When a tenant behaves badly, fails to pay the rent, and/or absconds
during the night, a landlord often has limited means at their
disposal for making the tenant see the error of their ways other than
trying to pursue them through the courts. But when two landlords from
London were faced with similar problems, they decided to take action
and contact the tenant’s employer, which caused a great deal of
embarrassment to the tenant!
Email shame
The tenant, a senior lawyer at a London law firm, was mortified when
his landlords fired off an angry email to his co-workers claiming
that he owed them rent for the previous two months and alleging he
had simply vanished from the property without clearing his belongings
or returning the key. They asked his co-workers to confirm the man
still worked at the firm and to contact him on their behalf.
I’ll see you in court
The angry tenant issued court proceedings against his landlords,
claiming he had been “injured in his reputation” and that he had
suffered great embarrassment and emotional upset.
In return the landlords fought back with a strongly worded reply
making counter claims about the tenant’s atrocious behaviour and
referring to an anonymous text message alleging the man had spent all
his cash on unsuitable female companions (a claim that was strongly
denied by the tenant). The landlords said their email was entirely
justified because they felt the tenant was acting in an unscrupulous
manner and bringing his law firm into disrepute.
The tenant later dropped his court action citing “disproportionate
costs” as a reason, although he admitted he had been a “problem
tenant”.
