Has anyone taken a TDS decision to court and succeeded

sanavora

anselld said:

TDS were never going to give you a "get out of jail free" card from a 12 month tenancy.  It is not unreasonable for the Landlord to claim re-letting costs in the circumstances where a Tenant breaks the contract mid-term.

Neither can they be held responsible for anti-social behaviour in the neighbourhood.  You need to make your own enquiries as best you can before choosing to rent in an area.

How is this situation asking for a get out of jail free card? Kindly re-read the situation and try to understand what actually happened. We are aware landlords charge re let costs in standard circumstances where a tenant just WANTS to leave early, but it varies with each scenario.

 In our scenario we didn’t just WANT to leave, we HAD to leave for health and safety reasons. The fact that when we enquired about the area, the property and development we were lied to and told the property was safe and secure, which was the complete opposite to the truth, and the landlord who was aware of the problems being ongoing for years chose to withhold telling us the truth which by LAW, falls under unfair trading regulation as a misleading action and omission. If we were TOLD the truth we wouldn’t have signed the tenancy, and if we knew we were going to get charged to leave a unsafe property after being told we can, and continuously asking if we will be charged they said “ they will find out IF il be charged and let me know” and then never bothered to tell me for 3 months even after I chased for an answer.

SpiderLegs

Think yourself lucky they didn’t hold you to the full twelve months.

Grumpy_chap

How long before taking the property did you agree to it?
Did you view the property and area before agreeing to take this flat?  
It is just you mention being told the property was “safe and secure” (which arguably it is once you are inside?) but the type of issues you mention ay have been things you could have spotted before selecting the property.  (Anti-social groups, fireworks would leave some signs if let off inside, doors ripped off, drug paraphernalia etc.)  Areas do not suddenly change from gentrified to otherwise in a matter of days.

Given this was a bad experience, the fact you have been able to vacate early and move on with your life is worth far more than the few hundred pounds of forfeited deposit.  I do understand that is a large sum for you to be "down", but sometimes there are benefits of looking forward that outweigh the financial cost.

If you wish to pursue the matter further, I really don't know what grounds you would do so, or how likely you are to recover anything more.  The process will be stressful and time-consuming.  Maybe it will be better to move on and put this nasty episode behind you.

Good luck and I hope you are more comfortable where you are now living and can be happy there for a long time.

babyblade41

I honestly think there is nothing for your legs to stand on in this situation .. you should have done due diligence before signing a contract which means researching the area...a small thing for you to do considering it was going to be your home for 12 months or more .

Your LL is not responsible for anti social behaviour and I doubt it only occurred when you moved in ... 

If you have moved into a better area leave everything behind including this ,  it will cost you more than money ...pick your battles and this isn't one of them 

Cakeguts

You were not lied to. The actual property was safe and secure. What was not safe was the area that the property was in.  However the landlord is not responsible for this and in any case may not have had any idea of what was actually happening in the area because they may not have ever lived in the property.  It is up to you to decide if the property is in an area that you are happy to live in.

AdrianC

sanavora said:
In our scenario we didn’t just WANT to leave, we HAD to leave for health and safety reasons.

No, that's not accurate, is it?

Plenty of other people are living in the immediate area without being injured or getting ill...

sanavora

Cakeguts said:

You were not lied to. The actual property was safe and secure. What was not safe was the area that the property was in.  However the landlord is not responsible for this and in any case may not have had any idea of what was actually happening in the area because they may not have ever lived in the property.  It is up to you to decide if the property is in an area that you are happy to live in.

They landlord and agents were both aware of the problems within the property. The property maintenance company had issued several letters to landlords over the years and had sent one whilst we were there to. It wasn’t the area as there are many other flats which all look identical (old offices converted) who do not suffer the same issues. 

This property itself has been targeted and classified as a hot spot by the police because of poor management and no security. The reason why because landlords were not paying ground rent and service charge and 50K in arrears. Again the landlords would have received letters chasing payments and also about the building problems. 

The property falls on the same grounds as identical building (post office) but have not encountered anything as they have cctv and security.  

sanavora

babyblade41 said:

I honestly think there is nothing for your legs to stand on in this situation .. you should have done due diligence before signing a contract which means researching the area...a small thing for you to do considering it was going to be your home for 12 months or more .

Your LL is not responsible for anti social behaviour and I doubt it only occurred when you moved in ... 

If you have moved into a better area leave everything behind including this ,  it will cost you more than money ...pick your battles and this isn't one of them 

I don’t understand why everyone thinks I didn’t do research, I visited several flats identical to this, and they seemed fine. At the time this worked out the cheapest and I was advised it was all safe secure not just “my flat” but the area to. I also went with the most highest rated estate agents review wise. It was the agents they handed me over to after we got the keys that were the problem. The problems clearly didn’t start when we moved in.. but during our visit we were limited to how long we could visit and were only shown the flat and not the grounds ect. When we asked about everything in the property and building they said it was gated and secure which wasn’t true.

sanavora

Grumpy_chap said:

How long before taking the property  did you agree to it?
Did you view the property and area before agreeing to take this flat?  
It is just you mention being told the property was “safe and secure” (which arguably it is once you are inside?) but the type of issues you mention ay have been things you could have spotted before selecting the property.  (Anti-social groups, fireworks would leave some signs if let off inside, doors ripped off, drug paraphernalia etc.)  Areas do not suddenly change from gentrified to otherwise in a matter of days.

Given this was a bad experience, the fact you have been able to vacate early and move on with your life is worth far more than the few hundred pounds of forfeited deposit.  I do understand that is a large sum for you to be "down", but sometimes there are benefits of looking forward that outweigh the financial cost.

If you wish to pursue the matter further, I really don't know what grounds you would do so, or how likely you are to recover anything more.  The process will be stressful and time-consuming.  Maybe it will be better to move on and put this nasty episode behind you.

Good luck and I hope you are more comfortable where you are now living and can be happy there for a long time.

When we visited the property it was day time and very quiet. The property has been converted well and looked great when we went to visit. We were only shown the flat again looked fine and it was quiet then. As for fireworks it genuinely happened AFTER we moved in so there was no marks. The drug users ect were underground in the carpark and usually turned up at night time which is where problems usually occurred. We were not shown the carpark to even know it was broken, so when we asked they said it had a secure gated door and a thob required to enter and only have a brief 10 min visit of the property so we had to resort to questions. Again the doors ripped off at the entrance happened in the first week of moving in so when we visited things looked normal. 

sanavora

AdrianC said:

sanavora said:
In our scenario we didn’t just WANT to leave, we HAD to leave for health and safety reasons.

No, that's not accurate, is it?

Plenty of other people are living in the immediate area without being injured or getting ill...

The building was full of prostitutes and people struggling to sell the property and many tenants facing the same problem as myself. Whilst living there the police visited every week as a result of a new problem. Getting ill? It’s a pandemic so having several men in and out of the flats next door and opposite my flat is dangerous. As for health and safety for ourselves you understand that attempted breaks ins cause trauma? Especially for someone who’s moved out for the first time and young, was home alone and encountered this. And no your not correct plenty of people were suffering from the same problem as myself.