No win no fee for housing disrepair claims

tilly-roo

Hi there

Cut a VERY long story short; my partner and I are taking legal action against our ex lettings agent. We were with them for 5 months in a property that was completely inhabitable due to damp and mould and caused us health problems/a lot of stress and refused to carry out the repairs even though we were paying £650 a month to live in a property where both bedrooms were inhabitable! We have been for a consultation with a solicitor who said we may be entitled to getting part of the rent paid back and even some compensation.

So in short we are looking in to a no win no fee solicitor (as we have just had to move house because of everything happening we have no money at the moment and we are not entitled to legal aid) but I am just wondering if anybody can recommend me a good no win no fee solicitor perhaps they have had a good experience with for housing related things?

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum please feel free to move it if needed! Thanks so much!

BitterAndTwisted

Why are you considering taking legal action against a letting-agent?

If this solicitor has not pointed out the main glaring error with this prospect, you should have no further contact with them. Ambulance-chasers wont get you what you think you want or deserve.

RabbitMad

The house I live in is completely inhabitable too. I would imagine that 95% of house in the UK are - are we all entitled to some com-pen-say-shun?




!!!! take aside - you need to take action against the LL not letting agent

societys_child

RabbitMad wrote: »

The house I live in is completely inhabitable too.

:rotfl:I think that's a "contradiction in terms"

RabbitMad

societys_child wrote: »

:rotfl:I think that's a "contradiction in terms"

Call me thick, but why?

BitterAndTwisted

Because if it really was COMPLETELY uninhabitable you wouldn't be able to live in it, so would not currently be residing there. Duh.

bris

No win no fee solicitors are only interested in cast iron personal injury claims that have a large insurer to pay out. They will not take on any cases where the defendant may not pay as the costs associated with a claim that is in the thousands, private parties don't or can't pay these fees, so they don't take them on.

The compensation issue would be suitable for a small claims action, just get the evidence together and take you case to the small claims court. It's cheap and easy to do.

Zorz_2

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Because if it really was COMPLETELY uninhabitable you wouldn't be able to live in it, so would not currently be residing there. Duh.

Actually, it is possible to stay in a "completely uninhabitable" place, for instance if you don't have nowhere else to go but while it's unreasonable to do so. In that case you are legally homeless. That happened in my case, but thank God that my dear Landlord decided to get me out of this quasi-mess of a legal definition by changing the locks in my home and kicking me out!

To the OP:
You could have called your council's Environmental Health, but it is too late now since you moved out. However, it was the LL's responsibility so you must go after them.

societys_child wrote: »

:rotfl:I think that's a "contradiction in terms"

That's a tautology more likely...

xoAmyox

I don't think sarcastic comments are going to help the OP, after what was certainly a very difficult time.

I went through something very similar, and could not find a reputable solicitor to take on my case with either legal aid or No-win-no-fee.

It's difficult with housing law being a specialist area, and the uncertainty with the claim.

Can you advise if you had environmental health reports etc, did you advise the landlord of the issues in writing, was any work done at all? Do you have any doctors letters that show it affected your health perhaps?

RabbitMad

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Because if it really was COMPLETELY uninhabitable you wouldn't be able to live in it, so would not currently be residing there. Duh.

Where does the UN come from - my mickey take was because the OP was complaining that their rental was inhabitable - definition "To live or reside in."

BitterAndTwisted

Ah, so I'm the thicko and it's all there in back and white now. *humiliated*

If the OP thinks they deserve compensation then they will have to prove an actual loss. Having to live somewhere completely unfavourable isn't an quantifiable loss.

Regrettably, I think they will be on a hiding to nothing.