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ACTIVISTS confronted a property management agency in Leeds today to demand action over housing conditions.
The campaigners from Acorn confronted RNL Property Management in the city over its treatment of tenants.
Sam Rae from Acorn Leeds said: “RNL are treating their tenants with complete contempt and unfortunately this kind of systematic neglect is far too common and easy for companies profiting from private renting to get away with.
“We’re organising tenants in Leeds to take action against companies like RNL, to show that this is not acceptable and we aren’t going to stand for it any longer.”
He said one of the problems taken up today involved rodent infestation.
“The tenants’ problems began when they found a dead rodent beneath the floorboards, which produced a noxious and distressing smell, as well as a health and safety hazard,” he said.
“RNL’s response, rather than honour their legal obligations as property managers, was to ignore the problem and offer the Acorn members an air freshener.”
Roderick “Rory” Aitkens, a director of RNL, told the Star: “The matter with the vermin has been dealt with.”
Mr Aitkens has a history in the city as a “rogue landlord” stretching back years, including withholding a large portion of £200,000 in tenants’ deposits after they had left.
In 2012 he was “exposed” in a national newspaper when he ran Leeds Student Homes, a lettings agency that was responsible for 200 properties in the city.
Mr Aitkens said of the exposé in 2012: “It was a long time ago. I was naive at the time and my wife was unwell.”
And of the £200,000 in withheld deposits, he said: “That was 10 years ago, if not 12, and has all been dealt with. I was not in the right place. It was dealt with more slowly than I wished.”
He warned the Morning Star not to believe Acorn Leeds, and that information from the group was “actionable.”
The protesters pledged to step up their campaign against landlords and property managers in the city who fail to meet their responsibilities towards tenants.
Acorn groups have been set up in towns and cities nationwide since the first group was founded in Bristol in 2015. Acorn Leeds was founded in 2018.
