Landlord Threatens Me With Legal Action After I Dispute The Deposit Deductions

Gycraig

Trying to get a years rent out of you after asking you to leave is completely taking the !!!!!! to put it politely. 

I can’t see any judge deciding you owe a years rent after leaving when the landlord asked you to leave. 

“You asked me to leave I have left, I will go through the deposit scheme to discuss the deposit, I am not paying you a years rent” 

[Deleted User]

Gycraig said:

Trying to get a years rent out of you after asking you to leave is completely taking the !!!!!! to put it politely. 

I can’t see any judge deciding you owe a years rent after leaving when the landlord asked you to leave. 

“You asked me to leave I have left, I will go through the deposit scheme to discuss the deposit, I am not paying you a years rent” 

Thank you!  This is my thinking exactly.

tripled

Deleted_User said:

tripled said:

given you left following a breach of contract

An alleged breach of contract. I myself, am not at all clear on what happened.  I wasn't party or witness to it and, from what little I did hear, it occurred outside the property.  Certainly no charges were brought against me, I was not even given any warning or caution and in the weeks since, the police have not contacted me.

Most tenancy agreements will have something along the lines of not using the property or common areas for any illegal, immoral, disorderly or anti-social purposes, and not doing anything to or on the property or common areas which causes a nuisance to the occupiers of neighbouring properties. It's worth checking your tenancy agreement.

It seems clear to me that the LL is trying to leverage this situation to intimidate me into not challenging them trying to retain my entire deposit.

Yes I would agree with you there. As I said before, might be worth checking with Shelter and/or CAB if possible, just to make sure the landlord doesn't have any claim on you for the empty time or reletting costs. If they could, then you might want to try and negotiate before going for a dispute.

[Deleted User]

deannagone said:

I suspect behaviours like this might also be responsible for you being anxious to leave the property after receiving the LL's email. 

This assumption is incorrect.  My LL too has made numerous bogus assumptions. The reason I accepted the opportunity to leave is because the rent had increased significantly and when I accepted those terms I had employment lined up which then fell through. This put me in a financially precarious position.  Once I was freed from the rental contract I was able to find somewhere cheaper to stay.  Be careful with the assumptions that you make...

Section62

Deleted_User said:

deannagone said:

I suspect behaviours like this might also be responsible for you being anxious to leave the property after receiving the LL's email. 

....

Be careful with the assumptions that you make...

That reads like an uncalled-for threat.

If you want people to be on your side, particularly a judge, you need to win them over rather than showing any form of hostility.

[Deleted User]

Section62 said:

That reads like an uncalled-for threat.

If you want people to be on your side, particularly a judge, you need to win them over rather than showing any form of hostility.

Again an assumption! It wasn't a threat just what I consider to be good advice. Not to mention, good manners.  Your previous comments were presumptuous.  Not only assuming that this incident was repeated, "I suspect this is not the first time there have been drink related disturbances in the property" which is wrong, this was a one off isolated incident.

Also, "just suggesting maybe this is a behaviour that needs looking at" which is rather judgemental and arrogant.

"unless they are crazy, they won't think of evicting a tenant they are happy with" They are not crazy; however there are many reasons for a landlord to be unhappy with a tenant and in this case that reason is that there have been several contentious issues with the landlord over the years when they have attempted to bully tenants into paying additional fees and in each case I have been vocal in standing up for tenant's rights. 

Section62

Deleted_User said:

Section62 said:

That reads like an uncalled-for threat.

If you want people to be on your side, particularly a judge, you need to win them over rather than showing any form of hostility.

Again an assumption! It wasn't a threat just what I consider to be good advice. Not to mention, good manners.  Your previous comments were presumptuous.  Not only assuming that this incident was repeated, "I suspect this is not the first time there have been drink related disturbances in the property" which is wrong, this was a one off isolated incident.

Also, "just suggesting maybe this is a behaviour that needs looking at" which is rather judgemental and arrogant.

"unless they are crazy, they won't think of evicting a tenant they are happy with" They are not crazy; however there are many reasons for a landlord to be unhappy with a tenant and in this case that reason is that there have been several contentious issues with the landlord over the years when they have attempted to bully tenants into paying additional fees and in each case I have been vocal in standing up for tenant's rights. 

"Good advice" would be to check who you are replying to before replying.  Those comments weren't mine.

"Be careful..." isn't a very friendly way to start a sentence.

deannagone

I made the comments.  I have now removed the offending paragraphs with apologies for any offence.

aoleks

How the hell is strangers entering a flat “beyond your control”?

TripleH

You need to break this down into separate events and keep it as such.

The incident around the party and rights and wrongs etc is sorted. The landlord ordered you out immediately, terminating the contract by mutual consent (which is my arguement if they try to chase for unpaid rent), whether that was right or wrong is irrelevant to the deposit. Your rental contract has ended.

Treat the deposit in the normal way, do you have a check-in report stating condition or checkout report? Do you have photographic evidence of the condition of the property when you moved in?

Use the deposit service and 'ignore' your exit of the property. Only reference it if the landlord raises it as part of their claim.

You could quite easily have not left and the landlord would be stuck with you until a court evicted you. One isolated incident is not grounds for eviction. Where I used to live far worse (from what you said) happened with less repercussions.