Awful Housing Association Landlord who're taking me to Court

steampowered

Hard_food_for_midas wrote: »

They have made an application to the court for a CCJ. I've not yet heard from the court.

What have you actually received from the court? Is it a claim form which looks something like this (click me)?

If so, you will not hear anything further from the court at this stage. The ball will be in your court. You are required to acknowledge service and then file a defence within the timelines specified in the form.

If you wish to make a counterclaim against the HA, for example if you wish to claim that they have breached the terms of your lease by failing to keep the property in good repair, that needs to go in your defence.

If you do not file an acknowledgement of service and a defence within the deadlines, you will lose the case automatically and a CCJ will be issued.

Person_one

Pay up. You really don't want a CCJ and your refusal to pay is clearly not working as 'leverage' as you hoped it would. They will get the judgement, you will have to pay anyway but your credit will be trashed for 6 years and it won't do anything to help you get your issues resolved.

Why haven't you moved?

sparky130a

Hard_food_for_midas wrote: »

thanks for replying all of you. Very kind. I hate that the big guy can sit on their fat behinds and do nothing because law and money is on their side.

They have made an application to the court for a CCJ. I've not yet heard from the court.

I'm just about to send this email to CEO and head of housing:

I have been in dispute with your company for over a year now. I have withheld my service charge, knowing the risks, because I felt unless I did your company would do nothing to sort out the long term issues we have had on this block. X, you and I are just going to have to disagree on that point.
What point?

Now your senior complaints handler, Mr Y, has closed down my complaint.
Fine.
In the chain below, you will see why this complaint is far from being completed - especially given the wholly inadequate recent Section 20 Notice. This fails to list any of the urgent repairs required on this building! It is staggering.
Careful now...
ABC are in breach of Landlord's obligations as set out in my lease. I draw particular attention to Section 5.3.1 relating to the roof and 5.3.3 general maintenance and upkeep. Also, 5.4 regarding lighting. These all formed my original complaint and have not yet been fully dealt with.
In your opinion...
Properties are being leaked into, my stairwell roof was only have supposed to have been fixed over a year ago. If this was my private home and I appointed a roofer to fix the lead flashing and within a year or so, it was breached, I'd be suing them for failure to do adequate repairs. I am not sure how your employees will handle this, but it will not be with the same care and rigour that an owner has, on this I am sure we can agree.
Remove this, it's irrelevant and doesn't help
I received a few letters over the past month from your Incomes Team to recover my service charge arrears. I made several attempts to call back to work something out, but gave up queuing on the phone during my lunch hour, having failed to get through for 25 minutes. Mr S never gave an email address, which might have been useful, given people's busy working lives.
Remove this. The HA's customer service levels are not your pertinent point.
Now I have received a CCJ notification to clear the arrears.
This morning I did speak to Mr S, Incomes Officer, and asked if there was anything to do to stop the issue going to Court and all he could offer was, 'clear the arrears' even after I told him I felt this was the only leverage I had to get your company to listen and act.

I told him the dispute continued, regardless of Mr Y's actions to close it down.
Raise a new dispute claim.
I genuinely believe you are failing this block as a landlord and that your service is incredibly poor.
The way my complaint has been handled should send alarm bells through your organisation if you were serious about customer service, but it is clear you're too big and perhaps remote an organisation to deal adequately and in a timely fashion with complaints.
See above RE customer service...
So, we are in a stalemate. I have left a message with the Ombudsman this morning and I am also waiting for legal advice from my solicitor.
You're not, you are potentially in the 5h1t
Can you even begin to imagine where I am coming from? Are we going to court or are we going to try and settle these matters once and for all?
Too aggressive.

Take a step back, breathe and reconsider your approach to these people.

Reword the above and offer a collabritive approach and co-operation. It'll get you a far better result.

And this from a man who had to resign from his job of 10 years last week, mainly due to a few ill chosen emails to the client... :rotfl:

steampowered

Hard_food_for_midas wrote: »

thank you. So, I get my day in court, pay £105 for the privilege and then pay my arrears if it goes against me. What have I got to lose?

You will only get your day in court if you file a proper defence before the deadline. If you fail to do this, you will lose automatically.

I guess then I have a CCJ against my name and then will suffer getting credit. I was hoping my days of credit were over, but it's never easy, is it? Who knows what's around the corner, so maybe best NOT to have a CCJ against my name?

Any CCJ will be removed from your credit record if paid within 28 days.

So feel free to make a counterclaim and take this rubbish HA to court if you think you have a good case.

Just make sure you pay the CCJ quickly if you lose the case and a CCJ is issued.

Guest101

Hard_food_for_midas wrote: »

They have made an application to the CC to clear my arrears.

I'm thinking, I may stand up in court and explain the reasons for the dispute. I have quite a high profile in the area and I'm sure I'm not the only one going through this misery...

Literally is not a defence.


Pay up unless you have an actual valid defence.

Rain_Shadow

Rain_Shadow wrote: »

Well you are certainly entitled to have your day in court and if judgement is against you then you have the opportunity to pay within 28 days and there will be no record of the CCJ so you may feel it is worth your while.

Hard_food_for_midas wrote: »

thank you. So, I get my day in court, pay £105 for the privilege and then pay my arrears if it goes against me. What have I got to lose?

I guess then I have a CCJ against my name and then will suffer getting credit. I was hoping my days of credit were over, but it's never easy, is it? Who knows what's around the corner, so maybe best NOT to have a CCJ against my name?

Just to be clear.

If the court finds against you then, if you pay within 28 days and tell the court you have done so, the CCJ will be removed from the record and there will be no trace of it.

This is so that people are not afraid to defend cases where they want the court to decide but are content to pay if judgement is against them.


Cross posted with 'steampowered'.

Rain_Shadow

steampowered wrote: »

You will only get your day in court if you file a proper defence before the deadline. If you fail to do this, you will lose automatically.


Any CCJ will be removed from your credit record if paid within 28 days.

So feel free to make a counterclaim and take this rubbish HA to court if you think you have a good case.

Just make sure you pay the CCJ quickly if you lose the case and a CCJ is issued.

You only have 14 days to reply to the initial notice from the court but if you file an acknowledgement of service you will have an additional 14 days to file your defence.

Hard_food_for_midas

steampowered wrote: »

You will only get your day in court if you file a proper defence before the deadline. If you fail to do this, you will lose automatically.


Any CCJ will be removed from your credit record if paid within 28 days.

So feel free to make a counterclaim and take this rubbish HA to court if you think you have a good case.

Just make sure you pay the CCJ quickly if you lose the case and a CCJ is issued.

thanks. Will do.

If I lose, I'd have to pay their costs - likely to be £70 and maybe I have to pay hearing costs of £60 - does this sound about right?



It seems I may have to issue a counter claim against them for breach of lease. I take in injunction out on them to do something.
Means I have to negotiate my way around the

http://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/application-to-the-first-tier-tribunal-property-chamber-2/# website for the correct form.

I may then have to get competitive tenders for the works..

Hard_food_for_midas

Guest101 wrote: »

Literally is not a defence.


Pay up unless you have an actual valid defence.

The valid defence is: without withholding my SC, none of the 6 urgent issues would have been dealt with. This company has form. The other 28 residents were too scared to take this action. It's the only thing that's made them sit up and listen..

I am in dispute over the SC. What service have we received?

(That'll be my defence and I'm sure a lot of others suffering from this neglect will be interested in this case. It might give them hope to stand...)

Hard_food_for_midas

sparky130a wrote: »

Take a step back, breathe and reconsider your approach to these people.

Reword the above and offer a collabritive approach and co-operation. It'll get you a far better result.

And this from a man who had to resign from his job of 10 years last week, mainly due to a few ill chosen emails to the client... :rotfl:

I'm really sorry to hear this :-(

Thank you for taking the time to try and temper my email. I have taken on board some of your suggestions. I think however, that I have had a collaborative and cooperative approach for far too long now.

I'm just off the phone to my legal expenses insurance (who offered limited advice - I wish cover was more comprehensive than it is!)

They suggested a defence and pay the fine at court (or within the 21/28 days)