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Solicitor Fees - Please help. I am a tenant that voluntarily left after section LBA & Section 21
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Can they request the solicitor fees from a deposit rhat is protected if rent arears are cleared? The solicitor billed the landlord and the solicitor is trying to get me to pay them obviously. Or can a deposit not be used to pay solicitor fees
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They can request whatever they want, but the ADR process will not allow unreasonable requests.
In practice, it is in both parties' interests to seek a resolution to this dispute. You might decide to give a bit just to put it to bed.
On the other hand the landlord may be sufficiently annoyed that he draws things out. Nothing you can do if he chooses to issue proceedings at great expense with little chance of success. In that case you should post again for help in defending it.
No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?2 -
Served with a section 21 Notice in January 2026.
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I have now vacated the property (before the tenancy end date), returned keys, and left the property in good condition with a professional clean completed. I have evidence of the condition.
Can I check this with you: what was the fixed term end date, are you certain they served a S21 notice and what was the end date? A S8 can be served for rent arrears, while a S21 can only be to expire at the end of the fixed term.
In general court filing costs are chargeable, but that's only incurred once the S21 expires and arguably not if the notice was invalid per the above.
The costs have been incurred as we have carried out the following:
-We served you with Letter Before Action due to arrears in October 2025.
-Communication back & forth with yourself regarding payment plans & making payment of the balance on numerous occasions throughout the history of this matter.
-We served you with a Section 21 Notice in January 2026.
-Back & forth protracted negotiations regarding the balance.
The balance as of today’s date is broken down as follows:
Arrears £2,614.26
Interest £99.28
Legal Costs £881.50
Letter before action - debatable, the Tenant Fees Act says mandatory costs actually incurred arising from a breach of contract (late rent) can be passed on, but debatable whether this was mandatory. This would be all of 15 minutes by a lay person not a lawyer to say you owe x, please pay in 14 days or we'll go to court.
Communication and protracted negotiations - definitely not chargeable, that was their choice, they could have gone straight to court without discussing beyond the LBA. Why don't they pay for your time on protracted negoations about nonsense legal costs?
Serving S21 - no, a S21 is their choice, they could have continued collecting rent and worked through the courts for arrears, plus it may have been invalid per the above. Once served, if you didn't comply with the S21, that's when the costs go to you.
Interest - that is chargeable, the Tenant Fees Act specifies if over 14 days then they can charge interest at BOE + 3% pa, for the days its late by.
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So overall they definitely can get the interest assuming its correctly calculated; for the rest its most likely £0, at max ~£30 for the LBA (debatable). I would just pay the arrears + interest, and enclose a letter saying you believe it settles the legit charges in full, they can go to court for the other nonsense, or if they choose to discuss it that's their choice and their cost.
A court is not going to award legal costs which are 90% nonsense on an arrears bill that's already paid.
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Thank you very much. I will come back to this post should I need further help. For now, I will wait to see what they reply with.
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That’s £300 more than they’re entitled to. If a landlord choose to engage a solicitor instead of DIY, that’s on them and their cost to shoulder. The only legal costs that can be passed on to a tenant are those awarded by a court and those don’t include solicitor fees.
Interest maybe if there’s a clause in your tenancy agreement that allows it within the bounds of the Tenant Fees Act 2019. £99.28 sounds far to high for the period in question.
The landlord is at it.1 -
Interest at 6.75% works out at £5.60 per month for each £1000 in arrears. So, the op can do a rough estimate himself. I didn’t see enough detail in the posts to work out whether £99 is correct, but it is not obviously far too high.
No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?1 -
Thanks for replying.
It really is crazy a solicitor is claiming the for the legal fees. If they come back to me saying the full balance stands and now they have more fees for just replying what would my reply back to them be?
I will certainly come back here with their reply once I have it and ask you amazing people.
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I agree that £5.60 per £1,000 per month rule of thumb is reasonable.
£99 implies close to a year of chargeable interest on £1,500 but once the 60 days of Breathing Space and grace period of 14 days are excluded the OP would need to have been in arrears for over a year to get to that figure.
I'd be interested in seeing the landlord's calculation.
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Your reply is "No, sue me if you disagree" along with "here's the cheque / transfer for what I owe (ie rent arrears + interest)".
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Okay thanks. If in my newly signed tenancy contract the updated clause is "You shall pay our costs and expenses (including legal costs) occasioned by the breach and incurred in relation to any enforcement or remedial action on an indemnity basis."
Does everything said previously by yourself and others still apply? The solicitor had given me my old signed contract and not the updated one I signed last year. This is the clause they changed from "ordered by a court".
Is it the same meaning?
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