I don't know if anyone is interested?? lol Took form into Court and the very next day we recieved an order stating EX LL had to serve true Copies of the Papers by 4pm on the ordered date.. ON the ordered date we received a letter from EX LL telling us they had no idea which Papers we wanted.This was in response to a request sent nearly a month previous!! We called the Court and told them we had not been sent the Papers as had been ordered and the person told us the case should be adjourned.. I asked that it could still go ahead. She said we could still attend but the Judge had to be made aware that we did not have the requested Papers as ordered. On the order it actually says the Judge is keen for this case to be heard. Is that a standard comment? Case is in a Matter of days now.I predict the EX LL will not show..He will wait till the 14 day deadline given by the Court and will appeal whatever decision was made. This is our experience and LL has proven us right every time. If there is a way of delaying LL will do it. In case you were wondering.Solicitor adviced us to push for case to go ahead as LL own evidence contradicts itself Basically the view is the Ex LL has proven our case with his own evidence. Thankyou CF

as far as I could see your ex ll has not at any time stated she has now placed it in a scheme.. also from my own experience the ADR will not get involved if the case IS part of a court action.. There is nothing that suggest they wouldnt get involved if you had threatened it.. In fact in my case I had threatened action through the Courts but the ADR still took the case on with both Mine and my Ex LL agreement. We pulled out in the final stages as EX LL had submitted a load of tosh..Our case is Friday You Ex LL is worried..that is obvious..

Im going through the courts process right now and to be honest the first things that I thought was.. Why did you wait 6 Months? and also surely it is standard to check on any agreement that all points have been adhered too in the time frame stated? I am certain these are 2 questions that would be asked in Court CF

Thankyou for your reply.. We have approached our house insurance to put a claim in for Legal help...This was on the advice of our old solicitor who is the solictor employed by our insurance.... He said to ask for claim form and include evrything to and from the court on this claim form.We have no letters yet..Just the form from the insurers and the N244.He is not sure if they can act. He wants time to look over the files. We have copied the files ready to send off. Do I have to ask for 14 days?? Can I leave that up to the court for how long they allow?? We have not heard anything from EX LL and do not expect too. So no agreement has been made via the court. Thankyou for your help CF

Thats fantastic news!! well done you!!.. Can I please ask whether you payed for the Solicitor to act for you or whether they just gave general advice?? Congrats again. x

With wording for N244... Case is due to be heard in just over 2 weeks. In the LL counterclaim and defense they state that we willfully caused the damage to the property over the 3 years we were there.. There are lies upon lies..The whole statement etc contradicts itself..Ie things have been accused then denied by LL then evidence submitted by LL which shows the accused things.. To cut a long story short...The copies of papers which LL sent us were not signed..Court told us to request another set which is signed..This hasnt happened.We knew LL would ignore this request. I called our old Solicitor who dealt with the out of court agreement and he feels that because of all the allegations contained within LL evidence and a clear breach of the out of court agreement we entered into and clear proof of lots of things..There may be skope for them to take over the case again. They told us to ask for an extension of the court date so that they may look over all of the court papers submitted and to also reopen the files so that we can disprove LL allegations. They said to state this and also to state that despite 2 request LL has not sent us true copies of papers..I have the form but please help with the wording. The form ask what orders are you asking the court to make and why?? Am I right in thinking Im asking for an extension?? How do I word the reasons?? It says what level of Judge does your hearing need? County Court?? Its also ask.. what information will you be relying on,in support of your applictaion?? How do I answer this?? Do I send a copy of the paperwork that has the allegations on?? Sorry if I come acrross as dim..I have a toddler fighting me for laptop and a Pregnant bump. Thankyou in advance.CF

I don't know if this would be any help to anyone... We moved into our old property June 05 and paid the Deposit then. I asked the DPS this question.... Dear XXXXX I can now confirm that the case is going to a Full hearing. Whilst going though evidence it was noted that the DPS requested a Signed copy Of the Tenancy agreement. The only copy we signed was the original agreement.The Tenancy agreement for June 2007 was only Signed by LL. LL had wrongly drawn up the Tenancy by not including a section for the Tenants to sign.Therefore some questions were raised over the authenticity/Legality of the Document. Please can you confirm whether the DPS accept Deposits where there is not a Valid Tenancy. Kind Regards XXXXXXX This was the response from a Manager at the DPS... Dear XXX, Thank you for your email. The DPS is a scheme administrator authorised to act under Part 6 of the Housing Act 2004. The legislation relates to all deposits taken in relation to Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreements after 6th April 2007 and the scheme is primarily for those deposits. The DPS can, however, protect deposits taken under other types of tenancy at the choice of the parties to that tenancy. The responsibility for ensuring that the tenancy is signed and is fit for purpose is that of the parties to the agreement. The DPS do not require sight of the tenancy agreement before protecting the deposit and therefore would not exclude the protection of a deposit on the basis that the tenancy agreement was not signed. The intention of the parties must have been to protect that deposit with The DPS. The correspondence you will be referring to is a letter sent in relation to the deposit dispute? The Dispute Resolution team will always request a copy of the tenancy agreement for the purposes of the evidence -base adjudication service. This is in order to allow the adjudicator to base their decision upon the contract's terms. I hope this clarifies your question, but if you have any further queries please do let me know. Kind regards. Our LL had stated on the form that our Deposit was paid June 07.This is false. My post may be of no help but I thought i may be able to show the opion from Somebody who works at the DPS.. Many Thanks CF

Thankyou very much fo your reply Mr Shed. This is just what I thought.We are bringing the action purely for the outstanding amount.Although we can clearly prove our EX LL has infact breached the agreement (long story) ,We only ask for the outstanding amount. I have been browsing forums and have viewed a couple of post similer to our story and have seen the general opinion is that our LL abused the TDS scheme (to put it out of our reach and make it very difficult to obtain). The argument has been that he had opportunity to do this in the previous 3 months but waited untill our last apyment and the agreement was supposed to be finalised to put the Deposit in the Scheme. It was felt that the Judge would take a dim view of this and would award us the 3x amount to set an example to other LL. To be Honest,Iam not very knowlegable in this area.I just want our agreed amont. Many Thanks CF

I would be interested on how this ruling would effect my case. We entered an out of court agreement with Ex LL. The agreement was that we would not take LL to court for breach of tenancy,disrepair,Illegal eviction,failure to adhere to safety regs and it would also mean we would not take any action for LL non Compliance with the TDS regs. Basically we could not take action to claim anything. We received a Payment that was basically = to 1 months rent and the deposit on a new let,Plus our deposit back once the final inventory had been completed. This was the agreement.BUT on receipt of our last rental payment(this was a part payment due to the leaving date that had been negotiated) EX LL put the Money that was = to our deposit into a TDS scheme!! We have been trying for the last year to get it released. LL has used every trick in the book. We have now taken LL to Court to reclaim the money again and to confirm it was part of the agreement and therefore LL put it into scheme to complicate matters.We can prove we have upheld our agreement to the letter. The case is due to be heard by the end of the month.How do you all think the Law/Judge will view this?? Many Thanks CF

Hi..Do you have home contents insurance?? I was in the same situation as you..The Property was in a state of disrepair.. The council and Enviromental health were no help so basically we looked in our contents insurance to see if we had legal Cover We did and we consulted with them to help us reach an agreement with our Ex LL..Basically we would not take LL to court for disrepair of property..Breach of Tenancy (ie not repairing property) In return for an amount of money that basically equalled a deposit..a Months rent and the removal cost for a new Property.. I don't know if it is worth a go..I also contacted the hosuing and Childrens Minister and they wrote to the Council.. I hope some of this may be of a little help to you.. CF

Hi everyone.. Well the lovely guys at the Royal Mail redelivered for us and the Papers have been served...I have been lokking through our EX LL statement and something has jumped out at me..EX LL has written that we purposely damaged the property so that we could seek compensation and council housing!!!! I am so very angry..In the next sentance its states there was a discoloration of the ceiling when we moved into the property.During the 3 years we were at the Property it turned into a full on water leak with ceilings hanging down.we wrote..Telephoned...text...you name it to inform LL that the problem was getting worse. EX LL even confirms in the evidance that we had written in the summer of 2007 and they had visited the Property over the years..YES THEY DID but nothing was done.The lights blew cus of water leaking.EX LL claims we did not report this..yet states we wrote to them!!!!!!!!! In the end we called out EH who Hazard rated the Property. According to EX LL staements we apparently wouldnt let workmen carry out repairs..apparently we intimidated them!!! THEY ALL told us that they wanted to do the work but EX LL never contacted them again.. As far as Im concerned she has made a serious allegation.......again I note that crucial bits of evidance are left out..EX LL hasnt signed any declarations!!! Apaprently we are doing this all for the money..All we have asked is for the money that was part of the agreement to be released as was supposed to happen LAST YEAR!!!! WE HAVE NOT ASKED FOR COST OR ANYTHING JUST OUR MONEY BACK.. what do we do..Ignore this allegation or oh i don't know..We DID NOT CAUSE THE DAMAGE!! Thankyou CF

Thankyou Both for your replies.. We do have Proof that we sent them and have printed out the page from the track and trace which says they still havent been collected. We knew this would happen but will continue to Mediation as we have agreed to this but if the papers still have not been collected Im thinking of bringing up the fact that I was willing to have face to face mediation.(EX LL refused) We are due to have Telephone Mediation.Of course ,as I will be refering to parts in the Disclosure of list..EX LL is most likely to object to this as they will not have papers in front of them. Im hoping to state at this part that I have made a spare copy and if we had gone to face to face Mediation I would have gladly let EX LL have another copy...Or would this be seen as baiting EX LL?? Thankyou both, CF

Hi Everyone. Our Court papers had to be at the Court and served on our ex LL by the 30th Jan 09. We sent both at the same time by Special Delivery,which was guarenteed to deliver by 1pm,The court Papers were delivered. I am tracking Papers to ex LL and it says they tried to deliver and left a whilst you were out card. Where does this leave us? It is now 10 days later and it appears they have still not been collected. I am certain that ex LL would be aware they are the Court Papers. We are due to have Mediation in a few days.Will the fact LL has not collected the Package affect this? Should we now pull out of Mediation? Are we covered as having served the Papers?? any help would be appreciated. CF

Hi everyone.. I thought I would update..I have been able to take advice on a few areas and this is the response that I received.. I thought it may be helpful to post it here.I hope that is Ok? 1 Can a statement be used as evidence in Court if it has not been signed? “Under s.9 CJA the contents of a written statement will be admissible, without the witness attending court to give oral evidence, if the following conditions are satisfied: · the statement purports to be signed by the maker; · the statement contains a declaration by the maker that it is true to the best of his/her knowledge and belief and that it was made knowing that, if it were tendered in evidence, the maker would be liable to prosecution if s/he wilfully stated in it anything which he knew to be false or did not believe to be true (known as ‘perjury declaration’); · a copy of the statement is served on the other parties before the hearing where the statement is tendered in evidence; and · none of the other parties object to the statement being tendered in evidence.” So, the statement should be written and signed. A statement of truth verifying the witness statement must be signed by the witness (CPR Part 32). 2 Can a counterclaim be accepted if it is not signed? CPR Part 20 – No. It must contain a statement of truth which must be signed. 3 Solicitor signing Court documents A solicitor can sign a counterclaim and statement of truth as the statement of truth will say “the Defendant believes…” as opposed to “I believe…”. However, a solicitor cannot sign a witness statement on behalf of someone. The solicitor can do a witness statement if in support of an application within the proceedings and deals with the facts within the solicitor’s knowledge or information acquired by the solicitor from documents and information in his/her possession. 4 Allegations / Admissions Different rules will apply to further proceedings. Were the first set of proceedings actually heard by the Court or discussed. If so, then yes. If it is an appeal then you will need to rely on new evidence, but if unsigned then it will be inadmissible as there will be no statement of truth and no evidence that the statement was made by the landlady. It is better to do a notice to admit facts to try to clarify her likely response. We have delivered our papers to the Court and sent papers to LL via Special Delivery but it appears LL is refusing Delivery!!!!!! CF

Hi.. Just a quick update... well after 3 weeks the Mediator is still waiting for LL to get back to him with a time date when she has a free hour!!!! We will just add it to our evidance.. Have had several People go thro LL evidance.Including Legal Rep. On the Basis Of LL statement there is enough evidance for a further 6!!!!!!! court actions 3 of them Criminal!!!!!..It is clear that LL has lied. Its of the opinion that NO WAY would a Solicitor draw up a statement with as many contraditions and blatent breachs of the law and agreements. Our Papers are on the way to the Court as we speak. Sorry for quick reply.CF

Please let us know if you hear back from the DPS. My Deposit was protected for a year and that year is almost up (just after Court case) Ill have a look on their site and see what it says.. CF

Thankyou again for your time.. I have just looked through our original a paperwork that we sent to the court and it is short and sweet and to the point.. Freinds etc have looked through our paperwork and there view is that basically it is clear cut..They said we have stated our case well and to the point..ie used 2 sentances on something LL has used 1.5 pages of A4 to argue against..then kind of admit too..then argue..then point to clause x y z and then state fact was true!!!! This is just one point.. Our Stament to the court is made up of 3 pages of Bullet points...LL response takes 20 pages of A4..I kid you not..and even so the fact remained that amount owing was part of agreement and not negotiable.. She acted against the agreement and against HER solicitors advice..Her OWN dated paperwork proves this.. I think you are right though..it is just grin and bear it.. I just can't understand how she signed the declaration to say quotes were genuine (which says action will be taken if false evidance is provided) and has admitted as part of her evidance that they were false but the DPS are not going to do a thing.. Thankyou again.. CF

Ill try and find old post.. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/residential-commercial-lettings/132368-keeping-contract.html?highlight=coastfodder Basically we were advised that we would get our Money back as it was just a formality..But they didnt figure on LL playing every game possible. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/residential-commercial-lettings/169426-when-will-end.html In the end the DPS felt we should just go to court as the amount was part of the agreement.They have also stated that they do not wish to be involved... Business people..clients..freinds have all read through the court Papers from LL and have ALL stated she is barking mad!!..Her papers actually strengthen our Claim.. Then we saw that she signed the Declaration for the DPS stating they were real quotes for made up work!!!!! and in her statement she blatently says they were made up internet quotes!!!! but the DPS are not interested...so again we sit and wait for EX LL to respond to calls from the Court to meet with the Mediator..A hearing date is set with a time limit of 90 mins.. I thankyou for your Time in replying

:(:( Does anyone have an answer..Or is it another thing the EX LL just gets away with... I have let properties on and off for 17 years and have an outstanding record..I do have referances from ex Landlords.. They can confirm I sometimes left the properties in BETTER condition..even the check out Inventory Clerk offered us a flat.... Ex LL has used every avoidance tactic possible..They have lied and lied about their lies..Nearly a year later we are still trying to get money back we can prove without doubt is ours..even LL statemnet and evidantual documants back this up!!!!!!!!!! The judge stated that our case was suitable for Mediation...again LL has dissapeared..therefore AGAIN dragging it out... any suggestions would be great.

Hi all.. I have so far only seen one other question on here about this issue but were would you stand if you could prove that a Deposit scheme was not acting on something that you could prove.. There are numorous threads on here about our Ex LL..On reciept of copies of all correspondance from the Deposit Scheme submitted from our Ex LL it was plain to see that again she was exploiting the systum..We could prove the amount that had been placed with them was part of an out of court arrangement and should never have been submitted.. The deposit Scheme accepted this and could also see how ex LL was complicating matters and the Deposit Company advised us to persue the case through the Court as they felt it would be pointless using their ADR service.. We began proceedings and a hearning is set for nearly a year aftewr we moved out..( YES ex LL has been playing games for that LONG!!!) Anyway..LL signed the Declaration stating that she has submitted genuine Quotes..( we could clearly see that 2 were fake)..anyway she signed the declaration... WE questioned her quotes in our Court Papers and LL has stated that they WERE NOT proper quotes but were made up from the internet.. I informed the Deposit Company and this was there response... With respect to all Statutory Declarations made in accordance with Schedule 10 of the Housing Act 2004, the person is swearing at clauses 9 and 10 that it is a solemn declaration by virtue of the Statutory Declartions Act 1835 and that if a false declaration is made, they may be liable for prosecution under Section 6 of Perjury Act 1911. In the event that you consider you have a claim against the Mrs X for misrepresentation it is one we suggest you pursue directly. I will of course be including this in our statements to the Court but why are they unwilling to do anything..who regulates the Desposit Companies?? What would be the advise on this??.. Many thanks CF

Hi...I am having a similer issues with a rent deposit scheme...MY Ex Landlady signed a Declaration for them stating that she the quotes she had given them were genuine.. Because of a LOT of issues the courts are now dealing with our case..In the statements our exLL has stated they were made up quotes.. I contacted the Rent Deposit Company and this was their response ' With respect to all Statutory Declarations made in accordance with Schedule 10 of the Housing Act 2004, the person is swearing at clauses 9 and 10 that it is a solemn declaration by virtue of the Statutory Declartions Act 1835 and that if a false declaration is made, they may be liable for prosecution under Section 6 of Perjury Act 1911. In the event that you consider you have a claim against the Mrs X for misrepresentation it is one we suggest you pursue directly. If I am reading this right they are telling me to sort it out myself.. Hope you have more luck than me in obtaining answers.. CF

On looking through the forms more fully we can see that her of her defense is taken up with the point that were in the original out of court proceedings..It was our understanding that these Matters were not to be used in any further proceeding (which we havent done).Hence our Case starts from when we left the property. we make no referance to previous matters except to say LL has broken agreement. We have also noted that LL has not signed ANY of the Documants!!! this is something that we have had problems with in the past!!! LL does not sign so further delays are caused.. Also what is the acceptable format to produce Photographs to the court?? On a Disk or Copies of the pictures??? Many Thanks CF Edited to add huge apologies to MR Shed..Im sorry Sir for typing my Reply to MRS Shed

To All.. Well we have now recieved a Copy of her defense and a counterclaim.. LL has confirmed that new Tenants moved into the Property 4 weeks to the day that we moved out.It was let for a higher amount and LL was able to relet Property without The FULL paint Job and other "issues" that were brought up.. The LL has suggested that a Solcitor is acting for her when offical forms say they are not..She has not signed the Court Papers (another attempt to hold up proceedings??)She has named and quoted a referance for The Solcitors on the front page.We are certain this is a false claim. The quotes for work are false.. LL sates that she could not contact me as she did not have an address.. 2 weeks before we left LL insisted i respond to a request by Email.I did this and provided LL with an Email address I could be contacted on 24/7.. Thankyou for reading cf

Thankyou mrs Shed.. I am in complete agreement with you..It is obvious that it was part of an out of court action..Even so I waited for the 10 days to be up.. It took from April till Mid Jun to get a resonse from LL..who is acting as if she knows nothing about any of it..She completely ignored any referance to this by ourselves..she has falcified documants..she then requested it went to ADR June time..which is when I taold the DPS that I had had enough..We could prove time and time again that she is playing games.. They said until they had a court order they could not release funds.. She is not using her original Soliciotor who on 3 occaisons phoned our Solictor to apologise for her Clients non Compliance with agreements that were trying to be made but LL would do something completely different much to the anger and frustration of all involved.. We have seen by her court papers that a solictor has filled them in but will not act fo her... Honestly this is a woman who saw the ceilings were falling down.EH had tried for months to get action from her .We had 4 young Children...We had tried for a year to get her to repair..But she said it was OUR fault cus we didnt hassle her..Im sorry but numorous letters and phone calls we gave to her in our eyes shows we kept on at her..She admits she read them but still did nothing cus it was our fault we didnt persue her.. We are filling in the apers to request a full hearing..We are truely not going to be victims..Thankyou CF

Hi All.. I have posted on here before..Our Landlord did not furfill obligations for repair to the property..The Enviromental Health hazard rated the Property and ordered LL to complete repairs..Instead she tried to evict us.. Solicitors were involved as she had failed to provide a proper contract..She had not completed repairs..no safety certificates...hazards..illegal eviction and not putting the deposit in a scheme.. The Solicitors negotiated us leaving in return for our removal cost being covered by LL.In return for not taking LL to Court.On the 11th hour 7 days before we left..The LL suddenly put the Depsosit amount into the DPS...against the agreement and against our wishes.. We left the property in good order..except those parts that were noted by the EH.. We had a great checkout by Inventary company who remarked how great it was left..We have full photographic evidance of this..taken at the same time as the inventory..We took pictures of minor paint touch ups and were aware LL may ask for this to be repainted..We asked for quote by Painters and kept these in case.. We didnt hear from LL so applied to the DPS for the return of our deposit.Single Claim.I frequently contacted LL by Email..I have copies..asking for a response over whther we could have access for painters..if required.. LL wrote to previous soliciotors..against my wishes as they were not representing us..I had set up contact for LL so she could respond.We have a copy of a letter refusing to do this.. New tenants moved in..LL started a despute with the DPS and when she was asked to provide quotes they were dated Midjune approz 6 weeks after new tenant had moved in.. We informed DPS that the amount she placed with them was part of a agreement set up but the Solicitors and was not negotiable.DPS agreed that LL was complicating matters and was not playing ball with them either .They adviced us we were within our rights to start proceedings as it was proberley best that the ADR was not used.We could prove that even at the Final Inventory we had requested that LL or representative be present so if work was needed we could get it done have our money and say goodbye.. LL has a proven history of not responding..Of delay tactics..of flouting rules..DPS agreed that even with them she left it to the very last minute and was confusing proceedings.. We said as it was not negotiable..The repairs were a seperate issues as they amount was part of the slcitors agreement.In light of the fact we could prove that we offered to have any Minor problems fixed if needed..She did not resond.. We can prove that she has delayed..we can prove we have tryed to be amicable and have been more than fair.. These proceedings were issued in August up North cus that is where Husband works and we are moving there soon..LL did not respond in 14 days but called Court to say LL had been away and needed more time..Courts allowed this!!!!!..Now finally nearly 3 months later LL has responded By moving the proceedings to where she lives and also by bringing a counter claim for Damage to the property!!! The amount is part of the Original agreement..we can show that LL lives by LL rules.. where do we go from here..Do we ask for proceedings to be sent back up north..How can she claim against us when we can prove that we have always played ball.. Any advice would be great..If I can supply more info I will.. Kind Regards CF