Published on Friday 5 October 2007 10:29
A STUDENT landlord is to face a tribunal after almost 50 complaints from tenants in Leeds that they had not received their deposits back.
Rory Aitkens of LeedsStudentHomes.com has been told to pay back any money he owes by student housing charity Unipol or risk facing expulsion from a landlords scheme in the city.
Leeds University's Student Union is advising people who have still not received their money back within the next 21 days to pursue it through the small claims court.
Mr Aitkens signed up last year to Unipol's voluntary code of standards for student landlords, which aims provide protection for students.
However he now faces a tribunal after being accused of breaching the charity's code by failing to return deposits to students within six weeks of the end of their tenancies.
The complaints against Mr Aitkens will be heard at a tribunal next week. The panel could permanently ban him from the signing up to the Unipol code of standards in future.
The Government has introduced a new mandatory protection scheme for deposits which mean landlords have to keep the cash in separate accounts and return it to the students within 10 days of the end of the tenancy.
However the new rules only came into force this April and do not apply to any contract signed before then.
Mr Aitkens insisted to the Yorkshire Post he had very little money left to pay back.
"In the last 10 days I have more or less done everything that needs to be done," he said.
He said the majority of delays in returning deposits were in joint tenancy agreements where a section of the rent was still outstanding.
"If you have a joint tenancy where four people have paid their rent but another student hasn't then they will all be waiting until the rent is paid before I can return their deposits," he said.
He added that delays in deposits could also be caused by students moving out of properties at different times, making it difficult to establish who was liable to pay for any damage or the clean-up costs needed on a student property.
Mr Aitkens also said LeedsStudentHomes.com no longer existed and he was no longer working as a letting agent.
He said: "I have had contact with Unipol and I have said to them that the code of standards I signed up to was from February to February so it no longer applies to me as I have not been signed up since February this year."
The Unipol code of standards administrator, Simon Kemp, said: "It is very disappointing to get so many complaints against a member of the code of standards, especially ones that concern allegations relating to the return of deposits.
"I would not expect such a tag to apply to landlords or agents signed up to the Unipol Code. It is therefore in everybody's interest if Mr Aitkens simply returns the deposit money owed to his former tenants."
Leeds University's Student Union community officer Sara Gill said: "With student debt ever increasing this situation is simply unacceptable, and we sincerely hope that Mr Aitkens' promise of repaying the money owed materialises."
Tenants 'left in the dark' by company
CASE STUDY
TENANTS claim they have been left in the dark about where their money has gone after renting student properties from landlord Rory Aitkens.
David Highfield, 22, of Woodhouse, rented a property in Burley Road, Leeds, from LeedsStudentHomes.com during the last academic year but says he has still yet to receive his deposit back.
When he visited the firm's base in Victoria Road, Leeds, to retrieve his deposit he found the firm had moved and a new company was now based there.
He said: "They gave me a forwarding address for LeedsStudentHomes.com but this was just a PO Box . There was a mobile number, but no one would ever get back to you.
"A month ago I received a letter saying our deposit would be paid and then on September 21 Mr Aitkens said we would be paid within 10 days – but 10 days has passed and as far as I know nobody has received their deposit back yet.
"All of my housemates' rent was paid up and our bills were paid as well."
Mr Highfield, who is in his final year of a business course at Leeds Metropolitan University, is now planning to attend the tribunal hearing next
Source: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/around-yorkshire/local-stories/students_landlord_in_clash_over_deposits_1_2471680