A letting agent has been convicted of nine offences after 16 adults and one child were discovered by a council tax inspector living at an unlicensed House in Multiple Occupation.
Council officers and community police, inspecting the property under a magistrate’s warrant, subsequently found that the property in Ilford, Essex, had mould, damp, fire safety problems and dangerous electrics.
Ayub Patel, trading as Lakeview Estates and his company Broach Ltd were prosecuted by Redbridge Council for failing to license and properly manage an HMO. Landlord Abu Taher was also prosecuted.
Following a two-day trial at Romford Magistrates’Court, the three defendants were found guilty of one offence of operating a licensable HMO without a licence and eight other housing management offences.
They were each ordered to pay fines of £5,000 and court costs of £1,695.
In a separate case, Redbridge Council took another landlord to court after a ceiling collapsed at an unlicensed HMO in Ilford.
The property, which had six tenants living in it, was in the process of having its loft converted.
One tenant escaped injury when the ceiling collapsed on to his bed.
An emergency prohibition service to prevent occupation of the property was served as the tenants were at imminent risk of harm, but was ignored by the landlord, Mohammed Hafeez Kayani.
Kayani, who sent a guilty plea by post, was fined £16,000 and ordered to pay £3,251 costs for three breaches of an Emergency Prohibition Order, operating a licensable HMO without a licence, and six housing management offences relating to unsafe light fittings, no heating or hot water, electric wires close to a gas hob, unsafe stair fittings, and failure to keep the garden in a safe and tidy condition.
Cllr Muhammed Javed, cabinet member for housing, said: “Rogue landlords and agents who flout the law and place tenants’ lives at risk will be subject to tough enforcement action.”
Well done Redbridge Council
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Im getting bored of hearing about people with different cultural ideals thinking its ok to flout laws that give us all a bad name.
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oh dear, it seems in almost every case the landlord/ letting agent had warnings and failed to act
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Prohibition orders "to trade" comes to mind.
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Every town potentially has an agent like this, id be happy to see this underclass / hateful excuse of traditional EAs replaced with companies like easyproperty and other budget outfits. They wouldn't have problems like this, im sure they'd keep a close eye on their portfolios- Jonnie
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