Having been alerted by a twitter posting by the National Landlords Association (NLA) stating that their web-site page on the merger between the NLA and the National Federation of Residential Landlords/Southern Private Landlords Association had been updated, I was intrigued to see that they have published the court order online. Being a lawyer I naturally downloaded this immediately. You can see it here.
It is an interesting document. Not only does it make it absolutely clear that the case has been dismissed in its entirety, it also gives an indication of the level of cost of this litigation to the claimants.
For example clause 7 states that costs are to be paid on an indemnity basis. This means that when assessing the costs bill, the court will be more generous to the defendants than they would normally. Courts only award costs on an indemnity basis if they consider that the losing party’s case was singularly undeserving.
In addition, specific awards on account of costs were made of £85,000 to the NLA and £45,000 to the other defendants by 5 June.
FInally, the order specified that the claimants must destroy an electronic database (presumably of membership) provided to them by the NLA under a previous court order, together with all copies. This part of the order was backed up by a penal notice. So if the claimants are found not to have done this, they are liable to be imprisoned, fined, or have their assets seized.
Blimey! A strong order then. It just goes to show that litigation should not be undertaken lightly. If you lose, it can be very expensive.