To be shocked at landlord’s allegations about me

[JustWowser]

I am currently suing my previous landlord for very good reason.

She is defending the claim. Part of my claim is for emotional distress and stress which is clearly evidenced.

Got her defence this morning and it is pretty ridiculous but at the end she has stated the great stress she has been under since I was given her address (letting refused at first until I informed them if the law), that she has chest pains, couldn’t work and had to go to her GP for stress.

She also stated that she has had nightmares that I would burn her house down while her children were in it.

This has shaken me tbh, that someone would say this about me. I’m a regular Mum, never made any threats or abuse to her. It is a shocking thing to say.

What do you think the court is going to think of this?

Well that advice was wrong (I’ve had free legal advice since then) but thanks for your input. Not sure what you point are trying to make as we are a way along now as was obvious from my post.

I hope to show other tenants that you can take your landlord to court and win and you don’t need to put up with being treated like cash cows with no rights, and treated like scum.

If she's representing herself you should get a solicitor to represent you. Always try to stay one step ahead. She's defending the claim herself because she knows that you don't have a solicitor representing you - there's no risk to her, either you win or you lose, but it won't cost her more than if she caved in. Get yourself a solicitor so that if you win you can pass some of the costs onto her. That might make her realise it's not worth defending the claim.

but you haven’t won? So you still have nothing to demonstrate?

Courts tend to deal in facts and losses. So if you incurred costs yourself because of the landlord's negligence (and can produce receipts etc), that's the sort of thing you'd be able to claim. For example, putting work right at your expense, or taking unpaid leave from work to deal with a problem the landlord should have sorted.

They won't deal with monetary compensation because you felt stressed or because your landlord had nightmares (with no material impact).

Not especially clever tbh...we can all see her wording and it not accusing op of anything. I imagine the courts will see that too.

If anyone could go around suing anyone else because they had nightmares and their own imaginations had got the better of them, the courts would be packed out!

I imagine both the stress claims will not get much time spent on them by the courts. I think the legal threshold to sue for stress is a lot higher than "she wanted my address and I imagined she would torch my house and I had NIGHTMARES"

Maybe she was instructed to do the works by the council or they were legally required. There are times when building works are an upheaval even for those who are home owners . You sound like a massive ball ache as a tenant tbh . Do you think you’re landlady doesn’t need to pay the mortgage if works need to be done . The bank doesn’t come to her and say you’ve got noise and disruption so don’t pay us . Entitled much . Good luck to your next landlord .

No she had to because there was water pouring through the ceiling every time we used the bath or shower. Issues easily foreseen before we moved in, they didn’t suddenly appear.

No we absolutely should not have been rented a property that needed long put off major repairs as soon as we moved in, without being warned, leading to months of disruption. stress and invasion of privacy!

We had no say or knowledge in whether the property was properly maintained before we moved in unlike a homeowner (which I have been myself so know the difference very well) so absolutely no comparison.

New landlord has no issues with me. Informed of repairs that needed doing on viewing and they were done before we moved in.

This, with bells on.

@JustWowserplease take this advice. The threat of costs awarded to you will make her see sense.

So
You're unhappy because there were faults and damage and her response was to instigate work to fix it all?

You don't get costs awarded in a small claim like this. Each side pays their own costs.

If you knew that using the bath and shower caused water to pour through the ceiling, and you continued to do so, then you're not in the best position. You've caused a lot of damage and it sounds like she's been proactive about getting people in to fix it.

I would assume a rental with enough room for OP and two children would cost more per month than the max for small claims court, unless I've missed where the OP mentioned the specific court.

How many baths or showers were taken before the water problem became obvious and how soon after that did you notify the LL of the issue? How soon after notification did work commence, when was it finished, and did it been to be redone?

You need clear, documented timelines of all the bodged work, including tradesman details, LL's receipts, statements from tradesmen as to length of time spent on the jobs, scope of work, whether previous repairs had been bodged...

That she's going for a histrionic/emotive attempt to manipulate them into ruling in her favour.

So basically you're complaining the landlord carried out repairs and that caused you stress. I do hope you come up with something better than that 😂

I hope you win OP. She sounds like a bloody nightmare landlord.
I had a landlord once who got her dad and his mates to do any job on the house that was falling to pieces. The amount of stress it caused was unreal.
Ive had good landlords and bad. Too many of them dont want to provide even the legal minimum.
Im so grateful not to be renting anymore.

The landlord knew that extensive works were needed, but rented out the house without telling new tenants that they would be living in a building site, is more how im reading it.

Well I've just had the pleasure of my property flooded by the upstairs tenant because she 'didn't notice' the water flooding out of the toilet through my ceiling. Thing is, if I hadn't told her she wouldn't have noticed. It's called real life.

I’m just a bit sidetracked by the fact you work at home while simultaneously caring for two young children - taking the piss there

TBH if I was in charge of the court I'd think you were both being histrionic and ridiculous with all these silly claims of suing each other for stress etc

Have we find the landlord?!

found

Clearly lots of landlords on this thread OP, hence the defensive posts!

In my experience people start talking about stress in a court case when there isn't much evidence that they were inconvenienced, that they were impacted etc. I would be making it very clear that I had done nothing to make her feel vulnerable, did not have access to her property or keys to her front door as she did to yours.

Make sure your allegations of stress actually show you were stressed and that the stress impacted on you in ways that involved financial loss, ie doctor's appointments, therapies you paid for, time off work with a doctor's note that you lost money on.

And finally, going to court without a solicitor is very unwise, especially if the other side has representation. My organisation was involved in a court case recently with an individual who had no solicitor. They missed a court deadline for filing, the case was thrown out and costs were awarded. They will probably have to sell their house to cover the money.

No we we didn’t use them. Temp repairs done, told we could use them but they needed to be replaced. More water through ceiling, told not to use them again. It was apparently ok not to have a bath or shower to use, as we could use the sink.

Landlord was advised to replace before we moved in. Have evidence.

So she both did too much and too regularly building work on the home but equally didn’t maintain it or carry out repairs, but when she did do repairs it ruined your enjoyment and she evicted you from a home you claim you didn’t want to live in anyway?