Small Claims Court guide

Computersaysno

IF you can find out where he works you can get an attachment of earnings.

tonyhamm

Hi, although the landlord may try to intimidate you, its the landlord which has a uphill climb to 'throw someone out' by using courts. If as you say, you have long standing repair issues, you are perfectly within the law to hold out on rent due until repairs have been made. If the Landlord pays for a hearing to evict you, while outstanding issues of repairs are due no eviction order can be made by the court on ground of non payment of rent if you say in your defence you were holding back rent until repairs were made.
If you are in a Assured Shorthold Tenancy the landlord also has to give you notice in exactly the right legal form, delivered on the correct day which many do not. You may also sue the landlord under The Landlord and Tenant Act for not providing heating or other structural repair issues. You will be expected to provide a reasonable standard of proof (letters and perhaps engineers report, and obtain a repairs history from the landlord - which is ahy its best to contact a solicitor who can arrange this). PM me.

Maz2013 wrote: »

Hi everyone
I need a bit if advice. I moved into a rented property 15th october last year. From the moment i moved in i had issue after issue. I had no heating for 4 months and was constantly flogged off by letting agent and landlord. Also i barely had any hot water for 7 months. To make matters worse when i first moved in i was heavily pregnant and then had to baby in winter with no heating.
Each time i complained the landlord threatened to evict me and he is now kicking me out next month after me sending him a letter saying i deserved to be compensated for all the emotional stress hes put me through being on my own with a new baby. I am now thinking small claims is my only option. But am so scared of the process and also worried about losing and having to pay out money i dont have.
If anyone has any advice or if anyones been in a similar position would love to hear back from you. Thanks

steampowered

tonyhamm wrote: »

Hi, although the landlord may try to intimidate you, its the landlord which has a uphill climb to 'throw someone out' by using courts. If as you say, you have long standing repair issues, you are perfectly within the law to hold out on rent due until repairs have been made. If the Landlord pays for a hearing to evict you, while outstanding issues of repairs are due no eviction order can be made by the court on ground of non payment of rent if you say in your defence you were holding back rent until repairs were made.
If you are in a Assured Shorthold Tenancy the landlord also has to give you notice in exactly the right legal form, delivered on the correct day which many do not. You may also sue the landlord under The Landlord and Tenant Act for not providing heating or other structural repair issues. You will be expected to provide a reasonable standard of proof (letters and perhaps engineers report, and obtain a repairs history from the landlord - which is ahy its best to contact a solicitor who can arrange this). PM me.

This is incorrect advice. Repair issues may entitle you to sue the landlord but do not necessarily entitle you to withhold rent. Most tenancy contracts have a specific clause on this.

tali

Any help here
Friend has been waiting over 3 months and 7 failed dates for four figure refund.His recorded delivery 14day letter has been delayed.
His deadline was 25th sept -how much extra time can he allow ?
Or should he start claim asap?
Can he email his intentions ?
If trader pays can friend still submit claim for intrest due to the large amount involved?
Can friend actually ask for 8% intrest pre -claim , or can he only request the actual original amount owed?

wealdroam

Tali, as indicated in the original post, this thread is really here to discuss MSE's Small Claims Court Guide.

Perhaps you should start a new thread with your query, or if this is related to your travel agent query, then I suggest you continue with that thread..

kenziesmummy

Hello, looking for some advice.

We are in Scotland, won our small claim at court against a garage who sold us a dodgy car (only cos he didnt bother turning up to court!) anyway we instructed a solicitor to try and retrieve the money but after a year i am starting to think he is useless. I know he may not be able to get the money easily but no communication from him unless we call for an update and most of the time he gives us some drivel about what ehs going to do next.

I have it down to call him this week to ak for an update and am thinking about asking him to stop wasting our time and his and seeing if anyone else can do a better job.

My question is is there anyway we are going to see the money owed? Is it worth hiring someone else to try again or if anyone has any suggestions on how we can recoup our money? its for approx £1500 which we still owe on a credit card

Thanks in advance for your help

wealdroam

Hello Kenziesmummy.

Did you read the Small Claims Court guide linked to from the first post in this thread?

If so, did the section headed I won in court but I still haven't got the money I'm owed, what do I do? not help?

Anyway, this thread is really here to discuss that article.

Perhaps you would be better served if you were to start a new thread for your particular issue.

Kpurt

Hi. I am new to the site. Have taken a large housing company to small claims. Naively we thought our claim for over 3 years of stress and surveyors fees we thought we had a good case. That was until the preliminary hearing. We can't claim for such things. Time off work hundreds if emails. We attended a preliminary hearing and have been given directions by the judge. The housing company off the record was told to 'do something' to keep their good name and told us both to try and settle out of court, failing that go to mediation then if it comes to it a full hearing. A week later I received an email from their solicitor which stated that if we didn't withdraw the case then they would out in an order knowing that we would probably lose for their clients 'substantial' solicitors fees. Also headed the letter without prejudice save on costs which after a google search means. You can't being this letter to court as evidence ! I spoke to a solicitor who said it would cost too much to be presented and as we may or may not win wouldn't be worthwhile. The judge mentioned in the court about can only claim for loss of enjoyment. We I hate my house now, whenever I receive corresondence about this it makes me feel physically ill. When I received that email I had a horrendous panic attack and was so scared I didn't know what was going on. By law we can't do anything but I don't want other people going through what we have and dont want the housing company to get away with it. I would like at least our surveyors fees paid. Can anyone offer any friendly advice. It would be much appreciated.

Computersaysno

Your case sounds far too complicated and sketchy for any advice on here to be reliable.

Kpurt

You are right, it's very complicated and long winded. The gist of it is there was no dpc fitted where our lounge patio doors are. We had real wood flooring fitted when we first moved in, destroyed that with a huge hump coming up in our living room all the way to our back wall. Anyway long and short, after them blaming the wood fitters loads of inspections, us getting Nhbc involved (beyond useless) it was a window fitter that found the fault. They supposedly fixed the issue but when it came to paying up they offered a silly amount. We took them to small claims court and they paid up. Literally 2 weeks after receiving the cheque we noticed movement in our floor again. Contacted housing company, they said didn't want to know they had fixed it. Contacted nhbc again. Loads more 'specialists' came from housing co to fixed the floor.. Again .. Still high moisture readings. We were stuck as what to do, nhbc then said housing co refused to come back and fix. We basically had enough and did small claims. Still have high readings and waiting for more tests to be done.