Landlord taking deposit dispute to County Court

MagnumBI

Hello,

After moving out of a property I rented for 3 years 6 months, the letting agency acting on behalf of my landlord has refused return of my deposit £475, claiming damage to the property and has refused to allow for DPS adjudication, instead electing to take me straight to County Court,

Today i received a County Court claim form for £1122.60 plus £70 Court Fees, which from previous conversation with the letting agent, I believe to be for the replacement of carpets, repainting of walls, a "deep clean" and other assorted cleaning costs. The letting agent has not provided an exact breakdown of these costs, nor receipts at this point, just the total amount.

The landlord does have what could be seen as compelling photographic evidence (the carpet was white, after 3 and a half years it is genuinely in poor condition). They do not however, have a fully completed inventory or schedule of condition, just one which was never seen or signed by me, which does not include some of the items I believe they are claiming for, while other items (such as the carpets) do not have their condition at move-in noted,

It is my belief, that the landlord will attempt to claim I was the first tenant in a new build property and thus a signed schedule of condition is unneeded.

My options are to within 14 days (or 28 if I wish to delay) either admit the full amount, admit part of the amount or admit nothing.

Although I think it'd be reasonable to admit part of the amount, I have nothing to really base an offer on, with no detailed breakdown of the £1122.60.

If I were to write to the letting agency, are they under any obligation to provide me a full breakdown to assist my response to the courts claim form? Further to that, are they under any obligation to provide me receipts at this point? Or is my best option to admit nothing and let it come out in court?

BitterAndTwisted

The landlord is not obliged to furnish you with copies of receipts. In fact they are not obliged to replace or clean anything whatsoever. That is not the purposes of making a claim to your deposit or demanding further monies. What they are seeking is compensation for the useful life you have deprived them of, of the items you have damaged.

Without seeing a breakdown of the landlord's claim it is going to be very difficult for you to accept or contest their total claim. Under the circs I would contest the lot.

Without a detailed dual-signed check-in inventory the landlord is going to have a hard job of persuading the court of the veracity of their claim.

Were you the first tenant in a new-build property?

Still, even if the landlord was stupid enough to supply a property with WHITE carpets, your money is not a new-for-old insurance policy. They cannot claim for the entire cost of replacement with new carpeting. One could take the position that white carpets in a rental-property could have a reasonably expected life of four years or less, so you would owe the LL about 12 1/2% of the original cost.

MagnumBI

Hi BitterAndTwisted, thank you very much for the quick reply. I hadn't really applied the white carpet theory to my betterment calculations, but that seems reasonable. They were indeed stupid enough to kit 14 stories worth of rented apartments and hallways with white carpet. Needless to say, from speaking to other residents, many have been replaced already so I will be sure to note that.

I moved in around 6 months after the apartments became available. I'd never thought I was the first tenant, due to letters we received under somebody elses name, a name which appears on the electoral roll still for the address. The landlord insists that's a mistake though.

Better_Days

The electoral roll info seems to me to be good evidence that someone was living there before you. It maybe an idea to copy the relevant info to sumbit to the court if you decide to contest the LL's claim.

ging84

make sure you have gone through the correct procedure with regard to the deposit protection scheme, they will probably still need to be aware of a dispute even if it's not being handled by them

ValHaller

The phrase which comes to mind is 'embarrassed defence'. Please google this and see whether it applies.

Essentially as I understand it, it is used where the complainant does not submit sufficient detail for you to argue one way or the other - so you end up defending you don't know what and then they base their claim on stitching you up for things you said defending a claim they did not quite make.

The principle is that the complainant must state their claim in full before you defend it.

Don't forget to counterclaim your deposit

MagnumBI

Thanks for the replies all.

It was the landlord who made a claim for the Deposit via DPS, I refused and was looking forward to going to DPS adjudication, however the landlord, as is his right, has persisted with taking me to Court instead. It appears more and more landlords are choosing this option due to percieved bias towards and the high success rate of, many tenants at adjudication.

As to the embarrassed defence, that is tempting, however my thinking in county court, in that informal setting is that I'd look more sympathetic if I at least appear to explore every avenue and write to the landlord for a detailed breakdown of charges. I dont think itd be in their interests to ignore me but I expect it to be pretty flimsy regardless.

thesaint

I would definitely ask for a breakdown.
If they won't supply them, then you have a good case to ask the court not to award the court costs against you.

Did the landlord send you a "Letter Before Action" before submitting the claim?

BitterAndTwisted

I think writing the landlord, copying in the agent and asking for a breakdown of their claim is the only sensible thing to do.


I absolutely refuse to believe that the deposit-protection scheme's arbitrators are biased in favour of tenants, any more than a court would be biased in favour of landlords. One would hope that both make judgements based solely on the evidence provided.

No detailed dual-signed and dated inventory equals very questionable evidence

MagnumBI

No formal letter before action received although they did state early their intent to take this to County Court when I first suggested DPS adjudication.

Their most recent letter advised that because I disputed their deposit claim via DPS, that County Court action would be lodged within 3 days of the date of the letter, although in reality, they appear to have taken 10. They did make offer of a "sit down" to discuss the matter, however I refused, preffering the matter be resolved in writing, that is when I received the court papers.

thesaint

Since you refused to resolve it without the need for them to take you to court, you may be stuck with the court costs.