Episode 2 The Legalizer

I've had an interesting life -

coalminer, forklift truck driver,

bricklayer, factory production line worker,

fireman...

I've lived rough on the streets of London and Paris.

But now I've got a new job.

As a Queen's Counsel barrister, I know the law inside out.

I've prosecuted and defended some of the UK's most serious criminals,

but the life I've led means I know the world can be a tough place.

At some point we've all felt ripped off, cheated or conned.

It's frustrating, costly and stressful,

but I know consumers can fight back and get justice.

I'm not here to represent anyone,

but what I want is to empower you

to use the law to get what you're owed.

Today I'll be helping a football fan who was left

stranded by the side of the road.

I was the butt of everybody's jokes for the next four or five weeks.

But first I'm in North London with a young woman from the USA

who's looking for her missing deposit.

I can't believe that someone could do that to somebody else

without any conscience.

I'm going to help both these people work out how they've been cheated

and show them how they can use the law to get back what they're owed.

This is Amanda Ciske, from Wisconsin.

I moved to London three years ago, fell in love with the city,

didn't want to leave.

Very busy. I work about seven days a week at the moment.

Amanda's hectic life didn't leave her much spare time,

and even less when she needed to look for a new flat.

Finding a flat in London is extremely difficult.

You find a flat and chances are it's already gone.

So, when she did find somewhere, Amanda needed to act quickly.

I literally ran down the road, saw the place, the landlord came

and I fell in love with it.

So if I wanted it I basically had to secure it straightaway.

Having decided to take the flat,

Amanda went straight to the letting agent, Pearl Homes.

She was asked to pay a security deposit of £1,170 that would be

returned at the end of her tenancy.

We lived in the flat in Crouch End for a year and a half.

It came towards the end of the agreement

and we just decided that it was time to move.

The landlord was happy for the security deposit to be returned,

so it was time for Amanda to get back in touch with Pearl Homes.

Except she couldn't.

The telephone numbers that I had were no longer listed,

so I couldn't even get through.

One just dialled and rang off.

And the e-mail addresses I had, no responses.

I got in touch with my landlord and asked if he had any success,

and he had the same problem, said no-one could find them.

Amanda was now so concerned about her deposit that she decided

to visit the office of Pearl Homes in person.

Only to find it was boarded up.

I didn't expect that the agents would suddenly disappear.

Amanda has tried everything to track down Pearl Homes.

She's even posted on social media websites and had no luck.

As she can't find Pearl Homes,

she can't find her money

and thinks she's now lost the £1,170 deposit.

Losing that deposit has completely set me back.

I've never been able to catch up

and each month I feel like I'm behind.

I just couldn't believe that someone could do that to somebody else

without any conscience.

Who else has he done it to?

Amanda is right to wonder whether this has happened to other people.

A busy London letting agent could deal with dozens of tenants

and their deposits each month.

It may be that they've just moved and Amanda can't find them

or it might be more serious.

I'll be seeing Amanda later to try and track down this letting agent.

Wealth fund manager, Iain Cockbain,

lives with his kids in the town of Formby,

just north of Liverpool.

Iain is a massive fan of Everton Football Club.

I'm from Bootle and I've always supported Everton

ever since I was a small child.

And I'm a realist, though, I know that we're not very good,

but once an Evertonian, always an Evertonian.

Iain's club Everton were drawn against local rivals Liverpool

in the semifinal of the FA Cup to be played at Wembley Stadium.

Everton are struggling to make ends meet,

so our only real chance of success... We have two chances,

one was the Carling Cup and the other was the FA Cup,

and we were in the semifinal of the FA Cup.

It's a massive game.

With so much at stake for his team,

Iain and his friends were determined to make a day of it.

There were about 15 to 20 of us

who were all members of the Joe Mercer lounge at Goodison Park,

and the guys all said to me,

"We need to get a coach organised to go down to Wembley."

Iain decided he'd organise the coach for his friends and their families.

A friend recommended a company called First National Coaches,

and Iain was impressed by their website.

They were executive luxury coaches. A guy from First National

actually told me he was sending us

the coach that Man United had used on occasions this season.

So we gave him a call and yes, they had a coach available.

We booked it hurriedly and as soon as the invoice arrived,

I paid it in full, to make sure they didn't sell it to somebody else.

Iain was now set for the trip down to the big game.

It's just a great day out. It's not so much the match.

Matches are excruciating to watch, to be honest with you,

especially when you are an Evertonian.

But it's the whole day out.

You know, we were due to leave early morning, jump on the coach.

We had all sorts of videos, Everton videos, to play on the way down.

We had the drinks organised, we had a buffet organised on the coach,

and it was just great fun and the banter.

I allowed two token Reds on, to show that I wasn't completely biased.

The coach was booked to pick Iain

and his party up at 4:30am outside a local hotel.

They waited and waited, until...

Nothing turned up. The coach didn't arrive.

So I tried the phone number of First National.

It just goes on to answerphone.

Um...highly embarrassed, massively embarrassed.

You know, 32 of my friends and family

all standing on the street corner at 4:30 in the morning,

all ready and waiting to go down to Wembley. It was just a nightmare.

Desperate not to miss the game

that was due to start just a few hours later,

more than 200 miles away,

Iain and his friends decided to travel to Wembley by car.

We got there just in the nick of time for kick-off.

Iain was now determined to get an explanation and a refund,

and when he called First National Coaches direct to

Rikki Lee Powell, he couldn't explain why the coach hadn't

arrived, because he'd had so many coaches going to London that day.

I went on to say, "How many coaches have you got?"

And he got quite shirty.

When Iain asked how many, he couldn't believe the reply.

He said, "Well, we had 38 coaches that went down

"to Wembley from the local area and 36 arrived."

So there were two coaches that didn't turn up.

After weeks of trying, Iain managed to speak to someone

at First National Coaches, who promised to send him a refund.

I spoke to him eight weeks ago and I still haven't received the money.

Iain's now worried that the coach company think they got away with it.

It was going to be a fab day.

I looked very foolish in front of all my friends and family,

left with egg on my face.

It just ruined everybody's day.

In the end, though, the worst thing that happened to Iain

on match day wasn't thanks to First National Coaches.

Everton lost, sadly. It made a bad weekend even worse, yes.

Any Everton fan will tell you that a game against Liverpool is always

going to be difficult, but booking a coach, that should be simple.

If the company says they will turn up, they should.

But even Iain, with all his knowledge of financial matters,

is completely at a loss as to know how to deal with this coach company.

I'll be seeing Iain later.

Now back to the case of Amanda Ciske,

who moved out of a rented flat in North London.

When she tried to get her deposit back she discovered that

the letting agent had disappeared from the high street.

The law on rental deposits is aimed at protecting the tenant's money.

In essence, it's quite simple.

All shorthold tenancies

must be secured with a deposit protection scheme.

These are basically ringfenced accounts

and it's the landlord's responsibility to make sure

the money goes in within 30 days of the start of the tenancy.

The person responsible for paying back the deposit

will depend on the tenant's lease

and the contract between the landlord and the letting agent.

Maybe the landlord was ultimately responsible

and, in Amanda's case, if he is, she may need to prove to him

that she hasn't already received money from Pearl Homes.

So Amanda will need to track down the letting agent first.

They may have closed their shop, but it's not so easy to close a company.

The quickest way to track them down is via Companies House.

Yes, there it is,

Pearl Homes is the trading name

of Pearl Lettings & Property Management Ltd,

not to be confused with companies of a similar name.

And a search for the company director gives us his address.

If we have no luck at the shop or on the phone,

we can use this address and Amanda can send them a letter.

Amanda is originally from the USA

and she's not lived in England for long.

With my help and guidance,

I want to show her how to approach this using our legal system.

-Hi, Amanda.

-Hello.

-Gary Bell, pleased to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

I asked to meet you here because this is

-the office of the people that took the deposit from you.

-Yes.

So what steps have you taken to try and get your money back?

I've tried calling, writing, e-mailing, everything.

Even LinkedIn online to get in touch with them, and I haven't heard.

-You can't trace them at all?

-No, not at all.

Well, they may have disappeared from the high street,

but they won't be able to disappear completely.

Good!

Normally, we apologise to people from overseas for our weather,

but as you're from Wisconsin, this is probably quite warm for you.

Yes!

Amanda is looking to reclaim the full amount that she paid to

Pearl Homes as a security deposit on their rental flat.

That's £1,170.

The landlord told Amanda he was happy for the deposit

to be returned, but the problem is Pearl Holmes had disappeared.

-So this is your new place, then, is it?

-Yes.

-Do you like it better than the old one?

-It's a lot brighter.

-It's really nice.

-Did you have to put a deposit on it?

-I did.

So how do you know the deposit is safe this time?

This time I got a letter confirming that it's secured.

Right, let's have a look at the paperwork, then.

-OK.

-There's the lease.

The original lease. With the coffee stain and everything.

SHE LAUGHS

And this basically sets out all the particulars, the terms,

and here's the deposit.

"A deposit of £1,170 will be paid by the tenant.

"It will be protected by the Deposit Protection Service in accordance

"with the terms and conditions of the DPS." Which effectively

means that they have to keep it in a separate ring-fenced account.

And they didn't. What do you think happened to your deposit?

-I think they never put it in that deposit scheme.

-Right.

I've called that scheme and they said our property was never registered.

-Right.

-I think they just banked the money themselves and ran off with it.

This puts things in a totally different light.

It looks like the deposit was never protected

in a Deposit Protection Scheme.

It could be that Robert Perlmutter has knowingly deceived Amanda.

This makes tracking him down even more urgent.

-You haven't been able to trace him at all?

-Not at all.

Amanda still has a phone number for Robert Perlmutter's office,

so I want her to try one last attempt to call him.

It's her money, so it's important she makes this call herself.

RINGING TONE

'Please hold while we connect your call.'

MUSIC PLAYS

'Thank you for holding.

'Your call will be answered as soon as possible.

'You're currently in position one of the queue.'

-We have queues here in England!

-SHE LAUGHS

MUSIC CONTINUES

I'm a bit worried

that if we hang up now we might lose our place in the queue.

But on the other hand,

if we don't hang up we could be here for a very long time indeed

and the phone bill will be higher than the deposit!

If he's not answering the phone,

Amanda is going to have to write a letter.

She can use the address I found earlier

for the director of Pearl Homes, Robert Perlmutter.

But before we write the letter,

there are a couple of points about the tenancy I need to clear up.

-So did you pay your rent to the landlord?

-To the landlord.

-Right.

And when he left the premises,

the landlord was happy for you to be given the deposit back

-because you haven't broken anything?

-Right.

Because Amanda paid her deposit directly to Pearl Homes,

her landlord has said that she should go back to them

'to ask for it, so before she goes any further,

'she needs to prove that Pearl Homes won't return her money.

'She will need to write to the letting agent, Robert Perlmutter.'

Right. We'd better send this chap a letter.

Can tell him we've spoken to the landlord

and the landlord has authorised the return of the entire deposit

because you never broke anything.

Yes. Spotless.

-Absolutely. Just like this place.

-Thank you.

'This isn't a letter before action

'but it is always a good idea to set a deadline.'

And we need to give him 14 days to pay off the money.

If the letting agent ignores this letter, Amanda can go back

to her landlord and prove she hasn't been able

to recover her money and that in fact,

Robert Perlmutter has taken her deposit.

You are probably sitting at home, enjoying your money...

'If Robert Perlmutter won't give back Amanda's deposit,

'she should ask the landlord for it and he can then pursue Pearl Homes.

'I will be back to see Amanda when the deadline is up.'

Well done.

Wealth fund manager and football fan Iain Cockbain

thought he had booked a coach to take a group of friends and family

to Wembley to see Everton play Liverpool,

only the coach failed to turn up

and the group were left stranded by the side of the road.

The coach company has failed to give Iain a refund or an explanation.

This ought to be a simple case of breach of contract.

The coach company should have given Iain his money back and they haven't.

But even though Iain deals with contracts every day in his job,

he can't get the coach company to pay.

I need to go to Formby to advise Iain what he should do next.

'With my help and guidance, Iain can use the law to show this

'coach company that he means business

'and hopefully get his money back.'

Unlike your coach, I have turned up.

-So, you are an Everton football fan.

-Yes. Sadly. Yeah.

You booked a coach to take you, friends, family, business colleagues

to Wembley to see the mighty Everton play Liverpool in the FA Cup semi.

-Yes. I booked the coach...

-You paid for the coach in advance?

-Yes.

-State of the art, luxury coach.

It was for the coach, it was for a buffet...

-It was going to be a great day.

-What could go wrong?

We were all waiting outside The Grapes hotel in Formby

at five o'clock in the morning

and it was freezing cold and the thing just didn't turn up.

I was rather the laughing stock of Formby for a while.

It was quite embarrassing, really.

And did you call them up on the Monday morning?

I rang them on the Monday and I'm still awaiting an answer.

They haven't given me an answer yet.

So £1,600 for the coach, sandwiches, wine, waitress.

-And he's still got it?

-That's right.

I've got a credit note off him

saying that they credited my bank account, but the money didn't arrive.

Iain's claim couldn't be more straightforward.

He simply wants his £1,600 back.

So you've got no option but to take him to court?

Sadly, not only did Everton lose, but I still haven't got my money back.

Before you take him to court, you know the protocol

is that you first send a letter before action

and if he doesn't pay within 14 days, you'll have to go to court.

When the letter before action lands on Rikki Powell's desk,

it will let him know Iain is serious and wants his money back.

My name is Gary Bell and as a QC, I spend most of my working life

dealing with major court cases.

But I haven't always been a barrister.

I've known some tough times

and now I want to use my knowledge of the law to help others.

I want to show you how you can use the courts to recover your money.

Today I'm helping Amanda Ciske,

who is trying to recover the deposit from a North London flat.

The letting agent she gave it to has disappeared.

So far she has sent a letter to the director of the company,

Robert Perlmutter, and is waiting to hear back.

Amanda has discovered that her money was never

placed in a deposit protection scheme,

which makes me think the letting agent

never had any intention of protecting the money.

And if they have done this to Amanda,

Pearl Homes could well have done it to other people.

My name is Maria Del Garcia. I'm from Spain.

I've been living in London for six years.

I wanted to live in North London because I always liked this area.

Maria found a flat in Muswell Hill

and paid a security deposit of £999

to one Robert Perlmutter at Pearl Homes.

After a year of living happily in the flat, Maria decided to move,

so she contacted Robert Perlmutter to ask for her deposit back.

He said he would put it straight into her bank account,

but the money never arrived.

He just was lying to me,

saying, "I will send your deposit in two days,"

when that was not true at all.

I went to Pearl Homes and they were already closed.

So I went to the next-door agency.

They told me Robert Perlmutter from Pearl Homes is on the run.

He closed down and he simply took money from a lot of people.

Maria turned to her landlord for help,

who gave her the deposit protection scheme account number,

where Perlmutter said the money was secured.

So I contact them with my ID number and my name, my full name.

They said to me that they didn't have any record under my name

and basically it didn't exist.

That it was fake.

My deposit was never in the deposit protection scheme.

The estate agent lied to me for a week by e-mail, telling me

I will get my deposit, when he knew perfectly

that he was going to run off with my deposit.

It was £1,000 and I really needed that money for my new house,

for the deposit of the new house,

and I actually struggled a lot to pay that money.

Maria's story sounds almost identical to Amanda's,

and it looks like Maria's landlord was also given a false account number.

And they are not the only landlords who have had

problems with Pearl Homes.

My name is Peter Woods and my son owns the flat in Hackney.

He is now living in the States

and since he has gone over to the States, I have been looking after it.

Peter and his son found a letting agent to take over

the day to day running of their property.

That letting agent - Pearl Homes.

The arrangement was that they would be responsible for

the collection of the rent.

Pearl Homes collected the rent

and then paid it into Peter's son's bank account.

They also told Peter and his son that they'd secured

the tenant's deposit with a deposit protection scheme.

For the first few months everything was fine,

then things started to slip.

Rent was being paid late or with amounts missing.

Eventually, the rent stopped altogether.

February's rent didn't come in at all.

Peter was now very worried

and decided to call Robert Perlmutter's office in person.

Only to find, like everyone else, that it was empty.

Clearly, we had been duped.

We were unlikely to get...any money that was outstanding back.

Peter then discovered that the deposit protection scheme ID

Robert Perlmutter provided was a fake.

On realising that the deposit hadn't been registered,

we felt that we needed to honour that sum.

Peter and his son decided to repay their tenants

out of their own pocket.

Meaning Robert Perlmutter cost them not only the outstanding rent,

but also the deposits.

Financially, the total we are talking of some rent,

we're talking of the deposit, that comes to around £5,000.

So Amanda, her landlord and many others look like they'd been

given false deposit protection by Robert Perlmutter.

All deposits that relate to shorthold tenancies must be

protected in one of four schemes.

One of these schemes is the Deposit Protection Service.

My name's Kevin Firth, I'm director of the Deposit Protection Service.

This is a custodial scheme that was set up six years ago

by the government.

There are two ways to find out if your deposit has been protected.

First thing you do is to ask the landlord

what scheme he's going to use.

My advice is go and look at the scheme

and there will be a deposit checker on that website.

And you can put in your tenancy details and it will say

whether that deposit is protected or not.

If you can't find it on the scheme that the landlord said,

my advice would be to go to Shelter's website,

where there's links to all four schemes.

The problem Amanda has is that her tenancy has ended

and she's now moved out.

The question is, who is responsible for giving back her deposit -

the landlord or the letting agent?

Responsibility will lie with who takes the deposit,

but it will depend on the contract between the agent and the landlord.

If the terms and conditions say that the agent will take

responsibility for protecting the deposit, then they will be liable.

But it will be the landlord that takes the agent to court.

But in Amanda's case, she paid the initial deposit to Pearl Homes,

but never dealt with them again.

From then on, she paid each month's rent directly to her landlord.

Pearl Homes weren't acting as a managing agent.

If there is no managing agent in place,

then it's the landlord who's taken the deposit, they will be liable

and it will be the tenant that takes the landlord to court.

So in this case, responsibility will lie with the landlord

because he should have made sure right from the start that

Amanda's deposit was secured in the deposit protection scheme.

He'll need to give Amanda her money

and then he in turn can pursue Robert Perlmutter from Pearl Homes.

Amanda has written to Robert Perlmutter,

but she hasn't heard back from him and I don't think she will.

Her only choice it to write to her landlord, inform him of his

responsibility and ask him to pay back the money within a deadline.

I'll be back to see Amanda when that deadline is up.

Back now to the story of Iain Cockbain who booked with

First National Coaches to take his friends

and family to the FA Cup semifinal at Wembley.

But the coach never turned up and neither has Iain's refund.

He sent a letter before action and he's waiting for a response.

Iain said that he was recommended First National Coaches by a friend.

Here's their website.

Looks like a professional operation.

Offices all over the country and some very nice coaches.

But I wonder who is behind First National Coaches.

Companies House is the quickest place to check.

There's First National Coaches.

And Rikki Lee Powell is the director.

He's also the director of Tempo Coaches.

And Southern Coaches.

But a bit more of a search

and it's clear that Iain Cockbain isn't the only person who's been

left stranded at the side of the road by one of

Rikki Lee Powell's companies on an important day.

This is Kim Roberts.

In 2011, Kim was getting married,

and like any bride-to-be, she wanted to celebrate.

I decided that I wanted to have my hen party in London.

It was about 15 of us and I had three pregnant ladies

in my group.

As Kim lives in Hampshire, she needed to work out how to get

a group of her girlfriends up to the bright lights for a night out.

A quick search on the internet and Kim found a local company.

I found Southern Coaches online

and their website was brilliant.

Really helpful.

Kim phoned and booked,

paying a total of £300 for a coach to take them

from Hampshire to London and then back after their night out.

On the morning of my hen night, I phoned them again just to check.

I like to make sure everything's in place

and I'd arranged for all of my hen party - there was about 15 of us -

to come here to have drinks, be picked up from here,

and then head off up to London.

That morning, they said everything was fine.

Kim and her friends waited, but there was no sign of the bus.

I just started to panic about what I was going to do, really.

The coach company said the bus wouldn't be there until six.

Too late for Kim's group to make it into London on time.

So they decided to take the train.

Kim called Southern Coaches and spoke to the agent to make sure

the coach will be there for their journey home.

He said that he... Absolutely, definitely,

the minibus will be there at two o'clock in the morning.

He was so rude and arrogant to me.

I tried to forget about. I thought, "I'm going to have a good time."

Kim and her party tried to enjoy their night out.

But by the early hours, doubt started to set in.

I think we waited till about quarter to three in the morning.

By then again I started to panic, I got very, very upset.

I can remember then cos I thought,

"How am I going to get all these people home?"

The bus never arrived.

And finally, after a stressful end to their night,

Kim got her friends home.

The last ones making it back by taxi.

The next day, Kim called the coach company for an explanation.

The managing director, Richard Powell, answered the phone.

He confirmed that I had made the correct booking

cos he pulled out the paperwork,

so he couldn't understand what had gone wrong,

so he said, "Leave it with me,

"I'll look into it and I'll call you back by the end of the day."

Kim now realised that Southern Coaches weren't actually

supplying the vehicles, they just manage the booking.

Said it was a broker.

Didn't know anything about any broker.

Kim never managed to talk to Richard Powell again,

and has since made a court claim against Southern Coaches.

I've never heard anything back at all.

Kim was left in exactly the same position as Iain.

And so far, Rikki Powell has paid her nothing.

Despite the lovely pictures of coaches on his website,

Rikki Powell's company were not operators but coach brokers.

This means that they subcontracted the work out to vehicle operators

and then when something goes wrong,

they pass the blame and the cost onto those companies.

My name is Fazal Ali, I'm the managing director

and transport manager of Skyway Travel UK Limited.

Skyway Travel heard of Rikki Powell

when he booked them to carry out a local job.

He made a booking with us, a local job from Keighley to Castleford.

And it was just...

like, £250 worth of booking.

They carried out the job, but were never paid.

We fulfilled the booking and kept invoicing him, reminding him,

and a lot of times, we couldn't get a hold of him.

The next thing they heard from Rikki Powell was that

he had a much bigger job for them,

providing a coach for a circus troupe to tour the UK.

And he made excuses for the first missed payment.

He fobbed me off the £250 that he owed, said, "Oh, I can't,

"my staff's slipped up somewhere, and fair enough,

"but I will pay you back."

The circus troupe booked with Rikki Powell,

who in turn contracted Fazal to provide the coach.

But because the coach Rikki Powell ordered from Fazal was too small,

after just one week, the circus troupe cancelled their booking.

So, the first week that we did the work...

..that money had already gone to Mr Powell, so the circus organisers,

tour organisers, weren't willing to pay us again.

Rikki Powell had been paid his money by the circus

troupe for the week's bus tour, but he failed to pass it on to

Fazal, and he still owed Skyway Travel for his original booking.

I tried to contact him and I didn't get any response,

so it's about £1,550 in total we have lost to Mr Powell.

The fact that First National Coaches is not an operator

but a broker is not the issue here.

There are dozens of legitimate, reputable brokers in the UK.

The questions is, how do you find out

if the one you've chosen is reliable?

The coaching industry is heavily regulated,

and a licence should've been issued to all legitimate operators

and brokers by one of the seven UK Traffic Commissioners.

Beverley Bell is one of them.

It's our job to licence those operators who want to operate

coaches, minibuses and buses on the roads.

That licensing system is there for reasons of road safety

and reasons of fair competition.

It's a very easy mistake for people to make to think that just because

somebody's got a good website that they might be licensed

by people like myself.

That's not always the case, and when people use coach brokers,

it's a bit like using a travel agent.

What they should do is ask the coach broker who is the operator

that they're using,

and then they can check that that operator is licensed.

Visit the VOSA website, put that into the search engine,

and that will come up with the government agency website.

What they then need to do is follow the link,

and that will tell the consumer if the company that they want to

use is licensed by either myself or one of my colleagues.

So either a licensed broker or the name of the licensed coach

company is what Iain should've look for.

Iain gave Rikki Powell and First National Coaches 14 days to

refund the money, and they haven't.

It's time for me to go back to Formby.

Iain, it's been two weeks.

You gave him two weeks to respond to the letter before action.

-Have you heard anything back from him?

-Not yet, no.

-Anything at all?

No, nothing at all.

-Well, if you want to, take him to court.

-Right.

Despite all his calls and letters, Iain has been left with no choice

by Rikki Powell and First National Coaches.

He said he'd take them to court if they didn't respond,

and that's what he's doing.

And to do that, we need a claim form.

First Iain, then the defendant.

Defendant's name - we'd better sue the company,

-as it's a limited company, First National Coaches UK Ltd.

-Right.

We won't write down there that they don't actually have any coaches.

Next are the brief details of the claim.

"On the 2nd of April 2012...

"on First National Coaches to take 32 friends and clients to Wembley

"for the FA Cup semifinal...

"Paid in advance for the coach, for the catering,

"and the coach didn't turn up."

-All you want is your £1,600 back.

-Mm.

So, it's £1,600, the court fee of £95,

which you can also recover from him if you're successful.

Court fees can be added to the claim, and if you're successful,

they'll increase the total the defendant must pay you.

-So, let's send this off to court and see what he does.

-OK, great.

Maybe it'll bring him to his senses.

-Although I doubt it.

-All right.

Meanwhile, in North London,

Amanda Ciske has been trying to recover the deposit

she paid on a rented flat.

The letting agent never paid it into a deposit protection scheme,

and has now disappeared.

And because her landlord failed to ensure that her deposit

was protected, the responsibility falls to him.

She's now written to him asking for her money.

I've heard from Amanda, and she's been in touch with her landlord.

When she explained to him his legal responsibilities

and asked him for the money, he cut off all contact.

She's already sent him a letter before action,

giving him 14 days to pay up.

And he hasn't.

Her only choice now is to take him to court.

It's very sad that it's come to this, Amanda.

At the end of the day, you know, like you said,

-I haven't done anything wrong...

-No.

..and I'm the one who's the victim - well, we're both victims, here.

But I'm the one without the money, still.

Well, absolutely.

And he'll pay you the money back,

and he then does have an action against Pearl Homes.

Being a landlord is a very responsible thing.

If he didn't realise that the money wasn't in the scheme,

he should have done.

It's just frustrating that this process keeps going.

And, um, I'm just hoping that there'll be a resolution.

Because Amanda's landlord has ignored her letters,

the only way to get a resolution is to start a claim.

To do this, we need to fill in a form.

You're the claimant, Amanda. And the defendant is your landlord.

We have to put here the brief details of the claim.

It's very straightforward.

We need to explain succinctly why Amanda is claiming the money

from her landlord.

We should state that the letting agent has disappeared,

and that the deposit wasn't placed into a protection scheme.

It's also a good idea to point out

that the law about landlords' responsibility is very clear.

Now we add the value of the claim...

Amanda can also add interest from the day the money became owed...

You can go online to check the current court interest rates.

Adding the court fees makes a total claim of £1,310.53.

Right, Amanda, you can put this in the envelope.

And we'll get it ready for posting.

We didn't want to arrive at this juncture.

We want him to pay the money, and that would have been the end of it.

Court is always the last resort.

But he hasn't responded to any texts, any e-mails,

to the letter before action.

So, there's no choice now but to take him to court.

When this application is processed, Amanda's landlord will

receive a letter from the court notifying him of her claim.

Ignorance is no defence, and let's hope that when the landlord

sees that Amanda's serious and gets his court summons, he'll pay up.

In Formby, Everton fan Iain Cockbain

has been waiting to hear from the court.

He's made a claim against First National Coaches.

He wants to recover the money he paid them

to supply a luxury coach to take him

and his friends and family to the FA Cup semifinal at Wembley.

The coach never showed up, and Iain was left stranded.

I've heard from Iain.

First National Coaches neither paid up nor entered a defence,

so Iain has won his case.

Iain's claim was a very simple one.

£1,600 for the coach, wine, beer and sandwiches,

none of which ever showed up.

I'm back in Formby to help Iain with the next stage of his claim.

So, Iain, he had until the 16th of October to fight the defence.

He didn't do that,

and because he hasn't acknowledged at all to the court that

you've claimed against him, then you can apply for judgment in default.

You've won the case. You shall get your money back.

He's going to have to pay.

First National Coaches and Rikki Powell didn't defend the case,

and so Iain has won,

and can now instruct the bailiffs to recover his money.

This guy is untrustworthy and doesn't do as he says,

and I just don't want somebody else to go through the same

humility of a coach not turning up that they've booked.

Rikki Powell didn't respond.

He didn't defend the case,

so judgment has been entered against him in default.

He'll now have to pay back all the money and Iain's court costs.

We wrote to Rikki Powell of First National Coaches, asking him

for a response. He failed to reply.

In London, there is also news from Amanda.

She was looking to recover her security deposit from a rented flat.

The letting agent took the money and failed to place it

in a deposit protection scheme, then closed the shop and disappeared.

But the ultimate responsibility for the deposit lay with

the landlord, who refused to return it, meaning Amanda took him

to court to get her money.

Her claim is for the return of her security deposit, £1,170,

plus interest of £70. £1,240 in total.

My landlord was helpful in the beginning and was communicating

with me, but as soon as I asked for money, he disappeared.

So I didn't want to have to go to court.

That was just the way it worked out.

Amanda's won her case because the landlord failed to defend

the claim, and the court awarded her judgment in default.

We wrote to both Amanda's landlord

and Robert Perlmutter of Pearl Homes. Neither responded.

The next step for Amanda will be to pass

the claim on for enforcement if he doesn't pay up.

So now that I've got the judgment, I'm hoping that this is the last

step that I need to take to show him that I was serious about this.

I think he was hoping I would just go away.

I mean, nobody wants anybody to come around and ask for money back.

Amanda has claimed what's hers because she wasn't willing to

let her landlord walk away from his responsibility.

Just like Iain, who couldn't stand by

and let First National Coaches think they'd taken him for a ride.

Both Amanda and Iain have each won their case

and can now pass their judgments on for enforcement.

Getting justice for yourself isn't easy.

And taking someone to court should never be your first option.

But the law is there for us all,

to give everyone the chance to stand up for their rights.

Iain and Amanda did exactly that.

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