A private landlord has become the first in the country to be handed a Criminal Behaviour Order, which replaced Asbos.
In the case of Jaspal Singh Sahota the order will last ten years and he must appoint an agent to manage his properties within weeks.
City of Wolverhampton Council brought the landmark court case.
The ruling was made by Wolverhampton Magistrates’ Court being satisfied that Sahota was causing harassment, alarm and distress to his tenants through the poor standards and management of his privately rented properties in the city.
Lesley Roberts, Wolverhampton Council’s strategic director for housing, said: “This is an excellent result and shows that we are determined to use whatever legislation we can in order to protect our residents from rogue landlords.
“We are incredibly proud of the work our housing officers do to ensure housing standards are maintained across the board.
“As a council we have a wide package of housing measures in place aimed at improving standards across Wolverhampton, and this case illustrates them being put into action.”
The order requires him to instate a third party agent to manage his properties on his behalf, and he must submit to the council a list of all his properties and his interest in them for rental purposes.
If Sahota does not comply with the order, including having a suitable managing agent in place by June 1, he will be in breach of the order and could be imprisoned for up to five years and/or face an unlimited fine.
Good riddance – don’t like seeing any member of our industry wilfully doing bad things for personal gain.
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He may be a member of your industry but he isnt a member of mine. He is a charlatan- he offers nothing to this ‘industry’, he is merely out for his own gain at the expense of others. How do this council think they can enforce having him use an agent? What self respecting agent would touch him? Oh of course he will have a cousin or friend that runs a ‘letting agent’ as there is no regulation is there? Nice plan C WC.
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mr harvey Did you actually read the article? He has been forced to use an agent in future. I would suggest that they vet the agent first as I can imagine actually what type of letting agent he will use.
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Yes, I did.
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Sorry meant to type exactly not actually. Monday morning.
100% agree with Beano. You just know what type of agent he will go to. We all do but can’t say it.
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