thanks for your sympathy Steve_M. I wasn't expecting anything from this thread - I was extremely upset yesterday, just wanted a moan.

I suppose so, Steve_M. When I first met with the solicitor, he suggested that since we were claiming about £10K, that it would be allocated to fast track. I guess if this all falls through and I somehow still manage to find the energy to invest into this, I look at putting in a small claims myself. It's just disappointing when you know you've done absolutely nothing wrong and justice still isn't served?!?

I guess he was saying that since he is such an outstanding member of the community my words against him might fall short. yes, even though i have email evidence. solicitor has suggested that we claim for the half the rent for the period without heating. My biggest fear is that I'm going to lose, and lose all my savings. Even though we have a no win, no fee arrangement, if we lost, we'd still be liable for all of the opponent's fees and court fees (if we don't have insurance). I just can't gamble on a 50% success rate.

We're not even at that stage yet. Our solicitor is trying to get after-the-event insurance for us in case we lose and our case has already been turned down by several insurers. not a good sign, I'd say. Solicitor explained that our greatest chance at success would be the TDS non-compliance, but now that he's registered it, albeit, late, the court wouldn't fine him. apparently the lack of heating and hot water is listed as a 'loss of enjoyment' of the property and he said that it's hard for the court to put a monetary value to that. Well, we're moving out anyway, I really wanted to teach this guy a lesson, that you can't go around abusing people like that, but I guess this is a case where the good guys lose.

Is it the system here? Is it like this everywhere in the world? I was confident we had a surefire win. We did nothing wrong. Our boiler broke down for 5 months during the harshest winter, but we continued to pay full rent. I kept track of every email, every conversation. Our deposit wasn't registered, we had no gas safety certificate. so we got ourselves a solictor and I got great advice from members on this forum. I really thought we were making progress. And now? 2 months on, we've got nothing. Pretty much no case. Deposit was finally registered (after 1.5 years). Gas safety was finally done. Okay, fine, we got what we wanted, but he threatened me, he harassed me, there was so much unncessary stress he had placed on me. So many nights spent cold and crying and wondering why this happens to people who work their butts off in London only to throw more than half their paycheques away on rent. All because he has a successful property management company and is a member of the church. yes, apparently that is all it takes to walk all over people and get away with it. It's all very depressing. I think I'm ready to move away from London now.

Annual rent is just under the £25,000 mark. our deposit covers 6 weeks. Pretty sure he won't give us our desposit back - our boiler broke down during winter and he had to throw a lot of cash into it to fix it and it's still not fixed properly - he's not planning to fix it, hence our move out.

hi there, Just a bit of background: signed AST June 2008, with £2,400 deposit. Renewed Dec 2008 and again Dec 2009. Never received deposit scheme information, but as well, never requested it. Had problems with the flat Nov 2009, then checked deposit schemes. Of course, not registered! Wrote letter of complaint, which was ignored. Then just last week, May 2010 after we've told him that we're moving out, I get an email from the DPS that he has only just registered it. Now: obviously he didn't register within the 14 day period. Does this mean he's off the hook? I've been reading through a lot of cases and it seems to go both ways: sometimes they adhere to the 14 day rule, and sometimes they don't because at the end of the day, it was protected. What are your experiences/opinions?

So update: Just got an email from DPS - he's finally registered our deposit! but it's only covering our renewed contract, from last december and not the year and a half before that! But does this mean that our chances are slimmer?

I heard back from our solicitor and has found an insurance company willing to offer us ATE insurance - that's good, right? yay! so they're in the process of reviewing our papers at the moment. keeping fingers crossed that the premium wont' be somthing ridiculously expensive - from what i've read online, it can go up to thousands of pounds! to answer your two questions: -we have one month left to pay, due May 26th. -just checked over AST - interest applies to every day that we are late with rent, so no grace period. thanks for your feedback NewSAHD!

Hi NewSAHD, long time! a) check to see if your deposit has been protected since we last chatted - and do so without alerting the Property Manager or his Letting Agent (no matter how friendly the latter has been) have checked - still not registered with any of the three! b) confirm the date you are due to vacate June 26th c) confirm what notices have been served/arrangements have been with regards you leaving too emailed PM and LA and PM replied that he acknowledges my notice to end tenancy Thank you for your suggestions - but I get the feeling that our PM will be calling my bluff as he has in the past with any concerns I raise and will continue to threaten me with legal action. I guess I really have no option but to take him to court, or just drop it all, completely. If I threaten that I will report him to RICS, he would just laugh in my face. sigh. will have to sleep on it, i think I'll just have to continue and risk losing a chunk of my savings on fighting this battle.

my head is really hurting from all of this again - now I'm thinking - should I just proceed with this through a small claims court and just go through it alone? help. please help.

need advice, my solictor has gotten back to me and said that the ATE insurers are not willing to take my case on - he assures me that this is not because they don't expect to be successful, but because the value of the legal fees is too low... is this a bad sign???? should we still continue anyway without ATE insurance? What if we lose and I can't pay it all? I'm a poor phd student!!

just called all three schemes again, it's still not been registered.

Hi everyone, just a bit of an update: We got in contact with a referred solicitor and we're still in the process of hammering out an fee agreement. Several things raised concerned that I'd appreciate the experience and knowledge of you from: if he registers our deposit now (almost 2 yrs late) is our case out the window? That's the feeling I'm getting across from the solicitor. also, the chances of getting compensation for the broken boiler doesn't seem that great, because it's hard to put a monetary value to discomfort? he's suggested that we take out insurance in case we lose and we have to pay for all the fees, plus the opponents fees. what is your advice on this? this is all getting a bit scary...

Okay, I've contacted a solictor and he's currently reviewing my papers at the moment. Can I just withhold 25% of the rent? Do I need to write to the property manager first to inform him of my action? Every time I threaten to withhold rent, he says he'll take me to court...