Last year there were five of us living in a house. We payed a damage deposit of £200 each (£1000 in total).
Today 3 of us have seen a letter he sent on the 1st Sept 2007 to our housemate in London who has been travelling until yesterday. We all (four of us now) moved in today to the new house. The letter listed a lot of damages exceeding £2300.
The big damages were that the bathtub was damaged by one housemate when he slipped in the bath and his knee went into the tub creating a hole sometime in February. He still has a scar from that. We informed the landlord and he said don't worry about it. He has now proceeded to charge us £650 because :
Unlocking doors when 2 of my housemates locked themselves out, 3 visits - £90.
This was not stipulated in the contract, and now face charges for it.
There were many other "damages" e.g. Missing chair £150, Fire rebate strip removed, which previous residents performed £200 (We called him time and again, mentioning the fire regulation rules but he never bothered replacing the strip while we were there).
3 Retainer cheques (£175) were not payed, although we have payed them and have record of it (cheque book, bank statements).
He wishes to be payed 28 days after post (1/9/07). None of us has this money.
Now we're thinking he's trying to scam us out of of more money, so we are going to ignore him.
Is there going to be serious repercussions if we do this? I.e, taken to court, CCJs, etc.?
Today 3 of us have seen a letter he sent on the 1st Sept 2007 to our housemate in London who has been travelling until yesterday. We all (four of us now) moved in today to the new house. The letter listed a lot of damages exceeding £2300.
The big damages were that the bathtub was damaged by one housemate when he slipped in the bath and his knee went into the tub creating a hole sometime in February. He still has a scar from that. We informed the landlord and he said don't worry about it. He has now proceeded to charge us £650 because :
Now, surely we only have to pay for the bath which should be nowhere near the price aformentioned, including labour costs (which by the way he has hired illegal eastern european immigrants who cannot speak English). The decision to replace the suite is the landlord's.
Unlocking doors when 2 of my housemates locked themselves out, 3 visits - £90.
This was not stipulated in the contract, and now face charges for it.
There were many other "damages" e.g. Missing chair £150, Fire rebate strip removed, which previous residents performed £200 (We called him time and again, mentioning the fire regulation rules but he never bothered replacing the strip while we were there).
3 Retainer cheques (£175) were not payed, although we have payed them and have record of it (cheque book, bank statements).
He wishes to be payed 28 days after post (1/9/07). None of us has this money.
Now we're thinking he's trying to scam us out of of more money, so we are going to ignore him.
Is there going to be serious repercussions if we do this? I.e, taken to court, CCJs, etc.?
