UK Landlord Forum / Life

I would appreciate a quick response as I need to submit my response to Court ASAP
I am a landlord. more than a year ago I have accepted a tenant that does not have money to rent the flat and he offered me to add a guarantor to the contract. I agreed and accepted him.
I forgot to protect his deposit because of extreme personal circumstances at my end.
I gave him back the deposit in full 9 days after he left and purely believed that we had a great relationship- I wrote him a great reference.
A day after he received the refernce he send me a letter before claim. I called him and he ignored me told me he wants 3 time the deposit as a penalty.
i sent him a letter and offerred to settle, but he sent me a response full with lies about my conduuct as a Landlord and thus he is going to sue me for 3 time the deposit - I was shocked!!!! .a day after he served the claim to court.
he served me the claim only a few days ago.
How can I defend the claim? I beleive I treated him fairly and because he does not work I see it purely as a way to gain money.
He also invented in his claim that I have not protected the previous tenant - should I attach document showing it is nonesense or is it completely irrelevant.


Thank you

If you had failed to protect the deposit, then you have no defence to the claim. The only question is then how much of a penalty would the court award. The discretion is between 1x and 3x the amount of the deposit.

Factors which would tip the award to the higher end:
1. It wasn't just late, you never protected the deposit at all.
2. If you have a background in properties management, letting, owns loads of properties and letting is your full time job etc.

Factors which may tip the award to the lower end:
3. If you had genuine "exterme personal circumstances" affecting you at the time, but this only goes so far as that may make it late, it's not an excuse to never having protected it.
4. The deposit was returned in full without dispute relatively quickly after the end of the tenancy.
5. If you're a single property landlord, not your main occupation, made a mistake put your hand up "sorry, I've learned my lesson".

Put in a defence admitting liability but argue about amount, give your arguments why it should be lower end.

What was your offer? "Let's settle this?" or a "I would like to settle this claim with an offer of £X ?" Decide how much you want to offer in settlement and make a without prejudice save as to cost offer, ideally a formal Part 36 offer. Hope it's accepted, or if not you beat or match it at trial.

QuoteHe also invented in his claim that I have not protected the previous tenant - should I attach document showing it is nonesense or is it completely irrelevant.

Probably both. "It's not true, and it's irreleavnt".

I am really sorry! this is not a response but rather a cry for help. I have been taken to court by my previous tenant and yes the deposit was never protected but before we served a section 21 notice we returned the deposit in full. However we started receiving pre-action letters from A very well known firm after I have been on this forum requesting for 7500 for our failure to protect the deposit. The court hearing is soon and having red everything on this forum I am pretty worried and do not know what to do.

Settle.

Otherwise be ready to pay up.

And learn from your mistake!

Reported Post, Complaint from G-VISION: "I am not sure of the response i got from this member is in anyway help i am actually offended by it"

Response: "It is regrettable that you are actually [sic] offended by this response, but you should realise that offence was not given. Instead you have chosen to take offence. This was the only response to your post (which did not even contain a question) and, factually, it is correct. You had said that you did not know what to do and the response you have received is giving you clear direction. You are the wrongdoer in the scenario you have described, you have committed an offence, you will pay the penalty (whatever that might be) because there can't be any mitigating circumstances. You do not even mistakenly claim there are any mitigating circumstances - you freely admit the Deposit was not protected. Whatever the reason might be for you not protecting your Tenant's Deposit (whether it was ignorance, or you forgot, you didn't think the law applied to you, or you are a master criminal who does this repeatedly) it doesn't matter - you didn't protect the Deposit, the Tenant has a case against you (which they will win) and the response to your cry for help was to try and settle, or be prepared to pay the penalty - which will be between 1x and 3x the Deposit.

Finally, jumping onto another thread is not considered good form, don't do it again. If you wish to start your own thread, potentially even asking an actual question, then please do so and the responses you receive may be more satisfactory (to you)."

You must be very easily offended.It is the plain truth,nothing rude about it,just the facts you are faced with.No one can offer you any other advice,it is what it is.

To G-Vision

You jumped in to ask for help and the correct response was given. It may not be what you wanted to hear but it contains facts that are correct in my experience also and from reading many, many other posts on the same topic here.
I hope you can find an answer to your cry for help that you want.