Was I illegally evicted?

[goonerbst]

Such a mess - can anyone make it clearer for me? I have only recently after trying to get my deposit back noticed I might be illeagally evicted based what I have read on others on this forum. Details are as follows:

 

*12 months AST started in February 09.

*Deposit Paid of £1053.66 - Not protected by any of the 3 DPS schemes they have confirmed which I found out this week

*Flat inspection on 28th Nov 09.

* Flat Location - London

 

The night before me and my partner had a big arguement and she trashed the place with my stuff in it and also taking some of my her stuff, TV and the likes. I am round my folks on inspection day and text LL to say I am not going to be in and to postpone due to the arguement the night before.

Girlfreiend has taken my clothes and also torn them up etc and taken her stuff.

Come back home two days later and the locks are changed. Due to the mess as my partner left it in the LL says I abandoned the property when I didn't. Now at this point I have nowhere to live have and have had to go back to folks which is 100 miles north of London which put my employment on shaky ground and I had to leave due to the travelling into London each day.

I owed one month rent at this point too due to change of jobs and was awaiting a pay off from old position so this was to be paid. When I was late with the payment, she would not stop emailing me at my work address and emailing my Manager and Senior manager to see if I was in the office citing non payment of rent and I was to get in touch. She also emailed a notice to the flat concierge mail address asking him to slip it under my door and one in my mailbox? I was only 5 days late at this point and had communicated the issue.

 

Since left I asked for LL to dispose of items left behind that they said they still had as I was in the north and could not get to collect them. I specifically asked the LL to leave two sentimental paintings and my mail with the concierge to which she agreed. I visted 3 times from up north to collect these as they had bankcards etc in and they were not their. I contacted her and she said they had now been disposed of. I am devastated as those paintings were the world to me

 

She is still stating I abandoned property in her email correspondance which I have not admitted too. She has kept my deposit too and this I found is not protected as I have requested it back and she has not bothered.

 

She has listed different items that need replacing according to her. There was a inventory on entering but no exit one as she changed the locks. She sent me a bill for 2k with all items costing exactly rounded up to the £. She has even charged for things I know have not been replaced like the communal letterbox she said I broke, I saw it last week and it was still the same although she is trying to charge me £20 for it stating it has been repaired in the email?

 

I said she has illegally evicted me and has not protected my deposit and she has now asked me if we can draw a line under it as long as I admit to abandoning the property.

 

I have left my job now due to having to live so far away, also any chance of reconcilliation with my girlfriend is also now gone as this made her homeless too and she is back at her folks.

 

I think that covers it all, I am a avid reader of these forums and this is how I noticed the rent deposit scheme and the fact that she needed to protect it.

 

One further thing is I sent her this last week:

 

Tenant Address



LL address

Dear LL

Tenancy Address

I am the former tenant of the above property. My assured shorthold tenancy agreement is dated 31 January 2009
On 31 January 2009 I paid you a deposit of £1053,66 as security
against my obligations in the tenancy agreement.  Since then:

1. I believe you have not met the initial requirements of an authorised tenancy deposit protection
scheme; and
2. I have not been able to obtain confi rmation from any scheme administrator that my deposit is being held in accordance with such a scheme; and
3. I have not received the prescribed information which you are required by law to send me within 14 days of receiving my deposit

In the circumstances, I am entitled to have my deposit refunded and you are requested to attend to this within 7 days of the date of this letter.

If I do not hear from you within 7 days, with satisfactory evidence that you have complied with the obligations
which the law imposes on you, I will begin legal proceedings to recover my deposit without further recourse to you. My claim will include a claim for any interest, costs and compensation to which I may be entitled.

Yours sincerely


Tenant

Any help is much much appreciated

Edited February 21, 2010 by goonerbst

[MrShed]

Wow.

 

That is the most blatent case of unlawful eviction I have heard of on here.

 

Take them to court. Not just for the TDS non compliance, but in particular for unlawful eviction - there can be significant punitive damage claims here (and rightly so).

 

Also contact the local housing officer at the council and advise them of the unlawful eviction.

 

Ensure you keep a detailed record of all actual financial loss incurred by you due to the situation, they are all fully reclaimable IMO.

[goonerbst]

Wow.

 

That is the most blatent case of unlawful eviction I have heard of on here.

 

Take them to court. Not just for the TDS non compliance, but in particular for unlawful eviction - there can be significant punitive damage claims here (and rightly so).

 

Also contact the local housing officer at the council and advise them of the unlawful eviction.

 

Ensure you keep a detailed record of all actual financial loss incurred by you due to the situation, they are all fully reclaimable IMO.

Thanks Mr Shed. Just to add here is a copy of her email dated 1st December 09 to me:

 

This e-mail serves as notice that your lease is terminated as of Saturday
28 November owing to your non-payment of rent, your abandonment of the
property, damage caused by you to the property and contents and your
non-compliance with points 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.8, 2.10, 2.13 of
the tenancy agreement signed by you on 31 January 2009.

We will be taking action against you to recover the costs for the
substantial repairs now required to the property

What can I expect, i saw the local council with regard to this and all they said was that they can get me using a bond scheme into private accomodation. This does not help now what with what I have had to give up and being 100 miles away from London and my social circle, work etc I have asked her several times via email for a copy of the tenancy agreement (it was in the flat I was locked out of) but she will not send it. Her breakdown of costs equate to some £1950

Edited February 21, 2010 by goonerbst

[MrShed]

This really is an appalling situation.

 

This is one of the few situations where I would state that negotiation with the landlord will be fruitless. I cannot see that the landlord will be willing to pay, without being forced, the sizeable costs that will be incurred here.

 

I will attempt to draft a letter up for you (as a template only ).

 

Would you be prepared or willing to move back in if it was offered?

[MrShed]

Just for absolute confirmation as well:

 

- How long were you away from the property - 2 days?

- How much, if any, of your possessions are still possessed by the landlord?

[goonerbst]

This really is an appalling situation.

 

This is one of the few situations where I would state that negotiation with the landlord will be fruitless. I cannot see that the landlord will be willing to pay, without being forced, the sizeable costs that will be incurred here.

 

I will attempt to draft a letter up for you (as a template only ).

 

Would you be prepared or willing to move back in if it was offered?

I believe she has other tenants in there now and with the way my world has been turned upside down I cannot see any reasonable relationship continuing with her as a LL. All I want is my old life back or at least the deposit or something so I can at least get back on the ladder as such.

 

It is not hard for me to get employment in London based on what I do for a living but there are no vacancies where I am in the north.

 

As for costs I have not kept any real tally as I have only been made aware there is law protecting me here, if I had known at the time and from what I read I would have got straight on to the council and let back in.

 

She works for a major world renowned bank in their investment arm and she owns the flat on a Buy to let her husband earns very well too, so I am a bit perplexed as to why this has all occurred.

 

I would also appreciate any time you can give Mr Shed regarding a template letter or anything, all I am after here is my old life back, by whatever means and with me not working at the moment I am not in a position to be able to fork out 2k in one months rent and deposit.

[MrShed]

I believe she has other tenants in there now and with the way my world has been turned upside down I cannot see any reasonable relationship continuing with her as a LL. All I want is my old life back or at least the deposit or something so I can at least get back on the ladder as such.

 

It is not hard for me to get employment in London based on what I do for a living but there are no vacancies where I am in the north.

 

As for costs I have not kept any real tally as I have only been made aware there is law protecting me here, if I had known at the time and from what I read I would have got straight on to the council and let back in.

 

She works for a major world renowned bank in their investment arm and she owns the flat on a Buy to let her husband earns very well too, so I am a bit perplexed as to why this has all occurred.

 

I would also appreciate any time you can give Mr Shed regarding a template letter or anything, all I am after here is my old life back, by whatever means and with me not working at the moment I am not in a position to be able to fork out 2k in one months rent and deposit.

 

First things firsts then - document ALL of your out of pocket expenses, including those that may be fuzzy, and keep documenting them moving forward.

 

I assume at this stage she still holds your deposit?

[goonerbst]

Just for absolute confirmation as well:

 

- How long were you away from the property - 2 days?

- How much, if any, of your possessions are still possessed by the landlord?

Yes two days. She let herself in on the Saturday and I cam back to work on the Monday straight from my folks and then went straight to the flat after work. She refused to answer my calls, I got on the train to my folks and then saw her email listed above.

 

She has disposed of all of my possessions now. I also have a feeling she has gone through my mail by what she writes in her emails saying that certain companies and cards have been returned. Not all mail has a company logo on.

[goonerbst]

First things firsts then - document ALL of your out of pocket expenses, including those that may be fuzzy, and keep documenting them moving forward.

 

I assume at this stage she still holds your deposit?

Yes she is still in personal posession of my deposit.

 

What reasonable costs should I be looking to note?

[MrShed]

What possessions were left?

[goonerbst]

Clothing

Sky+HD Box

3 paintings

blank canvases - acrylic and oil paints

some clothing

shoes, trainers

Juicer

Steamer

blender

food processor

Cutlery

Pots pans

toiletries

Laptop - broke mind you but still stuff on the hard drive ( I work in IT )

old phone

Sketches

Leather sofa

 

Thats all I can think of for the time being. I did say to her to dispose of them as she said she had kept them but I could not logistically get them up north so took the decision to dispose and said so all bar two of the paintings and my mail

[MrShed]

OK.

 

Brief draft letter below.

 

Dear S**tty Landlord,

 

I am writing in further to recent correspondance between ourselves.

 

Regarding my eviction on the X of X, and following taking legal advice on the matter, I would like to outline the situation as I see it.

 

- As per Section 1(2) of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977, your actions constitute unlawful eviction.

- Regardless of any alleged breaches of the tenancy agreement, an eviction on the basis of any such breaches must follow the appropriate legal procedure - namely, service of a Section 8 eviction notice, followed by gaining a possession order from a court. You did not do this.

- The law will consider a defence of "abandonment" to be completely untrue in these circumstances, given that the time away from the property at the time of changing the locks was a number of hours, and total time away from the property amounted to 2 days. In addition, I had been in contact only a few hours before you changed the locks.

- It should be noted that under the Criminal Law Act 1977, unlawful eviction is a serious criminal offence.

- Your illegal actions have caused significant out of pocket financial loss, as well as significant impact upon my personal and professional life as a whole.

- Due to the unlawful eviction, I reject your claims for damages to the property - I have a responsibility to return the property in the same condition (minus fair wear and tear) at the legal termination of the property. The condition up until this stage is immaterial, and your unlawful eviction has prevented the making good of any damages.

- In addition, due to your lack of protection of our tenancy deposit, you are in breach of the Housing Act 2004, which demands a payment of the deposit and 3 x the deposit as a penalty for lack of compliance.

 

Due to the complete breakdown of the landlord/tenant relationship here, the only true out of court solution - i.e. to re-commence the tenancy in the property - is completely untenable.

 

As such, I intend to proceed to county court to pursue this matter within the next 7 days.

 

This claim will include, but will not be limited to, reclaiming of my sizeable financial loss, reclaiming of my deposit plus 3 x deposit penalty, lost wages, as well as seeking sizeable punitive damages due to the hurt and suffering imposed by your actions.

 

I will also be speaking to the local council and the local police force, and will be asking for the criminal aspect of this offence to be prosecuted to the full extent allowed by law.

 

The only situation in which I do not intend to proceed is if you agree within these 7 days to full settlement of these costs.

 

This will amount to £X (Given the size of the deposit, and the scale of the offence, I would not be putting a figure of less than £8000 here)

 

Should you wish to settle this, please send me payment of this figure within 7 days.

 

Otherwise, I shall proceed as outlined above. Should you feel you have a damages claim against me, I would invite you to counterclaim at this stage - but any such counterclaim will be fully defended.

 

Please be aware that I see no need to enter into any further correspondance on this matter.

 

Yours Sincerely,

 

 

 

PS - how much was the monthly rent?

[MrShed]

Dont send via email btw - letter sent, standard delivery but get proof of posting.

[goonerbst]

OK.

 

Brief draft letter below.

 

 

 

 

PS - how much was the monthly rent?

Monthly rent was £1053.66

 

Also I am not sure if sending the above would constitute harrasment? I sent her the above/below last Wednesday, if I was to send this how would it look?

 

Tenant Address



LL address

Dear LL

Tenancy Address

I am the former tenant of the above property. My assured shorthold tenancy agreement is dated 31 January 2009
On 31 January 2009 I paid you a deposit of £953,66 as security
against my obligations in the tenancy agreement.  Since then:

1. I believe you have not met the initial requirements of an authorised tenancy deposit protection
scheme; and
2. I have not been able to obtain confi rmation from any scheme administrator that my deposit is being held in accordance with such a scheme; and
3. I have not received the prescribed information which you are required by law to send me within 14 days of receiving my deposit

In the circumstances, I am entitled to have my deposit refunded and you are requested to attend to this within 7 days of the date of this letter.

If I do not hear from you within 7 days, with satisfactory evidence that you have complied with the obligations
which the law imposes on you, I will begin legal proceedings to recover my deposit without further recourse to you. My claim will include a claim for any interest, costs and compensation to which I may be entitled.

Yours sincerely


Tenant

Also how to I arrive at a definitive figure?

 

Thanks Mr Shed this is much appreciated. Also how much would it cost me to start proceeedings and how long before it comes to court?

 

By the way I only have her work email address at the bank she works for and our communication has always been via this method. I do not have any address to send snail mail to as her home address was on the tenancy agreement, of which I no longer have a copy of.

[MrShed]

Hmmmm - that creates an issue.

 

Do you have ANY other way to find out her address?

 

And no it wouldnt consitute harrassment dont worry about that.

 

The definitive figure would be basically ALL of your out of pocket expenses, cost of lost posessions, cost of deposit + 3 x deposit, any lost wages - and I would probably then add £2-4k on top of all that as punitive damages.

 

Court - timescale will be long unfortunately. Cost is about £100 (I think) as you will need to go down N208 route.

[goonerbst]

Hmmmm - that creates an issue.

 

Do you have ANY other way to find out her address?

 

And no it wouldnt consitute harrassment dont worry about that.

 

The definitive figure would be basically ALL of your out of pocket expenses, cost of lost posessions, cost of deposit + 3 x deposit, any lost wages - and I would probably then add £2-4k on top of all that as punitive damages.

 

Court - timescale will be long unfortunately. Cost is about £100 (I think) as you will need to go down N208 route.

I dont have a way of getting her address, I have asked her on 3 occasions for a copy of the tenancy agreement and she has not sent it. I have her work address and work email address, thats about it. I could send a copy to the flat in question that they own? Would that be fine? I am not sure how often she will pick the mail up. I could send to her work address too? Special Delivery?

 

A couple of other questions?

 

How do I work out punitive damages?

How do I work out loss of salary based on the fact I ended my contract?

How can I claim for loss of belongings considering I said she was to dispose of them as I could not collect them?

How do I work out deposit, deposit x3 and interest on this? I dont want to be seen for goign for unecessary money if it comes to court.

I assume it might take a while in court as she might not attend or try and set it aside like I have read on other posts?

 

She works in the investment banking arm of this bank and is high up and her husband is also on a 100k sort of wage, so they are not short of a bob or too. Surely she would have insurance for this type of thing?

[MrShed]

Few thoughts.

 

- Do a land registry search on your old property - it may flag up the "proper" address for them.

- Punitive damages can only be worked out by a court - they are financial compensation for non-financial loss. I would be going in with a high figure though.

- Loss of salary - what period of time in between contracts were you unemployed? Are you on any less salary now?

- Belongings - it is a stretch, but you have only said to dispose as a DIRECT RESULT of her unlawful eviction. Therefore, although you said to dispose of them, I believe you are entitled to the value of the goods.

- Deposit and deposit x 3 are obviously pretty straightforward. Interest is at statutory 8%.

 

It could take many months in court. In this case, I feel it would be worth it.

 

I am not aware of insurance that would cover this.

[goonerbst]

Few thoughts.

 

- Do a land registry search on your old property - it may flag up the "proper" address for them.

- Punitive damages can only be worked out by a court - they are financial compensation for non-financial loss. I would be going in with a high figure though.

- Loss of salary - what period of time in between contracts were you unemployed? Are you on any less salary now?

- Belongings - it is a stretch, but you have only said to dispose as a DIRECT RESULT of her unlawful eviction. Therefore, although you said to dispose of them, I believe you are entitled to the value of the goods.

- Deposit and deposit x 3 are obviously pretty straightforward. Interest is at statutory 8%.

 

It could take many months in court. In this case, I feel it would be worth it.

 

I am not aware of insurance that would cover this.

Thnks Mr Shed, i shall do a online Land Registry this evening. Just two more things?

 

My contract was for a year, fixed term as a IT Network Engineer/Project Manager. I left the role just before xmas, so about 4 weeks after this occured. I am currently unemployed from this date until now as there is no real call for my type where I am living.

What would be acceptable to add from my perspective to include punitive damages as you alluded to before? What would be deemed a high but accptable figure by yourself?

 

I have also clicked the scales as requested. would click more if I could

[MrShed]

Oh - same job title as me!

 

I would probably be claiming the salary lost that you would have been earning, IF you can demonstrate that such a role in the area would have been readily available. I would be claiming probably one months salary in this case.

 

To my mind, due to the impact upon your personal life, and the harm done to your personal relationship, I would be putting in a figure of at least £2k. The court can always reduce - simply put in your particulars of claim that you do not know how much the punitive damages would be worth, so you are submitting a figure and allowing court to decide.

[goonerbst]

Sir I doff my cap to you, seems I have a busy night ahead with the calculator!!

 

I shall obviously update this thread with any outcome, can see it being a lengthy process but I am not going anywhere!

 

Thanks once again!

[MrShed]

You are most welcome.

 

Let me know how you get on!

[goonerbst]

Mr Shed,hopefully you are around or anyone else that can advise.

 

I sent the letters as stated to the House Addy and also e-mailed her a copy. I put my folks address on the email and letters and I don't think she is going to pay the amount.

 

Just wanted to clarify something though. Whilst at the premises I had thing slike Sky, Electric, BT etc and obviously never finished the 12 motnh contract for being evicted. As I have left my job because of this I have outstanding amounts to pay them. I am in contact with them but have not given them my current address and paying them what i can.

 

I got a letter today from EDF Energy demanding I pay £865 for a early terminatnion and cancellation fee etc and she has obviosuly called them up and given them my new address for my account. Would this be deemed harrasment?

 

What gives her the right to contact them about my account?

She obviously called them and must have read a letter addressed to me otherwise how would she have known? Nobody knows I am living back at my folks except for family and she is the only one I gave the address to as it was on the letter/email I addressed to her.

 

I wouldn't have this and other bills if she hadnt of evicted me in the first place. Cannot believe she is calling them up and giving my details

[MrShed]

It wouldnt be deemed harrassment, but you certainly should be claiming as part of your financial loss the money involved in these contracts.

[goonerbst]

It wouldnt be deemed harrassment, but you certainly should be claiming as part of your financial loss the money involved in these contracts.

Thanks for that I shall add that too now. Think she is being vindictive now

[goonerbst]

I have submitted my claim

Will this be small claims or fast track, if so how long for either track for a court date, just rough estimates?