A LANDLORD who failed to secure a deposit given to him by two young women for a flat in Glasgow has been ordered by a tribunal to repay them almost £3000.
Students Laura Pollock and Rhona MacKintosh, both 21, rented a property for 13 months from Ajitpal Dhillon, one of 15 he owns across the city.
Both left Glasgow during the first lockdown of the pandemic and when they returned they decided to move because of a deterioration in their relationship with Dhillon. They said he told them at this point he would not be returning their deposit.
The two women contacted the tenants’ union Living Rent and the matter moved to court after Dhillon allegedly refused to meet them.
After six months of legal proceedings and an attempt by the union to settle out of court, the women were awarded £2800 by The First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber), which was set up to deal with determinations of rent or repair issues in private sector housing.
The students said they felt they had to take the case to court to ensure a public record of their landlord’s behaviour. Pollock said: “My motive for pursuing action through the tribunal has always been to hold Mr Dhillon accountable and for others to then know of his behaviour.
“We should all feel safe in our home and I didn’t. Mr Dhillon’s unpredictability was terrifying.
“As tenants in the lower position of power, we do not see how it is fair for us to be subject to this level of mistreatment from a landlord.
“I urge all tenants who relate to this treatment to get in touch with Living Rent because this case is an example of how we can hold landlords to account.”
The landlord admitted during the tribunal that it was not an isolated incident. The students said they have also made contact with other groups of tenants who had been victims of the landlord’s poor behaviour and failings. They said: “When we talked to the other tenants, we realised this is what he does.
“His pattern of behaviour is to provide a below average flat, remain distant and uncommunicative when he is required to provide documents and make repairs, and then fail to return deposits as he purposely does not protect them. We had all been subject to similar abuses and events. It felt like our statements had been copied and pasted.”
MacKintosh said: “The courts are there to protect tenants and landlords alike, however, the process was lengthy and took a lot of courage.
“Without the help of organisations like Living Rent, we wouldn’t have felt able to stand up to Mr Dhillon in the way that we were forced to.”
Rory MacLean, from Living Rent, added: “With jobs lost and a recession looming across Scotland, many are struggling. These two young women are representative of so many in this pandemic – honest tenants who have been pushed into financial hardship by unscrupulous landlords.”
Dhillon was reported to authorities in 2007 over anomalies on a gas safety certificate, when Glasgow City Council rejected his application for a houses in multiple occupation (HMO) certificate. He could not be contacted for comment yesterday.
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