TV probe uncovers PRS platform’s misleading claims within £470k funding pitch

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A student lettings platform has been exposed for misleading investors while raising £470,000 in a crowdfunding pitch by boasting it would become the ‘Uber of student rentals’.

Edinburgh-based Student Rents, run by father and son team Grant MacCusker and Jamie Stewart, secured funding from 179 investors, and claimed three other highly experienced people were part of their team, according to an investigation by STV News.

However, photographs of chief product and technology officer Phillip Scott, who was listed as having previously worked for Ebay and Shopify, chief operating officer Kirsty Wilson, and Nicola Wood were found to be stock images. Ebay and Shopify confirmed nobody called Phillip Scott had ever worked there.

Until last Friday, MacCusker was registered as a director of both Lettinglord, the legal name of Student Rents, and Letting Cloud, but his appointment has now ended, according to Companies House.

The pair also fabricated a buyout of Letting Cloud by Airbnb, according to STV.

5,000 agents

The firm claimed it had more than 5,000 agents advertising more than 500,000 properties. But Airbnb denied any relationship or acquisition of Letting Cloud, and told STV News the claims were “fabricated”. When asked, Letting Cloud said the matter was in the hands of its lawyers.

CrowdCube told STV News: “We are aware of the reported allegations and are conducting an investigation. At this stage, we cannot provide further comment.”

The news channel contacted Students Rents and Letting Cloud which did not deny the claims made in its article. A spokesperson for Student Rents said: “We are actively working with Crowdcube to resolve any issues and reporting on this issue doesn’t help either party at this moment in time.”

LandlordZONE has tried to contact Student Rents.

View Full Article: TV probe uncovers PRS platform’s misleading claims within £470k funding pitch

Property investor hit with £16,000 rent repayment order after licencing failure

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The director of a property investment and management firm has been stung with a £15,900 rent repayment order after failing to convince a First Tier Property Tribunal that he didn’t know about HMO licensing.

John Campbell, the boss of Hackney 4 Ltd, claimed he was unaware his three-bedroom flat in Cazenove Road (main picture), London, was covered by Hackney’s additional licensing and selective licensing schemes.

He had owned the property since 2007 but hadn’t seen any local publicity, or reference to it on internet landlord forums and received no notification from the council or from the superior landlord.

The four tenants – who shared the pay-out, along with £600 costs – pointed out that blaming his ignorance was disingenuous due to his position in the property company.

However, Campbell argued this was based upon his knowledge of property investment and management which did not include a technical expertise in legislation regulating the PRS.

Reasonable

The tribunal ruled: “The licensing scheme has been in place since 2018 in Hackney. It may have been objectively reasonable for the respondent to be ignorant of the requirement for the first six or nine months of its implementation. It is not objectively reasonable to be ignorant of the requirements for a period of one or more years.”

It had serious concerns about the landlord’s conduct in relation to standards in the property where he had delegated several management responsibilities to the tenants.

The Tribunal also pointed to persistent damp and the presence of mould, his failure to replace an ageing boiler which kept breaking down, and the fact there was no communal space other than the kitchen.

It added: “It seems unlikely to the tribunal that the property will be licenced for four separate households once it is inspected by London Borough of Hackney.”

Read the judgement in full.

View Full Article: Property investor hit with £16,000 rent repayment order after licencing failure

20 years supporting property investors

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At the Property Investor Show at Excel last Friday, I was delighted to be presented with an award for being one of the longest-standing exhibitors at the show since 2003 and having provided support to other property investors for 20 years through our property investors network (pin) monthly networking meetings all over the UK.

View Full Article: 20 years supporting property investors

Landlord given suspended prison sentence after appalling illegal eviction

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A landlord has been handed a suspended jail sentence for kicking out his tenant during a national eviction ban.

Amjad Ali Khattak removed the woman’s possessions in December 2020 and left them on the street in the rain (pictured), which was witnessed by a police officer.

Khattak admitted the offence and was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £15,000. 

Oxford Crown Court heard that the landlord, who owns the ground floor flat on Gatteridge Street (main pic), Banbury, failed to allow a Cherwell District Council environmental health officer to inspect the electrics but entered without the tenant’s permission to check the fuse board.

The tenant was forced to use old £1 coins to feed a meter and had suffered an electric shock using white goods in the kitchen.

Reference checks

The court heard that the tenant’s deposit had not been placed in a protection scheme, while Khattak had not carried out right to rent, or reference checks.

Her tenancy agreement was removed from among her personal belongings, while her cat disappeared during the eviction and has not been seen since.

Nicola Riley (pictured), the council’s assistant director for wellbeing and housing, says it advised Khattak that it would be illegal to evict his tenant; he not only ignored this warning, but also went on to disregard requests from the council and the police to allow her to re-enter her home.

“At the time of the offence, the tenant did owe a small amount of rent, but she had clearly communicated to her landlord that she would be able to catch up with payments in the coming days,” adds Riley.

“Responsible landlords will follow due process if there is a genuine need to evict a tenant, but this was not one of those cases.”

Picture credits: Cherwell council.

View Full Article: Landlord given suspended prison sentence after appalling illegal eviction

All regions see rental yields go up

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All regions have seen an annual and quarterly rise in rental yields – up from 6% a year ago, and 6.4% in the last quarter of 2022 to 6.5% now, research reveals.

According to Fleet Mortgages, the growth in yields is down to a shortage of rental stock and high tenant demand.

View Full Article: All regions see rental yields go up