UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello,
So a bit of back ground, i had forgotten to protect my tenants deposit  for 3 years and in his 4th year I protected his deposit
under the TDP scheme.
Tenants deposit was returned when he left and after 4 months I receive a letter from a solicitor stating I must pay 16, 200 pounds as I breached protected their clients deposit.
I used a useful template on this site and awaited a reply from the solicitor saying I will pay 450 pounds. a smaller percentage of the amount that was being claimed against .
Today the solicitor has put forward a PART 36 offer saying their client wishes to settle for the 3 breaches over 3 years the deposit sum of 1800 to pay 5,400 pounds.

Has anyone dealt with a PART 36 offer and how have you replied to a PART 36 offer made to you as a landlord. Their solicitor says something about I must pay for their costs and 10% interest charges if this goes to trial and I have 21 days to reply or they will proceed to courts.

Can I reply back with a counter offer on the PART 36 offer presented to me? I know there was a breach but still believe from 16,200 they have come down to 5,400 I feel this is unfair. I think a fare amount should be 1800 because when the tenant left they got back their deposit.

Any help I would be most grateful. Thank you

My understanding is that it doesn't stop you from making counter-offers to settle in any way you choose. Costs and interest charges (interest on the original 'debt'? from when is such a thing calculated? it almost feels like someone is trying to "blind you with science" in a way) could be due... but I'd suggest you keep offering something in full and final settlement... it looks like you're going to have to swallow something, as you've already made an offer and kinda accepted liability, so it's just numbers now.

BTW - no, I have not dealt with responding to a Part 36 Offer (I have always protected Deposits... I dunno, that just seems like an easier thing to do than all this offer and counter offer to settle... so I decided to do it that way). I think other Landlords should try it out.

It looks like the solicitors' offer is the absolute minimum* a judge would be bound by law to award them if it went to court. You don't appear to have anything to bargain with. If I were you, I'd accept the offer with good grace and move on.

*I'm assuming here that the initial deposit was £1,800 and you issued a new tenancy agreement every twelve months, miking a total of three failures to protect. If it went periodic after the first tenancy, that would be only two failures. It's a good job you didn't go for six month tenancies.

I think I would still wriggle on the line a little bit... ;-) ...at least try a £2,700... £3,500... or £5,000 offer... can it not only be rejected? The only unknown (for me) is whether it risks the baseline offer being retracted... so I might be circumspect. If this was a Tenant doing the dealing, not a Solicitor, then I think "a bird in the hand" would play.

£450 does sound incredibly hopeful... best of luck there, though.

As I understand it (bearing in mind I'm not a lawyer) the original Part 36 offer stays open for 21 days: the claimant can't get the hump and rip it up just because you've offered something they consider a derisory sum. The only negative consequence of a lower offer might be that the claimant's solicitors run up more costs while considering it.

So maybe the OP should consider the £5,400 the bird in the hand..? Perspective.

There's post by the OP on two different threads here with different monetary amount stated.