Thanks everybody. It is a lovely feeling, and my mother has been a bit stressed about having to face them, because the woman was pretty nasty on the day of handover. I don't know why she was defensive and nasty but I can only assume it was because she knew she had left a filthy house. There could be no other reason, because my mum had gone out of her way to give them extra time to settle on their house and they were paying way under market rates.
My mother is a very accommodating landlord until someone does the dirty on her, like these people did. Then she is like a terrier. It was great to be a witness to how the court works.
No doubt, if the judgement had gone their way, we would have been disappointed but for them to slam down their folder and stalk out was so rude, and I'll bet the judge had a little smile to himself and thought "serves you right" just as we did.
Those judges must put up with some rubbish on a daily basis.
I just hope they don't harrass my mother. They did call her at 7.30am Sunday morning when this was being mediated and were very nasty and abused her and hung up on her, but they would be foolish to try anything funny. But there are lots of foolish people around.
Anyway, great result, and thanks for your moral support.
Wylie
P.S. Just read your post Dazzling, and they have bought their own place, so they can pig it up as much as they like, and I suspect it will be filthy before too long. My 11 year old keeps a cleaner room ...... well not really
And mum self-manages, so just a bit of typing involved. I don't think I would want to pay someone to attend court for a couple of hundred if we were paying a manager.