Edinburgh Council has removed four landlords from the Landlord Register at Monday’s licensing sub-committee.
The names of four landlords – Ian Haig, David Bonnar, Muhammad Umar, and Derek Paton were all struck off, and they may not let out residential property in the city.
One landlord failed to declare criminal convictions, one failed to comply with legal responsibilities as a landlord, and in the case of two others information was provided to the council by Police Scotland.
Gordon Maloney of Living Rent was among the protesters at the City Chambers on Monday. He said: “We’re here today because in today’s licensing committee, the council is looking at removing or rejecting the registrations of five landlords.
“That is more than all of the landlords in 2025 who were struck off. But the city is full of rogue landlords who make the lives of tenants a misery, and we’ve been saying that the council isn’t taking action fast enough.
“They’re not being proactive. They’re ignoring the complaints of tenants that is finally starting to change, and this meeting is proof of that. We’re here today to make sure that the council knows tenants are watching, living rents watching, and we won’t stand for a council that turns a blind eye to criminal behaviour, to rogue landlords and to the housing crisis that’s being made worse every day.”
He added: “Some of the some of the landlords in there today have five properties, and one has four properties. So these are not small fry, and the issues are really serious. It shouldn’t have to be that bad before the council takes action.”
Gordon was clear that in the past the council has not taken simple steps to check on landlords. He claimed that in the case of a landlord struck off last year, Kevin Cowley, who had not disclosed a sex crime conviction it would have been easy to check.
He said: “They didn’t even Google his name. We’re not talking necessarily about advanced police checks. His conviction was reported. If they’d even done the most basic due diligence, they would have seen it.”
Living Rent highlights that since 2017, the council has only referred two (0.5% of the total of cases reviewed) cases to the procurator fiscal for offences relating to the landlord register despite receiving 3,608 complaints. The body wants the council to boost funding for the enforcement team to deal with landlords, and they are adamant that the council has all the powers it needs to act.
These four removals are more than the three who were banned in the whole of last year, and it is welcome news to the members of Living Rent who were protesting outside the City Chambers. A spokesperson for the mass membership body of tenants, carers workers and residents said that the council must go further and deal with the city’s rogue landlords.
The sub-committee on Monday met to discuss the fate of five landlords, and the fifth case against landlord, Amanda Bleakley, has been continued until the committee next meets.
The licensing committee meetings are not recorded or live streamed as other council meetings are, and in any case most of the time their proceedings are held in private with nobody in the public gallery, and press excluded.
