Guarantor Solicitor Problem

Voyager2002

SanMiguel80 said:

Voyager2002 said:

What can you do? Either you pay the money (or agree to pay a smaller amount in full and final settlement), or you wait for them to take you to court. They have the right to initiate proceedings now, or at any time until the matter becomes statute-barred.

You have made it clear to the creditor's solicitor that you believe that you have a defence, and that you intend to contest any court action that they might bring. I think it unwise to go into great detail about your defence: save legal arguments for the court: if you discuss the case in detail now, without really knowing the law, you might well say something that destroys your defence without realising it.

Did your "friend" ever explain his failure to pay the rent, and his action in leaving you to deal with the mess? Perhaps you should put your energy into persuading him to pay his debts rather than leaving them for you.

Many thanks for your wise advice. The former tenant is my step son, unfortunately we had a family fall out over 3 years ago and we had no contact with him from then until after the eviction, and then only by email. We were unaware he had run up rent arrers or that he had been evicted until after the event. He stated he refused to pay the rent increase because the LL increased the rent by more than 25% so he at first only paid the old rent and then no rent at all when they initiated a section 21 eviction. He was evicted 10 months after they imposed the rent increase. I received no contact from either the Letting Agent (LA) or the LL during this time.

Difficult...

Here is what I would do. Firstly, pay your solicitor for another meeting, and get a straight answer to this question: if the matter were to go to court, is s/he confident that you would win, or might it go to a lengthy hearing? This thread has raised a number of serious issues with the landlord's case, such as whether your guarantor agreement was executed as a deed and properly witnessed, as well as the rent increase being far greater than the limit specified in the original agreement. Only a solicitor can tell you whether this would mean that a court would simply throw out the case, or consider every detail. This question is crucially important to you.

If your solicitor is confident that the case would be thrown out, I would then pay her/him to send a proper legal letter to the landlord's solicitor saying so and explaining why. It would be obvious to them that the letter came from a solicitor, and by paying for this you are demonstrating that you are able and willing to defend the matter in court. Their solicitor's advice to the landlord would have to be that the case would be so expensive, and so much trouble, that taking matters any further would not be worthwhile, so the most probable outcome would be that you would not hear any more.

However, your solicitor might well reply that the case raises interesting legal questions and if it came to a hearing then a court would want to give those issues proper consideration. Bear in mind that the legal costs for a full day will be around ten thousand pounds, and you can see that going down this route would be disastrous for both side. A court usually orders the losing side to pay all legal costs for both, but when there is any doubt about what the court will decide, this is a gamble that is too great a risk for most people. So if that is what your solicitor says, maybe the smart thing to do is write to the landlord offering a sensible sum of money in "full and final settlement".

Of course, for the moment you might choose to do nothing until you hear any more. The landlord has instructed a solicitor to try to get money out of you; you have declined and made it clear that you have a defence and have taken legal advice; so it is obvious to the landlord that getting any money out of you is going to involve a fair amount of trouble and expense. At this stage the landlord might well decide to go silent and take no further action.

SanMiguel80

Voyager2002 said:

SanMiguel80 said:

Voyager2002 said:

What can you do? Either you pay the money (or agree to pay a smaller amount in full and final settlement), or you wait for them to take you to court. They have the right to initiate proceedings now, or at any time until the matter becomes statute-barred.

You have made it clear to the creditor's solicitor that you believe that you have a defence, and that you intend to contest any court action that they might bring. I think it unwise to go into great detail about your defence: save legal arguments for the court: if you discuss the case in detail now, without really knowing the law, you might well say something that destroys your defence without realising it.

Did your "friend" ever explain his failure to pay the rent, and his action in leaving you to deal with the mess? Perhaps you should put your energy into persuading him to pay his debts rather than leaving them for you.

Many thanks for your wise advice. The former tenant is my step son, unfortunately we had a family fall out over 3 years ago and we had no contact with him from then until after the eviction, and then only by email. We were unaware he had run up rent arrers or that he had been evicted until after the event. He stated he refused to pay the rent increase because the LL increased the rent by more than 25% so he at first only paid the old rent and then no rent at all when they initiated a section 21 eviction. He was evicted 10 months after they imposed the rent increase. I received no contact from either the Letting Agent (LA) or the LL during this time.

Difficult...

Here is what I would do. Firstly, pay your solicitor for another meeting, and get a straight answer to this question: if the matter were to go to court, is s/he confident that you would win, or might it go to a lengthy hearing? This thread has raised a number of serious issues with the landlord's case, such as whether your guarantor agreement was executed as a deed and properly witnessed, as well as the rent increase being far greater than the limit specified in the original agreement. Only a solicitor can tell you whether this would mean that a court would simply throw out the case, or consider every detail. This question is crucially important to you.

If your solicitor is confident that the case would be thrown out, I would then pay her/him to send a proper legal letter to the landlord's solicitor saying so and explaining why. It would be obvious to them that the letter came from a solicitor, and by paying for this you are demonstrating that you are able and willing to defend the matter in court. Their solicitor's advice to the landlord would have to be that the case would be so expensive, and so much trouble, that taking matters any further would not be worthwhile, so the most probable outcome would be that you would not hear any more.

However, your solicitor might well reply that the case raises interesting legal questions and if it came to a hearing then a court would want to give those issues proper consideration. Bear in mind that the legal costs for a full day will be around ten thousand pounds, and you can see that going down this route would be disastrous for both side. A court usually orders the losing side to pay all legal costs for both, but when there is any doubt about what the court will decide, this is a gamble that is too great a risk for most people. So if that is what your solicitor says, maybe the smart thing to do is write to the landlord offering a sensible sum of money in "full and final settlement".

Of course, for the moment you might choose to do nothing until you hear any more. The landlord has instructed a solicitor to try to get money out of you; you have declined and made it clear that you have a defence and have taken legal advice; so it is obvious to the landlord that getting any money out of you is going to involve a fair amount of trouble and expense. At this stage the landlord might well decide to go silent and take no further action.

Many thanks for taking the time to reply and for your sensible advice which I have taken on board.

Coincidently and whilst reading your reply I received an email from their solicitor stating that they had now taken instructions from their client and that they will send me a letter.

I will wait for receipt of this letter and to be informed of their intentions before doing anything else.