UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello,
I am a novice landlord from Newcastle. I have recently been issued a letter of claim from an ex-tenant's solicitors for a sum of £6300 plus their legal fee (3x 3 AST).
The deposit and property maintenance was managed by an agent due to personal circumstances. The tenant had ended with a 1 month notice 6 months into their renewed 12 months AST due to job relocation. The tenant had caused nearly £4000 worth of damages including some breaches of tenancy (some may be taken as criminal as it involves tampering with plumbing without my knowledge). The agent could not find the details of the deposit details and admitted administration error. The deposit was protected later on in the tenancy period by 'My deposit' and returned fully once they vacated. This happened 1 year ago.

I did not pursue any damage costs because the tenants had DSS status and knew that they did not have any money to pay for the damages.
I realise I have made a big mistake caused by my agent. I take full responsibility because the agreement was between me and the tenant.
 
I have opened a case file with my solicitor to draft any negotiating/ settlement documents in the future.

Any legal advice regarding this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Regards, Claire

Claire, am not a lawyer but  I can offer you a pragmatic approach.
Firstly, I am hopeful that you recorded the damages caused and 'any deeds that ought not to have been done'.

Quickly develop 'nerves of steel'. This is where the fun begins.

1) Write and inform the tenant of their liability and total cost and demand that they pay it in 14 days. Ofcourse they will not. Then do nothing else till you  receive a claim from the court. I will discourage any discussion about settling. Don't bother responding to any threatening letters.
If you receive a claim in the court, respond with a counter claim. When you get a hearing date, start preparing.Get ready to ask the judge for mercy and express remorse. Cry if you have to. It could be cheaper than a legal fee and the tenant is already making a demand. Please allow the judge to decide.

Being your first breach, you may likely get 1x rent which the judge will deduct from the tenant's liability.
The tenant is unlikely to follow through if you show nerve of steel.

That was my experience. I got ready but the tenant didn't turn up. The judge struck the claim out. Welcome to the club.

Ps. There are other tactical response 

" Get ready to ask the judge for mercy and express remorse. Cry if you have to." Do express remorse, don't do the other two things.

The experience outlined by chuck is not at all the experience of other people being contacted by claims mills (who are interested in legal fees and not at all interested in the actual claim). They won't be liable for any counter claim, the tenants will, so that threat, while useful and tactically valid, is unlikely to be fatal, just persuasive.

There is almost no chance that the claimant won't turn up if this goes to court. This is an expensive claim and the only way the legal firm win is by winning in court or you settling. They infinitely prefer the latter. If it was a tenant claiming (wrongly) through the small claims court, you'd have a chance, but this isn't that.

Your best bet is negotiating, and the main risk to you will be the legal "fees", not the penalty itself. Offer most of the penalty for an early settlement, to keep the fees to a minimum. You're going to lose, because you're in the wrong (not your fault and I'd be claiming from the agent).

If the case goes to court, the claimant's legal fees will be very high and subject to a win bonus, which is how conditional fees (no win no fee claims) work.

It might be worth talking to the agent to see if they want to be involved fighting the case because they're in the frame for the loss as well (albeit indirectly).

Quote from: Claire L on July 27, 2025, 05:06:03 PMAny legal advice regarding this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Well, we're a bunch of random people on the internet, so this doesn't constitute legal advice...

The object of the exercise here is to avoid going to court. You don't want that. Your ex-tenants solicitors wouldn't mind going to court but what they very much don't want to do is go to court and win less than you've offered to pay them, because that means they won't get awarded costs.

So, what you need to do is make them an offer (you'll often hear it referred to as Part 36 offer) that's more than they'd expect to get in court. They know they're not going to get 3x the deposit for every breach. They also know they can't get less than 1x the deposit. The fact that you're a novice landlord who put misplaced trust in an agent would weigh in your favour, as would the fact that you eventually protected the deposit and returned it in full at the end of the tenancy, even though you had good cause to make deductions from it.

It's not clear from your original post whether the deposit was unprotected for three tenancies and then there were further tenancies after that, or whether the deposit was just protected late in the first tenancy and the subsequent breaches related purely to the prescribed information. In any case, your solicitor will be able to advise you about where to pitch your offer. Ideally, you want to reach a conclusion without too much back-and-forth, because solicitors charge for back-and-forth.

Given that your agents appear to have been negligent, you may well have a case against them, or at least grounds to ask for a chunky goodwill payment.

Chuck

that is such bad advice.