Unsurprisingly my ex-landlord has paid no attention to any of your common sense advice and is continuing to bang on about starting proceedings and how spiteful and vindictive I am (yet he's the one harassing a 9-month pregnant woman). One of his new claims is that the deposit doesn't cover the carpet. Could that be the case?

Thank you both for your replies. I was beginning to doubt myself but you've reassured me that he is out of order.

Yes, we've moved in July 2005 and moved out October 2008.

I'm having problems with my ex-landlord. He's always been quite odd to deal with - everything seemed to be my fault and he was constantly reminding me that the flat had been refurbished just before we moved into it. We started renting a flat in July 2005, primarily because it was cheap and was supposed to be a stop gap until I could afford something better. As soon as we moved in there were lots of problems - door handles falling off doors, British Gas not allowing us to use the boiler because it hadn't been installed properly, mice, to name a few. I asked several times for the stairs to the garden to be sorted as they were wonky, moved when walked on and were so rotten that a few of them broke when stood on. The landlord/agent (the place is owned by the letting agent) kept telling me that the stairs were fine. The decorating was done very badly - wallpaper overlapping and not done properly in the corners, the doors didn't fit properly so the place was very drafty and the window frames were rotting. It's an unfurnished flat and there was no inventory about the condition of the place. There was no fire alarm installed and the agent is not a member of any association. One particular problem was the cheap carpet throughout the flat. The first time I hoovered the carpet started unravelling. The landlord came round this year (around three years after moving in) and told me to replace the carpet. I changed the carpet in two of the rooms to laminate flooring. Every time I had contact with the landlord he would remind me that the flat was newly decorated when moving in. I then got pregnant with my third child and decided to move out. The landlord came round and became very nasty. He complained about the state of the place, claimed I'd trashed it, didn't like the laminate flooring, asked that I either replaced the rest of the carpet or paid for it to be replaced, even checked the lights in each room. He claimed that I had trashed the place. I suggested that it needed a coat of paint and new carpet, not the cheap stuff that was already there. I told him the days I was planning to move out. He also claimed to have sent me a lot of letters that I hadn't received and then claimed that I was lying when I said I hadn't had them. I asked him to leave and he wouldn't go. Luckily I had asked my ex-husband to be there in case the landlord became difficult. I threatened to call the police and my ex had to escort the landlord out. I then started getting letters claiming that I had "trashed" the flat and getting quite nasty. We moved out and the landlord did not show up on either of the dates we gave him. I had already given him spare keys shortly after moving in so I left my keys in the flat for him to pick up. He is now writing very nasty letters claiming that he can't access the flat, that I was supposed to leave the keys at a nearby address although he never informed me about this, that he intends to start proceedings and to get money from me, is going to charge me rent until he gets keys from me and will charge me for forcible entry. I have tried to point out that he has keys and shouldn't need to force entry. A previous letter, before moving out, claimed that I wasn't giving him access to view the property and he was going to let himself in so either he was planning on breaking in or can't keep his story straight. Because he was so difficult and it was clear that he had no intention of returning my deposit, I didn't bother painting the walls or replacing the carpet. I have also not bothered chasing up the deposit (£736) which will more than cover what I would consider wear and tear. I haven't given him my new address as, at this stage of my pregnancy (near the end) I'm keen to avoid stress and find his behaviour inappropriate, intimidating and disturbing, although my post is redirected so I still get his letters. In them he is asserting that I've trashed the flat, that wherever I go he will find me and pursue the matter, he intends to contact my employer and new landlord and that my behaviour is vindictive. I'm sorry this is so long. Any ideas on how to handle this? I'm happy for him to keep the deposit if it means that I can get on having my baby and getting on with my life. He seems determined to make my life a misery though. Whatever money he wants I don't have and certainly won't get whilst on maternity leave. Can I go to the Ombudsman even though the agency is not a member of the ombudsman scheme?

The cheque has cleared, the court has been informed and £220 has been paid to CAG. Thank you to everyone for their help and support. I actually couldn't have done it without CAG, not just due to a complete lack of knowledge but the encouragement and experience of everyone on the forum has made it so much easier. Good luck to everyone who is still going through the process. It's worth it. I'm off shoe shopping now!

Due in court on March 12th, I called Inga Kirkman today to point out that I hadn't received their court bundle. She told me that they had already sent me a letter of settlement. Indeed, when I got home there was a letter waiting for me, offering payment in full plus additional interest from 2nd October to date which I hadn't even thought of. I'll be checking my account every day until it arrives before contacting the court to withdraw my claim.

I've got three copies of their complaints procedure. It's their way of not answering our questions.

Does anyone have a link to the OFT statement summary listed on the contents page of the court bundle? I'm not sure what OFT statement this is.

I now have my court date. March 12th. This is where the hard work really starts. I'm off to read the court bundle now and may be some time. :-|

And the day after Inga Kirkman wrote to Southerner, she cut and pasted it to me too!

Congratulations Lisa. That has made me feel less anxious about going through the process myself. You must feel very relieved!

Well I finally managed to scrape together the money to start my claim and that was done on October 5th. Abbey are defending the claim and I'll get the AQ shortly. It all feels a bit scary now but I've got nothing to lose I suppose.

There's been a few people that this has happened to recently but it does seem to be a new trick of theirs. Although Abbey may call it a goodwill payment I assume it's to make it look like they have been reasonable or generous.

I came across this whilst looking for a new bank account: edit It looks dodgy to me. There's no company details and it's very vague.

Thank you, and good luck with your claim.

I was just suspicious as I was turned down for the Step account over the phone because of my credit and then told that I could have a First Reserve even with bad credit. Then they changed their mind. I've already been turned down by Halifax and Coop too. Of course the more banks turn me down the worse my credit report gets so I'm probably stuffed by now!

I applied for a new account at NatWest and was offered a very basic one - First Reserve. I couldn't get a current account because of my credit. The girl on the phone said that the First Reserve wouldn't be a problem. I sent off the ID they asked for (a bank statement) and then received a letter saying that following a credit check they can't give me the account. Like other people, I wonder if this is because I have started a claim against a bank. Anyway, my query is, has anyone been threatening with closure of their account and successful argued against it? If Abbey close my account I will be absolutely screwed as I can't seem to get an account anywhere else but I'll be damned if they're going to scare my off.

I actually registered with them a few weeks ago (at annualcreditreport.co.uk – a free credit report every year, no credit card details required) and London has now become live so I have just requested a free report. Apparently they are going to send me a security code which I will need to access my credit report online. Edit: that hyperlink blurb isn't mine, it comes up automatically and I can't get rid of it!

Hi Kia I got £175 of miscellaneous refund fees appeared in my account on Wednesday I think, again with no warning. It just happened to be as I was about to send off my LBA so I rewrote that to acknowledge that I had received this money and could they send me a breakdown of what it relates to. It's quite short of the £3500 I'm asking for so it's not going to stop me. Kirsty

Today is the deadline from my prelim letter so before I sent out the LBA I thought I should triple check my figures. I've never exactly been a maths whizz! I had in fact missed two charges and two more had been added recently. I went onto online banking to double check the most recent ones and lo and behold, 6 payments have gone into my account - all titled Miscellaneous Fee Refund. They come to a grand total of £175. My revised claim is for £3,649.50. I will now have to rewrite my LBA to acknowledge these refunds but if they think that I'll be happy with £175 instead of £3,649.50 they are even bigger fools that I thought. That said, it's come at a good time - I really needed some cash today.

You could keep the money and write to them saying 'thank you for the money but I'm still waiting for the rest of it'. I don't think you need to reject the payment already made.

Again, I've got no useful input. I don't know what to expect from the hearing at all. I just want to wish you good luck. You've been very reasonable about everything so the situation can't be seen as you being difficult - DLA and Abbey on the other hand have not been anything like as reasonable. I hope it goes well and look forward to reading your next post.

I had an interesting conversation last night with someone who works for Barclays Investment Banking. She admitted to not knowing much about personal banking but bravely tried to defend bank charges. I told her what I was doing and she said 'oh but I know when a cheque is bounced in investment banking it costs a lot to sort out but it may be different in personal banking'. I said that there is an issue about being charged £35 by an organisation who can't or won't prove that that is what it actually costs them. She said they might not know how much it costs. In that case how could they come up with the figures they charge? And what kind of organisation, especially a financial one, can't put some approximate cost to it? I also pointed out that what I was charged £11 for 6 years ago I am now charged £35 pounds. She suggested inflation but didn't even convince herself with that! In the end she thought that the banks pay people off because going to court would be bad publicity and that it's cheaper than hiring solicitors. I suggested that all they would have to do is explain the charges and how it actually costs £35 when a direct debit is unpaid and it could stop people claiming their money back. Plus, of course, Abbey never pay up before getting the solicitors involved. She did automatically assume that it was always the fault of the customer and that they should have to pay for writing bad cheques. I explained that often people start with one incident of one or two unpaid direct debits for whatever reason which snowballs with these silly charges being taken out when the customer has no money in their account, incurring even more charges. She still kept talking about people writing bad cheques though. Of course I should mention that we had been drinking and our attention skills were not at their best. It was interesting that someone in banking - albeit a different branch of banking - couldn't answer any of my questions or justify the banks' behaviour.

My credit record is bad at the moment but I managed to get a very basic account with NatWest - First Reserve. It's worth a try. Some of us have been screwed by Abbey taking charges out when we've got no money so the charges snowball. The best thing to do is just get out of it and move everything, except their charges, to another bank.

I got a letter from Marc Winder, Head of Complaints today. He's sorry that I'm unhappy. Isn't that sweet? They're going to do a thorough investigation and will let me know what is going on in four weeks time. Silly Marc obviously didn't notice that I made a request, not a complaint. I'll drop him a line next week and remind him that Abbey have two weeks left to pay up. It's such nonsense that we have to go through this whole dance.