Small claims court, to go or not?

bezpaliva

Me and my partner have been renting a room in a four bed house in Feb. We had 12 months contract, after being in a house for 1 month, the agent tried to make us leave the house by sending text messages etc. No legal stuff at all. some housemates left the house in March. Me and my partner, and the other guy have stayed. However, the agent still wanted us to leave, the reasons were: the house got sold, and then, no HMO license. They offered us (me and my partner) a compensation + our deposit back if we leave. They gave us this amount of money in cash and said to give deposit+agency fees to the other guy from the cash we received. He said, we will recieve the money we gave to the guy after we leave the house by bank transfer as our surrender agreement. If we don;t agree - the deal is over. So we did all that, we have everything in writing, all the emails from them saying the money will be paid. However, two months later, the money are still not paid. There were a few reasons why they don't wont to pay : they gone bankrupt (lie), we reported them to trading standards.
I went to see who lives in the house now, and its the agent's cousin! So, the house hasn't been sold! Can the agency be done for lying??

So, now, they don't wont to speak to us, they tell us not to come to the office and hang up the phone on us.

We are thinking of going to small claims court. What are the chances of winning?? Do we have a chance? What is the best can be done? And what can we claim and how much?

libf

bezpaliva wrote: »

They gave us this amount of money in cash and said to give deposit+agency fees to the other guy from the cash we received.

He said, we will recieve the money we gave to the guy after we leave the house by bank transfer as our surrender agreement. If we don;t agree - the deal is over.

If you received cash then what money are you trying to get now by bank transfer?

bezpaliva

We gave some of this cash to the other tenant. This was the part of our surrender agreement. They said we will get the money back when we leave the house by bank transfer. We have an email from them saying the money will be in our account by certain time and day.

moneyistooshorttomention

Quick check later and this has been due for two months....which would seem to give them a very reasonable amount of time in which to pay up.

Put like that = small claims court.

The thing I am wondering about though is your comment about them and bankruptcy.

If they've done a "going bankrupt" then it may be the case they've been doing legal shenanigan type stuff of putting their property in someone else's name in order to prevent having to pay their creditors. I've watched it happening to someone I am friendly with and they know the money is there to pay them - but cant get at it to get what they are owed because its been put into the wife's name.

So - what exactly is the situation with this bankruptcy? Have they declared bankruptcy or no? If they have - do they still have their assets (but have just put them into someone else's name to evade their responsibilities)?

eddddy

I would think your claim would be against the landlord rather than the letting agent.

So it seems you're saying that you had a contractual agreement with the landlord, which was confirmed in an email. (Essentially, you would move out and they would pay you.)

So the landlord is in breach of contract.

So, yes, you can make a county court claim against the landlord. (You would need to follow the appropriate procedures.)


If the landlord disputes the claim, the court would make a decision based "on the balance of probabilities". (i.e. the court would decide whether you or the landlord is most likely to be telling the truth.)

bezpaliva

WE never dealt with the landlord. Just with an agent guy, then with the senior manager of the agency, who is just as bad. They put their business address and landlords name on a contract. When we were asking for landlord details, they never gave it to us. So would we still have to claim against the landlord? she probably doesn't know what is happening

Pixie5740

Tenants have a contract with the landlord. The landlord has a contract with the letting agency. The tenants have no contract with the letting agency.

Some landlords go for a fully managed service so therefore the tenancy agreement has the landlord's name and gives the address for the serving of notices as the letting agency's address.

If you have evidence that you are owed money due to agreeing to surrender your tenancy early then take the belt and braces approach. Send letters before action to both the letting agency and the landlord even if that means sending a letter addressed to the landlord to the address stated in your tenancy agreement.

G_M

Who was named as the landlord on the contract/tenancy agreement?

Who owned the property? Now owns the property? (£3 here).

What do you have in writing (exactly) from either the LL or agent?

Has either the LL andor agebt gone bankrupt?

Where was the deposit registered? Has it been returned? See:

Is it registered? (Shelter: how to check each scheme & see if your deposit is protected)

Whether to go to court depends on

* answers to Qs which will indicate chance of success
* extent of your anger - often it is easier/less stressfull just to move on with life. Alternatively often it can give great satisfaction to bring someone to justice.

bezpaliva

G_M wrote: »

Who was named as the landlord on the contract/tenancy agreement?

Who owned the property? Now owns the property? (£3 here).

What do you have in writing (exactly) from either the LL or agent?

Has either the LL andor agebt gone bankrupt?

Where was the deposit registered? Has it been returned? See:

Is it registered? (Shelter: how to check each scheme & see if your deposit is protected)

Whether to go to court depends on

* answers to Qs which will indicate chance of success
* extent of your anger - often it is easier/less stressfull just to move on with life. Alternatively often it can give great satisfaction to bring someone to justice.

1. a woman + agency's business address
2. a woman on the contract. when we were occupying the house, don't know now.
3. how do i add images here??
4. i don't think they did. i think it is just another lie as they don;t want to pay
5. deposit was supposed to be returned together with the compensation. it has never been protected and we never received a certificate from the landlord regarding of our deposit being protected.

bezpaliva

bezpaliva