UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi, I could really use some advice with a tenant who moved out of my house in October 2018.

I did not protect her deposit but I returned it to her in September before she moved out. I settled with her by writing her a good reference letter and by paying her £500. I thought this was the end of it. She has now sent me an email saying that she wants to make a further settlement with me for more money or else she will take me to court for not protecting her deposit.

The house is a shared place with mostly students and professionals. I had rented her the room I was staying in as I left for a while and I told her that I wanted the room for myself so that I could move back to the house.

In all my communication I was polite and courteous and she seemed satisfied with our initial settlement and even thanked me.

Can this case be legitimately taken to court? Or should I try to do another settlement?

I should mention that she also dug up a black pine and a blue spruce which I had been nurturing (they were both 4 years old) in the back garden and took them with her.

She is threatening to take me to court within the next few days if I do not respond to her email so a swift response would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks for your help in advance

Do you have anything in writing under which the tenant acknowledged full and final settlement? 
How was the £500 paid? ..
can you prove it was for final settlement?
How big was the deposit?

I think another “settlement” will lead to another and another until you get to the 3 times limit
or you get wise or you get a payment acknowledged as final settlement in writing.

The £500 was acknowledged as compensation for "moving expenses" and "to move out in good time" but not as any sort of final settlement, although I had assumed this.
I have all this in writing including her thank you email.

The money both for the return of the deposit as well as for the compensation was all paid via bank transfer and so I also have proof of this.

The deposit was £600

I worry that this will continue to happen. At the same time what sort of case does she have if she does take me to court, since her deposit was returned in full and she received compensation which she agreed to at the time?

Well, since "moving expenses" and "to move out in good time" has nothing to do with the lack of deposit protection and associated penalty, I would say she has a very good case of winning £600-£1,800 plus cost in penalty from you.

You should probably speak to a landlord and tenant solicitor in the morning!

I’m afraid based on your response she has a perfectly valid claim.

You could try and settle yourself properly (and avoid legal fees) but as you have rather made a hash of this the first time and you don’t really have a good grasp of what is needed then perhaps you’d be better of paying a solicitor as KTC has suggested.

Your total costs could therefore be up to £1800 plus solicitor fees but you’d hope your solicitor might be able to settle below the three times limit.

Learn from this and then move on.

The ex-Tenant is already offering settlement, it seems, so I think (hope) in this case that the OP might be able to settle themselves for less than 3x... however, the advice to get advice is possibly more relevant here because the OP has kinda been hoodwinked already (although I would certainly say a naïve assumption was made and hoodwinked might be strong as the ex-Tenant just got things clearly defined - in writing too - that the £500 was for other stuff).

Some Landlords are so generous.

I'd open up a line of communication and keep things civil... hopefully the ex-Tenant isn't thinking a settlement is automatically £1,800 (3x) like so many seem to.