Villains: BITEY landlords

[ambersalamander]

I moved out of my flat in February. I'd been there for nearly five years. In that time I'd seen my landlord three times, despite having my handbag stolen when he had the only spare keys and he couldn't be arsed to bring them over and I had to spend £140 on a locksmith on New Year's Day out of my own pocket and another £12 to get security keys cut. I asked him to fix the broken chest of drawers and saggy bed and to replace the broken fridge, all of which were ancient. He didn't.

When I moved in, the flat was shabby to put it nicely. It clearly hadn't been decorated for a while. It wasn't decorated in the five years I was living there.

Despite this, the rent kept going up and up. It increased by almost 15% while I was there. I always paid on time and never got into trouble with the neighbours.

When I moved out, the landlord decided to go away for a month, meaning I couldn't negotiate the return of my deposit, but asked me to leave the keys out for his decorator. I did so, and having learned that said decorator had got in with no problems, I took the keys back for safekeeping, for security reasons. You don't want to leave a flat's keys hanging around a communal area, do you? Particularly a communal area from which I had recently had something of enormous sentimental value stolen.

When he eventually got back in touch, to ask if I could return the keys, I agreed to do so by leaving them in a certain place on the property. I asked about the return of my deposit, and he treated me like a naughty child begging for withheld pocket money, as if I wouldn't want or had no right to £450 of my own money back. I really don't have that sort of money and I am still, technically, homeless, because I can't afford to put a deposit down on my next place until I have my last one back. He said he wanted to withhold the deposit because the decorator had told him that the place was "a mess." Well, duh. I was in the middle of moving out: of course it was a mess! But a few days later I had taken care to clear up every last scrap of stuff and spent several days on my hands and knees scrubbing the place clean until my hands were raw and my back was screaming at me. After that, I did not take kindly to being told it was "a mess" by someone who hadn't even seen it.

I wrote him a Bitey letter, stating that my deposit had to be returned by law unless he provided adequate reasons in writing as to why not. I also politely requested that he send me a cheque covering my rent that was overpaid by two weeks.

He has now written back "without prejudice" to tell me that I was liable to pay rent for the period up to the day the keys were returned and that as I hadn't returned them for two months, I owed him two months' rent plus £400 for cleaning costs and to pay a locksmith he'd called to bust the lock when he clearly couldn't be arsed to just phone me and ask me to come round with the keys. I have been fined £1000 for being security conscious and unwilling to leave a set of keys out where any bugger could find them, including the bastard who'd recently stolen from me. And this is from someone who was effectively uncontactable for two months. Oh, and apparently I'm also being charged because the flat was "dirty." It was not dirty. It just hadn't been redecorated in about a decade, which is hardly my fault. He also claims that I "kept a cat" which is against the agreement. I bloody wish- I've never had a cat and have always wished I could. I looked after my parents' cat for one day when they had to go away at short notice in an emergency and I wasn't able to stay at their house because we didn't have a spare key.

I do not possess this amount of money, but he bloody well has it in spades, doesn't he?

Sometimes I wonder why I bother.

[amberaleman]

It may depend on what was in your rental agreement Sal, but it looks to me as if you'd have a good case against Mr Landlord in the small claims court.

The fact that he stuck "without prejudice" on his letter suggests he's trying it on.

[ojiveojive]

The term "without prejudice" just means that the letter is meaningless in terms of any type of enforcement of any type of contract or admission of responsibility contained within the letter. Three points:

1. Definitely take action in the small claims court, merely commencing an action often results in a settlement and for the sake of a small amount you could recover all you are owed.

2. From now on only communicate in writing and use the "without prejudice" heading yourself on each and every communication with the landlord, however do not write using abusive terms, write politely, but firmly, at all times, putting all of the above points regarding his unavailability. This, including any replies or lack of, will form part of your evidence to the court.

3. The advice I gave to my daughter is: (and this is probably too late for you but may help other people) Take photographs of every room and item of furniture and fittings on the day you move in and again on the day that you move out and send both sets of photographs to yourself, on the day they were taken if possible, using registered post. Do not open the envelopes but keep safely in case of a claim. At all times when reporting faults follow up phone reports with written reports (and keep copies), for this use recorded delivery.

The small claims courts rely mainly on written evidence and a well presented, ie well documented, case will help in the event of a claim against the landlord. The small claims courts are well aware of rogue landlords keeping deposits that they have no right to and do tend to look dispassionately at the evidence presented and who knows, your landlord may have been taken to court for the same thing before and this will be noted if it is the case.

[ambersalamander]

Thank you guys- we're on the case. My flatmate can be Bitey too ;D

Good tip about the photos ojiveojive: thanks for that, will use in future.

[Sultan of Cannock- SRFC]

What a horrid individual. is he an MP?

Looking on the bright side, maybe he's one of thse buy-to-let merchants who is feeling the pinch during the recession.

[ambersalamander]

His mum actually owns the place and holds the wonga. I think he's just a knobsocket, personally.