N208 claim form (Part 8) wondering is I could get feedback before submitting?

[Scandarabian]

Hi All,

I'm in the process of filling out form N208 after my landlord and their agent did not protect my deposit. I moved out beginning of March and then spent close to 2 months fighting to get any of my deposit back. Only after a letter before court action to the landlord's agent did I receive a portion of my deposit back. I was then made aware that my deposit had not been protected and that they had not secured a selective licence from Haringey council (which I will be submitting a separate rent repayment order claim for).

I sent a letter before court action to the landlord (who does not live in the UK) but have not received any response in two week and have decided it's time to take legal action although I am quite scared at the prospect. If there is someone out there who wouldn't mind taking a look at what I have prepared I would be so very grateful. although I've spent a long time researching how it should be written I am still very unsure of what I currently have.

I was also wondering if anyone had any advice on which court to submit to? I lived in the London borough of Haringey at the time but have since moved to Brixton.

If someone is willing to take a look please let me know and I will post what I have so far.

Thank you so much in advance for any advice you can give.

Scandarabian

[R0b]

Hi,

Post up what you have drafted with personal information redacted and we can comment.

Also just to point out that if you are aware the landlord does no reside in the UK at all then you may require permission from the court to serve the claim form per the Civil Procedure Rules.If you fail to comply and end up with a default judgment because the landlord didn't reply, it would be very easy for the landlord to set aside the judgment on the basis you did not validly serve the claim form, and you will be landed with costs on top of that. So a word of caution, get it right first time. You may be able to serve the claim form directly to the landlord's agents who have an address in the UK but you need to check your tenancy agreement and there should be a clause about serving notices or legal claims. If there's a nominated agent or address for sending legal claims then you could use that to avoid having to pay for permission to serve the claim form.

Selection of County Court isn't an issue, so Brixton or whichever is your local one, unless the court transfers it elsewhere for lack of resources.

Also just an after thought, if you supplied the money for deposit with an agent of the landlord, I believe you can also pursue the agent too. If I recall, the definition of "Landlord" in the legislation also covers agents acting on behalf of landlords.

[Scandarabian]

Hi R0b

Appreciate you offering to take a look. There is no address for either the landlord or the agent on the tenancy agreement but I have looked up the company the agent trades under and thought it would probably be best to serve the agent at the registered address for her office. The agent has submitted an application to strike off her company from the register (following my letter before court action) which is why I'm claiming against both the agent and the landlord. Is there any way to file a claim electronically as I have both their email addresses?

This is what I have so far:

1. The claimant is the former assured shorthold tenant of the property known as XXXXXX and the First Defendant Company is the landlord's agent. The second defendant and landlord is XXXXXX of unknown address. The tenancy agreement was dated 16 October 2021 and a copy is attached to this claim form [Exhibit A].

1. The claimant is making a landlord and tenant claim (CPR 56.1 (f)) and to comply with CPR PD Part 56 2.1 the claimant is using the Part 8 Procedure.

1. The Part 8 procedure applies to this claim (CPR 8.2(a))

1. The claimant paid the first defendant a deposit of £1903.84 on October 4th 2021. A copy of the transfer is attached to this claim [Exhibit B]. A copy of the first defendant's confirmation of receiving the deposit is attached to this claim [Exhibit C].

1. After the end of the tenancy in February 2023 the Claimant sought the repayment of the deposit from the first defendant. The first defendant disputed the return of the deposit.

1. After the end of the tenancy the Claimant became aware that the defendant had failed to protect the deposit in the tenancy deposit scheme. This meant that the Claimant was unable to raise and resolve the dispute through the government tenancy deposit scheme alternative dispute resolution processes.

1. The First Defendant acknowledged that the deposit had not been protected in a government-approved scheme on 21 March 2023 a copy of the First Defendant's acknowledgement is attached to this claim [Exhibit D].

1. The tenancy agreement stated that the Claimant's deposit was protected, but the Claimant was unable to obtain confirmation from any of the three government-approved scheme administrators that the deposit was ever protected. The Claimant can confirm that none of the TDS Schemes have ever held the Claimant's deposit. A copy of the letters from the three government-approved scheme administrators dated 27 March 2032 are attached to this claim [Exhibit E].

1. The Claimant sent the First Defendant a letter before court action on 19 April 2023. Following this, the First Defendant returned a portion of the deposit on 21 April 2023, however, ignored the Claimant’s request for compensation as well as the Claimant’s request for the Second Defendant's address. The Claimant is due £300 further from the original deposit amount. A copy of this letter is attached [Exhibit F].

1. On 25 May 2023 the Claimant became aware of a voluntary application to strike off the First Defendant’s Company. The Claimant is unsure why this was done but is concerned that it may have been done to avoid this claim.

1. The Claimant therfore also sent a letter before court action to the Second Defendant on 16 July 2023. The Second Defendant did not respond to the letter, a copy of which is attached [Exhibit G].

1. Further, the Claimant would also seek to make the court aware of the Defendants’ apparent dishonest nature insofar as systematically avoiding their legal duties during the tenancy period. In particular, The London Borough of Haringey Council Designation of an Area for Selective Licensing 2022, requires every house that is occupied under a tenancy to be licensed under section 85 of the HA. The Defendants failed to obtain the required selective license for the property which came into force on 17 November 2022.The property remained unlicensed between November 2022 and the end of February 2023 when the Claimant moved out. A copy of the claimant's correspondence with Haringey council confirming the property should have been licenced, but was unlicensed, is attached to this claim [Exhibit H].

1. The Claimant applies under s214 Housing Act 2004 for an order that the first defendant repays the remaining £300 of the deposit to the claimant. Alternatively, the claimant seeks an order that the Second Defendant pays this sum.

1. The Claimant claims an order that the second defendant pay the claimant a sum of money equal to three times the amount of the deposit within 14 days from the date of the order pursuant to s/214 Housing Act 2004. Alternatively, the claimant seeks an order that the First Defendant pays this sum.

1. The Claimant also claims interest from the defendants severally under section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year, from 4th October 2021 to 21st April 2023 of £234.93. The claimant also claims fixed costs.

1. In summary, for the reasons set out above the Claimant claims:

1. Payment of the outstanding £300 withheld from the deposit;
2. An order that the Defendants do pay the Claimant £5711.52 within 14 days, which represents a sum equal to three time the deposit amount;
3. Interest of £234.93; and
4. Application costs £332

[R0b]

Sorry in advance, fairly lengthy post.

Seems very strange that a tenancy agreement would not contain either the landlord's or the agent's address on a contract, I don't think I have ever seen that before. You could use the agent's company registered office to serve the claim form but if you have no information on the landlord, then you may need to make an application to the court to for approval that the claim can be sent by email or possibly other means such as serving it on the agent instead or by social media if you happen to have that information. You should however, take reasonable steps to ascertain the last known address of the landlord e.g. contacting the agent and asking for an address to serve the claim form or using a tracing agent to see if the landlord has any addresses in the UK.

Your particulars appear to be structured quite well and certainly not the worst I have seen but I think there could be some improvement on this (see points below). Of course you don't have to do any changes at all and that's your prerogative but it may be sensible to wait until you have made some further changes before I propose any other changes. If you don't want to follow any of the below, let me know and I can provide feedback based solely on what you have supplied.

1. The particulars of claim are intended to be a statement of facts and as a general matter of practice you should not be attaching documents or evidence unless it is absolutely necessary as this all forms part of your evidence in your witness statement. You only need to state a sufficient amount of detail about the facts for the defendants to know the case being brought against them. You are ok to include a reference to the tenancy terms because the CPR provides that if a contract is in written form then you should attach to your particulars of claim. All other exhibits should be removed but you can retain the references to the dates and the contents of the correspondence because those are the facts.

2. Unless the CPR or some other rules prescribe a way on how the particulars should be set out, there is no hard or fast rule on how you draft your claim. However, you should assume that the judge or anyone reading your claim has absolutely no idea about the claim or the relevant law you are relying on to support your case and as such, you need to handhold the judge - most judges have a specialist subject area they worked in as a lawyer so may not always be aware of the specific laws and issues in question. For that reason, and this is purely optional, I would always advocate using sub-headings to help signpost and enable the judge to understand your case and the crux of the issues being described.

Sub-headings may vary from claim to claim but they should signpost to the reader what you are talking about in that section. For example, for this type of claim, you may want to have sub-headings as:

(i) Introduction. A few lines to summarise the claim, like the first 3 paragraphs

(ii) The Parties. Not always necessary but if there is some doubt about the parties, you should clarify this. Better safe than sorry.

(iii) The Relevant Law. Not always necessary to have a sub-heading on this if it is a straightforward breach of contract but I think it is always good practice to explain the law or the relevant parts you are seeking to rely on as part of your claim. You don't really want to be springing that on the judge in the hearing and having to try and explain the law to them. Giving this information upfront allows the judge reading the papers to do their own research or at least understand the concept of your claim. It will help further avoid any ambiguity of your claim and whether or not you have a valid legal basis or that there is a lack of detail to your dispute.

You can either describe the relevant parts of the law by saying that the landlord and tenancy agreement is subject to the terms of the Housing Act 2004. You then go on to call out each section and sub-section as applicable using a numbered paragraph for each. Alternatively, you copy and paste the relevant sections into an exhibit and then cross-reference to that exhibit under the heading (these are one of the rare exceptions to my above point about exhibits as evidence since referencing the law is a statement of fact, it is what it is).

(iv) Landlord's and Agent's statutory breach of Housing Act 2004. This is where you should explain why the landlord and agent has breached their obligations under the Act.

(v) Remedies sought. Self-explanatory this one. Set out what you are seeking from the landlord and his agent with reference to s.214 and the sub-sections that enable you to be awarded 1-3 times the deposit amount. Usually, the multiplier will depend on a number of factors such as the conduct, whether the deposit was protected at all, is the landlord an experienced landlord or just starting out, reasons why was the deposit not protected etc.

Now, although these are really arguments that should largely be mentioned in court, I think it would be sensible to explain what multiple of the deposit you are seeking under this heading and the reasons why e.g. The Claimant seeks compensation in the amount of three times the deposit for the following reasons: (a) the landlord and agent have a combined experience of over 30 years between them in the industry (b) the deposit was never protected during the period of the tenancy, that period being XX years (c) No explanation or apology has been given by either the landlord or the agent for the failure to protect the deposit and in fact both of them have deliberately ignored correspondence when this issue was put to them, further aggravating matters and so on and so forth.

[atticus]

I have nothing to add in relation to the Particulars of Claim.

Notify Companies House that you object to the striking off, and why.

[R0b]

I have nothing to add in relation to the Particulars of Claim.

Notify Companies House that you object to the striking off, and why.

Good shout, missed that one.

I've attached an example letter to CH objecting to the strike off. May need to check the email address as not sure it is still valid.

[Scandarabian]

rob atticus

The company was dissolved a few days after receiving your response and I admit I lost my momentum at that point. Now that I've worked through my feelings of defeat and am ready to continue the fight is there any chance I can get the company reinstated? If so can I ask for an order of reinstatement in the same N208 claim?

Kind regards.