A group of ex-York students recently breathed a sigh of relief as a two year long legal battle with an ex-landlord finally came to an end.
The students, a group of six girls, have asked to remain anonymous for fear of once again incurring the wrath of the landlord. They described their experiences to Vision as “a living nightmare”.
When the girls moved into the house which they had found on the university housing list in a popular student area, they had no idea of the predicament in which they would eventually find themselves.
The students’ problems started from as soon as they moved in. They noted that the house was in “a state of disrepair and had not been redecorated at all.” However although they noticed these things they did not think to take photographs for evidence; something they would go on to bitterly regret.
“We were very naive looking back. If we’d taken photos when moving in and out the whole drama could have been avoided.”
However, like most students, the possibility that they were about to be ripped off did not even enter the minds of the girls.
“When he took most of our deposits we were shocked,” said one of the girls. “We’d always had quite a good relationship with him; we’d even had him over to one of our parties.”
However the girls conceded that there had been signs that something may have been wrong.
“He had always been quite hit and miss when responding to problems, for example it took him a month to fix the toilet seat when it fell off, and he took ages to sort out the constant smell of gas in one of the back bedrooms.”
When the landlord refused to give a written list of all the reasons he had not returned their deposits, it became clear that there would be no reasoning with him and the girls, with the help of legal aid, took him to small claims court.
Upon hearing that he was being taken to court, the landlord came back out in force, making nearly £3,500 worth of claims in a counter-suit.
These included attempting to charge £800 for a mirror which he himself had broken whilst drunk at their party, £320 for a washing machine which had broken down during their tenancy and £150 for stained mattresses despite the fact that everyone in the house had used a mattress protector.
A stressful, two year legal battle ensued in which the landlord had the court adjourned twice and submitted reams and reams of irrelevant evidence including business cards and unrelated hospital appointment records.
The girls told Vision: “As we had to come from all over the country he attempted to prolong it and prolong it in the hope that we’d give up.”
“It was incredibly petty – it was only a few hundred pounds – it meant nothing to him as he’s got houses all over town.”
“We incurred loads of court costs but it was worth it in the end as he had to pay us.”
Eventually the ruling went against the landlord and the girls received their deposits back in full as well as compensation awarded by the court. After further complaints from the girls the landlord was also struck off the University Housing list.
The girls offer this advice for all students in order to avoid a similar situation: “Always ask for an inventory – to avoid being charged for things that are already broken – and always keep it professional with your landlords; get every visit properly recorded.”
Though they thought the matter was finally behind them the landlord has recently applied for the opportunity to appeal the judgement.
I may be wrong, but I thought that an appeal would only be allowed if there was an error in law or the decision was obviously extreme. I would think that the girls can be almost certain the case is over. The landlord should be named so others can avoid him.
The landlord cannot be named for legal reasons.
The point that the girls wanted to make was that if people follow a few simple steps i.e. taking pictures when moving in, making a note of every time the landlord comes round to visit and exactly is done etc then problems like this can be totally avoided regardless of who your landlord is.