Landlord duo fined £14,000 after failed attempt to blame letting agent
Muhammed Abdul and Amina Khatun Hamid inaccurately blamed EA Property for naming them instead of their son Zafar on tenancy following rent repayment order attempt.
A landlord couple who tried to avoid a rent repayment order by inaccurately claiming their names shouldn’t have been on the tenancy agreement have been stung with a £14,000 bill.
Muhammed Abdul and Amina Khatun Hamid blamed agents EA Property for naming them instead of their son Zafar Ahmed when two tenants tried to claim back their rent at the four-bedroom unlicensed flat in Prichard Court, Holloway in North London.
A First Tier Property Tribunal heard that disrepair at the property included water leaks, dirty curtains and carpets, defective electrical sockets and mice. One tenant said the agent had threatened to evict him on two occasions and that someone had entered the premises.
Although the landlord pair did not deny the property was unlicensed, Mr Hamid denied that he owned it and while he could not say how many properties he owned, it was more than ten.
Avoid liability
The judge said there was a concerted attempt by EA and the landlord couple to avoid liability, presumably with the hope that the tribunal would decide Zafar Ahmed should have been named as liable when it was known that such an application would fail because it was time barred.
He added: “To suggest it was a mistake was fanciful. No attempt had been made by the family to rectify this ‘mistake’ during the relevant period. In truth, the family had a portfolio of properties… some of these he owned as the paper owner and some of which his sons owned. The fact that the tenancy agreements for this property had been put in the parents’ names was deliberate as they were intended to be the landlords.
“Equally it is clear that the premises were in a very poor condition throughout the applicants’ occupation.”
The judge only reduced the RRO by 12% as he said it was on the “serious end of the scale”.
Update
A spokesperson for EA Property Agents has told The Neg is intends to appeal the Tribunal’s decision and has 28 days from the date of the decison to do so.
