Shelley
Collected on:
Awesome Legal Team
I would like to give my heartfelt and sincere thanks to my Solicitor Lucy Fox, her assistant Naviya Shah, my Barrister Matthew Lee and the whole team at Arkwrights Solicitors for their absolutely first class work on my case against my rogue landlady last year.
Their unwavering advice and support helped and guided me throughout one of the most stressful times of my life, which continued over the course of nearly 5 years. Despite having to deal with an unscrupulous and obnoxious individual, who flouted legislation, constantly misled the court, disregarded court orders and who engaged no less than three different legal firms to represent her, Lucy was so professional and on point when dealing with my dreadful landlady.
Lucy and Matthew’s well rounded and sound knowledge of housing law, case law and renting legislation, meant that I was able to completely trust their judgement and advice and felt in safe hands throughout the long-winded litigation. I was able to talk through any concerns I had and they always explained everything in layman’s terms so I was able to fully understand the process.
The landlady made claim after claim after claim against me causing utter chaos in terms of the legal work and case load, but Lucy with her assistant, Naviya were always one step ahead and knew each ridiculous claim from the other, unravelling the unnecessarily complex paperwork, even taking on the role of producing the court papers for the landlady’s side when her final solicitor was struck off the register and the landlady was unable and unwilling to draw up the correct documents - adding to Lucys already significant work load. They went over and above time and again.
Over the four plus years, there were a number of court hearings and I was accompanied by either Lucy or Naviya each time, along with my amazing barrister Matthew Lee, giving me complete peace of mind and that additional support to get through these stressful court appearances.
On more than one occasion the stress was overwhelming for me due to the outrageous lies and allegations made by the landlady, who clearly had some mental health issues, but Lucy, Matthew and Naviya were always professional, calm and available to talk things through with me, offering great advice with just the right amount of humour to keep me sane.
Although I would have liked to have had my day in court and go to a full trial, due to her continuous erratic behaviour and the fact that the landlady would have to represent herself, my legal team felt the trial would be an absolute farce and encouraged me to come to an agreement. To that end, the landlady agreed to settle before the trial went ahead. This culminated in the landlady dropping all her claims for alleged rent arrears and also paying off an £18K electricity bill, which accumulated because the landlady illegally rented out an energy inefficient property and left the property in disrepair throughout the tenancy. In retrospect it was the right decision for me and allowed me to draw a line under the matter and get on with my life. The landlady however took a loss of approx £60K all in, and despite the fact that she even tried to flout the final court order to get the keys back - for me it was a huge win! I am still smiling!
I cannot thank Lucy, Matthew and Naviya enough for their professionalism and sterling legal work and I would have absolutely no hesitation in highly recommending them and Awkrights Solicitors in any landlord vs tenant dispute.
Great work guys - you are AWESOME!!!!
Testimonial from Shelley Tristram
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