Compensation for Landlord Harassment

[caela]

Hi all,

 

I am desperate for any help on the following. We rented a property directly from the landlord, as an HMO, about a year ago. The landlord harassed us and threatened us with eviction and we are looking for compensation as a result. The issues have been listed below as it's a bit long lol:

 

1. There were raw sewage floods in the kitchen and bathrooms due to an incorrectly installed pipe. This destroyed many of our belongings, left us without basic facilities, was a health hazard and we were left to clean it up ourselves numerous times. Finally, private sector housing became involved, issuing an improvement notice and the problem was corrected just days before we left the property. During the works, more of our belongings were destroyed by the work men.

 

2. The landlord entered the property many times without our prior consent or notice, accessing communal areas and knocking on the doors of locked rooms. A few days before Christmas, he sent a workman round with the key (Sat at 10am!) who let himself in and started installing a lock on our lounge door to permanently lock us out of that communal area (despite our furniture, landline and internet being installed there). The landlord then came to join him and I explicitly asked them to leave and had to call the police to resolve the situation.

 

3. The landlord withheld copies of our signed tenancy agreement, although I was able to obtain a copy from a fellow housemate. Rent is not payable until a contract has been provided with an address for which to serve notice. Later, he put the council tax in my name (for this 5 bedroom HMO with 3 other tenants) and I was taken to court by the council for non-payment as I did not owe it. The council agreed as it was an HMO, he was responsible for the council tax. A good few months later, I received another letter from the council asking me to pay this bill, saying the property was not an HMO as originally thought. It turned out the landlord had fraudulently changed our contract, attaching our signatures to a different contract to make it look like a joint tenancy agreement. I sent the original to the council and the bill was referred back to the landlord but they refused to take action for the fraud.

 

4. The landlord locked the spare room housing the electricity meter and lied to the utility company with a false reading. He then put the electric bill in my name once again and has continued to give them my phone number for this account which I have persistently referred back to him. In an HMO, the landlord is responsible for utilities in communal areas, however, he had not split these bills and wanted me personally to pay for everyone's share. He also lied to the water company saying the property was vacant so no bill was produced.

 

5. The landlord illegally evicted another housemate who was left sleeping in our communal lounge, affecting our enjoyment of the property and leaving this guy homeless.

 

6. The landlord threatened us with eviction despite paying 2 months' rent upfront, because we had agreed this was the first and last month's rent. However, legally, we were in credit of 2 months' rent and he could not threaten us with eviction. He then asked us to leave one of the rooms we were renting so that we were only living in one room (2 people) which is not allowed. He then tried charging us for both rooms. He asked us to leave the one room via text so it was not necessarily official.

 

7. The property was misdescribed as there was severe damp and mold to which I am very allergic. I had asked specifically about this prior to renting and was told there were no problems.

 

Yes, we were in some rent arrears by the time we left but had actively been seeking new accommodation. There was no way we were giving him another penny. We paid £900 in total over 6 months, the monthly rent at first was agreed at £450 for two rooms but after the first month, we only took one room at his request so it would be £225/ month. There was probably an outstanding balance of 3 months in this case, although we did ask him about paying on several occasions and he avoided taking any money from us because he wanted us out.

 

Since we were not given a contract, legally we did not owe rent until we got one (the bit about having an address to serve notice to). We were also subject to harassment and eviction prior to being in debt to him and didn't want to give him another penny. I know many people will have their opinion on this, but you cannot imagine the constant mental stress of living in a place like this where there is raw sewage flooding most of the ground floor and a maniac landlord letting himself in without notice. We were forever scared to lose the roof over our head and had random people accessing the house on the landlord's behalf (mainly workmen which we weren't given notice of or even briefed on). These work men were instructed to take the backdoor key so that the landlord could sneak it whenever he wanted (as there was only one back door key). We had to literally baracade (sp?) ourselves into the property at night (leaving our keys in the front door so he couldn't put his in from the other side and wedging the back door shut).

 

Both myself and my boyfriend were seriously depressed during this time because of the stress. We are looking to sue the landlord for eviction and harassment. He admitted to private sector housing that he wanted us evicted so he could get a better rent yield with new tenants. They have a record of events and were involved throughout. My question is how would I go about introducing this case- would I contact the landlord to make an official complaint and outline the compensation and then go to court failing resolution, or do I go straight to court? How do you put a figure on compensation and would you even do this or would the courts decide an amount, you just bring a case to them?

 

I am desperate for any constructive help and would really appreciate if people will consider how difficult this time was for us in their responses so that even if they think we were in the wrong, they can say why. Mainly I am looking for advice though with taking the case further. I have drafted a list of compensation and problems with the letting and have proof of most of the events (council have sent me the fake contract he made and I have a copy of the real one we signed, also have stuff from other organisations involved).

 

Sorry it's a long post but to keep it shorter please ask if you need any more information and I will try to be more specific. Sorry if it sounds a bit jumbled up not sure how to go about this lol! Thanks again for your help.

Edited May 17, 2013 by caela

[dx100uk]

I take it this is linked to:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?364379-Suing-a-Letting-Agent-for-Compensation

 

dx

[caela]

Hiya, no that was with a different property. We don't have much luck with letting in this area. It was literally out of that property and into the proverbial fire with this last one.

[45002]

Hiya, no that was with a different property. We don't have much luck with letting in this area. It was literally out of that property and into the proverbial fire with this last one.

 

Find somewhere else to live ASAP then sue LL for damages

 

1977 Protection from eviction act and or 1988 housing act

 

You would need to do this via a solicitor to get this right ...

[raydetinu]

yep only recourse is to sue for compensation etc. through small claims court.

speak to local court and they will advise or use MCOL, on interweb.

[caela]

''-Feared I would need legal advice... so expensive though! I did a 'first hour free' type thing with a solicitor and she said to go small claims court as well and not be greedy on the amount. Of course, that is the easiest route as someone is more likely to pay less than more if that makes sense, but I think we have a pretty solid case for more money than a small claims court. It's just mad that landlords can get away with this. Of course, I want to be reasonable, but if you think of it this way, if someone offered me £100, 000 to do it all again, I wouldn't. Then to ask for say a few grand compensation sounds like it won't actually compensate anything in terms of the harassment factor. Yes, financial loss can be recuperated but emotional loss is harder to quantify. Anyone have any idea if I leave it to the judge to set these amounts or if I have to do it myself, in which case I will need a lawyer to help me! I would like legal help any way, but it's so expensive and I can't really afford it at the moment. Even the lawyer I saw said I should just do it myself because it wouldn't be worth paying someone :s Is there any free help out there but for someone who is working? I'm only on WTC so I don't qualify for a lot of benefit-related aid like legal aid (I think). Cheers again guys

[Lea_HTH]

You won't get a penny for emotional stress - it's not a head of compensation in the UK.

 

You'll need to fully plead your claim and state amounts claimed and the law relied on. Failure to do so won't help your case and some judges will not award you anything if you fail to state exactly what you're claiming and why you think you're entitled to it.

 

Likelihood of winning based on the information as provided by you: possibly quite low (evidenced by fact the solicitor you saw could have taken it on as no win no fee if they thought it had a high percentage chance of winning). You'll undoubtedly find if you do make a claim that your ex LL will make a substantial counter-claim against you, because that would be the norm for most LL. Such a claim may make you wish you had let sleeping dogs lie.

[raydetinu]

Agree with LHTH, think long and hard before you go this route; stress free it will not be!!!