Small claim against live-in landlord

lodgerwoes

I used to be a lodger in a shared house. The landlord was always unreachable (rarely lived in his room), never fixed anything in the house and refused to return any of my deposit (unfairly imho).

Anyway to cut a long story short, I'm making a small claim against him to get my deposit back and sent him a letter before action last week. I've now received a response (over whatsapp) from him which says that he is confident that he will win the case and that if I lose I will be liable for his solicitor's costs in defending the case and that he charges £150/hour for his work so the final bill could be well in excess of £1,500.

He is a pathological liar so I just wanted to check if what he said is true? If I will indeed be liable for his solicitor costs if I lose, then I can't take the risk of proceeding with the claim. 

 

notrouble

Yes and no.

If you lose you may be liable for the court costs, and the LL's personal costs (time off work, travel expenses to attend court) but not his legal costs. Lawyers fees cannot be claimed in a Small Claims hearing.

Whether he will win depends on the strength of your case and the strength of his defence. Without knowing the facts, we cannot comment, but clearly he is trying to scare you into backing off.

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

lodgerwoes said:

He is a pathological liar so I just wanted to check if what he said is true? If I will indeed be liable for his solicitor costs if I lose, then I can't take the risk of proceeding with the claim. 

 

No, you will not be liable for his solicitor costs. He is just trying to frighten you.

If you lose the court may award him expenses for time off work (up to a maximum of £95/day), reasonable travel expenses and your court costs. That's it. If you win, he will have to cover your court fees.

lodgerwoes

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser said:

lodgerwoes said:

He is a pathological liar so I just wanted to check if what he said is true? If I will indeed be liable for his solicitor costs if I lose, then I can't take the risk of proceeding with the claim. 

No, you will not be liable for his solicitor costs. He is just trying to frighten you.

If you lose the court may award him expenses for time off work (up to a maximum of £95/day), reasonable travel expenses and your court costs. That's it. If you win, he will have to cover your court fees.

I knew he was lying. That is perfectly fine, I'll take that risk.
I am in London so hopefully the time and cost to travel to court will not be too high if it comes to that.
I'll reply to his whatsapp message calling his bluff.

chanz4

if he was hardly there you would need a normal tenancy not a bedsit one.  He will also needed to of protected your deposit

[Deleted User]

lodgerwoes said:

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser said:

lodgerwoes said:

He is a pathological liar so I just wanted to check if what he said is true? If I will indeed be liable for his solicitor costs if I lose, then I can't take the risk of proceeding with the claim. 

No, you will not be liable for his solicitor costs. He is just trying to frighten you.

If you lose the court may award him expenses for time off work (up to a maximum of £95/day), reasonable travel expenses and your court costs. That's it. If you win, he will have to cover your court fees.

I knew he was lying. That is perfectly fine, I'll take that risk.
I am in London so hopefully the time and cost to travel to court will not be too high if it comes to that.
I'll reply to his whatsapp message calling his bluff.

Don't reply to his Whatsapp message.  You've sent your letter before action so now take some action and start your MCOL.  Don't get into a Whatsapp bun fight with him.

lodgerwoes

chanz4 said:

if he was hardly there you would need a normal tenancy not a bedsit one.  He will also needed to of protected your deposit

Unfortunately that's impossible to prove as he had one locked room in the house for his use and all his post, etc comes to this address.

notrouble

lodgerwoes said:

I'll reply to his whatsapp message calling his bluff.

Why? Firstly whatsapp is not an appropriate way to negotiate a legal dispute, and secondly you've already sent a LBA. Since he has rejected the claim you made in the LBA, the next step is..... action. Either start court proceedings or walk away. No point in further discussion.

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

Wanderingpomm

If he’s lying he may not be declaring his income, you could call HMRC and ask them

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser

notrouble said:

lodgerwoes said:

I'll reply to his whatsapp message calling his bluff.

Why? Firstly whatsapp is not an appropriate way to negotiate a legal dispute, and secondly you've already sent a LBA. Since he has rejected the claim you made in the LBA, the next step is..... action. Either start court proceedings or walk away. No point in further discussion.

I respectfully disagree. This would depend on what the OP wants as an outcome and how strong he/she feels their case is.

A letter before action often acts as a trigger for a negotiated settlement. Showing the landlord that the OP knows what they are talking about with respect to a small claim (and that his scare tactic didn't work) might just convince the LL to come up with an offer that might be sufficient to satisfy the OP. We don't know the specifics or how strong the case against the LL is.

HampshireH

Retired_Mortgage_Adviser said:

notrouble said:

lodgerwoes said:

I'll reply to his whatsapp message calling his bluff.

Why? Firstly whatsapp is not an appropriate way to negotiate a legal dispute, and secondly you've already sent a LBA. Since he has rejected the claim you made in the LBA, the next step is..... action. Either start court proceedings or walk away. No point in further discussion.

I respectfully disagree. This would depend on what the OP wants as an outcome and how strong he/she feels their case is.

A letter before action often acts as a trigger for a negotiated settlement. Showing the landlord that the OP knows what they are talking about with respect to a small claim (and that his scare tactic didn't work) might just convince the LL to come up with an offer that might be sufficient to satisfy the OP. We don't know the specifics or how strong the case against the LL is.

I agree whatsapp isn't an appropriate to for negotiation / discussion.

I would stick to letter if you intend to proceed. Keep your messages from him as evidence should you need it.

Then keep copies of all your correspondence for your records.

If you do intend to respond it should be nothing more than

"Thankyou for your message received on xxx. You shall receive the relevant court papers shortly"

Or something to that effect. Don't get into a battle on whatsapp where conversations can easily be manipulated to read differently simply by the deletion of messages.