   
MiffedExTenant
Posts: 2
Joined: 26/9/2006
|
 Ex-Landlord refuses to return depos...
|
|
|
Hi,
Get the feeling this is going to be a common problem, but there are some interesting spins to this story, please excuse it being a rambling account but I want to cover as many bases as possible.
First of all, I was served a Notice Requiring Possession by our landlord back in March with 10 weeks' notice, in view of the fact the loft was in such a dire state that damp had got in, birds had pecked through the plaster, and the ceilings were on the verge of falling down; this work was to take place in June.
It was in fact us, the sitting tenants, who had alerted the landlord to the problem last summer - and he'd spent months prevaricating over the need for us to leave the place while repairs were carried out. Obviously you can't have children staying in rooms that're going to be covered in fibreglass and god knows what when the ceilings come down... so once he came round in February to check it again I'd already started looking around for somewhere we could move into when he finally took his head out of his backside and accepted the blindingly obvious.
The landlord gave us a good reference, by return, following a request from the new landlord citing our new address, with 4 weeks' notice still to go.
We left a card with our new address at the property, set up a mail forwarding service, and gave our new contact information to the neighbours. Not only that, the landlord's family knew how to contact us - we'd been friends of theirs for years.
The week before we moved out (end of May), the head gasket went on the car and being bank holiday weekend we couldn't get hold of a van at short notice. My wife also was taken ill. I explained this to the landlord when handing the keys over.
The following week I was going past the house, and noticed the landlord's son and wife supervising the laying of a new brick driveway. Having been friends with them for some years I stopped for a chat; nothing was said about the state of the place but I did get a tour of all the modifications: doors being stripped out and replaced, skirting boards too... gardens front and back had been completely stripped of all vegetation excepting a tree which had a preservation order on it. They made it abundantly clear, they were moving in. When I asked about the roof repairs, they were evasive.
Fast forward to the end of July, still no return of our deposit and no letter explaining why, so my wife rang up. A week or two later we got an itemised strop list, with no quotes or receipts for work allegedly carried out.
We've answered that list in writing, and this week got a letter back re-iterating the issues,
In addition to which, was a breakdown of the charges (which had apparently been sent to us with July's letter, although we checked and it hadn't) was supplied. This includes:
1. The back garden being "cleared due to neglect" (the back garden was knee-high with nettles when we moved in, when we left there were flower beds, lawn, and a woodchipped patio area, according to the next door neighbours it's been completely re-landscaped).
2. Disposal of furniture we had left behind having been unable to remove it. Fair enough I suppose...
3. Replacement of carpets - including the bedroom ones beneath the ceilings that we'd been told were coming down - due to stains. And, you guessed it, redecoration of upstairs bedrooms. This came with the interesting claim that "at no point did we say the ceilings needed to come down therefore you should've sorted this out". If that was true then surely we were evicted on false grounds???
4. Replacement of "non-functional" washing machine (as far as I know the only problem with it was that the filter kept jamming and had been doing so for years; we'd even had the landlord round 18 months ago to show us how to fix it!)
5. Replacement of mattress stained by amniotic fluid when my wife gave birth in 2004 (an odd statement to make considering she had an elective C-section and even if she hadn't we wouldn't have slept on a mattress that had been "ruined" by bodily fluids for 2 whole years!)
The total cost reported by the landlord is £1000 more than the bond. To date we still haven't actually seen a quote for one little bit of it. The landlord also says he has video and photographic evidence to support the case that he needed to perform all this work in order to, and I quote, "re-let the property".
The story doesn't quite end there. I now know that the house is DEFINITELY occupied by the landlord's family, and in fact is also being used as offices. This hasn't been disguised - on the home page of one of their websites, their business address is now given as "Unit B", plus the address of the 3-bedroom semi we vacated in May.
Okay, that covers the basics. So the question is, if we take the landlord to the Small Claims Court for our deposit, what are the odds on us getting ANY of our money back on the basis of:
1. Misrepresented repair work, ie refitting the premises to a far higher standard than we'd occupied it in, just so his family could move in
2. Commencement of "repair" work without sending us quotes, until nearly 4 months after we moved out
3. Failure to supply even a breakdown of reasons for withholding the deposit, until nearly 2 months after we moved out
Also, what is the risk that the court would uphold his counter-claim (he has given us warning that he would commence proceedings against us for the full costs of repairs if we attempt to take this further)?
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
< Message edited by MiffedExTenant -- 26/9/2006 2:00:41 PM >
|
|
Printable Version
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread