How My Landlord Took Me to Court (Or What I Learned About Financial Disputes)

There are times that we’ll learn things the hard way, or life’s way, in general and this story is a summary of my learnings with my recent dispute with my landlord. You see, I knew I paid for my rent this last February yet my landlord continued to insist I haven’t paid anything yet. The trouble was, we never issued receipts to each other simply because it was an informal arrangement. But it was actually brewing more trouble than I first thought.

With the receipt gone, we continued to dispute if I had paid for this month’s rent. Eventually, my landlord grew tired of disputing with me on a daily basis and finally, I received a letter that sent me to meet him and his legal representative. The legal representative cleared to both of us that it was a sticky situation simply because he never issued a receipt and I never asked for a receipt. Without proper documents, we had trouble. However, the landlord was pushy and, even against the advice of his legal rep, called to have me on court.

The court investigated the entire scenario and the tricky situation described by my landlord’s legal representative was actually sticky because the landlord was discovered not to have paid his stamp duty and his rental property taxes. He was overdue by 12 months. Eventually, I was held not responsible for the entire case and my landlord faced a great fine and interest rate to pay for the taxes.

As I moved out this March and landed here in Birmingham a month ago, I realized that I always have to ask for receipts. My former landlord was a very friendly man and we became chummy with each other to the point that receipts and forms were never needed. But sometimes, you just need something concrete for times when you need legal support.