UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi All

Rented a room via Spare Room site with an elderly woman.
after a few months, she started acting weird and asked for a relationship of sexual nature (shes over 40 years older than me).
when i refused her demands, she went crazy on me and while coming back from holiday she refused me entry to my room and demanded to evict the room without notice.
she didnt give me any notice at all, and threatened to remove my stuff from my room.
after a long back and forth, i managed to get my belongs out but she gave me a 2 hour window only during which i had to leave some of my stuff.
meanwhile she refuses to return my deposit.

my question is as following:

- can i take her to court for my deposit, i assume i can but worried the cost would render my effort worthless.
- can i take her to court for wrongful eviction and demand compensation and if so, whats the reasonable amount to claim for, knowing that the monthly rent was 550 pounds per month.

p.s. i have record of all communications between us, including her requesting relationship, insults and threats, i dont know if this helps at all..

appreciate your support.

Yes.

Possibly. If she's a lived in landlord, then your protection from eviction is highly limited. Effectively, you'll be arguing that whatever notice you received wasn't reasonable, or that she breach the contract she had with you.

Yes, it helps.

Quote from: KTC on January 26, 2019, 10:42:25 AM
Yes.

Possibly. If she's a lived in landlord, then your protection from eviction is highly limited. Effectively, you'll be arguing that whatever notice you received wasn't reasonable, or that she breach the contract she had with you.

Yes, it helps.

thanks

i am thinking about approaching this case myself rather than hiring a solicitor, since the cost is too high.

what do u think?

If it's just a money claim in the small claims court for the return of your deposit and possibly breach of contract (say your contract say she had to give you X days notice but didn't), then sure. That's what it's designed for, "low" value claim of <£10,000, that's simple enough to be dealt with without legal representatives, hence no legal rep cost recovery. If you want to get into issues on harassment though, and possibly unlawful eviction, then go speak to a solicitor.

Thanks

the contract has 2 months notice from her side.
so i will go for the deposit 2 months rent and distress and loss.
still will be less than 5000 pounds.

thanks very much, i will start this week.

Quote from: sosman on January 27, 2019, 10:30:29 PM
the contract has 2 months notice from her side.
so i will go for the deposit 2 months rent and distress and loss.

Damages for breach of contract in general are only for actual losses, and you have a duty to minimise any losses. So you wouldn't be able to claim 2 months rent because she was required to give 2 months notice and didn't, as you're not paying rent to her as well as somewhere else. Say you're paid a week or two for hotels while you're looking for somewhere else at short notice, the cost of the hotel less how much you would had been paying for rent would be a loss but you have to genuinely look for somewhere new to live at a reasonable speed to keep that cost down, so is any difference in rent at your new place for that two months if the rent's higher at new place. Then there's things like value of belongings you couldn't get back from her, and maybe things like sudden removal cost.

Quote from: TheLettingsAdvisor on March 12, 2019, 12:51:15 PM
regarding your deposit, it should have been placed in a registered deposit scheme,

That would apply if this were an assured shorthold tenancy. It doesn't look like one.