costs and rubbish removal will be charged to tenant.

tenant advises that this is illegal and they still need to do cleaning etcetera, but landlords agent dioesnt seem to care and does not respond.

Tenant raises a dispute to TDS to recover deposit, meanwhile landlord makes a court claim for rent arrears up to the 24th. Court papers sent to wrong address so default judgement made, tenant makes application for a set aside and has a hearing date for next year.

TDS decide to award whole of deposit to landlord for cleaning, rent arears and gardening.

If this at all makes any sense, does it seem right?

jamie11

Nat1977 wrote: »

Tenant raises a dispute to TDS to recover deposit, meanwhile landlord makes a court claim for rent arrears up to the 24th. Court papers sent to wrong address so default judgement made, tenant makes application for a set aside and has a hearing date for next year.

TDS decide to award whole of deposit to landlord for cleaning, rent arears and gardening.

If this at all makes any sense, does it seem right?

Since you did pay the rent up till the 24th it's not right, you had a right to hold on to the keys until then. I'm not going to comment on TDS because they seem to be a law unto themselves. The judge can set aside their decision as well, he is not bound to agree that it was fair. However you mention rent arrears, how much? Why?

If, as you say, you had paid rent up till the 24th why does arrears come into it?

Nat1977

They are claiming rent arrears from the 4th to the 24th from both the court and the TDS, both of which have awarded it to them. So i have a CCJ for the rent and TDS have paid them the rent up to the 24th out of the deposit, as well as all cleaning cots etc, even though i was locked out on the 4th.

pmlindyloo

Did you pay the rent up to the 24th May (sorry, unclear from your post).

Have you written evidence of this agreement to end the tenancy early?

Nat1977

No, rent was paid up to the 4th, date which they changed the locks. I have written proof of agreed date of early surrender for the 24th.

G_M

You have a choice:

1) accept tenancy end date of 4th May, in which case:
a) no deduction can be made for rent to 24th May
b) keys should have been returned on 4th so deduction can be made
c) cleaning should have been completed so deduction can be made

or 2) insist the tenancy should have run till 24th.
a) you have written proof of the agreed date of early surrender for the 24th so this should be easy
b) you need to pay the rent till 24th
c) no deduction can be made for keys/cleaning
d) you can make a counter-claim for illegal eviction (criminal offence) and deprivation of the use of the property between 4th and 24th

But you cannot have your cake AND eat it. If you did not pay rent from 4th, then claiming 24th as the surrender date puts you in rent arrears and weakens all your arguments.

Nat1977

Thanks G_M. But they have already claimed the rent money from the deposit, do I still need to pay rent to the 24th and then try and claim all the deposit back? TDS say that their decision cannot be appealed?

Nat1977

Also, what do i do about the court judgement.? Can i get it thrown out on the grounds that LL has been paid the money already?

G_M

TDS is a voluntary arbitrarion scheme and each side agrees to accept the decision - hence no appeal process.

But you can still use the courts since you've had a new hearing set for next year. Thinking about it you could offer 2 defences to the landlord's claim:

* Use my option 2 above (tenancy should have run till 24th)
* point out LL has already received rent to 24th via TDS
* deny responsibility for keys and cleaning since you were denied access and could not complete
* counter-claim for illegal eviction

As an alternative defence if the court dismisses the assertion that tenancy ran to 24th:
* claim back the rent paid to 24th

I don't see how a (reasonable) court could deny BOTH arguements.


(reasonable...)

DVardysShadow

G_M wrote: »

TDS is a voluntary arbitrarion scheme and each side agrees to accept the decision - hence no appeal process.

But you can still use the courts since you've had a new hearing set for next year. Thinking about it you could offer 2 defences to the landlord's claim:

* Use my option 2 above (tenancy should have run till 24th)
* point out LL has already received rent to 24th via TDS
* deny responsibility for keys and cleaning since you were denied access and could not complete
* counter-claim for illegal eviction

As an alternative defence if the court dismisses the assertion that tenancy ran to 24th:
* claim back the rent paid to 24th

I don't see how a (reasonable) court could deny BOTH arguements.


(reasonable...)

New hearing will be for a set aside of the CCJ.

• OP could argue the set aside quashed because papers were sent to the wrong address, provided OP has not misled LL over address. LL would be left to restart proceedings.
• Alternatively OP could argue the judgement set aside because the LL has had remedy though the TDS.

Both these arguments could be used. The first requires that there would have been some defence which could have been offered. Alternatively, OP could be accepting the judgement on the grounds that he was not offering a defence, but asking for a set aside to remove the damage to his credit rating.

My feeling is that if the judgement is set aside, the matter is now sufficiently complicated that it won't be done and dusted in one sitting.

The set aside is a procedural matter. Once the set aside is won, there is then another procedural question of what happens to the original claim. LL may not wish to proceed, having had remedy from the TDS. OP has the problem of deciding whether to argue his counterclaim off the back of a reinitiated claim by the LL, who may just let it go - or to start a fresh claim to undo the TDS.

The timeline is important here. Did OP have a defence against the LL's claim? ie if the claim was initiated during the tenancy was there a full 2 months rent owing? Or if it was made after 24th May, had the LL assented to the TDS?

On the whole, I'm favouring approach 2 on this.

DVardysShadow

tonyhamm wrote: »

... What you have to realize is that most landlords fail at executing possession orders or eviction orders properly, getting the notice period wrong or make mistakes in serving the notice on the tenant, which results in the messes like above. I have to confess an interest here because I help run www.<...>.com - which exists to make sure notices are exactly right. Give us an email and we will look over the details for you.
Tony.

Aside form spamming - which I am not going to complain about, because it might be better to know where you are roaming, it looks like your service is aimed squarely at Landlords. OP is a tenant ......