Court proceedings re Tenant deposit

[Pumpy001]

Hi
I'm wondering if you could at all help my elderly mother.

She received a letter from a solicitor seeking £10.8k to be deposited under their account to avoid court proceed under section 213 of the housing act.

On 20th March she started a new tenancy with a tenant , but in the mayhem of covid she was 2 days later than the 30 days allowed to register the deposit.

For which the solicitors are claiming 3x deposit plus some.

The tenant vacated December 2022.
He broke windows, caused a lot of damage in the property , broke furniture, and so forth. His children drew on every wall and he left loads of refuse behind.

The damages were for £3300.

Which fell heavily short of his deposit.

We went to claim this from the claims court and won.

He has been ordered to pay about £2000 by the courts .

Which he hasn't done so.

What im wondering is can these solicitors claim such a massive amount and take my mother to court for being 2 days delayed , given the tenant wrecked the place for which we have witness statement, receipts and evidence.

This has totally freaked my mother out. And you advice or previous experience would be appreciated

I've already told the current solicitors that should this go to court, im collating all letters from solicitors to show the degree of harassment ive experienced.

For a no win no fee solicitors to actually win , they need to risk assess each case and look at the probability of winning and pay a small claims fee. In this case its about 500 pounds fee for a settlement of 10.8k

If they know that he has a CCJ ,the courts are after him, now has a criminal recording of his actions, witness statements to say he threatened the current tenant there. The risk becomes too much to forgo 500 pounds,especially if mother was 2 days late in times of covid. She offered them discounted rent when his wife lost her job and they stayed for 3 yrs.