2 Court Claims for same debt

[fearful18]

Hi all,

I was in dispute with landlord and ended up leaving 3 months before tenancy officially ended. I was offered early termination by letting agents but when it came to signing they changed the terms (charging me for tenant finding and keeping all my deposit) so I left the place empty for 3 months. They got a possession order dated for the date my contract ended and a money order for rent outstanding.

Fast forward 6 months and the landlord has made a small claims court claim against me, for the outstanding rent plus damages plus they didn't take back the property on the day the judge said on the possession order and waited 5 weeks for bailiffs (adding more rent)

My question is: can they make 2 claims against me, because technically if this was paid there would be another outstanding court order PLUS i'm liable for 2 sets of court costs. I'd have thought the correct way to do it would be to enforce the original money order plus make a new one for the alleged damages?

Can I get the court to throw the claim out for any of these reasons? Also the letter before action stated he wanted £3000 more than they actually have claimed in court and wanted me to pay £6000 for redecoration (of a 2 bedroom apartment) plus they commenced court action 7 days after the letter. This isn't in line with pre action protocol.

[ash72]

You have a number of issues:

1. You left the property your property earlier than the termination date which hadn't been agreed. You effectively abandoned the property not left.
2. The Landlord/letting Agent, by law had to follow the correct process in order to get the property back, i.e. instructing bailiffs to remove you (even though you weren't there) typically it's 4-6 weeks after the possession order has expired.
3. The inventory or check was performed without you being there, therefore it would be hard to state to claim there wasn't any damage, unless you instructed someone to conduct an inventory prior to you leaving.

In your favour
1. The pre-action protocol of a 30 days hadn't been given you could argue on this point.

If you feel the 2 claims are related you should make a counterclaim and state that this is a duplicate of order xxxxx.

[realdeal2018]

They are related as claim 1 was for £3000 rent.

claim 2 was for £6000. But they’re only claiming £3000 damages. They other £3000 was from claim 1, so I’ve got a total of £9000 court claims, for £6000 of charges. They’ve even put the claim number and the fact they got a default judgement in from claim 1 in the particulars of claim 2.

[Amethyst]

Hmmm seems that second claim needs amending or striking out. Any chance you can post the particulars of claim? ( The first judgment was a standard CCJ moneyclaim for £3000 ? do you have the claim form for that still - if so the particulars & judgment on that would be useful too )

pt2537


Also did you take any photos of the place when you left ?
The early termination that was offered - did you actually sign it ( for them to keep the deposit and find a tenant - which sounds likely to have been cheaper than paying 3 months rent? ) Do the letting agent have terms from when you first took out the tenancy that give the terms for early termination ?

[pt2537]

Smacks of abuse of process to me, but that would need a strike out app its not something the Court would deal with in reply to a letter