Thanks again andy. i took out the order from case management conference and here is the exact wording: 1. case to proceed on a part 7 claim. .... few more point about dates etc.... 8. upon claimant having withdrawn his claim for compensation pursuant to S214 of the housing act and the defendant confirming that the counterclaim will not exceed GBP 5000, the case is provisionally allocated to the small claims track. the court will review this allocation upon receipt of the allocation questionnaire and will list any further hearing at that stage. and now she has counter claimed for 5340 to be exact. For business part, she has accused that tenants were running a beauty treatment business. now since i am full time employee that leaves my wife, she is a housewife. and we have 2 children below 5. so in reality, she has no time to do anything other than the kids. Regarding her allegation that i sublet, as i have said in my previous posts, i entered the property ( a 3 bedroom semi detached house) on the verbal agreement that i will have guests for good 2 months as we plan to have a family reunion as we were blessed with a daughter. She had agreed but that is no where in the actual agreement. now she says i had 10/11 people at any given time which is false. i had at max 6 (for 3 bedrooms) and they were my immediate family (brother mother). I plan to provide scanned copy of their arriaval and departure passport pages from UK and this is on top of the fact that i had written to her giving all the dates for all my guests. I was also advised by the council and CAB that having guests should be fine and a landlord can not dictate as to how long a guest stays as long as i dont take money. Now all this is true, but how do i prove it? or it is for her to prove that i subleted? Further, given the fact that she did not come to a pre-scheduled move out inspection, doesn't that put her in bad light and cast doubts about her intentions? i had notified her good 2 weeks in advance about the move-out. I again thank you for being patient in reading long posts from me. I really appreciate your help.

hi andydd, thanks for your reply. From my part, i have already submitted all the documents and evidence that i had with me in the my response to the defense filed by her. She has submitted a "quotation" and says that she will produce a invoice in court. She also mentioned bringing in a boiler expert to prove that it was damaged by some1 and since tenants are the only people inside, they have done it. I want to counter that by saying that since she and her sons has entered the property so many times without notice, i have reasonable doubt that they entered in my absence and tampered with the boiler. what are your thoughts on it? I was under the impression that this is almost certainly assigned to small claims court as per the case mgmt reference order from judge above where he says part 7 and provisionally allocated to small claims. Now, if this goes to fast track for whatever reasons, what are the implications for me? and how to i refute her claim that i ran a businness at the property? just say that i did not?

Any help/advice please.

Thanks for your reply. Yes there was a move in inventory but she refused to carry out a move out inspection. And now she claims that laminated flooring was damaged. In the move in list, it's mentioned that there are marks on flooring and at move out I took pictures and video of the same. Further, I have video where she can been seen harassing my wife. Given that, in general, would not that have an impact against her? Combined with the fact that she did not protect the deposit, did not answer any of my written letters, did not come for move out inspection, served me section 21 and now cribs out me leaving early, did not answer properly to even council. about the laptop, should i ask for its permission when i reply to the counter claim? how should i word it?

Hi All, Thanks for previous replies. Based on the advices above i had included my wife as a party to the claim with a statement of truth. I had asked the court that i agree to withdraw 3X penality and still claim for my original deposit with costs etc. I had a case management reference in early Jan and the court decided following: 1. case to be proceed on a part 7 claim. 2. claim form do stand as particulars of the claim. 3. "acknowledgement of service evidence" shall stand as a defence. 4. defendant to file and serve any counterclaim by . 5. claimant to file and serve any reply and defence and counter claim by 6. Parties shall file allocation questionaaires by . 7. Parties shall each file and serve by no later than all statments and documents upon which they intend to rely at the trial. Original documents must be brought. 8. Upon claimant having withdrawn his claim for 3X the case is provisioanlly allocated to the small claims track. Now the landlady has filed a counter claim amounting to GBP 5300+. In the counterclaim (filed via a solicitor), the landlady claims that i sublet the property. and there were 10/11 people at the property at given time. (This is untrue, i had guests and i had informed her at the very begining of the tenancy. It is not in the contract but i had one person with me when we had this verbal agreement.) i ran business at the property, beauty treatment etc. she claims to have seen many people going to my premise. (this is again untrue but i am sure as to how to prove that it was not the case. how do i prove it? she had got hold of one of my wife's parcel which the postman delivered to her address in mistake. now she is saying since she had that parcel that looked like beauty treatment product, tenants were running a business) tenants intentionally damaged property's boiler. it cost her 2000+. (Again untrue, given the fact that i had a newborn when i moved in in march 2011. once the boiler went out of service, she started acuusing me and my family of damaging it from the very next day. she had to replace the boiler but she started harassing us. and gave us a section 21 notice in july 2011) i damaged the property very badly. she cites a bad flush in a toilet and leaking water in a ceiling. (again untrue, i had notified her about the toilet in writing several times and i have no idea about the ceiling. she did not come for a move out inspection even after prior notice. i have photograph as i left it and have a video. i used google on iphone to show that day's date and time instead of a news paper in the video) she claims that the tenant left the property much before the scheduled term. (again untrue, i had to leave as she and her sons harassed us and the fact that she had served me a section 21 already.) she seeks damages for incovinience caused by me etc. for one damage she has produced a quotation (dated 25 days after i left) and not a invoice. I now need to file a defense to this counter claim in next 3 4 days. I need help in terms of how should i respond and are there any specific wordings that i should use. and what do you thing in general about my chances of winning this one. (objectively). will i be allowed to take my laptop inside court so that i can play all videos i have? from my part, i did not anything wrong but then how should i prove that in the court. i have several letters that wrote to her to stop harassing us ( have a video of same, case in council), about repairs etc. she had never responded. and she did not protect my deposit and still served a section 21 and tells the court that i left the property too early and there are huge damages. she did not turn up for move out inspection, she refused to come in front of a PC. Any help would be highly approciated. thanks in advance.

Hi All, I had a terrible tenancy which i ended in sep 2011. The landlady harassed me and my family to death for 6 months. Problems started when the boiler at the property went bad and since then the landlady and her sons harrased us till we moved out. I had to call police at least 2 times (that did not help though). So the landlady refuses to give my deposit back which is good 1800 pounds. I followed the proper procedure and gave her two letters asking her to return deposit or else i will move to the court. She did not respond. And i moved to the small claims court filling a N208 form, asking my deposit of 1854 back with 3 times penalty as she did not protect it in any DPS schemes. So the total amount i asked was 7000+. In my claim, i had included the tenancy agreement, deposit letter, my letter to her dated 5th Sep 2011 and a letter dated 20th Sep 2011 telling her that i will move to court. This was my exact wording on my N208 claim: "The claimant makes a claim under the Housing Act 2004 section 214(1)(a) that the deposit of £1854 as required in the Assured Shorthold Tenancy for 'MY-ADDRESS-HERE' was not paid in to an appropriate tenancy deposit scheme (in accordance with section 213 (1) of the Housing Act 2004). Further, The claimant did not receive the prescribed information concerning which Tenancy Deposit Scheme was to hold the deposit, within 14 days of the defendants receipt of the deposit (in accordance with section 213 (5) of the Housing Act 2004). 1) The claimant asks that the court makes an order in accordance with the Housing Act 2004 section 214 (3) which states the following; (a) "order the person who appears to the court to be holding the deposit to repay it to the applicant" A total of £1854 And I understand that the Court Must also do the following; 2) The claimant asks that the court makes an order in accordance with the Housing Act 2004. Section 214 (4) which states the following; "The court must also order the landlord to pay to the applicant a sum of money equal to three times the amount of the deposit within the period of 14 days beginning with the date of the making of the order.” A total of £5562 I am therefore seeking payment of £7416" The landlady filed a Acknowledgement of Service (via her solicitor) with some documents on 26th Oct 2011 and i received a letter from court after 14th Nov 2011 saying there is a case management reference on Jan 4. In the defense they say (not the exaxt wording) 1. The claiment has filed for a claim without reference to other joint tenant (my wife was on tenancy agreement), hence its breach of CPR 19 and case be struck out. Question: how serious is this? how do i add my wife to the claim? what if i dont add her and go ahead? 2. Citing a judegement in some other case dated 22nd march 2011 (Gladehurst Properties Ltd Vs Farid Hashemi), the defendant draws court's attention that since the tenancy has ended a claim can not be made. Question: What should i do about this? how do i respond? Have i used a wrong form? Will i need to file a new case with N1 now? 3. The defendant requests that the claim be struck out or such directions given by the court, as it thinks appropriate in that the defendant takes issues with the supporting evidance provided by the claimant to the claim form, in particular, the letter dated 5th sep and 20th sep and refutes the contents in the same. The claimant used the premise for business pruposes. Question: I had a PC with me (had to get one, as the landlady and her son become violent in their last visit to my place) when i handed over the keys to her and she refused to do a move out inspection and take a DVD containing pictures of the property. The PC is a proof of what happend, i had handed over the DVD of the property to the PC instead. Should i write that in my response? My usage of premise for busniess is a lie, she has no proof. What should i respond? 4. The defendant produces with this Acknowledgement to service the evidence that she has to date including an insurance quatation to put right damage done to the tenancy premises by the claimant and or others under his control and supervision in the tenancy premises. The defendant seeks recompense from the claimant for the damage done to her property. Question: Now this insurance quatition is dated 30 Sep 2011, well after i left the property. And does a quotation say anything? I have proof of how i left the property in a DVD. What should be my response? As you can see, i am in trouble. Few important things that i have: - i have got this court letter after 14th nov, how do i respond with additional documents? is there a a time limit as to by when i should provide my documents? (The court letter does not mention any such date, but i need to add additional document such as my letter to LL) - is it necessary for me to have my wife's name on the claim form? if yes, how do i do that? - will i need to file a new N1 form if this N208 is proved to be wrong? Since i can not get 3 times penalty based on other judegment, will i atleast get my deposit back with this? or i will have to file a new N1? Any help of any sort would be of great help to me. I thank the community in advance. Thanks! ravi PS: I have several letters (good 10-15) that i wrote to her about harassment and non working boiler. The council is seeking her answers on harasament that she did to us. I have a CD where she can be seen harassing my wife. I had posted all letters with recorded delivery. She had never replied to any of my letters.