Two year court case is now over.
I won several months ago, and was awarded a certain amount. This is with my old landlady, for not securing my deposit. And a miracle happened.
So basically she didn't turn up at court, hence I won. However, I knew she would not pay. She was offered to settle for £548 18 months ago and refused. It is now multiples of that (not going to go into how much for personal reasons).
Any way, the day before the solicitor was due to remove the funds from her account she walked into the building society and closed her account.
In October I was told I had to pay £160 for a bailiff to go and collect the money, however, I knew I would not get it.
Now this was a "no win no fee" case, however, if you win (which you will, or they would not take it on at all) but you can't get the person to pay you are left in a £550 hole in solicitor's fees. But it is more than that. At the beginning you pay £1xx pounds (I can't remember the precise amount) in insurance for if she counter sues. It's refundable, but only if they get the money from her. There is also another one I had to pay that was roughly the same. And then of course the £160 for the bailiff. If they can not recover that from her you lose that too.
I got an email a few weeks ago from the solicitor saying they had heard from the bailiff. That was it. I thought "Oh F no, they can't find her and I am going to have to pay". Then about four days ago I get this letter from the solicitor.
Followed by a request for my bank details so they can pay me via BACS.
Now I thought this was really, very strange. And here is why.
My old neighbours had to pay to get the building completely renovated outside (the council said if the shared freeholders don't get it done they will, then send the bill) so my old neighbours footed the bill (£8k) and then tried to recover the split from the rest of the owners. All paid apart from my old landlady. They took her to court, they won, they sent a bailiff after her and the bailiff could not find her on account of her owning about 15 properties all over the UK.
In the end my landlady had to pay when I moved out, as she had to go to the flat (it is under prohibition). So she paid them then when they caught her. However, they don't like her at all. Just like me I suppose.
So I am thinking "Bloody nora, how did they find her so easily?" get this, you won't believe this s**t.
So on the evening I got that letter there I phoned my old neighbour. We got chatting, for about 30 mins, then she said..
"Look, I shouldn't tell you this because I broke the law and it was really naughty.. About two weeks ago I was down in the hallway fuming at your old landlady because she owes us even more money and again she hasn't paid. So I opened her mail and one of the letters was from a bailiff. So I waited until she turned up here (again she had to) and I phoned the bailiff and said "She's here, come and get her !". And they did. Caught her right outside my old flat.
That's karma, and irony and a miracle all rolled into one that there.