DPS Dispute in our favour, now threatened with court.

Theotargon

Hello,

We recently moved out of rented accommodation and the estate agent/landlord claimed for the full amount of the deposit. We tried to compromise because the claims seemed unfair but they refused to budge an inch.

We went through the dispute resolution service with the DPS and provided all our evidence. After a few weeks they awarded us the full deposit due to lack of evidence from the landlord.

We now received a threatening letter from the estate agent saying the DPS made a mistake and if we don't send them the entire deposit within 14 days they will take us to the small claims court and we will have to pay the full deposit plus further expenses when "they are successful"

What should we do? We had thought that the decision from the DPS would finally be an end to this but it keeps on going.

Fosterdog

Just ignore them for now, if they didn't have any evidence for the DPS they won't have any evidence for the court either. It will up to them to prove that you do owe them money and as you have already had one independent party side with you there's a good chance a court would too.

MovingForwards

Have you contacted DPS to clarify there was no error?

silvercar

What makes them think they will be successful in court after losing st the DPS.

I wouldn't even give them the courtesy of a reply.

G_M

Do not be intimidated - that's all it is. Sour grapes and meaningless threats.

Do not reply. If you do you'll just open a dialogue that will serve no purpose,

Do not, I repeat not, send them the money they are requesting.

Will they do as they threaten and go to court? My guess is

* there is perhaps a 10% chance that they will go to court. Not more
* if they go to court, there is perhaps a 5% chance they will win. Not more.
* if they win they will not be able to claim more than very basic expenses. Legal costs cannot be claimed in the Small Claims Court
* but if (sorry - when) they lose, they will have lost their court costs AND your reasonable expenses which you will claim off them - hence they won't actually risk court action!

sal_III

As others have stated these are most likely

You didn't mention what the dispute was about. Playing devil's advocate, the LL might have a valid claim, but neglected the need to provide evidence for the DPS dispute and might be better prepared for a small claims court case. If you share more details we might be able to direct you better, whether he might have a case or simply making empty threats, in hope to intimidate you. Sometimes it works - there was a thread couple of days ago where someone agreed to pay for repainting the walls.

If they win in small claims court they can't claim astronomical legal costs like in a regular court case, only basic amounts for admin tasks/expenses in preparing their case. So worth the shot if you thing justice is on your side.

steampowered

Personally, I would send a short response along the following lines.

The chance of the landlord actually issuing court proceedings is close to zero.

--

Dear Sir/Madam

I acknowledge receipt of your letter dated xxx.

The matter regarding deductions from our deposit was fully and finally determined by the deposit release scheme. The deductions you had proposed were found to be unfair and unjustified and the deposit was released to us accordingly.

Your client had a full and fair opportunity to submit evidence as part of the process, but the deposit scheme decided against him/her. If you disagree with the deposit scheme's decision we suggest that you take that up with the deposit scheme.

We consider this matter to be resolved and will not be entering into further correspondence.

In the event that court proceedings are issued, we will contest the claim and will seek to recover the costs and expenses incurred in doing so.

Yours sincerely

G_M

Steampowered's draft above is fine.


Though as I said, personally I would ignore them completely.

greendoor665

These are exactly the kind of bullies that the DPS was brought in to protect against. They're just upset their usual tactics didn't work.

Theotargon

It's a fairly long story, but since we had a pet which had scratched and damaged a small area of one of the carpets in the house we had agreed in principle to contribute towards replacing that carpet. However what ended up happening was a claim to replace every carpet in the property with us paying the full amount.

The final inspection was done three weeks before we were due to move out and that's when the damage to the carpet was acknowledged. On the day we were due to move out they weren't available to come to the property to collect the keys and instead asked us to just drop them into their office, we took plenty of photo's when we left.

It was only a few weeks after they got the keys back that they wanted another "final inspection" during which they said they were intending to replace all the carpets in the property. I said there and then that we didn't agree to contribute to any carpet that wasn't damaged.

Without any further communication they put in a claim for the full deposit (and then some) which we disputed. The adjudicator said they failed to provide sufficient evidence and even the damage we had acknowledged responsibility for couldn't be deducted without a proper before/after comparison.

G_M

Theotargon wrote: »

It's a fairly long story, but since we had a pet which had scratched and damaged a small area of one of the carpets in the house we had agreed in principle to contribute towards replacing that carpet. However what ended up happening was a claim to replace every carpet in the property with us paying the full amount.

The final inspection was done three weeks before we were due to move out and that's when the damage to the carpet was acknowledged. On the day we were due to move out they weren't available to come to the property to collect the keys and instead asked us to just drop them into their office, we took plenty of photo's when we left.

It was only a few weeks after they got the keys back that they wanted another "final inspection" during which they said they were intending to replace all the carpets in the property. I said there and then that we didn't agree to contribute to any carpet that wasn't damaged.

Without any further communication they put in a claim for the full deposit (and then some) which we disputed. The adjudicator said they failed to provide sufficient evidence and even the damage we had acknowledged responsibility for couldn't be deducted without a proper before/after comparison.

Do not be intimidated - that's all it is. Sour grapes and meaningless threats.

Do not reply. If you do you'll just open a dialogue that will serve no purpose,

Do not, I repeat not, send them the money they are requesting.

Will they do as they threaten and go to court? My guess is

* there is perhaps a 10% chance that they will go to court. Not more
* if they go to court, there is perhaps a 5% chance they will win. Not more.
* if they win they will not be able to claim more than very basic expenses. Legal costs cannot be claimed in the Small Claims Court
* but if (sorry - when) they lose, they will have lost their court costs AND your reasonable expenses which you will claim off them - hence they won't actually risk court action!