Ex landlord says we are in dept of Ј1000

A question about : Ex landlord says we are in dept of Ј1000

We moved out of our rented house last april. We where on friendly terms with out landlord and gave correct notice. We had been renting for approx 5 years off him. As far as we where conserned we where up to date with all payments. He never mentioned anything about any outstanding depts to him when we handed notice in. We had finally got a mortgage and moved into our new home. A few weeks later we recieved a letter from a collection agency saying we owed Ј1090 rent to the land lord. The payment dates on the letter always seemed to be a month behind. There where dates he was saying we hadnt paid the full months rent on. My fiance rented the house and i moved in a year later and he is adamant he paid full rent each month on time. The landlord has said he will take us to court if we didnt pay up. So i immediatly set up a direct debit up to pay him Ј100 a month which he agreed was fine. But should i be paying him this money if we dont think we owe it to him? My fiance used to just pay him by bank transfere each month and is no longer with the original bank he first started to pay from. We never had a rent book and we only ever originally signed a 6month tennant agreement. since that we have never signed for anything else. so far we have paid him about Ј400 back. Am i waisting money on nothing?
Thanks

Best answers:

• You have acknowledged the debt if you have paid the LL any money in response to his claim that Ј1090 was owed to him, but does the rental agreement state payment in advance or arrears? The latter would be unusual for a property rental.
• Hi sbobkatepants, thank you for your query regarding ex landlord.
  I would suggest you initially look at the original tenancy agreement to see if payments were to be made in advance or arrears as that will show if there should have been an amount owing when you moved out. I would then suggest you write to your ex landlord and ask for a statement of account which shows the missing payments and if there are months when you feel payments were definately paid I would suggest you go to your old bank and ask for copy statements (you may have to pay a small fee for these but they should keep all your banking records for a minimum of 6 years) which you can then send to the ex-landlord to dispute. I would suggest you send all letters recorded delivery and keep a copy and it will depend on how certain you are that you do not owe this as to whether you stop mkaing the agreed payments now. It may be best to gather the evidence first and take it from there. Also did you pay a deposit as unpaid rent and other amounts owing at the end of a tenancy will usually be taken out of any deposit paid. You can find more information at www.adviceguide.org.uk.
  Hope this is of assistance.