Evict a rogue Landlord - Shelter...

tbs624

Couple of recent prosecutions , as reported in Environmental Health News

26th November 2010
A rogue Reading landlord has been handed fines totalling £60,000 in what is believed to be one of the highest ever housing-related council prosecutions in the country.

Tenants of Millicent Okumo, former landlord of 33 London Road, had to endure filthy and dangerous living conditions including a leaking and collapsed ceiling, missing and broken windows, a defective fire alarm and a non-functioning WC.

The Mags Court fined the LL the max of £5k on each of the 12 charges brought, plus the Council was awarded its costs Source

Landlord prosecuted for letting sub-standard property
26th November 2010

A landlord has been prosecuted for renting out a sub-standard property and failing to comply with licence conditions.

Alim Iqbal pleaded guilty to three offences under the Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006 and one under the Housing Act 2004.

Ms Iqbal, of Blenheim Way, Horspath pleaded guilty on 29 October at Oxford magistrates court.

She was fined a total of £2,200 and was also ordered to pay Oxford City Council costs of £400 for breaching a condition on her HMO Licence.


...............Councillor Joe McManners, board member for housing, said: ‘We are being tougher than ever before on bad landlords - the minority who let everyone, both their tenants and the wider community, down.

‘In this case the landlord has failed to comply with the conditions on their HMO licence and so we will revoke it as soon as possible.

Source

tbs624

This one is from Leicester

Evasive landlord fined for failure to disclose

22/11/2010
AN investigation by Leicester City Council’s private rented housing team has resulted in the successful prosecution of a landlord who failed to disclose lawful ownership of a property found to need essential repairs.

The investigation followed a complaint raised in July 2009 from the tenant of a privately rented house on Halifax Drive regarding a faulty immersion heater.The immersion heater had not worked for several months but the tenant had been unable to contact the landlord.

Source


one from Weymouth

A LANDLORD who allowed tenants to live in shabby accommodation has been ordered to pay more than £4,000 in fines and costs.
A catalogue of problems was found at the flat in Abbotsbury Road, Weymouth, prompting the borough council to declare the property unsafe for occupation.

But landlord Alistair Gordon later moved new tenants into the same property – a poorly-converted conservatory – putting him in breach of a prohibition order.

Gordon pleaded guilty to breaching the order at Weymouth Magistrate’s Court and was fined £2,500 as well as having to pay a £15 victim surcharge. He was also ordered to pay court costs of £1,784.38.

Source


and one from Scarborough

Scarborough landlord Lazlo Banki admits fire safety offence
Wednesday 17th November 2010

A LANDLORD in Scarborough has been prosecuted for letting accommodation without adequate fire safety provision.

Flats within the property at 86 North Marine Road were found not to have adequate means of escape, a fire alarm, a fire detection system or an emergency lighting system, when inspected by North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and Scarborough Borough Council housing officers in March after a complaint.

The landlord, Lazlo Banki, pleaded guilty to eight contraventions of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 at Scarborough Magistrates Court and has been committed to York Crown Court for sentencing next month.

Karen Galloway, prosecuting, said: “The Fire and Rescue Service’s decision to prosecute was not taken lightly and this measure is only taken in the most serious cases.

Source

lynzpower

Some great comments on that Weymouth example isnt there!

tbs624

yep - nothing like a good debate by the general public

Wish I had a quid for every time I heard/read the old "never mind the "scumbag" LLs, what about the "scumbag" Ts?" line of argument.

Reporting on a LL who has been found guilty of contraventions of the law doesn't mean that there aren't:

(a) other LLs who do comply with their legal obligations,
(b) Ts who are themselves at fault.

Neither of those facts alter the fact that the LL was found guilty on the charges brought before the court.

That was a fair old list of faults listed out by the EHO. I reckon any of us might just partake of a bit "scum" T behaviour (just to keep warm ) if we had to live in a property with this lot:

* No provision for heating in the living room and bedroom. * Hand wash basin in the bathroom not connected to waste pipe.
* Inadequate ventilation in bathroom.
* Bathroom door and frame missing.
* Inadequate provision for storage of food.
* Insufficient space for oven in kitchen (a small cooker was provided on top of a fridge with the potential to fall on occupants and cause serious burns).
* No windows or ventilation to the flat other than the front door.
* Clear corrugated plastic sheeting was the only roof covering for living and bedroom areas.


I note that one of the reader comments also brought up the " LL as philanthropist" - ie " given homes to hundreds of people who would otherwise be on the streets" and "the landlords make no money out of it"..........

lynzpower

Have to say I am always caught between the rolling of the eyes or the cracking up laughing "these are people that the council wouldnt house, yet they expect private landlords to" type comments. I mean where do they get this idea about corrugated plastic rooves? I think there was a newham case backthread that also had this desirable "feature".

as if someone frogmarches a prospective LL down to an estate agent and say YOU MUST BUY A CRAP PROPERTY AND YOU MUST RENT IT OUT, preferably to someone in some way "vulerable". GO ON YOU MUST.

I know as well as you do tbs that these LLs only do it because they think a) they wont get caught b) they presume they will be able to "get out of it" by lying/going "missing" or generally bull5hitting their way through life.

Im just taking a moment to think what it must be like to actualy live in this property. Think about getting ready for a night out? Inviting freinds around? Celebrating Christmas.

It just doesnt help that there are a phenomenal amount of people on this site who, when people are worreid about excess cold ( for example) they get told to stop moaning about it, and that we were of course "all fine" before central heating was invented. Er, clearly, we werent.

:wall:

theartfullodger

Mansfield great-grandmother without heating for a year

Rose Harrison Ms Harrison says her radiators are luke warm

A great grandmother says she is disgusted at her local council after spending a year with broken heating.

Rose Harrison, of Mansfield, is preparing for another Christmas with "luke warm" radiators.

The 72-year-old has been given two fan heaters by her Landlord, Mansfield Council, but says she has to wear up to five layers because of the cold.

See..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-12072147

Merry Christmas Mansfield Council Housing department - further words fail me..

Best regards to all my readers at this festive season..

Artful

theartfullodger

Bit old, September 2008, and I am unaware of the progress of any appeal - but an interesting case of a Scottish Council using it's powers under the "Antisocial Behaviour ....(Scotland) Act 2004" to ban a landlord, including powers to stop him collecting rent

A so-called "rogue landlord" has been banned from letting out property in Scotland's largest city.

Cheers!

Artful

See also..
http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/News/Archives/2008/September/landlord.htm

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.2445373.0.banned_slum_landlord_put_out_of_business.php

The top floor flat - which housed four adults and seven children - was infested with cockroaches, and there was a cooker next to the toilet.
Floorboards were riddled with holes and electrical junction boxes with exposed wires dangled from the walls, leading the council to issue a closure order, shutting down the flat.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7613087.stm



PS Of course the "Stephen Purcell" council leader later resigned amidst accusations of cocaine use & "interviews with the Polis.."

PasturesNew

I've never been here before .... started a thread and was told to add it to here... so here it is:

This was reported on the radio today, as part of a programme covering landlords/HMOs/new LHA rules/landlords' obligations for fire safety:

On the 18 January 2011 at Bodmin Magistrates Court, Cornwall Council’s Private Sector Housing Team successfully prosecuted Miss Amanda de Gonville Morrison for failing to comply with the conditions of the House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) licence for her property at 3 St Marys Road, Newquay; breaches of the HMO Management Regulations; failing to provide required documents and obstructing a Cornwall Council officer from carrying out their inspection.

Miss de Gonville Morrison was convicted of 13 separate offences in total having failed to supply and maintain safety measures at the property including adequate fire alarms; fire doors; emergency escape lighting and other precautionary facilities. In addition certificates confirming the integrity of the electrical installation were not provided as required.

The potential fines for these offences is £62,500, however in consideration of the defendant’s financial position and ill health, a £250 fine was levied with £15 victim surcharge. No costs were awarded to the Council due to the defendant’s impending bankruptcy. Miss de Gonville Morrison advised in her written submission that the property in question was being repossessed.


She also breached her licence conditions by failing to declare to Cornwall Council her conviction on the 16 June 2008 by Gloucester City Council for operating a licensable HMO without a licence, having implications on her “fit and proper” status to hold a licence.

http://www.cornwallcommunitynews.co.uk/wp/2011/01/19/slum-landlords-250-fine/

theartfullodger

Nice one PM..

New one from an interesting source - a Buy2Let Mortgage broker (who I wouldn't recommend, for the avoidance of doubt...)

See.. a very slow link when I tried it....
http://www.themoneycentre.net/landlord-news/index.php/landlord-faces-jail-for-60000-benefits-fiddle/

&

http://www.sutton.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=11979 (complete with photo of Lynne Hampson of Worcester Park..)

Sutton landlord busted for £60,000 benefit fraud 05.01.11

A landlord who raked in thousands of pounds by renting out bedrooms in her home with its own swimming pool, has been exposed as a benefits cheat.

Lynne Hampson, of Worcester Park in south London cheated taxpayers out of more than £60,000 by falsely claiming income support and council tax benefit at the same time as renting out the rooms.
Some of the money made from her five-year scam paid for a loft conversion, changing her house in Langley Avenue into a seven bedroom property, which allowed her to rent to more tenants and increase her profits.
The 48-year-old was brought to justice after a tip-off from a disgruntled ex-tenant sparked a probe by investigators from Sutton Council and the Department for Work and Pensions.
They revealed that although Hampson had declared earnings of just £20 a week from renting out the rooms, she actually made up to £540 a month per room.
Hampson pleaded guilty to two charges under the social security fraud act for failing to notify a relevant change of circumstance between 2001 and 2007.
She could now be jailed when she is sentenced by Croydon Crown Court on 21 January - and will be forced to sell her home to repay the money she swindled.
Cllr John Drage, Sutton Council's Executive Member for Finance and Efficiency, said: "Wrongfully deceiving the taxpayer out of such a large amount of money is a very serious matter, especially at a time when pressures on our budget are so great.
"We will push for the full amount to be repaid promptly so that the money can be used for those in genuine need."
A spokesman for Sutton Police station said: "We are keen to support our partners in any way we can to investigate these offences."

Bleedin' scum... (Lynne Hampson, not the council or the Police..)

Cheers!

Artful

tbs624

These are older cases as further examples of LLs having a HB/LHA "fiddle"

Sophisticated data matching techniques landed a cheat, who falsely received almost £1,000 in housing benefit, a 12-month community order and 80 hours of unpaid work.

His actions were uncovered when computerised data matching between different government databases revealed Moman, the owner of a property in Blenheim Road, Kingswinford, was receiving housing benefit for one of his tenants at both the Kingswinford address and at another property he owned in London.

From November 2006 to February 2007, Moman fraudulently received £952 from Dudley Council.
Source

This LL got impatient and decided to forge his Ts signature:

A ST Just landlord who collected his housing benefit by opening his tenants' mail and forging his signature on benefit cheques has been prosecuted under the Forgery and Counterfeit Act.

LL was handed a 12-month conditional discharge at Camborne Magistrates Court, on October 9, for opening five letters addressed to one of the tenants of his bedside units.

The landlord admitted forging the signatures on four housing benefit cheques, and mistakenly signing his own signature on to the back of one. "I made a mistake and I admitted it immediately. I went the wrong way about getting my rent money," he said.

Ironically, it seems that the LL had sparked the investigation by reporting the T for possible benefit fraud

Source


LL fails to report that T has moved out:

A man from Chippenham was prosecuted last week for fraudulently claiming over £2,000 from the council after failing to tell them that his tenant had moved............tenant had left his property in James Close, Chippenham in July 2008. He continued to receive direct payments from the council for his tenant’s rent until January 2009. The total housing benefit overpayment was £2484.96.

Magistrates in Chippenham gave him credit for his early guilty plea but ordered him to pay a £300 fine, a £15 victim surcharge and £300 costs. Mr Knowles will also have to repay the overpayments he received from the council.

A data matching exercise highlighted the tenant had moved and was resident elsewhere in the country. An investigation revealed the tenant had left the property in June 2008 and housing benefit continued to be paid to the landlord because the council had not been told of the change by the tenant or the landlord.

Source