Associate
Some of you may have read a post I made last year about my bullying landlord.
For those who didn't, here's a précis:
We moved from France to the West coast of Scotland and within a few months the landlord's solicitor started sending letters threatening to evict us for non-payment of rent. Totally unwarrented as we had all the reciepts from the landlord and bank transfer details. Subsequently, the reason for continuing with an eviction notice was that my son was bullying their's. This was categorically denied by everyone at school including teachers (you must bear in mind that one cannot fart without the community knowing precisely the toxicity level of said gaseous explosion).
I then received threatening e-mails which resulted in a call to the local police who were well aware of the landlord's love of litigation.
The landlord stopped with the e-mails after I informed his solictor that I had involved the police. He then took to parking outside the house at very strange times when he should have had no legitimate reason to do so. This stopped after I got a witness to stand on the doorstep with me and take photos of him.
Next he removed the main gate to the property making it very dangerous for my children to play out near the main road.
Finally, they came round to inspect the property. I secured the services of the local vicar to act as witness. The landlord's wife barged into me as she passed and made a fuss that I had blocked her path.
Outside the children's bedrooms the landlord had left his own children's artwork. I made the mistake of taking it down to reveal lots of scribbling and mess. I decided to paint over it knowing how they would attempt to blame us for the mess. Big mistake. They complained profusely about decorating a small peice of hall wall without express permission. They also took three photos of some child-sized hand prints on the bedroom ceiling.
By this time I was laughing at every petty thing they pointed out, it was becoming obvious as to their game.
Anyway nearly a year later, after having moved to London, the court in Scotland proclaimed that we indeed did owe then money in back rent and property reperations. It should be pointed out that we were not in a position to pay to travel up to Scotland to 'defend' the obvious facts and as such were guilty.
The long and short of it is that we are to pay a couple of thousand pounds even though we have the proof that we paid on time and up to date. We must also pay for non-existant damage to the property without seeing a single receipt and based on three photos of a grubby mit!
My wife is sick with the whole situation and has agreed to pay £20 a week. My desire is to pay a nominal £5 per month until we move abroad but they are in a position to bankrupt us with as little as a nod to their solicitor.
How can you fight this when you can't afford to get up to Scotland? Should we rack it up to experience and let the ****** win. It seems that we are not in a position to have the case heard locally and are therefore shafted.
For those who didn't, here's a précis:
We moved from France to the West coast of Scotland and within a few months the landlord's solicitor started sending letters threatening to evict us for non-payment of rent. Totally unwarrented as we had all the reciepts from the landlord and bank transfer details. Subsequently, the reason for continuing with an eviction notice was that my son was bullying their's. This was categorically denied by everyone at school including teachers (you must bear in mind that one cannot fart without the community knowing precisely the toxicity level of said gaseous explosion).
I then received threatening e-mails which resulted in a call to the local police who were well aware of the landlord's love of litigation.
The landlord stopped with the e-mails after I informed his solictor that I had involved the police. He then took to parking outside the house at very strange times when he should have had no legitimate reason to do so. This stopped after I got a witness to stand on the doorstep with me and take photos of him.
Next he removed the main gate to the property making it very dangerous for my children to play out near the main road.
Finally, they came round to inspect the property. I secured the services of the local vicar to act as witness. The landlord's wife barged into me as she passed and made a fuss that I had blocked her path.
Outside the children's bedrooms the landlord had left his own children's artwork. I made the mistake of taking it down to reveal lots of scribbling and mess. I decided to paint over it knowing how they would attempt to blame us for the mess. Big mistake. They complained profusely about decorating a small peice of hall wall without express permission. They also took three photos of some child-sized hand prints on the bedroom ceiling.
By this time I was laughing at every petty thing they pointed out, it was becoming obvious as to their game.
Anyway nearly a year later, after having moved to London, the court in Scotland proclaimed that we indeed did owe then money in back rent and property reperations. It should be pointed out that we were not in a position to pay to travel up to Scotland to 'defend' the obvious facts and as such were guilty.
The long and short of it is that we are to pay a couple of thousand pounds even though we have the proof that we paid on time and up to date. We must also pay for non-existant damage to the property without seeing a single receipt and based on three photos of a grubby mit!
My wife is sick with the whole situation and has agreed to pay £20 a week. My desire is to pay a nominal £5 per month until we move abroad but they are in a position to bankrupt us with as little as a nod to their solicitor.
How can you fight this when you can't afford to get up to Scotland? Should we rack it up to experience and let the ****** win. It seems that we are not in a position to have the case heard locally and are therefore shafted.