UK Landlord Forum / Life

Rented out house to family friend - didnt put the deposit of £400 into the relevant scheme. Returned the deposit in full even though the house was left in a mess & hoped the tenant would appreciate they wouldn't have got anything back if it had been in the scheme.
Come 12 months down the line - no win no fee solicitor letter asking for £1200 (3 months rent) - sent letter back saying id pay £500 in full & final settlement.
Now received a part 36 offer £600 for the claimant & £800 solicitor fees reduced to £600 therefore £1200 - which is the same as the original claim. The offer is only offered if i agree not to counter claim for damages to the property.
Not sure where to begin? Why would the solicitor have such high costs against a £1200 claim? Any advice would be appreciated

Pay up and move on.  Consider that a pricey crash-course in the need to comply with the law in future.

To be a pedant, while still a settlement offer that you may want to accept, that's not a valid Part 36 offer from what I can tell.

You received a Deposit and you didn't protect it - so it is certain that if this goes full course then a Court would find against you and you would need to pay something.

The question now is only - what do you pay while trying to avoid going to Court?

The offer of £600 for the ex-Tenant is actually very reasonable... it's just over 1x when the Court could order a penalty between 1x and 3x... as you say, it's just the associated costs. Why are they so high? Because they can be? Because someone wants them to be? Tough, I know... but you probably don't want this to go much further as there's chance things will increase. Realising that you are going to pay something... what can you reconcile yourself to?

Something above £400, right? Something below £1,200? Probably not the £500. £800? It's up to you... they're more in control and you're on the back-foot, sadly. You've already accepted your wrongdoing.