Hi everyone. First post here, any help would be greatly welcomed!
So, here is my story. I left the property where I had been leaving for the last six months in Glasgow in early april. Now, this was my first rent agreement, I was really interested in the property location and now that I am well informed and seen from the distance, I should have known I was surrounded by red flags. But during my stay I got along with my landlord pretty well and did not had a problem with him. The problems came once I left the property. First, I never really had a copy of my lease contract. I asked for it several times, and the only thing I got was some pictures I myself did from the day I signed the lease (a contract which is typewrited and that has some outdated clausules, mentioning housing laws that are not in use nowadays that ran on a three months basis, which means, indeed, that I should have two contracts) . Secondly, I only learnt the month prior to leaving the property that my deposit was not secured (something I understand is mandatory, please correct me if I am wrong). Suspecting that it would be a genuine hell to get my deposit back, I arranged by word with my landlord that the last month of my stay would be payed with my deposit. Still, my relationship with my landlord was nice. He did seem a bit anxious towards the last weeks of my stay and showed up at the flat without previous notice, even, at least once, trying to enter the property without permission (again, and correct me if am wrong, I have read that this is ilegal), but most of the times he would just bang and ring the door until I opened. But I just thought it was because he was worried about who would be living in the property once I left. Now, a few weeks after I left the property I start getting calls from my landlord saying that he is going to take me to court because, according to him, I hadn´t payed rent in the last four months. How can he make such an accusation? Because I payed him in cash. I know, I know, I thought it was a bit dodgy at first as well, but he assured me it had worked for him before and I just played along. Thing is, I don´t have a single receipt or anything from him that states that I have payed him rent not just for the last four months but from the beginning of my lease, just some cash withdrawals that are not even done the same day of the month since we usually agreed the day he would come to pick up the money by phone a few days before. He has been calling me once or twice per week since that first accusation threatening me saying that he would take further action if I didn´t pay. Last time we talked, he told me that he had already sued me ( he has also written a menacing letter to my parents telling them the same story, whose adress was in the contract wtf). I am french and I have moved back to my home country and have no intention of coming back to the UK in the mid term, but is there something he can legally do about it? How can I stop this situation where everything seems to be his word against mine?
Anyway, thanks for your time and again, any advice will be appreciated!
call his bluff. Tell him he has acted illegally anyWay . and if he persists you will report him to the scottish local authority and the Inland Revenue.
I agree with Colin. If you describe everything correctly the LL has no (legal) leg to stand on and he knows it. If he had sued you then he would not contact you to tell you about it.
I would write to him and tell him you do not owe him any money and will not pay him. Tell him in plain English that you feel harassed by his behaviour and if he does not cease and desist any contact with you then you will report him to the police.
You should also give him your French address. This is because if you do not tell him your new address he can actually sue you and the court will serve you on your last known address (where you do not live anymore). The judge will issue a default judgment when you do not respond. However, if you give him your address he is legally required to tell the court about the new address and they will write to you there. Then you can tell the court that your LL must sue you in France (which he will not do).
Have you always paid in cash or just the last 4 months? He is the one with everything to prove, not you. Is there any written evidence, (text or email) that you used the deposit to pay the rent?
You no doubt have evidence of withdrawing the cash each month from the bank and could show that to a court in the unlikely event that it ever gets there. They only have to accept that on the balance of probabilities, the cash you withdrew was for your rent.
Did you ever mention to him the deposit not being protected? I wonder if he is trying to dissuade you from taking action to claim a penalty by effectively saying he will counter-sue for a similar amount. If I were you I would speak to a no win no fee solicitor ASAP about making a penalty claim against him for failing to protect the deposit.
I did pay in cash the whole time, so i do not what is crossing his mind to claim i only owe him “just” four months (claimiming i owe him more would be too much or too less…Who knows, really). I do have however a written handnote where he states what would the deposit fee be and how much would the rent be, but that was prior to even signing the contract, as some sort of explanation. As for any receipt or anything that could prove i have been paying rent i do have a saving account where each month I deposited the rent before taking it out, but again it only shows i withdrawed a certain amount each month that, since it was in cash, i could have easy spent in anything else. Besides that i never had any text or mail conversation with him, we only communicated by phone or in person
He does have my french hometown address. He did wrote a letter to my parents at that home address whole story of the amount of money i owed (they were well aware of the situation before it happened and we even had a laugh when they saw it because the entire situation couldn´t be more ridiculous, really), but thanks for the advice! Really appreciate it. I don´t think this will get any further, since i believe all his actions were quite dodgy, but it´s always better to ask!
While its true that you could have spent the money on anything, as I said, the court only has weigh up the balance of probabilities and its likely they would accept that the regularity of those transactions were likely rent payments, especially as he is not claiming that you’ve never paid the rent.
I wouldn’t worry about his bluster. He is unlikely to waste his money on a court case that he has little chance of winning. I suggest you go ahead and speak to that no win no fee lawyer and let them deal with the penalty claim for you.
Honestly, I would tell this dodgy landlord to take a hike. He has done so much wrong no court would entertain his ridiculous ideas. Then just ignore him. He is actually lucky you are not reporting him for failing to protect the deposit which would go massively in YOUR favour.