A landlord he felt he had no other recourse than to take his lettings and estate agents to court as he refused to pay their commission after repeatedly complaining that the tenants had wrecked the house leaving “drug paraphernalia and pornography” in the property.

The landlord Mr Bloom, is a lawyer for a hedge fund felt it was important to let other landlords were made aware of the problems that he had gone through with the agents and said: "Their legal department would eat anyone for breakfast.

“People do not stand a chance against them. If I wasn’t a lawyer with the means to defend myself it would be very hard.”

It was in 2007 that Mr Bloom contracted the agents to let out the house on his behalf in South Hampstead. He was not happy with the agent's choice of tenants that they had suggested as they were young graduates and not the professional types that he had prioritised to rent the property.

In the end he reluctantly agreed to allow them to rent the property as he wanted the house to be occupied rather than remain empty.

Upon visiting the property Mr Bloom found “damage to expensive furniture, drug paraphernalia and pornography on display". He also received complaints from one of the neighbours that the tenants “running naked in the mews and being very noisy and a nuisance”.

Consequently at a cost of many thousands of pounds he successfully evicted the graduates in September 2008 and also had to spend further thousands of pounds to completely refurbish the house.

The agents then sent an invoice to Mr.Bloom for commissions for the remaining six months of the eighteen month contract. The landlord decided not pay the fee as he said that there was a prior agreement that he could end the tenancy after twelve months.

He felt that the everything had been concluded and was shocked to hear from his ex-wife when she forwarded an email from the agents containing a draft court claim for the unpaid commission. A whole five years later after the eviction.

They were claiming that he owed them a sum of £1,749.82.

Mr Bloom immediately sent them an email saying that he disputed the claim and in January he received an email from the agents that attached a judgment ruling against him from Northampton county court, however it transpired that the court documents had been sent to his old business address where he had been located at the time of the tenancy agreement.

Mr Bloom, said: “Without ever serving a claim on me they secured a judgment in default. I had to tell my firm and the Financial Conduct Authority. This is extremely embarrassing and regrettable.”

The agents told Mr Bloom they were prepared to set aside the judgment in February, but Mr Bloom went to court as he felt he should have some of his costs that paid for his time and effort. He was awarded a small amount of around of £800.00.