Fraudulent Injury claim being made against me!

Fraudulent Injury claim being made against me!

9:31 AM, 20th February 2017, About 7 years ago 8

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An ex tenant is making what I strongly believe to be a fraudulent injury claim against me.injury

The incident is said to have happened in my property as a result of disrepair.

I have a very strong reason to believe the claim to be fraudulent due to a number of things – events,
what this person has said, what others in the house have said and witnessed.

I can provide a time line of evidence of checks, that the property has been in good repair – good
feed back from ex tenants etc.

I’m just concerned that despite all of this the judge may yet side with the tenant.

Can anyone recommend any good solicitors, advice or resources to do with this type of claim?

Many thanks!

Kev


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Comments

Neil Patterson

9:36 AM, 20th February 2017, About 7 years ago

Hi Kev,

What was the injury and was was claimed to cause it?

What sort of amount is the claim for?

We only work with, know and recommend our partners at Cotwold Barristers if you wish to make contact with them please see Mark Smith's members profile and contact form
>> https://www.property118.com/member/?id=1945

John Constant

11:31 AM, 20th February 2017, About 7 years ago

Kev,
this is the sort of thing that your landlord insurance is for. You need to inform them of the situation immediately and put the matter in their hands. Do not correspond with the ex-tenant at all, but merely forward all correspondence to them, who will no doubt have solicitors who will be able to fight this on your behalf, assuming that you had legal cover on your policy. Check for details.

Adrian Matthews

11:42 AM, 20th February 2017, About 7 years ago

Kev,

I echo John's sentiment. I've been through this and my broker and insurance company handled it all. It was a fraudulent claim which, after his solicitors advice, the tenant finally backed away from due to evidence of repairs and witnesses.

John Constant

12:10 PM, 20th February 2017, About 7 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "John Constant" at "20/02/2017 - 11:31":

I should have read my post before hitting submit; when I said "send all correspondence to them, I meant your insurance company, not the ex-tenant as I had previously mentioned in that sentence.

Massive point in your favour is the fact that you have evidence of inspections, which I understand is a good line of defence in PI claims. If you have looked for the risks and eliminated them as far as you could, what more could you have done?

Don't worry about this; your insurers will make it go away, one way or another.
John

Gary Dully

2:44 AM, 21st February 2017, About 7 years ago

I have gone through this also.

Your insurance company is well versed in this sort of claim and they will fight it.

My tenant pulled this stroke after being evicted for rent arrears.

It took 2 years before it ended.

The government needs to legislate against this latest and growing scam.

1. By not allowing any legal aid.

2. There should be a criminal offence committed and pursued by the authorities by tenants who pull this sort of trick, with a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, a sequestration of all their asetts and a stripping of a solicitors license to operate for all the ambulance chasing legal companies who are now looking for landlords instead of PPI claims as a source of revenue.

MoodyMolls

8:13 AM, 21st February 2017, About 7 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Gary Dully" at "21/02/2017 - 02:44":

many dont get the legal aid now its the No win No fee solicitors which keep phoning up tenants

Cautious Landlord

15:34 PM, 21st February 2017, About 7 years ago

We had a tenant who whilst under the influence of drugs and alcohol - according to an independent witness who gave evidence to the loss adjuster - fell down some communal stairs dislocating his elbow. He claimed it was our fault as the carpet was loose. He then asked another tenant to falsify evidence that they too had noticed the carpet being out of place. The tenant was in arrears, great financial difficulty and we had issued s21. I reported all of this to my insurance company. I expected them to put this to the tenant via the no win no fee sols and tell them all to jog on before we involved the police in view of all the subterfuge. They forbade me to do this and said we would have to make a counter claim with all this evidence ! We had to go along with this for months into a year. Eventually it was negotiated between our insurers and the no win no fee parasites - as a result of us fighting our corner we got the claim reduced but it was still a few grand - mostly for the parasites. If we had taken it to court then we risked the claim going against us double the settlement and guess what the burden of evidence was all on us, the judges love a tenant don't they ! My family have been the victims of two other such claims. You need to report it all to your insurers in as much honest detail as you can, fight all the way but unfortunately accept that ultimately the insurers will want the soft option of a negotiated settlement - not right but that is how it is I'm afraid. To be fair when all was said and done the insurance coughed up and our premium did not increase materially.

Eli N

12:43 PM, 24th February 2017, About 7 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Cautious Landlord" at "21/02/2017 - 15:34":

Thanks for all the comments.
Your scenario is almost identical to ours. in our case the ex tenant is like yours - claiming a defect to the property is the cause of the injury but... other tenants have told us this person had been off work and suffering with underlying problems that led up to it.
The 'injured' tenant was very friendly with us when they called from hospital thanking us for being good landlords and taking good care of the property! I feel I need some good expert advice as i'm extremely limited for time due to kids and other work commitments and with almost all our profit going to business related loans and expenses, we don't have the money to lose to something like this which is concerning after having worked so hard for a future investment in property.

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