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The Worst Student Landlord in Manchester?

Written by Stewart Maclean E-mail author

…and the SD investigation that dumped him

A potential candidate for the Worst Student Landlord in Manchester was last week dumped by a major Property Letting Agency as the direct result of an investigation by Student Direct.

Student Direct today claims victory over landlord Nazir Banday, who manages over a hundred student properties across Greater Manchester, and has a highly dubious record of care towards his tenants over a number of years.

Following our investigation, Banday's properties will no longer be marketed to students by any of the major letting agencies in Manchester. Homes4u, the last major agency to have dealings with Banday, cut links last week.

As the result of a series of complaints made to Manchester Student Homes, the Universities' property and landlord standards watchdog, Mr Banday was highkighted as a character likely to cause problems to his student tenants. A number of agencies in South Manchester refused to advertise his properties following disputes and complaints.

Homes4u, one of the biggest letting agencies in Manchester, had claimed that they were unaware of any serious problems with Banday and told Student Direct that they would continue to promote his business at their offices along the Oxford and Wilmslow Roads, meaning that students using the Homes 4u service could have ended up living in a house managed by a person some current student describe as "the landlord from hell."

However, the company was forced into a corner following the presentation of a large amount of evidence against Banday, and have now withdrawn him from their lists.

The evidence, held by Manchester Student Homes against Banday dates as far back as1996, and includes many complaints of poor quality housing, difficulties in the return of deposits and unwelcome visits from Banday at all times of the day and night.

Once the results of Student Direct's investigation were presented to Peter Flaherty, Group Business Development Manager of Homes4u, the company made the decision that it would no longer advertise properties managed by Mr Banday.

Azeem Property Management Services, the company owned and run by Mr Banday, has an office in Tib Street in the city centre, although when a Student Direct reporter went to the site it was boarded up and clearly out of use.

One of the few complaints against Azeem management which has made it to the courtroom dates from 1999, when Banday failed to return the deposits of a group of students in one of the properties he managed.

On advice from Manchester Student Homes, the student housing organisation owned by the four universities in Manchester, the group took Banday to the small claims court and were rewarded the full amount. When asked about the case, Mr Banday told Student Direct that this was "an exceptional case which arose from a misunderstanding."

Amongst the many other complaints about Banday is the fact that he rarely answers his mobile phone and is usually unavailable in the event of any incident.

In 1999, Sarah Wall and her housemates paid the agency fees to Agents Homes4u for a house in Withington advertised by Mr Banday at Ł43.50 per person weekly rent. However, after paying Mr Banday the required rent deposit, the group was informed that rent on the house had been increased by five pounds a week.

Sarah and her friends complained to the agency and were told that they Mr Banday was refusing to refund the deposit since it was up to them that they did not want to move into the house.

The problem was eventually resolved, with the group arguing that the rent was unfairly increased once an agreement had been struck. Mr Banday retained 20% of each flatmate's deposit for 'administration costs.'

One of the current tenants of Azeem Management has spoken anonymously to Student Direct about her experiences with the landlord, and revealed that the service she has received has been considerably below what she expected.

"When we moved into the house in September it was apparent that people had been living in the house over the summer even though we had been paying half rent since June," she said. "The house was a mess and took over a week to clean to liveable standards."

The numerous complaints about the management of the property led the students to approach MSH with their concerns in January after Mr Banday made an unexpected visit to the house to inform his tenants of a dispute over who should be managing the property.

"Mr Banday came round to the house and started yelling about a new landlord, saying that we should ignore him and that he had no legal right to come and visit us. We were confused as we had heard nothing of any new landlord at that point."

Investigation from MSH revealed that a number of the owners of the properties managed by Banday had become dissatisfied with the manner in which he was conducting his business and had contacted a rival management company, which has asked to remain anonymous until the end of the dispute, in order to give them control of their properties from September 2002.

When questioned by Student Direct, Banday admitted that a new company had assumed the management of a number of his properties, but stressed that the change of hands was unrelated to his past record as a landlord.

"The new landlord will be managing seven or eight of my properties from September because I could not afford to keep them for various reasons," he claimed, before firmly denying that his properties were substandard and that the service provided to his student tenants was unacceptable.

"My houses are as good as anybody else's and I try my best to please everyone. Chances are, if you manage as many properties as I do, that some tenants are likely to be unhappy with what they have."

However, despite Banday's objections to the evidence presented to him, MSH, due to the number and severity of complaints received about his practices over the past six years, will not advertise any property owned or managed by him.

Despite admitting that there have been complaints made about Mr Banday in the past, Homes 4u's management were unable to comment on why they continued to advertise properties managed by him.

In an interview with Student Direct, Franca Carbone, general manager at Homes4u, compared letting a house from the company to buying a kitchen table from the classified advertisements: "We essentially offer a free advertising service to people. If you wanted to buy a second hand table you would not rely on the free ads to verify the quality of the product.

"Equally, it is up to our customers to make up their own mind as to the suitability and quality of the properties advertised with us."

Questioning the other main agencies in South Manchester, it has been learned from a partner at 'The Property File' in Withington that the agency ceased all dealings with Azeem Management in September last year following a dispute about who actually owns the properties managed by Mr Banday.

Opal Homes, who are in the same row of offices in Withington as The Property File and Homes4u, told Student Direct that they have strict restrictions on who they are prepared to advertise to the student market.

A spokesperson for the firm said: "If we get two or three complaints about any one landlord then we address the problems very seriously and take immediate action to remove their properties from the list."

Faced with the evidence against Banday held at MSH, and in light of Student Direct's investigation, Homes 4u management on Thursday 16th May took the decision to dis-instruct Azeem Management immediately. Peter Flaherty, the company's Group Business Manager, said: "I can confirm that with immediate

effect Homes4u no longer market any of Mr. Banday's properties.."

When questioned about his dis-instruction from the one remaining agency prepared to let his properties, Mr Banday reaffirmed his innocence to Student Direct and suggested that the wealth of evidence against him was fabricated.

"If you give me enough time then I am confident that I can disprove anything said about my company. I have been in this business for over twenty years and you can't please everybody all the time."