UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi,

Happy New Year all!

My ex-landlord brought a claim for rent arrears based on technically of my notice to quit (typo in the date) - I counterclaimed for failing to protect deposit + repair I did during the tenancy with his agreement.

Landlord had professional help and I was representing myself and did not do a good job at that as I would have  liked and as a result he won the claim and I won the counterclaim under s124, but it could have been double , had I been able to pinpoint the second reneal tenancy agreement within the bundle (there were two fixed term and 2 SPT, but since I was unable to prove the renewed tenancy, I was awarded penalty 1x for one fixed term and one SPT each).

My question is can I make an appeal based on the above, as during the hearing based on the above I told the judge 'it is somewhere in the bundle, but the judge simply did not give me enough time to find it'.
(now I  have found where it is in the bundle, I naively relied on our email exchanges to prove the renewal, but Judge wanted the SIGNED agreement itself and I have found it is already part of the bundle)

Also, in his witness statements, landlord also accepted repair costs to be substracted for the rent arrears (also orally during the hearing), but since it was a long hearing and arguments about deposit protection issues, Judge must have forgotton about it and it has not been reflected in the Judgement. Does this also give grounds for my appeal?

Thanks for your time.

I don't understand the bit about rent arrears,how could a typo be relevant,did you owe rent?
Maybe you could appeal,but why would you want to turn this into a revenge saga? He was punished for not protecting the deposit,and you were presumably found to owe him rent, Can't you just call it quits and get on with your life?

Technically, yes you can appeal.
Practically, it's likely to be a complete waste of time, effort and money.

Your failure to find a document in a bundle is not grounds for appeal, that's just tough.
The judgement not reflecting what was agreed in court is possibly grounds.
But these cases aren't recorded or documented, so it would be your word against the judges (and possibly the landlord), so you'd almost inevitably lose.

thanks jpkeates.. I understand.

i thought cases under small claims track in county courts are recorded and hence should be on transcripts?

also, I have landlord admitting them on his witness statements which is also already in the bundle. But, what I stand to get is only around £500 - so probably not worth the effort and time.

what I am more interested is though is penanlty under s214,  but you say it is going to be a tough ground to be heard at appeal court?

if I want professional advice, what sort of legal specialists I need to look for pls and any idea on how much it would cost?

Be careful not to start a vendetta of some kind. Sometimes things don't go our way and it's not our fault... the failure to not find a specific document in a bundle is entirely your fault. So put it down to experience and move on from it all. These things have a knack of gnawing away at you, like a little hungry rat, unless you can bundle them up (boom-boom) and file them away in a locked room inside your brain. Psychology 101 - is not a course I ever attended. I went to the other room - Psychopathy... but it turns out it wasn't even a proper course... just some kind of test. I passed anyway. Didn't get a certificate.

Quote from: carm on January 05, 2023, 03:48:14 PMwhat I am more interested is though is penanlty under s214,  but you say it is going to be a tough ground to be heard at appeal court?

That's a complete non-starter.
You've had that hearing and failed to persuade the judge of your case.
It's a very minor matter in the scheme of things and the small amount of court time is probably proportional to the case's importance and value.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but you shouldn't be looking for something in your bundle of documents, you should know where it is and be able to point the judge at the correct part from the contents sheet.
But it happens, and I bet it won't happen again!

Quote from: Hippogriff on January 05, 2023, 04:09:58 PM
I went to the other room - Psychopathy... but it turns out it wasn't even a proper course... just some kind of test. I passed anyway. Didn't get a certificate.

"Psychopathy: a neuropsychiatric disorder marked by deficient emotional responses, lack of empathy, and poor behavioural controls, commonly resulting in persistent antisocial deviance and criminal behaviour."

You might get that certificate if you just tried a little harder!