Hi

[GermanShepherd]

I wish I had discovered this forum before. I found it when I started looking for information on how to draft the particulars. I am at the start of a claim to do with the callous destruction of everything I owned, following an eviction, after a severe loss of income as a result of which I could no longer pay the rent.

[PlanB]

Re: Hi

I am at the start of a claim to do with the callous destruction of everything I owned, following an eviction, after a severe loss of income as a result of which I could no longer pay the rent.

Can you post up a little background here so that we can offer specific help where possible. Is this a claim relating to employment or housing issues?

First things first, are you currently homeless and were you evicted from a private rental or social housing ?

[GermanShepherd]

Re: Hi

Can you post up a little background here so that we can offer specific help where possible. Is this a claim relating to employment or housing issues?

First things first, are you currently homeless and were you evicted from a private rental or social housing ?

Hi PlanB and others,

Thanks. First things first. ;-) Yes, I was homeless for about two months (and street-homeless for only a few days), but friends helped me off the streets and into a flat again. I spent quite some time trying to negotiate as well as trying to find a lawyer who could assist me (legal aid), and also spent some time gathering evidence. I filed my claim a while back, have been asked to rephrase and resubmit my particulars of claim, but that did not come as a total surprise. (Yes, I found the thread on drafting POC.)

I was evicted from private housing.

I am claiming damages for the (supposed) destruction and/or disappearance of my possessions (which were present in the flat at the time of the eviction). It is possible that the estate agency representing my landlady partly sold some or most of them, but neither the landlady (as far as I know) nor I ever saw any money coming out of that. My possessions included some jewelry, art, musical instruments, a laptop, office furniture and other items that could have been sold (and some of which had already sold, on eBay).

The estate agency broke at least two other laws in the period of about a year preceding my eviction. There were several instances of illegal entry in my absence, the traces of which had freaked me out at the time as I had no idea it was the agency staff that had left those traces. That only became clear after the eviction, after I spoke with another tenant of the same agency and with the police. The agency knew I had once been assaulted by an intruder in a previous home and could have known their actions had the potential of causing extreme upset. There were also violations regarding the tenancy deposit protection scheme, and I have proof of that.

While these latter issues do provide strong extra motivation for me, they do not appear worthwhile to pursue (in my case). Instead, I am focusing on wrongful interference with goods. I do believe that both the agency and the landlady did not fulfill their duty of care toward me either, but wrongful interference with goods which they knew to be mine is a much clearer avenue to pursue, in my view.

To anyone else in similar circumstances: I have found that it is not such a good idea to rely only or too heavily on advice given through legal aid and CABs. On the other hand, Shelter can often instantly point you in the right direction (whereas legal aid lawyers are not specialized in this area of law).


German Shepherd

[PlanB]

Re: Hi

Do you still have a copy of your original tenancy agreement? Most contain a clause which states that any goods left on the premises after seven days of vacating a property can be disposed of by the Landlord. If that clause wasn't in the contract than you may have a case. From what you say the Agent carried out these actions and not your Landlord. Is your claim against the Agent and could he say he was carrying out the Landlord's explicit instructions as his "agent" to try to pass the buck?

Were you given Notice of the eviction date by the court which the Agent/Landlord may claim gave you sufficient time for you to remove your belongings? Or was this eviction by surprise? I'm assuming that the Landlord took possession of the property by way of county count order hence the eviction.

Did you receive back your original deposit or were there rent arrears which exceeded the amount and so it was withheld/offset by the Agent/Landlord. The law changed a couple of years ago following a supreme court ruling which means that the court no longer has a mandatory duty to impose a financial penalty of three times the amont of the deposit on the Landlord once the tenant has left the property. This could impact on the amount you could successfully claim if there were any breaches with the original sum deposited (or not deposited in a scheme).

While you may not see the point of pursuing some of the awful things which happened to you, if you've got the evidence to support them, this could be useful if you need to make the court aware of your Agent/Landlord's conduct in general

[IanM]

Re: Hi

Hi GS.

Apparently G T Stewart solicitors in London deal with cases like this, maybe you should contact them for some advice as to whether your case has any merit and whether they would consider taking your case on Legal Aid.

[GermanShepherd]

Re: Hi

Will get back with more on all this later.

[GermanShepherd]

Re: Hi

Hi Ian, PlanB and others,

Thanks for your input.

My claim is against two parties, the estate agency and the landlord. If the case runs the whole course, the court will have to determine which defendant carries how much responsibility for what happened. Similarly, it would also be up to the court to make the final assessment as to whether my claim has any merit, but I as well as various solicitors agree that it has considerable merit. The only party who does not agree yet appears to be the defendants' solicitor. One particular solicitor I spoke with whose firm no longer takes on this type of case as legal aid - but used to - strongly urged me to simply take the case to court myself.

PlanB, to my knowledge, most tenancy agreements actually do not contain such a clause as you mentioned, although that may be changing these days. Even so, such a clause would still have to follow the law. In this particular case, the issue is moot, however.

I agree that it is not a bad idea to make the court aware of the agency's general conduct with regard to the law; thanks for pointing that out. (My deposit as well as two payments made by me appeared to have been overlooked, in fact.)

On the other hand, I can prove that I fulfilled my duty of care toward the landlord and took good care of the property. The other side may want to claim that I damaged the property - perhaps as some kind of "revenge" for being evicted??? - but I am confident that I can show that the opposite was the case.

Can anyone give me some feedback about the rules regarding formatting for documents to be submitted to the court and to what degree they are upheld in practice? I am particularly interested in details such as "no staples" and as to whether pages can be numbered by hand and in any logical way or must follow one particular system.

Again, thanks for your help, in advance.

GS

[GermanShepherd]

Re: Hi

Update: Case has been settled. It was a very interesting and good experience for me, all in all. I did well, even though I did find myself shivering like a leaf in the wind before the start of one of the hearings.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Hi

How much of your claim did you win?

Can you get the buggers prosecuted for theft?

[Amethyst]

Re: Hi

Update: Case has been settled. It was a very interesting and good experience for me, all in all. I did well, even though I did find myself shivering like a leaf in the wind before the start of one of the hearings.

Congratulations. Was it settled in your favour ?

I'm sorry your post asking for help with the intracacies of court paperwork was missed Court hearings are scary for those of us not used to such an environment, I remember being struck competely dumb at one of mine and spent the whole hearing just nodding (thankfully the defendants settled just prior to that hearing so it was just a formality to close things off !)