INDUSTRY FIRST: Agent agrees to voluntary ban after illegal eviction
Aunberin Kawal Saddique is the first agent to face the sanction under the new Digital Marketing, Competition and Consumer Act 2024.
A letting agent who “hounded” a young family for rent they didn’t owe has agreed to a voluntary three-year banning order that has been claimed as an industry ‘first’.
Aunberin Kawal Saddique, who managed 36 properties in Wolverhampton, could be sent to prison, fined or have assets seized if she breaks the undertaking not to be involved in any lettings.
Saddique, as sole trader and director of high street agency Emerald Lettings and Developments Limited, (pictured) has agreed to not let housing in England, engage in letting agency work, property management or hold an HMO licence, with exceptions.
First case
In the first case of its kind in the city, she gave an undertaking to Wolverhampton County Court to cease engaging in the letting and rental management services of private residential properties until July 2028.
The undertaking followed a joint investigation by Wolverhampton City Council’s Private Sector Housing and Trading Standards teams.
Saddique accepted that both she and Emerald Lettings and Developments engaged in a number of unfair commercial practices, including making an unlawful threat to evict a tenant, who was living in a property with her young baby.
Demanding rent
She acknowledged demanding rent from the tenant which was not owing and misleading the public by failing to include details of the business on official stationery.
The case was brought under the new Digital Marketing, Competition and Consumer Act 2024 (DMCC).
The case was brought under the new Digital Marketing, Competition and Consumer Act 2024 (DMCC).
Tenants who are currently living in properties managed by Saddique will remain in their homes, and the properties will be managed by other letting agents.
Terrible case
Bhupinder Gakhal, Cabinet member for Resident Services, says: “This is a terrible case where a city tenant and her young family were hounded by someone they should have been able to trust.
“Most importantly, it has seen an unscrupulous and untrustworthy person removed from the letting and rental sector.”
Picture credit: Google Streetview
