UK Landlord Forum / Life

I was the model tenant, paid my rent on time, cleaned the house etc but unfortunately got into a relationship with another tenant which turned very volatile. On one of our fights, the police were called and they put both of us down as aggrieved and refused to charge anyone.

I moved out and asked for my rent back. The Landlord promised to refund my rent but then falsely accused me of attacking my ex boyfriend- which I did not do. I asked him to retract and apologise, he refused. He claimed there was a breach of agreement when this happened so he would not be refunding my deposit. The incident happened a month before I moved out and the Landlord said nothing about it.

After repeatedly asking him to return my deposit, I was left with no option but to take him to a small claims court. He keeps sending abusive, harrassing, threatening emails to me threatening to put my name on the bad tenants register. I have called the police and they are happy for him to speak to them to get the corret details of the incident but he has refused to, he has stuck to his side of the story which is false.

My former landlords before this one have agreed to provide me with a character reference and witness statements as well as a former flatmate- not my ex.  I have never met anyone as vile as this person and his emails are causing me a great deal of distress as he is being very abusive.

How do I stop him spreading these lies about me? Is it possible to sue for defamation and is it worth it?

My advice.

Put this behind you. It's been a horrible experience.

Keep calm, ignore the emails, use the deposit protection arbitration, and you either will or wont get your deposit back.

People dont actually take much notice of nasty people, and as a landlord the reference of the landlord 2 previous is just as relevant, more so even as the "current" landlord can lie to get shot of you if you are a problem.

It just makes it harder if you keep fighting, winning a battle against this landlord, will not be a substitute for retribution on the knob head who hit you.