UK Landlord Forum / Life

The letting agent managing the property removed items belonging to the landlord through a window causing damage to same, did not contact landlord prior to removing items and when they returned the items did not contact landlord despite saying they would then dumped the items outside in the rain leaving some items damaged and items missing when landlord reproached letting agent they denied any damage or missing items and issued a claim for defamation and breach of contract, does anyone have any advice or had a similar experience?

A "claim for defamation" is a very serious issue and you need proper legal advice.

The other issue is minor by comparison. Was the tenant in this case the agent, or were they only managing the property?

Was the claim for defamation done formally through a solicitor?  If the landlord justifiably complained about their conduct, or wrote reviews to that effect, I very much doubt that any offence has been committed. On the face of it, it just sounds like bluff and bluster. People say all sorts of horrible things on social media, and the best they can hope for unless they are very rich and fond of litigation is to have a retraction or the offensive remarks removed.

Thankyou for. Your response
The tenant had nothing to do with the issue. It was the letting agent who was managing the property who removed the items and dumped them literally outside

The claim for defamation came about because the agent returned the items some of which were damaged and some missing when l emailed them telling them this they responded denying anything was missing or damaged and that the remarks were defamatory and unfounded and they were going to take legal action against me. I then later the same day received notification from HM Govt.site court and tribunal that a money claim has been made against me for defamation and breach of contract (2 money claims) Breach of Contract they claim was because l had direct contact with the tenant which being my next door neighbour l had almost daily contact with

Any advice or assistance would be greatly appreciated

It's not possible to use the money claim process for a defamation based claim, so that should either go nowhere or be allocated to the correct "track".  More helpfully, it's not easy to defame someone in an email to them (unless you copy the email to other people). It's hard to imagine what compensation would be appropriate for any loss of reputation in an email.

Compensation for a breach of contract can be claimed using that process, but there has to be some kind of loss. I am not clear how you talking to the tenant who was your neighbour can a) be a breach of contract or b) if it was, what kind of loss the agency could have suffered.

In order to defame a person or company it has to be untrue, and 'published' (amongst other things), neither threshold of which appear to have been reached. They are trying it on.

In your position I would countersue in response for the damages to your property, providing you can properly evidence this.

As @jpkeates said, the defamation is unlikely to be suitable for the small claims track, and legal costs can be substantive. It would be interesting to have a follow up on this.