UK Landlord Forum / Life

My  Ex tenant has taken me to court for late lodgement of their deposit.

The deposit was lodged late due to the fact I allowed the tenant to pay it in "part form" which   due to  the pandemic  furlough, and other  person reasons.   As soon as  the deposit iwas received in full i lodged it  but it took the tenant 4 months to pay it  and therefore lodged late.

Long story  short, the solicitor messed up , and served the claim on an incorrect address and i didn't receive the claim.  so i applied for relief from sanctions, to defend it . The matter went to court and the relief was granted but the solicitor failed to attend the hearing and i was awarded compensation.  The solicitor is now disputing the judges decision  under the Slip Rule and i wondered what that was.

Also, can anyone tell me if there is a limit as to the amount of costs a claimant can ask for as this matter is still unresolved concerning the compensation award etc to the claimant for the breach i made concerning the deposit.

Big mistake by me , but I had mitigating circumstances  as to why it was late , but nonethless im sure  the judge will be unhappy and  me hard with costs .   

any help  would be most appreciated.

The Slip Rule is a general provision that allows a court to correct what was a simple mistake.
It's meant to be limited to typos or accidental omissions.

It shouldn't be used to set aside an actual judgement or correct someone who didn't turn up to a hearing.
They can appeal or request the judgement be set aside instead if they think a mistake's been made.

The issue related to the deposit is a technical breach (because you should have protected each part of the deposit as you received it) and I'd expect a low penalty and I'd be surprised if costs were high, particularly if you offered to settle when the claim was first made, as you probably should have done.

thankyou for your reply.  Yes i did offer to settle and the 'no win no fee solicitor" set a without prejudice  email back stating it was not acceptable .  So unfortunatey i dont belive i can even show that to the judge when the matter goes to court.

The without prejudice correspondence is only kept from a judge until the court's reached a decision, because it can affect the penalty (and the costs etc). In this case, it's possible that the without prejudice correspondence could be introduced anyway, because the court has already reached a decision.

The decision by the Judge you are referring to relates only to the order being made for costs awarded to me  due to the  claimant not attending Court.  The actual matter concerning the technical breach I made has not gone to court yet and of course, my offer  to settle the matter out of court is not known to the judge because  the hearing  for the case  has not happened yet.  Can the  offer i made and the without prejuduce response be introduced at that  hearing ?

Ah, not in that case no.
Apologies, I misunderstood the sequence of events.

That is ok .  I will still be able to show the Judge i made an offer , so that will hopefully stand for something .