Convicted landlord gets £8m homeless housing contracts from Edinburgh council

An Edinburgh landlord who pled guilty to running unregistered lets and unlicensed HMOs has been given homeless housing contracts by the council worth almost £8m.

William Lennie, 72, is a director and the primary shareholder of Phoenix Properties Edinburgh Ltd, which was granted two homeless housing contracts worth up to £7,996,785 by the council in May.

A councillor has struck out at the contract awards, saying the city has “serious questions to answer”.

An Edinburgh council spokesperson said they carried out full checks on each provider.

In 2010, Mr Lennie was reported to have pled guilty to seven counts of unregistered lets and unlicensed HMOs in the city with a co-defendant, Alexanderina Richardson.

Court services confirmed that Mr Lennie was charged with unregistered letting and running unlicensed HMOs in 2010, and that he received a fine.

When asked, Mr Lennie denied he was ever charged with either offence – but suggested Richardson had been involved, and said that he had faced charges for housing-related offences in the past.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was never charged with that.”

“She [Richardson] was involved, but she wasn’t involved because we cohabitated together. So I put my hands up.”

He then continued: “I was done in 1985 for ghost tenants. DHS fraud. I went to court in 1989, 1990. Ten years later I went back to court again. This time it’s for mortgage fraud.”

‘Ghost tenants’ refer to the practice of a landlord wrongfully claiming housing benefits for tenants who are not eligible for them, or who do not exist.

The exact fine Mr Lennie faced after his 2010 guilty plea is unclear, although landlords who run unregistered lets can be fined up to £50,000, be forced to repay rent to tenants and can be banned from letting property for up to five years.

And unlicensed HMO letting is a separate offence, which itself can carry up to £50,000 in fines for landlords.

The two contracts handed awarded by the council to Phoenix Properties are for longer term accommodation for homeless singles, couples, and families with children, with the council expecting ‘low turnover’.

Both say that the housing will be for households which “will be able to independently manage in their own accommodation”, and for those who will be able to receive a visiting service to help with “housing support skills”.

They say that residents in private rented accommodation provided by the council through the contracts usually stay for an average of 18 months, but that stays can be ‘significantly’ longer or shorter.

The contracts were both signed on 1 May this year, with the decisions being published on 30 May.

SNP councillor and finance spokesperson Stuart Dobbin said: “It’s extremely concerning that this is just coming to light.

“There are clearly serious questions to be answered about the due diligence being undertaken on multimillion pound contracts dished out by the Council.

“This is especially so following the unlicensed HMO scandal last year.”

Phoenix Properties Edinburgh Ltd owns and operates a serviced apartment complex in Lochend, and also owns several flats in the city.

The company declined to comment.

Mr Lennie is one of the two directors at the firm, as well as the primary shareholder.

A spokesperson for Edinburgh Council said: “We work with a range of landlords and providers across the city to help us tackle the current housing emergency.

“We complete full due diligence checks on each provider.”