Ban for landlord whotook£7000 from his tenants
A LANDLORD who took almost £7000 from tenants has been banned from renting out property.
Shaban Rehman, who operated Better Homes Glasgow in Calder Street, must not rent out any of his eight flats.
He is also stopped from letting out any of the 20 properties managed through his Govanhill letting agency.
Glasgow City Council said he is no longer a “fit and proper” person and has removed him from the Private Landlord’s Register.
If he attempts to let any properties he is automatically committing a criminal offence and can be fined up to £50,000.
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.
“It’s to advantage of both tenants and other landlords that he has been flushed out of the system.”
Investigators from the council’s Private Landlord Registration Unit found Mr Rehman had failed to place two deposits totalling £6950 with an approved rent deposit scheme.
In one case, he received a deposit worth £3200 for a flat on Napiershall Street, in the West End from a family relocating from London.
But 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.
To try to justify the lack of access to the original flat, Mr Rehman provided pictures to the family of a flooded property, which was actually a flat in London.
Mr Rehman then placed the flat in Glasgow’s west end back on the rental market without ever paying back the deposit.
In the second case, a tenant found his deposit of £3750 had not been paid into an approved tenancy deposit scheme when the flat on Nursery Street in Pollokshields East was repossessed for mortgage arrears.
The tenant recovered his deposit through a civil court action.
The council has also served rent penalty notices to prevent Mr Rehman from legally collecting rent on his properties. The right to appeal against this will expire on Monday, May 9.
Mr Rehman, however, denied all of the claims set out by the council. Although the 21-day appeal period against the decision to remove him from the Landlord Register has now lapsed, Mr Rehman told the Evening Times he will still appeal and was confident of overturning the decision.
Mr Rehman said: “I don’t know where the council has got this information from.
“I have been renting out properties for 13 years for only one client we could not deliver 100 per cent service because the property was flooded.
“Why would I lodge hundreds of deposits with the rent deposit scheme but miss out these two? Their claims do not make sense.
“We are appealing against this decision and I am confident it will be overturned. I one million per cent have sent off all the appeal paperwork to the council.”
Mr Rehman claims to have a meeting with the Private Landlord Registration Unit next week but the council says no such meeting is arranged.
The former landlord also told the Evening Times he has sold all his properties and has sold Better Homes Glasgow with a new business moving in to 2 Calder Street on June 1.
Mr Rehman, whose address is given as a £445,000 detached villa in Thornliebank, previously operated Let’s Direct letting agency from 2 Calder Street.
Since initiating action against Rehman and Better Homes Glasgow, it emerged the company was liquidated in March this year.
Glasgow City Council has also received calls from landlords who claim they are still owed overdue rental payments from Better Homes Glasgow.