Unsafe home woman bids for refund

The fire service considered Deacon House unsafe

The mother of a student ordered to leave his Leicester flat because it was declared unsafe is still waiting for his rent and deposit to be returned.

Guppy Singh from Nottingham was one of several students told to leave a privately-run house in Leicester in October 2008.

June Singh wants a £250 deposit and rent of £468 returned.

Mark Jones of Classic Lettings of Coleshill, near Birmingham declined to comment when approached.

Mr Singh moved into Deacon House, Leicester with a number of other De Montfort University students.

Shortly afterwards Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service told them to leave the flats because electricity had been cut off in communal areas such as stairways. This was because of an unpaid bill which was not the responsibility of the tenants.

Since then Mrs Singh, from Bakersfield, Nottingham, has been chasing the letting agent Classic Lettings to get her money back.

Court judgements

She said: "It's disgusting. I think people out there should be very careful when they have children going to university because these children are vulnerable children who are stepping into the big, wide world on their own."

She is now considering legal action for the return of her £718.

A BBC reporter approached Mr Jones outside his company's registered office but he declined to comment on whether deposits taken from his tenants had been placed in a deposit protection scheme, as required in a law introduced in April 2007.

Classic Lettings and East 2 West Trade, another company operated by Mark Jones, have a string of county court judgements and owe more than £13,000 after actions were taken against them.

The BBC has been unable to trace Darryl Hatfield, the man named as the landlord on the students' tenancy agreement. He has not returned telephone calls.

Companies House gives an address for him in Sutton Coldfield but he does not live there. He recently resigned as a director of Classic Lettings and chose not to record details of his place of residence.