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?

They are a teenager and young adult. I said DC not that they were young. They’re still my DC no matter what age.

Work took 6 months. Still not completed when I was given eviction notice

Courts hear this type of shite all the time. They won't consider her feeling stressed as technically she is a business and businesses don't have feelings. Even if they were to look into her feelings it's can't be part of the case as it concerns the tenancy, not the aftermath

Lots of us self employed have to do this. It’s very common

What behaviour did you read that makes the OP sound like a massive ballache as a tenant?

You're going to get people picking apart your post here for a variety of reasons.

If you've decided to represent yourself rather than hire a professional, then you need to be able to seperate the legal bollocks from reality.

She will throw everything she can at this to defend herself - that was always going to be the case when you started this and if you'd hired someone to deal with it, you'd be removed from the emotional aspect of a lot of things a fair bit.

As you've not done that you DO need to rise above it. Courts hear a lot of stupid shit, they will recognise the drama and bullshit for what it is, if you have the evidence you need to prove your side of things and you're not over egging it and being over dramatic yourself, you'll probably get a decent outcome.

Chances of that resulting in her actually paying you any money of course are another matter entirely. She'll just claim she hasn't any.

If she evicted you because you made a complaint i think that comes under revenge eviction in sure you know that sounds not sure why I'm pointing it out really.

Hope it all gets sorted

Most landlords don’t seem to understand they are in a business agreement with tenants do they? They seem to think they are doing some kind of good deed.

I should imagine that if someone rented out a holiday villa and then had water pouring through the ceiling, contractors in and out which they had to stay in for and were disrupted by noise and mess, told they couldn’t bath or shower until the owner decided to fix it etc. they’d want a refund of what they’d paid for it when they got home

Doesn’t seem to apply when someone is renting a home with nowhere else to go.

Did you simply move out when you had the eviction notice, or did you wait for a court order?

I think you need to calm down a bit if you are representing yourself. If your snippy responses to anyone who has disagreed with you are anything to go by, you don't seem to want to listen to anyone's opinions apart from your own. Listening to both sides is what the court is there for.
For what it's worth, I think the liklihood of you getting six months rent back because the landlord carried our repairs you had requested in next to nil. But you are not really interested in anyone else's opinion but your own.
I'm a bit puzzled why you think stress is a perfectly reasonable thing for you to allege but are outraged when your LL does the same.

He said, she said. "You made me stressed and anxious", "No, you made me stressed and anxious". I hope that you both lose tbh

No idea why people are being so shitty to you. i can only assume they either havent rented, or are landlords themselves! I rented for 18 months after i had to leave my house due to my ExHs behaviour and it was awful. The landlord kept half my deposit unfairly and the protection scheme was useless, and I was told to go to court if I wasnt happy. I decided against it as really not worth it for me, so I applaud you doing it. Well done. I am so glad I no longer rent. I agree with the PP who said you need to separate yourself emotionally some how. Its really hard. My Exh was awful to me through his solictitor, and even though I had a solicitor it was still hard. The great thing about court though is you cant just say things, you have to prove it. my exh said all manner of things about me, and some people believed him. The court however asked for proof and he had none. I however had reams! It was a great day even though it was stressful running up to it. Stay cool and dont worry about what she says - you have the evidence and she doesnt.

The claim is for breach of contract and breach of landlord legislation causing us to have contractors in and out of the property for 6 months (lack of peaceful enjoyment, I WFH) out of an 8 month tenancy because she kept doing bodgejobs and loss of amenities included in the tenancy. and also a pest infestation caused by lack of maintenance and major repairs that there is evidence were known about before the start of the tenancy.

I knew this was the Silverfish poster the minute I opened the thread.

You didn't like the replies you got on the last thread (which mostly told you to leave the fuck alone and focus on the future) so you seem to have name changed and come back for round 2.

Not sure that this thread will proceed much differently to the last.

You've moved out right? And in a new place?

This is a rabbit hole and tbh it sounds like a load of time and energy on your part. You sound really angry and pissed off- but what are you going to gain? Is it just for cash??

Focus on your business and your family. Reassess. Let it go.

You both sound a bit mad

From memory, they already have another place which is being refurbed and they needed temporary accommodation in the meantime.

Please someone with a better memory of the last thread feel free to jump in and correct me if wrong.

@JustWowser

If you can't afford a solicitor, deep research on chat gpt is really good for helping you win your claim. Many solicitors might also help you for a fixed fee.

She sounds like a sloppy & neglectful LL, I'm so sorry for your stress.

That isn't OP's question. She wants to know how the landlord's words will make her, OP, look in court. Will they believe that she made such a threat? I'm not sure anyone in a position of judgement would take someone's dreams into account but if the landlord ramps it up to saying that OP actually used those words, that's a whole different thing. OP knows it's a lie but others don't.

She's allowed to defend herself against your allegations, do you expect her to roll over and accept what you say?

Yes I have. I’m not wasting money on legal fees when she doesn’t have representation herself, which I may not see the benefit of if I lose. I’m obviously claiming the court fees which include the hearing cost.

I have a pretty watertight case and have thoroughly researched the legal side or I wouldn’t have pursued it.

All in email format although she is claiming that the letting agent didn’t fully forward on all emails and only sent her excerpts. That’s her issue with the letting agent though as she still has responsibility as the landlord for communication between them as her agent. She’s also claiming she was experiencing a stressful time unrelated to the repair issues (before this legal action) so didn’t have time to read them!

Funnily enough, she’s used as an excuse something similar to what we experiencing while builders were in which she was told about as we’re were told a big bit of work would take 2 weeks but it took 8 weeks as her builders (she refused to use the letting agents contractors) kept on disappearing for days/weeks after doing a little bit, then turning up at 3pm to do a little bit more, so we asked her to speak to them as DH was recovering from a major op which we had arranged for when we were initially told the work would have been completed but they kept delaying the start date and in the end the builders turned up a day after he was out of hospital! The work was taking place in our room (ripping out and replacing an en suite) so he couldn’t even recuperate in our bed. Also my DS had to have emergency surgery in the same week (appendix) while we had builders in banging and ripping out tiles. They said if we didn’t want it done then, we’d have to wait a further two months and as we’d been told the silverfish infestation was due to all the damp in there, (they were in our bed) and youngest DS was having NIGHTMARES that they were crawling over him in his sleep, we had no choice but to let them do it.

Fucking hell, just realised that where she got the nightmares from! That’s disgusting!

I just can’t get over how low people can stoop when they are in the wrong, to thinly veiled suggestions that I might burn her house down with her children in it. The few communications we had over text were totally professional from my part.

She had been giving me the sob story that she rented her house too and had no money for repairs as our high rent didn’t cover the mortgage on the property (which I was sympathetic to) then later in the same conversation said she was using the same builder to replace HER bathrooms in her house (obviously her renting it was a lie), as she was using for ours, so wanted me to check the work was a good enough standard! I later found out she’d got him doing work in her house before he’d finished ours which she had a legal responsibility to complete.

As an extra support for your court case, I would try and get a charity that supports children with autism and mental health issues to write a supporting letter stating the adverse effects all this constant building work and unfamiliar workmen in the house, over a long period has had on them. It clearly sounds like she tellingly let the property out when it wasn’t in a rentable condition.
The courts will only be interested in facts, not someone having nightmares. Best of luck, sounds horrendous

Also your GP and any services you might use

I am glad I am not a landlord!

God, there are clearly a lot of crappy landlords on here leaping to the defence of someone who rented out a substandard property!

OP, putting that in the defence is ridiculous and will be seen as such by the court. She’s clearly implying that there is a threat of violence towards her to get sympathy for her defence - the court will have seen it all before, so don’t give it any thought.

In my younger days I lived in some appallingly maintained rental properties because the landlords were too tight to deal with things until they became emergencies. I really hope you win your case 🍀

I’m glad I’m not a tenant 🙄