Hi James Sorry to hear that your ex tenant has decided to pursue this. It really is a crazy situation. As far as these companies being slow to come forward with supporting evidence for you I might sugest that they would appear to have a duty to supply this information to the court as they are all directly involved in the case whether they like it or not. I am sure that they have all received renumeration for their services in connection with the case. Perhaps is they are still stalling you then you might wish to tell them that like it or not they are involved. This ex tenant seems more and more bloody unreasonable as time goes by. My agency have a problem looming large at the momment with some tenants who think they are bloody clever. The trouble is they waste so much of your time, effort and of course money. I do wish you well James. I hope to God that you get the just result and perhaps finally you may be able to put it behind you. Regards

Hi James Having read through the various information once again I find it incredable that your ex tenants are prepared to go through with the trhreat of legal action. I really do not believe that they have a hope in hell of making this stick in court. The way the petition is presented by the "defendant" contains several areas of blame which really are open to question because he clearly has a beef with Hamptons in addition to yourself. The guy is in my humble opinion a semi-pro litigant who clearly wants to blame everyone bar himself for anything that may be wrong. I stick to my original impression that you as his landlord did all that you could have done given the circumstances and respected the laws which govern tenancy agreements. It appears that you were landed with the tenant from hell and I would be interested to know if he had any previous landlords who may shed a little light as to the type of character he was when he was a tenant of theirs. Did Hamptons obtain any references from previous landlords, employers, character etc? It may well be worth you checking this out as any new "evidence" may assist you when you get to court. As far as his claims for damages etc are concerned he will have to have concrete evidence to substain this in court ortherwise he will be blown out and rightly so. May I sugest that you try to make your "defence" as watertight as possible by collecting all relevent copis of doc's, letters, invoices, agreements, etc etc so that you make a very credable defence before the judge. If you remain cool, calm, collected and act in a responsible manner then this will remain in your favour. In the meantime just respond as you are required to do to the court docs which you have received and contest anything you feel appropriate. It will then be his move again and he will really have to think hard whether or not to proceed with this folly. Keep us posted and good luck to you

Hi. I am a letting agent. My advice to you would be to check through your original and / or subsequent tenancy agreements that you have signed. You may well find a clause in the agreement somewhere which give the agents power to levy this charge. All our charges are contained within specific clauses within the agreement and are there as standard although we as partners can decide to waiver a charge if nec'. I should point out that the charge in no way appears to be un-lawful but it may be worth having a quiet & friendly word with the agent to see if the charge can be waivered.

Hi James. I have read your statement with interest as I myself am a letting agent. My thoughts are as follows: Your ex tenant is without any doubt whatsoever being really unreasonable. Clearly he appears to be a semi-pro litigant He is using a form of blackmail against you after having rightly lost the idiotic court proceedings that he bought against you. You appear to have done everything possible to ensure that you used qualified engineers to service and inspect the boiler. You seemed to consider H&S risks involved You clearly have been taken for a ride by this person who seems to think that he can go around pumping his gums and flexing his muscles At the end of the day, you would not have received several safety certs if the boiler did not pass the tests. My advice really is that as a landlord you should just put this down to a very very bad experience and when using agents (We're not all bad!) try to find out first just how strict their vetting of prospective tenants is. As for the threat of further legal action, just sit tight and dont worry unduly. Just collate any evidence you can without going out of your way in case you need to defend any action. You are more that welcome to tel us at Preseli Lettings (W.Wales) for any advice you may wish. [tel no deleted for your safety and privacy, we have 70 000 reg users, and we haven't vetted them all personally! ;-)]