Advice needed

Honestly, you've done nothing wrong and been more than reasonable from what I can see so please do not worry about this. It is beyond awful that you are being placed under this stress but please do not let it knock your confidence, if anything this could be used as a positive. Someone is trying to bully you but they are not going to win! And if you're worried know that I am not and I've seen tons of cases and I got a distinction in all my law units (and 70% of people failed the main one) and I am not worried for you at all. I can never say 100% how things will go but I would say you can be highly confident it will be fine.

Remember that with civil cases the burden of proof is on the claimant - he has to prove that this damage existed and that you caused it. You can easily defend this in several ways. Firstly your witness statements from the people who helped you move. These need only be brief, stating who they are, how they know you and that they assisted you on x date in moving and that the property was in a good state of repair on departure and there was no damage visible to x, y, z. If they were with you when you locked up (and/or returned the keys) add this in. Name, sign and date, job done!

If the letting agent did periodic checks then it is likely they managed the property and were responsible for checking it was in satisfactory condition on your departure. You don't need copies of their check reports - if there were issues they would have raised these with you at the time and you would have a record of this. That they didn't means everything was fine. Also, it would have been their responsibility to ensure you hadn't left the place in a mess when you left. That they did not contact you implies this was fine.

If anything, you should have been provided with a breakdown of how your deposit was spent (and you have the right to ask for this if any of it was taken, which appears to be the case). You have the right to ask for copy receipts for the costs of removal of what you left and or use of your deposit for remedial works. You also should have been refunded the difference if there was any money left over. All this should have been kept on file as their professional indemnity insurance will require file retention for six years. You do not need a Solicitor to gain access to the deposit information as this relates to your money which they held in trust and should they refuse to provide this information to you I suggest you contact RICS, who are the relevant regulators and may be able to help. This information may also highlight whether any "repairs" were carried out using your deposit or whether a chunk of it was kept (this would definitely not go down well with a Judge if the landlord kept funds not owed to him).

If your old landlord wants the reports to "prove" his case, he may be able to obtain them as he should have been provided with copies. In which case they'll be in his "evidence pack". Of course, if there are issues in this that you were not advised of then how could you ever have been held accountable or fixed them. Copies of correspondence advising you of issues will be needed. I highly doubt there is anything incriminating in these and if anything they will probably support your claim. If there was an issue with a gutter it would have been highlighted during inspection. A Judge would likely deem this term unfair to a tenant in any event as it's not like a tenant can pay a chap to come round once a week to clean gutters. Oh and if he has a copy of the tenancy that enforces that he better have a copy signed by you agreeing to that term or he has nothing.

Either the letting agent advised you that the property had not been vacated in a satisfactory manner or they decided it had. If they decided that it had and did not contact you but the landlord took issue then he would be within his rights to sue them under their professional indemnity insurance as they have not provided a satisfactory level of service for the contract he had with them. He would receive 100% of the monies from them and they, in turn could go after you for the amount they viewed you as responsible for (although they would be unlikely to recover as they had signed the property off as satisfactory). He would be unable to sue them and then go after you for the same issues (decision of Castellain v Preston regarding the inability to profit from loss/indemnity).

The behaviour of this man has to stop. If he contacts your wife again tell her to send an email advising that should he contact her again she will block him on appropriate social media (again happy to tell you how to do this if you need it) and if he contacts her in any other way she will report the matter as harassment to the Police. Print this email, keep a hard copy. If he continues, follow through on the above. Do not engage further!

Whether you are re-married (congratulations by the way, that's lovely and I wish you tons of happiness in the future), have a new job (go you!), spent millions on your wedding or even if you won the lottery (it might happen!!) it has nothing to do with him. Not. One. Thing. It is not up to him to determine what you can and cannot or should and should not pay. If he wants to take you to court and prove you wantonly destroyed his property then a court will decide what you owe and what you will pay, how and in what fashion.

He is 100% at it. Like I said, see what "evidence" he's providing you with. If there is none then he's stuffed. He's not getting a penny. If he continues to harass you, give him a warning and then lodge a complaint with the Police who will go and have a quiet word with him and it'll stop.

Have you spoken with the letting agent recently to explain the situation and ask for their help? I bet they won't be impressed to hear what he's been up to and you may find them willing to assist them if they've had a difficult time with them or they find out he's been telling fibs about suing them and winning!

Please don't let this horrible bully affect your daily life. It will be fine.