Hi As mentioned in the title, this problem is in Northern Ireland where, unfortunately, there is no tenancy deposit scheme as yet. I moved out of my rented house after three years. It was thoroughly cleaned upon us leaving.My husband met the ll at the property to hand back the keys and waited while the landlord had a look around the house. The ll stated he was happy with the house and would forward the deposit. The next day, my husband got a text from ll who had completely changed his tone. He made various demands for things and this went on for a few weeks. Each time we contacted him there were new claims, old claims with the amounts changed, very ambiguous. He tried to say he needed £ to clean skirting boards and the toilet, despite everywhere being scrubbed and him agreeing it looked good! The amounts ranged from him wanting the whole deposit plus an extra £70, to offering £350, then reducing this to £250..his letters are so confusing it's hard to tell if he wants money off us or if he is giving it to us. We gave him a 3 yr old sofa and he even had the cheek to try to charge us £25 to clean it! Then after a few weeks he tried to say we had broken the agreement by having a dog, but we verbally agreed when we moved in that it was ok and he saw the dog at various intervals over 3 years! Plus, we wallpapered a room. He said this would be ok but now he wants £177 to strip it and put up new wallpaper. What annoys me is the house was put up for let with 'our' wallpaper still on the walls so I don't believe he's changed it at all. Our deposit is for £495 and I *think* he's now stating he's entitled to £350 of it. We tried getting a settlement with him, allowing a deduction of £150 to him if he proved the room was redecorated (by letting us see the room) or £100 without. He refused this so it is now going to court. We have text transcripts, all his crazy letters and dated photos showing the condition the house was left in. I think this has all arisen from sour grapes because we bought a new property when he wanted us to buy his. But that is by the by. I just wanted to know people's opinions, whether they think we have a good case here? The best he offered us was £350 but I was reluctant to take that as there was no proof of the room being done, nor receipts etc..but he won't let us have that now as 'punishment' because we didn't take it the first time he offered it :/ I know £495 isn't a lot compared to some of the amounts of others but it's a lot to me (especially after just buying a house!!) I'm so annoyed at the way he has treated us, especially as he basically lied to my husband's face when he got the keys back.

Hi, I hope you can give me some advice. I have about £3500 debt in the UK, where I still live and I'm considering moving to Ireland. My question is, could they find out I'm in Ireland and try to recover it? I would have to register for employment, doctors, etc. Would they find my that way? I also have a social fund debt of £1000 and an overpayment of Housing Benefit of £100. At the moment I'm not able to pay back these debts, I may be able to in the future. Could anyone advice me? Thanks in advance.

Afternoon folks, I'm here to ask for some advice as I know there are alot of very smart people lurking out there. I currently am in a court case in small claims court against a particular company. I wont go into detail about this as I want to keep it rather private. But I will sum it up, I took the company to court for adequately providing me with course materials, miss selling me the course under false pretence and company names. (Most people here may know the company, but I shall not name names) Anyway, I send of the forms and have been tracking my progress online and got an email today asking me to complete an "APPLICATION FOR DEFAULT DECREE" Now, I have no legal knowledge at all and was wondering if you would be able to put this into simple terms? The guy on the phone wasn't very helpful and said something about the judge going to look at the case and assess it as its a liquidated claim. Not sure what this means exactly. Also, How likely is it that I would win this claim? Considering the company have not replied to the court after being send numerous letters. Thanks, your help is greatly needed on this one!