One very slippery customer

[Maharg105]

I'm taking action against the landlord of a friend, she is too mild mannered to undertake it herself, and he is the most difficult human being I have ever dealt with.

She moved out of the property over a year ago and has tried to get her money back on several occassions, but as he was not answering her calls it was proving difficult (she had moved to the Isle of Man) He had her contact details for her home there and one of the times that he did answer he took them down again but to no avail. She has now had to come over from the Isle of Man to sort this out, I am trying to claim a total of £401.98 back from him. £310 in the original bond, £25.98 in interest for the 381 excessive days that he has held onto the money and then £66 in travel expenses to Leeds which she would not have had to pay had he paid the money back and prevented her from coming here.

I have managed to track down a mobile number that he is still using and answering with his business' name. He agreed to pay the £310 but says he won't pay any of the rest and that I have no idea what I am talking about. I took his address and said I would send him the rest of the claim, however, he has given me an address for an office which he recently vacated. From what I can see, the business is not registered so there I can't locate him in the company register or anything.

My question is this, how do I find out where he is. Is there some way I can do it through the courts??? He owns properties etc. so he can't be that well hidden! Also, do the aspects of my claim seem okay? I can back all of it up with reciepts and it would be easy enough to request phone records from her mobile phone carrier to prove contact with him. Also, due to the way that he is dealing with this - surely we can claim for something extra due to the longevity of the problem and the obstructive manner in which he is dealing with all this.

When I spoke to him I was speaking to him in a formal capacity, I own a financial auditing organisation (sorry can't say which for privacy sake), so as far as he was concerned he was speaking to her official representative and he still bear faced lied.

Thanks for all your help people, respect for all the wonderful work done on this site.

[MrShed]

Can you not sue through the courts using the address the tenant occupied, and then get a charging order against that address?

As a point of interest, I would very seriously consider just taking the £310 and be done with it...

[Maharg105]

The charging order sounds like a good idea and I will look into it, but the problem is that we are not even sure if he even still owns the property.

[demon_x_slash]

Land Registry should be able to help you out with that.

[Aequitas]

You cannot claim interest before judgment unless the terms on which the deposit was held allow it.

You cannot claim the travelling expenses.