Posts with tag: rogue letting agent

Lettings Administrator who Stole £14,000 in Tenants’ Deposits Spares Jail

Published On: March 13, 2017 at 9:49 am

Author: Em Morley

Categories: Finance News

Tags: letting agent,rogue letting agent,tenancy deposits,tenants

A lettings administrator who stole more than £14,000 in tenants’ deposits has been spared jail.

Lettings Administrator who Stole £14,000 in Tenants’ Deposits Spares Jail

Julie Feilden, 51, stole the funds over a six-year period and has been given a six-month suspended prison sentence. She has also been ordered to complete 120 hours’ unpaid work and pay costs of £1,250. She admitted 13 charges.

Feilden was employed by Smiths Gore in Newmarket, Suffolk, where she was responsible for collecting tenants’ deposits. Where cash was accepted, Feilden was required to log the funds and keep them in the stationery store under lock and key. She had the keys to the store, and part of her job was to bank the money and complete the paperwork for the tenants’ deposits.

Ipswich Crown Court was told that, in 2015, redundancies were made at the firm, which included Feilden’s role. At the end of the year, the business was sold to Savills.

Although she was made redundant, Feilden asked to take the books home to get them up to date.

It took several months for the firm to retrieve the books, and it was then that the thefts were discovered.

When police interviewed Feilden, who has no previous convictions, she made full admissions.

Representing herself, Feilden told the court she was “very sorry” for what she had done.

Savills acquired the 31-branch agent in 2015 for a staggered payment of up to £40m. The announcement at the time said that Smiths Gore had an unaudited revenue of £30.8m and gross assets of £14.9m, with profit before tax and partners’ drawings at £6.3m.

Discussing the theft of tenants’ deposits, a spokesperson for Savills says: “Savills can confirm that Julie Feilden was an employee of Smiths Gore, based in its Newmarket high street office from 2010-15, when these offences took place.

“Smiths Gore was subsequently acquired by Savills. No clients suffered a loss as a consequence.”

Landlords, remember to stick to the law where tenants’ deposits are concerned: /landlords-guide-tenancy-deposits/

Fake letting agent put behind bars for deceit

Published On: August 2, 2016 at 1:23 pm

Author: Em Morley

Categories: Landlord News

Tags: fraud,landlords,letting agent,rogue landlords,rogue letting agent

A man has been put behind bars after falsely posing as a letting agent to scam both landlords and tenants.

Reporting service Court News said that Adam Coote started his deceit with Andrew Rickard and Sahila Kauser in 2012. Coote had only just been released from prison for a similar offence.

Fake

Mr Coote, also know as Elliott Wilson, used fake agency names, such as Belgravia Property Group, Mayfair Residential and Park Lane Residential to offer fake properties in London, Bristol and Birmingham.

Coote was jailed for 28 months at Southwark Crown Court. Mr Rickard had been sentenced for 18 months imprisonment, while Kauser had been sentenced for the same period, suspended for 2 years.

Previously, Coote had been jailed for four years in August 2009 for similar scams in Manchester and Liverpool. His most potent scam was to take six months rent from the tenant, only for the ‘agent’ to disappear with their money.

Court News suggests that Coote used the profits from his deceit in order to buy an apartment with a £2,000 fridge, a chauffeur driven Range Rover and trips to fancy restaurants.

Fake letting agent put behind bars for deceit

Fraud

Mr Warwick Tatford, prosecuting, said, ‘the defendants were able to secure access to the properties and keys and a number of prospective tenants would then be shown around the properties.’[1]

Would-be tenants were told to give Coote and his associates deposits, to find that they had failed credit checks. The fraudsters than informed the tenants that their landlord was happy for them to move in, if they paid the first six weeks rent upfront.

Tatford continued by saying, ‘prospective tenants were provided with access keys of the properties and when they attended to move into the property they would find there was already a tenant in place who had also signed a tenancy with the company.’[1]

The fraudsters made a total of £26,585 from their deceit, which is likely to be recouped in compensation and confiscation proceedings.

[1] https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2016/8/fake-letting-agent-jailed-after-swindling-landlords-and-tenants

Call for action after agent jailed for £400k theft

Published On: May 6, 2016 at 9:08 am

Author: Em Morley

Categories: Property News

Tags: landlords,private rental sector,rental industry,rogue letting agent

A property boss has warned that the alarming case of a rogue letting agent has underlined the need for urgent change in the private rental sector.

This week, rental manager Angela Clift from Tyneside, was jailed for two years after stealing £400,000 that she was supposed to have collected on behalf of landlords. The money was intended to have been taken on behalf of Newcastle based property firm Keith Pattinson.

Breathtaking

On raiding Clift’s property, police found expensive handbags, clothing and jewellery, not to mention an expensive sports car parked outside.

Upon sentencing, the judge described Clift’s actions as ‘breathtaking.’

Now, Ajay Jagota, founder of sales and lettings firm KIS, believes immediate change is needed to stop this kind of action happening again. At present, an estimated £500m worth of rental deposits are thought to be illegally held.

Jagota said, ‘although I wasn’t in court to hear the exact details of this case, incidents like these are the inevitable outcome of an industry where too much money is flowing around unnecessarily with inadequate oversight over where it ends up. You’ve got tenants handing over hundreds and thousands of pounds in deposits and rent and landlords acting in good faith that it will be money will dealt with appropriately. Of course most agents do just that, but five minutes on Google will show you that is not always the case.’[1]

Call for action after agent jailed for £400k theft

Solution

Mr Jagota continued by saying, ‘we’re not just talking about a few quid here and there. We’ve got £500m of rental deposits apparently held illegally and firms collapsing owning hundreds of thousands of pounds-sometimes having been given a clean bill of health by industry watchdogs. And those are just the cases we hear about. That can’t be right.’[1]

‘The simplest solution is to stop taking deposits and move to an insurance-backed model. It’s not just that it works perfectly well in other industries, it’s that you’ think it was ludicrous if people did it any other way. If you rent a car, you don’t hand over hundreds of pounds before you’re given the keys on the understanding that you’re guaranteed to crash it!’[1]

Concluding, Jagota said, ‘the overall value of UK rental deposits is estimated to be £3.2bn. Having people handing over so much cash to an under-regulated industry is something which can’t continue-not when there are simple and effective solutions under our noses.’[1]

[1] http://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/landlords/letting-agent-jailed-after-breathtaking-%C3%A3%C2%A2400k-theft.html

‘Appalling’ letting agent head banned

Published On: May 5, 2016 at 10:28 am

Author: Em Morley

Categories: Property News

Tags: deposit schemes,deposits,letting agent,rogue letting agent,tenancy agreements

A letting agent who kept tenants’ deposits with value of nearly £7,000 has been branded as, ‘appalling’ by the local council in which the action took place.

Glasgow council barred Shaban Rehman from renting out homes, describing him as unfit to be a landlord or agent. Rehman was also removed from the authority’s private landlord register.

As a result, he can no longer let his eight flats, nor the other 20 managed by his letting agency, Better Homes Glasgow. The council also ruled that anyone attempting to break this ruling would be charged with a criminal offence and fined up to £50,000.

Failures

Glasgow Council said that its private registration unit found that Rehman had failed to register two deposits with an approved rental scheme. These deposits had a total rental value of £6,950.

He is also reported to have told a family that rented one of his properties in the city, but relocated to London for a short while, that there had been a flood in their absence. As such, Rehman duped them into paying £700 per month extra for another flat, but then subsequently placed the ‘flooded’ flat back onto the market. Rehman also did not return the family’s deposit.

‘Appalling’ letting agent head banned

What’s more, Mr Rehman was alleged to have shown another tenant fraudulent documentation, which falsely claimed their deposit had been legally deposited into an approved scheme.

A council spokesman 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.’[1]

[1] https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2016/5/ban-for-appalling-letting-agency-chief-who-kept-tenants-deposits

Letting Agent Jailed for Stealing £27,000 of Tenant Deposits

Published On: April 26, 2016 at 10:29 am

Author: Em Morley

Categories: Finance News

Tags: fraud,letting agents,rogue letting agent,tenant deposits

A letting agent that was forced to close his firm in New Malden has left 17 landlords out of pocket by stealing £27,000 of tenant deposits.

Chandra Patel, 34, has been jailed for ten months. He was the director of Giraffe Residential, which was closed down in December 2014.

Letting Agent Jailed for Stealing £27,000 of Tenant Deposits

It is believed that Patel used tenants’ deposits to cover his own debts.

Patel pleaded guilty to two counts of fraudulent trading on 23^rd March at Kingston Crown Court.

He has now been sentenced to ten months in prison and is banned from being a company director for seven years. He will also have to pay a victim surcharge, but this figure will be determined at a later date.

Sentencing Patel, Judge Timothy Lamb said: “He traded well until 2014, when things took a turn for the worse. The defendant decided to help himself to the monies, which he held in trust.

“I take into account the defendant’s family circumstances, I take into account that he is of previous good character. However, the defendant became part of a system of retail letting which was created in order to instil trust and confidence. He was plainly not fit to play a part in the system. He abused his position.”¹

Patel has a wife and is a father of three, with his youngest child just five months old.

It is reported that landlords were left to reimburse their tenants from their own pockets after the money was taken, having only been told in a letter in December 2015 that Giraffe Residential would be dissolved and that no payments could be made.

The police and Trading Standards then launched an investigation into the firm, after receiving numerous complaints.

If you need help finding a reputable letting agent, follow this advice: https://www.justlandlords.co.uk/news/choosing-right-letting-agent-property/

¹http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/14449908.New_Malden_letting_agent_jailed_for_ten_months_after_using___27_000_of_landlords__money_to_cover_debts/

Company fined £47,900 for breach of HMO regulations

Published On: February 17, 2016 at 12:12 pm

Author: Em Morley

Categories: Landlord News

Tags: HMO's,housing regulations,property,rogue letting agent

A property company managing a HMO in Notting Hill has been ordered to pay a substantial fine, after not complying with HMO regulations.

AA London Property Limited was fined £47,900 in relation to 24 charges under the Housing Act 2004. Council officers found numerous breaches or regulations. These ranged from a faulty smoke detector to unsafe bannisters.

Charges

The director of AA London Property Limited, Jagit Kaur, was fined £21,780 relating to 16 charges under the Housing Act 2004. Kaur entered guilty pleas to nine of the charges at a previous hearing and was subsequently found guilty of the other seven charges after a trial at the City of London Magistrates’ Court.

Both the firm and Kaur were prosecuted by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in relation to offences at 14-16 Clanricarde Gardens, W2. The prosecutions followed a failure to comply with a Prohibition Order made under the Housing Act 2004, which prohibited the use of one of the rooms as living accommodation. In addition, there were breaches of the Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006 and failure to produce tenancy agreements under Section 235 of the Housing Act 2004.

Kaur and the company opposed the need to provide tenancy agreements to the council, citing that they would be in breach of the Data Protection Act. Additionally, they disputed that a sink was blocked on the day of inspection by a council officer and that smoke alarms were incorrectly installed. Kaur’s defence team argued that somebody else was managing the property.

Company fined £47,900 for breach of HMO regulations

Responsibilities

Magistrates also heard that the property in question is a six-storey HMO, that had been converted into 35 lettings. Around 45 tenants lived in the building.

In court, the council produced a copy of the HMO application form, which confirmed that AAA London Property Limited was the licence holder and that Kaur was the manager, with responsibility.

When sentencing, the court took into account the previous guilty pleas, alongside both parties’ good character. As such, the magistrates imposed a reduction to the financial penalty imposed. In addition to the fine AAA London Property Limited and Kaur were told to pay council costs of £7,709.75 and to pay a victim surcharge of £120.

Duty

‘Councils have a duty to ensure that licensed HMOs are fit for the number of occupiers,’ said Councillor Rock Feilding-Mellen, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s cabinet member for housing. ‘The purpose of the licensing requirements is to enable local authorities to ensure that HMOs are safe, have adequate facilities for the occupiers and are properly managed.’[1]

‘It is very important that, when faced with landlords who are not adhering to the appropriate regulations and licensing conditions, we take all necessary action to ensure that tenants are protected and that the properties they live in meet all legal requirements. In this case, both the company and its director failed to meet the minimum standards and their responsibilities as a landlord so I am very pleased that the court has handed down these fines,’ he added.[1]

[1] https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2016/2/notting-hill-property-company-fined-47-900-for-hmo-failings