Housing Association claiming for damages

mitcho_uk

Hi, I need some advice.

We moved out of a housing association property on Jan 30th 2005 after a long running dispute with our landlords regarding anti social behaviour from our neighbour. On leaving the property we left a setee in the lounge room as we were unable to get it out of the house as it was a three storey building. We advised the association of this. We also left some furniture in the garden which i had agreed with the council that they would collect. we also informed the housing association of this. We had handed the keys in at the 12 noon deadline that they had set an informed them that the garage was unsecure.

Over our time at the property we paid our rent by standing order so when we left we were in credit by nearly £300 pounds. which the housing association gladly refunded around the middle to end of feb 2005. However today i have recieve a letter demanding £750 for damages to the property. Over two months after we left. Surely if i had caused £700 worth of damage they would of kept hold of this money.

We drove passed the house about two weeks later and saw that it had still not been boarded up and the front door was wide open.

They have taken photos of the property and garden including the setee. they have shown pictures of our kitchen which had the doors painted, and some rubbish in the garden most of which wasnt ours. They also showed a picture of a car on the driveway but it wasnt my car, oh hold on a minute its not even my driveway.

We had left the property in good condition and it could of been occupied straight away bar a little everyday cleaning. i have around 7 witnesses who helped me to move who can verify this.

I refuse to pay for damage which i did not cause, I believe that this is a tit for tat attempt to recover money as i am in the process of a formal complaint to recover costs for being effectively forced out of my home.

I would be interested in any advice that you could give

Many thanks

Glad

as this is mainly a money saving forum and you seem to need legal advice you may be better looking at legal sites, or visiting your local CAB.

chugalug

Try Shelter aswell as they specialise in landlord and tenant. You should be able to find details of your nearest Housing Aid Centre via https://www.Shelter.org.uk

Savvy_Sue

Agree with both the above. Hope you kept copies of all your correspondence with the HA. You could try a final letter, enclosing copies of your previous letters and pointing out that they should have inspected the property before refunding your overpaid rent.

I would suggest, however, that you don't take it personally as a tit for tat response! It is more likely that the left hand knoweth not what the right hand doeth. You move out, keys returned, rent in credit = repayment generated. A couple of months later, the property is inspected and found to be currently unlettable = charge the previous tenant. These actions could be coming from different departments and yes they ought to be talking to each other but mistakes do happen. Try to keep this separate from your complaint about their failure to deal with your anti-social neighbours.

Xbigman

I'd write to the HA pointing out what you did in your post. IE Not your drive, not your rubbish and property not secure. I don't think they would have a leg to stand on in court.

I got caught this way years ago so in properties I rented after that I took photos with that days paper in the foreground when I arrived and left. The last place I rented a very aggressive agent tried to blame every scratch and dent on me when she turned up for the final inspection. When I showed her the photo's I took the day I moved in she simply signed the release and left looking annoyed.
Regards



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