Glasgow landlord struck-off after pocketing deposits
A Glasgow landlord has been barred from renting out his properties after pocketing deposits.
A landlord who pocketed deposits worth almost £7000 has been barred from renting out his property by Glasgow City Council.
Shaban Rehman, who also operated the letting agency, Better Homes Glasgow, was found to be no longer a fit and proper person to be a landlord or agent and has been removed from the Private Landlord’s Register by the council.
The decision means that if Rehman attempts to let any of his eight flats, or the twenty managed through his letting agency, he is automatically committing a criminal offence and can be fined up to £50,000.
After receiving complaints about Rehman, investigators from the council’s Private Landlord Registration Unit found that Rehman had failed to place two deposits totalling £6950 with an approved rent deposit scheme.
In one case, Rehman received a deposit worth £3200 for a flat in Glasgow’s west end from a family relocating from London. However, when the family arrived in the city they were told the flat was unavailable due to flooding and an alternative flat was offered for an additional £700 per month.
In an attempt to justify the lack of access to the original flat, Rehman provided pictures to the family of a flooded property, which was actually a flat in London that been highlighted in the media earlier that year. Rehman subsequently placed the flat in Glasgow’s west end back on the rental market without ever paying back the deposit.
In the second case, an individual tenant discovered that his deposit of £3750 had not been paid into an approved tenancy deposit scheme when the flat in Pollokshields East was repossessed for mortgage arrears. Rehman had provided the tenant with a document that apparently showed money had been paid into the rent deposit scheme, but on investigation it was found the document only confirmed registration with the scheme, not payment into an account.
This individual was eventually able to recover his deposit of £3750 through a civil court action.
Rehman has not appealed the decision to remove his name and the name of his letting agency, Better Homes Glasgow, from the landlord register.
The council has also served rent penalty notices against him and this prevents him from legally collecting rent on his properties. A right of appeal against the serving of rent penalty notices exists, but, to date, that right has not been exercised and will expire on Monday, May 9.
Owners of the properties for which Rehman has acted as a letting agent have also been written to by the council to ask that they cease to employ or face having their own applications for landlord registration removed.
Richard Brown, Executive Director of the council’s Development and Regeneration Services, said: “This kind of appalling behaviour by a registered landlord can never be tolerated. Shaban Rehman has taken money from blameless tenants in bad faith and caused his victims untold distress and inconvenience.
“There is no question that he is no longer a fit and proper person to act as a landlord. By his own actions, he has ceased to be a legitimate landlord and has damaged trust in the private sector rental market.
“It’s to advantage of both tenants and other landlords that he has been flushed out of the system. We will always seek to take action against landlords who abuse their position and bring down the reputation of responsible landlords who meet the standards expected of them.”