The paw prints on the bed and cat faeces on the floor were bad signs, but Jess Pope, 27, and Nathan Francis, 31, had little choice as they hunted for their first home together. The landlord of the warren of bedsits in Camden accepted people on benefits and the £950 monthly rent was cheap for London. The couple suppressed their fears and, in September 2020, they moved in.
They were becoming tenants of Mohammed Ali Abbas Rasool, who, little did they know, was on the way to being known as one of the capital’s worst landlords.
From 2014, when he was sole director of a property company fined £25,000 for breaking rules on bedsits, to earlier this year when the 31-year-old was arrested and jailed for contempt of court relating to his landlord activities, Rasool left a trail of misery.
His story serves as an illustration and a warning of how, despite protections in place for tenants and action taken by local authorities, a single landlord can wreak havoc.
In one instance, council investigators were told, Rasool forced a single female tenant out by having her toilet removed, leaving the waste pipe exposed so that foul smells filled the air any time a neighbour flushed. When the tenant went out to find a toilet to use, the locks were changed, they said.
When Rasool was sentenced to two years in jail, the high court judge called him “a thoroughly dishonest individual”. A housing enforcement official familiar with Rasool’s career said: “The only thing that has stopped him is prison.”
Rasool ran a web of at least 11 companies that specialised in bedsits, also known as houses of multiple occupation (HMOs). He would sometimes rent homes, crudely subdivide their rooms and sublet them. In one property in Cricklewood, partition walls were reportedly butted against bay windows, plasterboard was roughly cut around radiators so that a single radiator heated two rooms, and some of the rooms were only just big enough for a double bed.
He told a court that he ran more than 120 properties. Over the last decade he and his companies have been fined over £180,000 for running unlicensed HMOs. Flats have been made subject to prohibition orders and he was the first landlord to be hit with an antisocial behaviour injunction over harassment and illegal eviction of tenants. He has now been banned from operating as a landlord.
Rasool was part of a growing group of landlords specialising in HMOs as rising rents and a shortage of social housing force tenants to “hutch up” in smaller spaces.
These properties are often the last resort of the poorest and most vulnerable, who lack regular salaries and significant savings balances that many letting agents now insist on for apartments. The average annual investment return on an HMO was 8.1% in October, a far higher yield than standard rentals, according to analysis by the lender Octane Capital.
Rasool has among the most sanctions against him among private landlords and letting agents on the Greater London authority’s rogue landlord database. There may be others like him around the UK but the national government’s records are not accessible to the public and include only 56 names out of an estimated 2.3 million landlords.
In September 2020, Pope and Francis were in urgent need of a home and did not know what they were getting into. They described Rasool’s HMO at 10 Soane Court in Camden as a one- or two-bedroom flat split into five rooms. It turned out to be dirty, cramped and dangerous. A promised cleaner rarely came and the tenants claim they had to feed the electricity meter despite the tenancy being bills-included.
“Everything was really crammed in and the lack of upkeep made it feel uncomfortable,” said Pope. There was regular flooding and one resident received an electric shock in the shower and went to hospital in an ambulance, she claimed.
Without warning, Rasool started throwing tenants out, sending barrages of abrupt texts demanding immediate possession. “I need the key back now + today. Do u understand? Very simple,” read one string of messages that Pope showed to the Guardian.
“It was intimidating the way it was done,” she said. “I was afraid of him … This was our first rental together as a couple and it did not set a good tone.”
In January 2021, they left, scarred by the experience. Pope believes Rasool “was playing on [their] need for somewhere to live”. She added: “I am surprised nothing was done about him sooner.”
Pope and Francis gave evidence against Rasool in a May 2022 court case where he was fined £80,000 for running an unlicensed HMO at Soane Court. It turned out that complaints had been raised with the council weeks before they moved in.
Camden council found that the property was “in a poor condition throughout, with significant fire safety hazards – including a lack of any working fire alarms or fire doors”.
Little seems to have deterred Rasool. Back in 2017, the council had discovered “studios” in an illegally converted three-storey house in Pandora Road, West Hampstead, run in part by one of Rasool’s companies. Originally a house with up to seven bedrooms and two bathrooms, it was subdivided into 16 studios from 8 to 11 sq metres including cooking and bathroom facilities. Eight sq metres is smaller than the space taken by two ping-pong tables, and below the borough’s minimum space standard. Some of the units cost £950 a month.
There was a defective fire alarm, leaks, problems with heating and “category 1 hazards” – defects that pose a risk to life. The council placed prohibition orders on 13 units and Rasool was one of four company directors each fined £15,000 for unlicensed operations, according to court papers.
But by 2021, eight of the bedsits were being rented out again. “I think people like this will build [fines] in [to their business model] and take the hit,” said one housing officer involved in the case.
Rasool became the first landlord to be served with an antisocial behaviour injunction after repeated attempts to illegally evict and harass tenants at a property he owns in Kilburn. He was ordered not to enter an exclusion zone around the property on threat of arrest.
In January 2022, Rasool was again up in front of the courts over Pandora Road. This time he was banned for five years from letting homes in England. In its case against him, the council argued that tenants were “experiencing harassment and poor housing conditions”. The tribunal chair found he was running an unlicensed HMO and fined him another £15,000.
During the hearing, Rasool reportedly said he “rents to charities and to individuals including foreign royals coming to the UK for medical treatment” and that he owned 11 companies with a portfolio of about 120 properties.
Camden council told the tribunal there was no evidence he was letting rooms to charities. And many of the properties he is involved with do not seem like places where royals would stay.
Rasool is understood to now be in Pentonville prison. The Guardian contacted his lawyer for comment.
Meric Apak, the cabinet member for housing in Camden, said: “Around a third of our residents rent from private landlords and they deserve to live in properly regulated, safe homes and to be treated fairly. As our successful prosecutions and HMO licensing scheme demonstrate, we are here to stand up for them and we will not hesitate to take robust action against landlords if they repeatedly fail to meet their obligations.”
