Help needed with Accelerated Possession Claim

[Malibu1]

islandgirl - I coulnd't care less what the LL says. They don't need to admit anything, as they are recorded on camera. Not many people would be lucky enough to have the clear evidence that I have and my evidence is extremely strong. Even without any of the photographs or videos and other evidence that I have, I would still be confident in my allegations. The fact remains they have caused substantive injuries to myself and my pets and I want adequate compensation

[islandgirl]

And it is of course your right to claim the compensation. I hope you are successful.

[Malibu1]

They have cows in one of their other fields, which they don't spray. I am sure they wouldn't be very happy either if somebody deliberately sprayed poison in their faces killing off their livestock. I was very polite and calm when I contacted the letting agency about the spraying. I told them what had happened and that injuries had been caused and asked if there would be any possible way the landlords could provide any advance notice of any further spraying so closely to the property, so that I could ensure myself and my pets were not in the garden. They contacted the landlords and the response was very hostile and I was told no, they will not give any future advance warning and that they follow all necessary pesticide procedures. The following day they did exactly the same thing again. Twice. I did have time to ensure my pets were safely inside. From what I have researched myself about crop spraying, they very clearly did not follow correct safety procedures.

[Malibu1]

Sorry, that should have said I did NOT have time to ensure my pets were safely inside. Again they came directly to this property to spray, and avoided the other neighbouring properties. They did this deliberately, knowing they had already caused injuries.

[Malibu1]

I have checked the paperwork that was provided at beginning of tenancy - I can see a deposit scheme booklet, but cannot see any right to rent, or how to rent booklet, so am not sure if that was provided. There is a lot of paperwork.

On the court forms there is a tick box for the landlords asking whether any further written tenancy agreement was made, other than the initial tenancy agreement. I had to pay 6 months upfront rent and then the lettings harassed me to pay a further 6 months rent upfront when I had only lived in the property for a couple of months. I replied via email that as previously discussed and agreed before the beginning of the tenancy, I was wishing to live in the property long-term for several years and would be paying rent monthly once the initial term had expired, as had previously been agreed. They then replied agreeing again to that. Does that count as an additional written tenancy agreement?

Both the letting agents and the landlords have breached my quiet enjoyment of the property from beginning of tenancy, by various threats, bullying, various repeated harassment, failing to give 24 hours notice for engineer visits, direct threats of eviction due to my health / disability, and an unlawful retaliatory eviction. And also other things, such as negligent exposure to Covid and also the unlawful trespass and stalking carried out by both of the landlords, and intentional, negligent injuries caused to myself and pets by misuse of guns and pesticides.

All of this has caused me distress, financial losses, harm to physical and mental health, and repeated interference with my privacy and ability to work.

Rent arrears have been accruing since the S21 was served, as their actions have prevented me being able to work, which has caused me exceptional financial hardship. They are seeking accelerated possession as a result of the rent arrears, which only accrued as a direct result of their action and behaviour. Also as a direct result of that, they have failed to protect my deposit, as I will now not be receiving that back due to the rent arrears. Also the loss of expense I had in making required adaptions to the property, which I only did on assurance and agreement of a long-term let, and will have to bear the costs of all of that again at an alternative property.

Moving home again is also going to cost me significant upfront costs, further disruption to my health and ability to work, removals costs and various other damages. Can I ask the judge for compensation for all of the above?

I was severely unwell with Covid and other conditions at the time they wanted to inspect the property and to evict somebody for that reason is outrageous and unlawful discrimination.

[Malibu1]

Answers:
42 days from the date of the Order of Possession.

A defence allegation that the landlord has breached the terms of the tenancy agreement may be made. But, your writing seems to me to be, at bottom, allegations of harassment.

The only way that those allegations can be brought within the ambit of the current proceedings is if the conduct of the landlord or his agent amounted to interference of your "quiet enjoyment" of the rented property.
However, that will not result in the S.21 application being dismissed - Your allegations, if held by the court. on the papers, to be arguable, will result in a hearing being set down. That may buy you some time to find new accommodation, given that the courts are back logged by about 3 months.

Do bear in mind that your landlord is a limited company.

The fact that people who may be connected with that company may have harassed you, is not, in my view, evidence that the company, your landlord, has harassed you. As for the landlord's letting agency, it does seems to me that your conduct regarding entry for statutory and landlord's inspections might well be viewed as obstructive conduct.

I really have nothing further to add - when you have posted up your draft defence, I may find time to look at that.

efpom - Thank you for your reply. My defence has to be sent to the court by 28 September. Does that mean that the order of possession may be made on 28 Sep, or would it be made at a later date? I apologise for all of the questions.

I do not understand what you mean about the landlord being a LTD company - Does that make any difference to this? I have searched info regarding their company and have identified the landlords names and can also see that they are multi-millionaires.

The letting agent has confirmed that the lady repeatedly seen walking the dog to spy through bedroom window is one of the landlords. The location she was walking the dog was solely to spy through my windows and harass me.

The person who trespassed with the golf buggy, hanging over the garden fence was solely to intimidate and threaten and that was the male landlord. That was at night-time and was not any farm worker carrying out any farm work. It was done solely to intimidate me and I watched the golf buggy return back to the landlords house. I also have that recorded on CCTV.

I do not know who was driving the machinery for the crop spraying, but in any event, the landlords are responsible for any actions of their employees.

My conduct regarding entry for inspections has most certainly not been obstructive and I have bent over backwards to accommodate, communicate and retain good relations with the LL and the letting agency. They breached contract with the gas engineer by not proving any notice at all of his visits. He turned up at the property twice, with no notice whatsoever, or appointment, trying to gain entry and was disruptive knocking on doors and ringing bell and I did not know who this was.

From my understanding, if a gas engineer attempts entry twice, without success they then have the legal right to break into the property. They are supposed to provide notice, as per tenancy agreement, which they failed to do.

I did accommodate the gas inspection, to my own detriment and had to initiate contact with the agency myself to arrange the inspection. Had I not done so, they would have broken into to the property. They have failed to adequately manage the tenancy as per the tenancy agreement.

I was already recovering from being severely unwell with Covid, and shielding due to being high-risk of Covid due to pre-existing physical conditions and had also only just gone through the stress and disruption of moving home. I had to block a day off work to accommodate the gas certificate, whilst also shielding, and then contracted Covid again following the gas inspection, causing me further severe illness, which also affected my ability to work.

I appreciate some tenant may be happy for landlords / agents / tradespeople to enter their home whenever they want, whilst they or out at work, but every tenant is different and I have had bad experiences in the past of people randomly entering my private home with their own set of keys. This may be acceptable to some tenants, but most definitaly not acceptable to me.

I have also in the past had to suffer the loss of having a pet run over by a car, because a builder was flinging various doors open. This particular property there is a very busy main road to the front of the property, and I do not think it is obstuctive to require that I am present for any required entry to the property, so that I can ensure the safety of my pets.

It is a good job I ensure I was present for the gas inspection, to ensure my pets were secured, as the engineer required various access opening various doors and also had the garage door, gates and internal doors open during the gas inspection, and had I not been able to secure my pets, they would have run out onto the very busy main road. I have every right to protect my pets. In addition, I also work for home, so any access to the property requires me to have to block time off of work.

All tenants are different, and I do not consider it to be, in any way, obstructive, to wish to be present, and available at mutually convenient times, to allow any access. Even if I didn't have pets, or if I worked away from home during the day, I would still not be happy with any other person accessing my private home without me being present.

I do still believe that they should have, and easily could have, carried out the new gas safety certificate, before I moved in, regardless of whether they are legally obliged to or not.

The subsequent property inspection they required and demanded at their own specific convenience, was not convenient for me for various reasons, and offered every reasonable alternative. It was therefore them being utterly unreasonable, disrespectful and obstructive and I was evicted solely because I was unable to adhere to their impossible demands.

They have zero respect for tenants and their behaviour is outrageous and disgusting. The letting agents have acted with the utmost unprofessionalism, negligence and incompetence and have not acted in the best interests of wither tenant, or landlords.

They breached tenancy agreement and treated me with absolute contempt and lack of respect and evicted me solely because I was unable to accommodate on their unreasonable demand.

[islandgirl]

If the deposit was not protected in a scheme you can sue them for 3 x the amount of the deposit. The right docs not being served on entry (right to rent etc) can result in a S21 being invalid. The advice over at Landlordzone is always to contact Shelter who are apparently extremely helpful. You have to hang on a while but will speak to an expert. I think you would benefit from having someone go through things with you so that would be my advice.Details (from another site) are: call Shelter free helpline 0808 800 4444 - expect wait - for advice.

[efpom]

Ref your post 36
"My defence has to be sent to the court by 28 September. Does that mean that the order of possession may be made on 28 Sep….?"
Answer No.
I do not understand what you mean about the landlord being a LTD company - Does that make any difference to this?
Answer Yes. Your contractual relationship – the tenancy agreement, is with the company – a legal person. Per the law of agency, any conduct of the agent is deemed to be the conduct of the principal i.e. the company, with the exception of criminal conduct by the agent.
The natural persons you assert harassed you cannot be your landlord(s), as a matter of law. Your remedy is to sue those natural persons for whatever tortuous conduct you say they have committed against you.
I regret that I am unable to answer any further questions you may have at this stage, because of other pressing demands on my time. I refer you to my post #22

[Malibu1]

Hi,

Apologies for not uploading this sooner - I had hoped to get this done last week, but have been unwell... My defence (and counterclaim) has to be sent to the court by 28 Sep - Does that mean it has to be received by the court on 27 Sep?... It doesn't specify any time...

I know my written defence is probably not very good, but is the best I have been able to do... Would really appreciate if you could take a look and amend if needed - Would really appreciate any help and support with this.

Many Thanks

[efpom]

I comment on your Defence form
(accelerated possession procedure) your post #39


as follows:

17 If the Claimant has completed section 18b–18d, have you received
the document ‘How to Rent’ marked ‘H’?
Your answer No
If the judge believes that answer might be true the accelerated possession claim will fail and a hearing will occur.
20
The section 21 notice was a retaliatory eviction, served solely because I was too unwell with Covid and other conditions to accommodate an inspection on their demand. I offered every reasonable alternative
If the judge believes that answer might be true the accelerated possession claim will fail.
The judge does not have jurisdiction to take account of the remainder of your writing at 20 because it refers to a counterclaim and the accelerated procedure is not the proper forum for that.
21 I would suffer exeptional financial hardship by being evicted and also suffer from mental health conditions, in addition to various physical conditions, which would be exacerbated if evicted.
The judge does not have jurisdiction to take account of the remainder of your writing at 21 because it refers to a counterclaim and the accelerated procedure is not the proper forum for that.
At 21 I suggest that you insert after evicted “at 14 days notice” and ask for 42 days – the maximum the judge has jurisdiction to give.

At 22 your grounds are hopeless - I suggest that you submit, if true, that you do not have the means to pay.

At 23 again, your grounds are hopeless -the court requires you to "give details of your means" i.e. income and expenditure.

[Malibu1]

efpom - Thank you for your reply. I can see they have included the 'how to rent' document within the court claim, but having gone through the paperwork provided to me at beginning of tenancy, I cannot see this document, so have ticked No for that.

I refer to previous examples where people have submited ( and won) counterclaims under these circumstanses - And the info I found online stating that a tenant CAN file a counterclaim for accelerated possession - Is this correct? Will the judge allow me more time to adequately present my counterclaim?

I can provide the court with a current fit/sick note referencing mental health conditions, if that would help? If so, can I just email that to the court, along with the defence forms, and should I make any reference to that in the written forms?,... Such as - I have attached a copy of current medical record / fit note?

Ultimately, I need more time to secure alternative accomodation and am concerned a time limit of even 42 days would not be enough - This is due to factors beyond my control.

Ideally I would like the judge to dismiss the claim completely. And I would like damages / compensation awarded to me from the landlords. I am struggling to know how to put this across to the judge, and am easily confused.... If any amendments you think could help to the current defence form - Please could you amend the form if possible and upload exactly what I should send to the court.

Many Thanks

[efpom]

Thank you for your reply. I can see they have included the 'how to rent' document within the court claim, but having gone through the paperwork provided to me at beginning of tenancy, I cannot see this document, so have ticked No for that.

OK

I refer to previous examples where people have submited ( and won) counterclaims under these circumstanses - And the info I found online stating that a tenant CAN file a counterclaim for accelerated possession - Is this correct?

In my view that is not correct.

Will the judge allow me more time to adequately present my counterclaim?

In my view No.

I can provide the court with a current fit/sick note referencing mental health conditions, if that would help?
YES That might persuade the judge to extend the Day on which the Order becomes effective from 14 days to a longer period
If so, can I just email that to the court, along with the defence forms, and should I make any reference to that in the written forms?,... Such as - I have attached a copy of current medical record / fit note?

YES

Ultimately, I need more time to secure alternative accomodation and am concerned a time limit of even 42 days would not be enough - This is due to factors beyond my control.

See my previous writing - jurisdiction

Ideally I would like the judge to dismiss the claim completely. And I would like damages / compensation awarded to me from the landlords. I am struggling to know how to put this across to the judge, and am easily confused.... If any amendments you think could help to the current defence form –

See my previous writing - jurisdiction

Please could you amend the form if possible and upload exactly what I should send to the court.

No – that seems to me perilously close to providing legal services.

[Malibu1]

No – that seems to me perilously close to providing legal services.

I must have misunderstood, as I thought that was why you were asking me to upload a draft so that you could take a look?

[Malibu1]

If anyone could possibly offer any input at all into what I have written on the draft form, to maybe re-word it better for the judge, or amend / re-word, or add anything I may have missed, it would be greatly appreciated, as I do not feel it is worded very well and am sure somebody might be able to improve the wording to put my case across better. Many Thanks

[Malibu1]

I apologise for so many questions, but would very much appreciate if you could help with this:

1. The court papers state that I should return forms by 28 September. Does that mean the form has to be received by the court before the 28^th, such as by the end of day on 27^th?

1. If I am filing a defence and/or counterclaim, am I supposed to pay any fee at all, or complete any help with fees application at all?

1. When emailing the form to the court, should I include any covering letter at all, or is simply an email ok to say, “please see attached”. Is there anything specific I should include in email to the court?

1. I do not feel I have included enough information in my written defence. Should I add more detailed information? The form only allows a certain amount of text. If I add more info, can this simply be attached as an additional typed document? And if so, is it acceptable to just write the claim ref number on the top of page, or should I include any other details, such as claimant & defendant details to the page? If so, does anyone please have a template that I can complete?

1. I missed out some details, such as the letting agent sending tradespeople to the address with no notice at all, breaching terms of tenancy agreement. Should I add that to the defence and also more details about the specific incidences of harassment, more information about my health conditions, more information about the specific injuries caused by negligent misuse of pesticides, or is what I have written ok?

1. Are there any specific areas of law I should quote on the form to help the judge, such as the Protection from Eviction Act, Harassment Act, Covid Act, or anything else? And if so, please could you help with the correct wording for that and where that should be written?

1. I understand there is a new law being made regarding S21 evictions – I am not sure if that law has been passed yet? This was very clearly a retaliatory, unlawful eviction – Should I make any reference to this new law on the form? And if so, what wording should I write?

1. I have discussed my circumstances and health in relation to Covid and other conditions with the letting agents and the landlords solicitor, in an effort to resolve this outside of the courts and they have repeatedly treated me with derision, discrimination and contempt. Should I also state this on the form?

1. They also negligently and uneccessarily exposed me to Covid when it could have easily been avoided, causing me severe illness and already being extremely high-risk. Should I specifically state that as well?

1. I would like to send some evidence along with the completed forms, however some of my evidence is not yet available and will take some time to obtain and prepare, such as Police report records, HSE report records, medical evidence and other supporting evidence. Should I specifically state this on the form and request more time to obtain and prepare evidence for the court?

1. I have a fit / sick note I can send – Should I send that, or do I need to wait to be asked for evidence? I could also send some videos and /or photos of the crop spraying and injuries. Should I send those as well, or just mention them in the form?

1. Is there any legal help at the court who could provide any representation on my behalf in front of the judge? Or would that require knowing when a court hearing will be?

1. I am still confused as from what I understand, I can make a counterclaim, but you say I cannot? I would like to claim damages for all the harassment and other damages caused. Can I specifically request that the judge consider awarding damages to me? If so, how should that be set out / worded on the form? Would I need to specify an amount? Or can I request more time to obtain legal representation and time to prepare my claim? Should I also send a letter directly to the landlords at this stage, setting out my claim and damages caused, or not?

Sorry for all of the questions – I would very much appreciate your help with this.

Many Thanks