Threatened with court by estate agents

alexxturnerr

I'm unsure what to do, I rented a property last year with an estate agents, anyway when I moved out the apartment was left in good condition (better than how it was when I moved in anyway) I did leave some boxes in there.

Anyway they hit me with a £450 bill for multiple things

Carpet Clean (which the carpet was already a state when I moved in) - 195

Holes in wall filler (which were already there)

Full apartment clean - 190

And a couple of other things which I disagree with and they also went through my personal belongings. 

It was a 1 bedroom flat and I think those charges are ridiculous to start with for a 1 bed flat, but the company they've used are a sub company of the estate agents and charge through the nose for repairs. 

Anyway it went through the deposit tribunal people and they sided with me so I got my deposit back, but now they're still chasing me for the money, they're constantly sending me letters threatening to take me to court.

The only other issue is that I have a debt management plan so all my spare money goes to them.

Im unsure what's the best course of action to take, pay it off or just ignore the letters and wait until they take legal action and fight it in court?

lisyloo

Are they threatening to take you to court for issues you’ve already won at the deposit tribunal?

If so ignore their letters.
if it goes to court take the evidence you have from the tribunal (letter?)

HampshireH

How much was your deposit? Presumably it was all paid back to you?

Are they chasing what would have been the difference between the bill and your deposit or essentially money you have had refunded.

If the latter I'd be inclined to reply once stating as per the DPS decision by our aren't prepared to pay their costs.

Request they stop harassing you. And then just be prepared to defend your claim should they continue.

Make sure you have all your DPS letters and decision etc

You could complain to their governing body

alexxturnerr

lisyloo said:

Are they threatening to take you to court for issues you’ve already won at the deposit tribunal?

If so ignore their letters.
if it goes to court take the evidence you have from the tribunal (letter?)

HampshireH said:

How much was your deposit? Presumably it was all paid back to you?

Are they chasing what would have been the difference between the bill and your deposit or essentially money you have had refunded.

If the latter I'd be inclined to reply once stating as per the DPS decision by our aren't prepared to pay their costs.

Request they stop harassing you. And then just be prepared to defend your claim should they continue.

Make sure you have all your DPS letters and decision etc

You could complain to their governing body

My deposit was 380 and they're chasing me for 450 for "damages" to the property which there was none. So when I moved out they chased me for 490 I disputed so then it went to the DPS and i agreed with them for one thing (I left boxes in there so they charged me to remove them)

The DPS then sided with me so I got approx 350ish back so now they're chasing me for 450.

I emailed them and said as far as I'm concerned the dps sided with me so this is over with and they emailed me back and said you can use that as your defence in court.

Who would their governing body be? 

JJR45

Where carpet clean and apartment clean in your lease terms when leaving?
I know a professional carpet clean usually is, and leaving the place clean and tidy.
You could ask them to provide invoices for the cleaning.

tacpot12

Estate Agents have no governing body as such. There are trade associations that they might be members of. I don't think the such associations would help you much, but you could suggest using any alternative dispute resolution process that their association offers. 

However, I think the best course of action is to keep all your evidence and defend yourself in court. They need to be able to show that you caused the damage they claim - the onus is on them to show that you did, not you to show that you did not. Normally this would be done with a before and after inventory with photos. If they have this evidence (but didn't present it to the DPS for some reason), you are more likely to lose, so you might want to come to an agreement to pay them in installments. 

Those charges are not ridiculous for a 1 bedroom flat - they seem about right to me. If the court finds against you, you could well be asked to pay that much, but the court will take your ability to pay into account and you will be able to pay in installments although you will also have a County Court Judgement against your name.  

AdrianC

Let them threaten. Stop replying to them.

What's the worst that happens? They launch a small claim in court. You lodge a defence - that the deposit arbitrators agreed with you that there was no claimable loss. It goes before the court, you win.

I doubt they'll bother. They're trying to scare you into paying, knowing they don't have a leg to stand on.

alexxturnerr

JJR45 said:

Where carpet clean and apartment clean in your lease terms when leaving?
I know a professional carpet clean usually is, and leaving the place clean and tidy.
You could ask them to provide invoices for the cleaning.

No they weren't as far as I can remember

I did ask them to provide invoices for the cleaning and that's how I found out the company they used is their own side company. 

Gavin83

This is easy to prove. Given the problems were there originally just present them with the check in inventory, showing the damage and then they can’t dispute that it wasn’t there when you arrived. Both parties would have signed it too.

martindow

JJR45 said:

Where carpet clean and apartment clean in your lease terms when leaving?
I know a professional carpet clean usually is, and leaving the place clean and tidy.
You could ask them to provide invoices for the cleaning.

Professional cleaning clauses are legally unenforceable and the OP states in any case the flat was left at least as clean as at the start of the tenancy which is all that is required. 

If a T does leave somewhere with damage or in an inferior condition compared to the check-in the LL does not have to do any work to remedy this if they choose not to.  Whether invoices for work exist or not is immaterial for claims against deposits..

Murphybear

Where is the landlord in this?  Any issues are between you and the LL, not the EA.  Any court action has nothing to do with the EA.  

This sounds a bit like the EA trying to make extra money.