Action by landlord - HELP NEEDED!!

[pollypocket7]

Hi all,

 

Im new to this forum and just looking for some advice urgently.

 

My mum was party to a 6mth short term lease agreement on behlaf of my brother, but he vacted the property 4 months early due to unhabitable living conditions which the landlord and letting agent failed to resolve/rectify. My brother was effectively in breach of the lease agreement and the landlord demanded he pay all of the rent due up until the end of the lease agreement plus cleaning costs etc.

 

My brother disputed the matter on the grounds that the landlord/letting agents did not rectify the problems at the property and the landlord filed a claim in the small claims court for rent arrears plus cleaning costs of approx £3,500.

 

The claim was originally issued back in March 09 and we filed a defense to all of the correspondence and court Orders received. An Order was received from court advising that a hearing date had been set for 11 Sept 09, however, we recently discovered that the claimant has withdrawn their claim and that the hearing is no longer taking place. I phoned the Court to clarify the position and they confirmed that the claim had been withdrawn on 17 July 09 and no longer exists.

 

Subsequent to this, a few days later, we received notice from Court of a Judgement by Default, which had been issued against my mother stating that she had failed to acknowledge service and file a defense. We were somewhat confused by this as we had previously filed all of the necessary documentation for defense including the witness statements etc to the claim issued in March 09. We later established that the Judgement in fact related to a new claim issued by the landlord, which he filed on 19 July 09. This claim is identical to the one previously issued and withdrawn, however, we have never received any details of the claim or received any of the paperwork from Court advising us of the new claim.

 

I've spoken to the Court to find out what has happened and explained our situation to them. The Court advised that the only claim outstanding is the second claim issued by the landlord, which we have not had the chance to defend.

 

Given that we have already defended and filed the necessary documentation against the first claim issued by the landlord, can they still enforce the second claim, even though we have a letter confirming that the claim was withdrawn by the claimant?

 

I understand that we can get the judgement set aside by filing form N244, which i am currently preparing, but i just wondered whether a judge would throw out the landlord's claim on the basis that he withdrew the initial claim, which we defended?

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[Lula]

Sorry., I am a bit confused, did the Landlord start a claim and then discontinue only to start an identical new claim? if so, that is an abuse of process and the judge would only allow it if he had a VERY good reason for discontinuing the original claim.

[pollypocket7]

Hi Lula

 

Thanks for your prompt response.

 

The Court confirmed that the first claim was issued by the letting agents on behalf of the landlord and then withdrawn. The second, identical, claim has been issued by the landlord independently. However, all paperwork that has been received regarding the claim has been received from the letting agents. We were never aware of the second claim until the Order for Judgement came through recently.

[ineedbetterservice]

Sorry., I am a bit confused, did the Landlord start a claim and then discontinue only to start an identical new claim? if so, that is an abuse of process and the judge would only allow it if he had a VERY good reason for discontinuing the original claim.

 

 

i agree,if the landlord started a claim,stopped it and then started another,he would have to have a good reason,no one (apart from ppl who have an extremely good reason) can start and stop like that

[pollypocket7]

Thanks for your reply.

 

So if i highlight these points on the N244 form that the landlord previously filed a claim and then withdrew it, would the judge potentially throw out the whole claim without future enforcement? I dont understand why the landlord would have taken this route?