Meritless disrepair claim costs Torus tenant £3,262 in court costs
08 August 2022
This July saw a St Helens tenant with £3,262 in court costs to pay after being encouraged by a legal firm to pursue a claim of disrepair against Torus, a claim that failed once the courts decided it had no merit.
The shocked tenant, who now has 21 days to pay the costs, was claiming for up to £10,000 alleging Torus had failed to comply with repairing obligations.
During the case, the Judge commented:
“The evidence suggests there is no merit to the claim, that it is a waste of time.”
“The claimant has not met burden of proof; the claim fails and is therefore dismissed.”
Lead Solicitor at Torus, Ian Larkins, said:
“We have a very good track record of successfully defending disrepair claims and in this case the tenant has been encouraged to pursue a claim which the court felt had no merit, which sadly has resulted in her being responsible for paying the costs.
“Apart from court costs, there are other financial risks for tenants. Once the claim has been initiated and the solicitor’s documentation has been signed, the Solicitors may not let the tenant change their mind and stop the claim, often advising tenants that if they stop the claim, they will be liable for; charges for the survey they have arranged, often up to £1,000 and credit agreement charges of over £500 for “no win, no fee” to cover legal cost insurance.”
This is not a one-off, a Warrington Tenant faced a bill of £1,800 after their disrepair claim was thrown out of court, as the evidence presented was poor and their account did not match the version of events presented by the solicitor. The Liverpool-based solicitors also admitted they had knocked on the tenant’s door pretending to be a Housing Officer, which did not go in their favour with the Judge.
A tenant in St Helens faced a shocking £3,800 bill after losing her disrepair case, only finding out after the case had closed that she was responsible to arrange the payment as the solicitors working on her behalf had not taken out insurance to protect their client.
Disrepair claims can also take up to two years to resolve and can cause further inconvenience to tenants, as the Solicitor ‘acting’ on their behalf may advise them not to allow Torus to carry out any repairs while the claim is ongoing. By following their advice to not allow Torus or HMS access to complete repairs, tenants may also be in breach of their tenancy agreement.
Disrepair claim companies use a legal scheme that was introduced to protect tenants from landlords who do not carry out repairs on their home. They encourage tenants to take legal action based on the promise of winning easy compensation.
Torus Disrepair Manager, Alan Thompson, added:
“Torus work hard to keep our homes in good repair and in 2021/22 Torus carried out over 87,000 repairs responsive repairs, which does not include planned investment or regular maintenance, but we do appreciate that sometimes customers are not satisfied. We just want tenants contact us directly if they have any complaints or feel they have disrepair in their home, as by doing this, we can look to reach a solution as quickly as possible.
“And for them to very careful before they commit to any agreements with these companies, they encourage them down a path which could result in them being in financial difficulty.”
Torus tenants can report repairs or make complaints in a variety of ways, including using their online account, website forms, emailing info@torus.co.uk or by contacting us free on 0800 678 1894.
