Landlord with criminal record tried to rent out tiny room with no window

A Glasgow landlord with a criminal record tried to rent out a room with no window, which was also too small.

Councillors refused a new HMO licence for Fereydun Bahrami after Police Scotland presented his previous convictions.

A council housing team also discovered that one of the bedrooms intended for rent in the Hillhead flat did not have a window to “provide natural daylight and ventilation.”

It was also found the room in the Gibson Street property breached standards for the required minimum width.

The city’s licensing and regulatory committee chair Sean Ferguson said: “It is a non starter to have a room without a window. It gives me a cause for concern that you thought it was a potential goer.”

A Police Scotland officer told this week’s city licensing and regulatory committee about Bahrami’s record.

He was convicted earlier this year of previously operating a HMO without a licence during 2024. And last year he was fined £500 and received six penalty points for failing to give information about a driver.

Committee chair Sean Ferguson said there seems to “be a pattern of behaviour.”

Bahrami said: “I am 100% committed to not make any more mistakes.”

It was originally intended to have a four bedroom HMO in the third floor tenement flat near Kelvingrove Park. But that was changed to three as the windowless space was not suitable.

A council report said: “As a consequence of one of the apartments being below the minimum width standard to be used as a bedroom and having no window therein the HMO licence application will require to be amended to a three bedroom/three occupant application.”