county court action by landlord of stables

[a n other]

hi all,

I hope I am posting this in the correct section.

we rented a stable for a horse for a while and then decided to move to another farm with more facilities. when the time came to leave the old farm we cleaned up and wanted to pay the landlord the owed rent (4 weeks @£14 £56) the landlord said we owed nearly double as we were late with the payment, but his figures did not add up, money was to be paid weekly and if late 50% could be added on but he did not always do this, anyway his figure even if 50% was added still did not add up and he would not accept anything less than he asked for. he has now taken it to cc and the figure has now gone up to nearly £400 but still with no explanation to how this figure has been reached.
we have returned the claim form stating that we are happy to pay the £56 owed, and we have also requested an explanation into how he came to the figure he is claiming. our offer was rejected, and now we have the directions questionnaire. he has returned his and ticked no to mediation, to me this shows he is not looking to negotiate with anyone on this let alone us.
I am about to send our directions questionnaire in and we have ticked yes to mediation as we are happy to try and sort this out outside of court.

can anyone help with this, I know its not a great amount but fair is fair. if he would explain to us how we owe the money then I would have a reason to want to pay it, I just don't agree with him saying we owe money and if we don't pay he would take it to court.

I guess there are not many laws regarding stable rent but surely he cant just do as he likes.


regards, a n other

[nemesis45]

Re: county court action by landlord of stables

Hi, is there a written agreement for the rental?

Can you either post a suitably redacted copy of the claim form or type in the statement of claim word for word please?

nem

[a n other]

Re: county court action by landlord of stables

the mrs signed an agreement for the rental but he rushed her to do so and never gave her a copy, so the only copy is with the landlord.

attached is the claim form.



regards

[Amethyst]

Re: county court action by landlord of stables

Is he saying if you return the key he will knock £250 off the amount claimed ? ( just making sure I understand the last paragraph of the POC )

No he can't just do what he likes, there is a contract.

You rented the stable for £14 a week ?

If you were late paying you paid a further £7 for the week you were late paying ?

Nothing in writing - he has the only copy of the agreement - he will have to disclose that to the court.

So you think you were 4 weeks late in paying plus 2 weeks notice ... so add late payment for the whole 6 weeks = £21*6 = £126 ? plus £250 for the key (!?!?!? bit much IMO ) - £376 - so nope no idea how he's got it to £397 - must be another week ( as difference is £21 )

and 50% late payment charge is a disproportionate penalty - so all those £7 can be defended on those grounds possibly - depends on the contract

[EXC]

Re: county court action by landlord of stables

50% charge for late payment. Unfair term?

[nemesis45]

Re: county court action by landlord of stables

I don't know what it is about stable and letting agreements there more often than not no proper agreements and alleged terms that are very unfair.

A few years back we stabled two horses with part livery service and every little thing as simple as a brush not put away incurred a charge.

The problem now is that this " farmer " can produce really what ever he likes by way of a contract, seen it done with copies signatures too.

nem

[a n other]

Re: county court action by landlord of stables

i know its been a while since i started this thread but i thought i would update you all on what happened last year.
after submitting all the documents to court and the farmer paying his fee to court a court date was set, unfortunately we only found out this when we received the judgement form court, but luck was on our side as it seems that the farmer was in the same position too or he just didn't bother to turn up. the judgement was set aside as no party turned up at court. Happy Days for us and Hard Luck Mr Farmer.