In April this year we took over a privately managed property where the landlord told us that the tenant was not paying but she was unsure how much in debt the tenant actually was.
When we calculated total arrears from the landlords bank statements (there were no other records), it turned out that the tenant was around $14000 in debt, that means that the tenant was in debt for around 12 months.
After attending a tribunal case today, it was found that the first time a breach notice was served was when we took over in April 2015 and it should have been served in May 2014, therefore the landlord was found to be in breach of not mitigating losses and this restricts the total claim she can make against the tenant.
The claim would now need to be through magistrates court as there is no insurance.
Further, because there is no ingoing inspection, we are unable to claim damages to property - no proof of original condition.
don't even get me started on the non existent water invoices - the tenant was not invoiced for water in the entire term of the tenancy!
This was obviously a very badly managed property, there was poor record keeping, no ingoing inspection reports, no landlords insurance, not even full bond was taken. This landlord went on full trust that the tenant was going to do the right thing and the tenant took total advantage of her.
The landlord is a friend of my mother in laws otherwise I would never go near such a badly managed place with missing paperwork.
Trying to recoup as much as possible back for the landlord through higher courts - not sure how this one is going to end up.... probably a huge loss for the landlord, a judgement against the tenant and a waste of my time!
When we calculated total arrears from the landlords bank statements (there were no other records), it turned out that the tenant was around $14000 in debt, that means that the tenant was in debt for around 12 months.
After attending a tribunal case today, it was found that the first time a breach notice was served was when we took over in April 2015 and it should have been served in May 2014, therefore the landlord was found to be in breach of not mitigating losses and this restricts the total claim she can make against the tenant.
The claim would now need to be through magistrates court as there is no insurance.
Further, because there is no ingoing inspection, we are unable to claim damages to property - no proof of original condition.
don't even get me started on the non existent water invoices - the tenant was not invoiced for water in the entire term of the tenancy!
This was obviously a very badly managed property, there was poor record keeping, no ingoing inspection reports, no landlords insurance, not even full bond was taken. This landlord went on full trust that the tenant was going to do the right thing and the tenant took total advantage of her.
The landlord is a friend of my mother in laws otherwise I would never go near such a badly managed place with missing paperwork.
Trying to recoup as much as possible back for the landlord through higher courts - not sure how this one is going to end up.... probably a huge loss for the landlord, a judgement against the tenant and a waste of my time!