Agency fined for bullying tenants it wanted to illegally evict

Media reports in Brighton say that a lettings agency which serve tenants with illegal eviction notices and unjustified legal threats has ended up with a bill of over £60,000.

SB Lets admitted two counts of harassing tenants and one of the attempted unlawful eviction. 

As well as frequently coming into the shared houses and issuing invalid eviction notices, the company threatened to take their guarantors to court – even starting proceedings against one.

Sentencing, Judge Stephen Mooney is quoted by the Brighton and Hove News website as saying that SB Lets had miscalculated the end date of the tenancies and feared unless it could persuade the tenants to leave early, it would not be able to let out the houses for the next academic year.

He said: “This behaviour was appalling. It included the issuing of spurious court proceedings against either the tenant or the guarantor, serving invalid possession notices, entering the premises and acting aggressivly, withholding wifi and removing the key and card to allow gas and electricity to be be paid for.

“To add insult to injury, when the defendant finally succeeded in forcing out one of the tenants they withheld £200 from a security deposit to compensate for an apparently broken lock.

“A decision which I regard as being motivated by spite at the inconvenience they had been caused rather than by a reflection of any damage caused.

"There is a substantial imbalance in power betwee the defendant and the tenants affected by their action.

“Landlords and letting agents have an obligation to understad that they are providing one of the most basic requirements of society, namely a place to live.

“It appears there is currently a shortfall in the number of rental properties available and so by their actions they created the risk that each tenant would become homeless.

“They created that risk out of greed and fear that they would miss a year’s rental income. The three tenants were simply collateral damage.”

You can see the report in full here.