Two unlicensed letting agents in Scotland have been ordered to pay a buy-to-let landlord £16,000 after breaching the Lettings Code of Practice north of the border.

The First-Tier Tribunal for Scotland heard how agents Allan Bate and Kevin Valentine carried out letting agency work whilst unregistered, and in doing so attempted to find a tenant for a property near Kilmarnock on behalf of their client John Brown.

Brown, a local builder, had initially met Bate when he was branch manager at the Martin & Co office nearby.

Bate failed to find a tenant for Brown’s six-bedroom home, which he was hoping to rent out while still working at Martin & Co.

He left the company a few weeks later, and after a brief stint at Pacitti Jones in Glasgow, he set up as Stirling Property Shop (SPS) with Kevin Valentine, formerly of Martin & Co.

SPS successfully found a tenant for Brown. However, the landlord later discovered that his property had been turned into a cannabis farm by the tenants, which he claims caused £65,000 worth of damages to the property.

In addition, a locked room in the property had been broken into. The applicant produced a list of items that were in the locked room, claiming that this comprised a total value of £158,395.

But Brown did not have landlord insurance in place nor insurance for his own belongings left in the property.

Eventually, the court found that Bate and Valentine had carried out unlicensed letting work and awarded Brown £10,000 in compensation, while the landlord also received an additional £6,000 from SPS for various breaches, including the late return of a tenancy deposit.