Breaching of a contract (Letting Agency)

[Aryankids]

Dear community,

Like many times before I am hoping if I could have your advice on a legal battle so I can navigate myself through it.


Summary

I signed a contract with a large UK-based letting agency as a landlord back in 2021. I am with my 3 tenants on the same property and in the same branch of the agency. The transition between 2^nd and 3^rd tenants was very bumpy:

1. As per the contract they had to produce a “check-out” document and I had to pay for the fees, which I did. The official document was produced so carelessly one could categorise it as fraudulent. I raised that to them with 14 emails and 1 official complaint over a month till I could grab their attention. They apologised and refunded the check-out document fees. I accepted the refund and closed the complaint. I thought we were good to go BUT
2. They did not release the deposit to the previous tenant for 4 months despite the fact they had written confirmation from both my x-tenant and me. I sent more than 10 emails to have their attention. My tenant had to raise an official complaint.
3. They overcharged the tenant and put the money in my account. They realised they had made a mistake 7 months after the tenancy termination. They asked for the sum to be repaid. However, during the last 6 months, both my x-tenant and I asked for a precise calculation of the amount that I need to pay back to them (so they pay back to my x-tenant). I have 4 figures with no breakdown from two managers and a senior director of the company. So, I don’t know how much I have to pay and there is no explanation of how they got to those numbers.

The signed contract states that if they are doing “something wrong” I am legally eligible to walk away from the contract (that is the exact wording). However, if they are not in breach of their contract, I need to pay 6 weeks' rent + VAT. I dispute this with the following legal grounds:

1. As per explanation in (A) they clearly produced a document that is legally bonded to the contract yet contains absolutely shocking mistakes in it even an A-level student can spot them out without any difficulties. To me, this is a breach of contract. To them, they say we refunded you and apologised so you legally cannot refer to it again. N.B. My complaint was related to fees and the way they humiliated me. I mentioned not single word re breaching contract etc in it.
2. As explained in (B) They are not only in breach of the contract in accordance with the Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) agreement (Housing Act 1988 and 1996) but also they violate the terms outlined in the Housing Act 2004, which specify how deposits under the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) should be held and released. They believe this is not a breach or a violation, but it is a broken communication between us.
3. I believe (C) in addition to (A) and (B) above is a clear violation of The Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 (SGSA), which requires suppliers to deliver services to customers with reasonable care and diligence. They say this is miscommunication (B and C) and they say you are not eligible to talk about (A) as we refunded you.
4. They do keep threatening me with the 6-week fee payment. Equally, I would like to make it clear if this goes to court and if I win, in accordance with Rule 27.14 of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) 1998, I WILL claim the hours that I spent on the subject to train myself from the ground up with these legal terms (so far in the region of 7 hours)

I know there is nothing simple in the word of legal battles, but I was wondering from your 10000-foot PoV, do I have a legal ground to fight this back? A simple answer like 1 Yes, 2 Yes, 3 Yes, 4 No etc would do the job.

Many thanks for your help and support

Kind regards
Amir