Student renters are being urged by former letting agent Ajay Jagota to sign up to a legal service that he has launched to protect tenants from rogue landlords.

In a bid to entice renters, he offers plenty of examples of unscrupulous landlords recently being forced to repay more than £50,000 of rent from homes described as “uninhabitable” and “hazardous to health” and let by “threatening” landlords.

Tribunal decisions leading to Rent Repayment Orders against rogue landlords and letting agents published in the last month show a worrying snapshot of conditions within the private rented sector many of these houses are student accommodation.

These include:

• Ilford, £24,414 of rent repaid

Tenants were repaid almost £25,000 of rent on a house in Gants Hill described as “uninhabitable”

A fire in the building was found to have been caused by a defective boiler, and the house was not properly equipped with smoke alarms. Gas and electricity supplies were shut off due to being unsafe – forcing the tenants to move out for a month.

The tenant told the tribunal that a gas engineer paid for by “did not meet modern safety standards” and that “sparks were visible when the boiler operated”

The landlord had not provided the tenants with a gas safety certificate or a electrical installation condition report. The house was also unlicensed in a selective licensing area.

• Bristol, £17,500 of rent repaid

Six Bristol students were repaid £17,500 of rent after their property was found to be an unlicensed HMO, described by the tribunal as “a fair reflection of the seriousness (their landlord’s) offending”

The Tribunal concluded that the landlord “knew that the property required licensing as an HMO (and) thwarted the efforts of the managing agent to apply for a licence…. these are matters that aggravated the seriousness of the offending”

• Fareham, £2659 of rent repaid

A repayment order was passed after a landlord failed to respond to an Improvement Notice under legislation such as the Housing Act 2004.and the Housing and Planning Act 2016 due to “defects to the property which are hazardous to health”

These include “penetrating damp to the ceiling of the communal hallway, a bedroom and the “second lobby”.

Tenants also alleged that “mould and mushrooms” were growing in the kitchen – but failed to provide evidence.

Further complaints were reported to a representative of the landlord “whose reaction was to laugh”

• Coventry, £2800 of rent repaid

A tribunal found a landlord’s behaviour toward a renter in a house let to students be “intimidating and directly threatening” and “of the highest order of seriousness”

• East London, £2500 of rent repaid

The Tribunal found a landlord guilty of “a lack of care for the safety and wellbeing of the tenants and of compliance with the obligations on a landlord” with allegations including both damp, leaks from a lavatory pipe and a rodent infestation.

The case publications come following the launch of a new free service called Very Wise Student which helps to protect students from renting rip-offs.

Jagota, founder of Very Wise Student, said: “These cases are horrifying. What is more horrifying it that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

“Many of these cases relate to student accommodation which makes up a significant proportion of HMOs. Rogue landlords and letting agents sadly see students as a soft touch as unlike other renters they tend to have little knowledge of their rights – such as Rent RepaymentOrders – and little resources are available to provide them with access to justice, when they do.

“At Very Wise Student we help all tenants get access to justice, so whatever the issue is with your rented student house we resolve the issue directly with your landlord or agent”.