The head of a lettings company who kept tenants’ deposits worth almost £7,000 has been barred from renting out homes by a council which has branded him as “appalling.” 

Glasgow council has declared Shaban Rehman was found to no longer be a fit and proper person to be a landlord or agent and has been removed from the authority’s private landlord’s register.

This means he cannot let out his own eight flats nor the 20 others managed by his letting agency, Better Homes Glasgow – with the council warning that any attempt to break the ruling would be a criminal offence with a fine of up to £50,000.

The council says its private landlord registration unit found Rehman had failed to place two deposits totalling £6,950 with an approved rent deposit scheme.

He is also alleged to have told a family renting one of his properties in the city, and relocating from London, that the flat was unavailable because of a flood with the only alternative accommodation costing an additional £700 per month. The council says he subsequently placed the ‘flooded’ flat back on the rental market without returning the family’s deposit.

Rehman is also alleged to have provided another tenant with documentation purporting to show deposit money paid into an approved scheme, but it turned out the paperwork actually confirmed only a registration with the scheme, not a payment. 

“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” says a council spokesman.