Evict a rogue Landlord - Shelter...

theartfullodger

"The Star" Sheffield (apparently) reports that

Landlord's text messages demanding rent from tenant amounted to harassment

Landlord who demanded the payment of rent arrears by sending daily text messages to one of his female tenants has been ordered to pay nearly £700 in fines and legal costs even though the messages did not contain any threats or obscene language.

Good!! Quite right!!

see..
http://www.residentiallandlord.co.uk/news2732.html

tbs624

Some June 2011 prosecutions:

SALFORD

Karamat Ali, of Rectory Road in Crumpsall, Manchester, failed to get a licence for a property he let on Avebury Close in Broughton, Salford.

He was found guilty in his absence at Salford Magistrates' Court for failing in his duty as a landlord and was ordered to pay a fine of £700.

The court heard how he ignored several warnings from the council that he needed the correct and legal licence.

In November 2009, Salford City Council made it law for all private landlords in and area of Broughton to be licensed.
The landlord licensing scheme aims to raise standards of living across privately rented homes as well as encouraging more people to live in certain areas in the city.

It sets out to ensure properties are well managed, safe and in turn, hopes to tackle antisocial behaviour. Ali was also ordered to pay £344.83 towards costs and £15 in a victim’s surcharge.

Source


BRISTOL

A PRIVATE landlord has been fined £40,000 for failing to keep two large rented houses in Knowle and Windmill Hill in good repair.
Michelle Simmonite pleaded guilty to 17 offences relating to the state of the properties when she appeared before Bristol magistrates yesterday.
The most serious offences were found at 100 Redcatch Road, Knowle.

Two environmental health officers from the city council and fire prevention officers from Avon Fire and Rescue service jointly inspected the house after a complaint from tenants.

It was so bad the officers considered moving the tenants out immediately.

Source


PETERBOROUGH
A landlord whose property was taken over by Peterborough City Council because of its appalling condition and lack of management has been fined £15,000 for operating an unlicensed house in multiple occupation (HMO).

Vajinder Kaur of Thorpe Park Road, Peterborough, was found guilty at Peterborough Magistrates' Court on Thursday (16 June 2011) for having control or managing a HMO without a licence when one was required under the Housing Act 2004.

Kaur was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay the council's full costs of £7,216.91, plus a £15 victim surcharge.

The property in Cromwell Road was taken over by the city council in November 2010 because of its appalling condition and lack of management. During their investigations council officers found a catalogue of serious hazards..

Source

theartfullodger

I am grateful to Garden Court Chambers regular email housing law update newsletter
http://www.gardencourtchambers.co.uk/bulletins/category/bulletin_detail.cfm?iBulletinID=643
(recommended...) bringing this to my attention..


see
http://www.cieh.org/ehn/ehn3.aspx?id=38144

Manchester landlord fined





5th August 2011
A Greater Manchester landlord has been ordered to pay more than £42,000 after EHOs uncovered a serious fire risk at one of his properties.

Mohammed Javaid, of Winchester Road in Hale, pleaded guilty to 20 offences at a hearing in Manchester magistrates court on 6 July, after being prosecuted by both Manchester City Council and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service.

He was fined £33,750 and told to pay costs of £8,500.

Council officers visited the flats, in Apollo Lodge on Hyde Road, Ardwick, last August. They discovered dangerous electrical wiring, a missing fire door and cables dangling from the ceiling where smoke alarms should have been.

Officers arranged to visit later so they could be let inside each of the flats, and found further hazards including missing spindles on banisters - meaning there were gaps large enough for a person to fall through down to the floor below - broken windows and no working heating system in the properties.

Mr Javaid had only provided small portable electric heaters that tenants had to rely on through last winter's cold snap.

There were no working lights in the basement and a tenant said she had to regularly visit the cellar, walking past live electric cables at shoulder height, to flick fuses back on.

There was also an exposed hole in the unlit back yard leading to a 2m drop into the basement.

The property was in such a bad condition that the council served an emergency prohibition order after the first inspection.

This meant Mr Javaid had to close the premises immediately and arrange new accommodation for his tenants. But it was later discovered that he not only kept the flats open, but actually moved more tenants in.

Paul Andrews, executive member for neighbourhood services, said: ‘Javaid was happy to live in the lap of luxury among footballers in Hale while his tenants had to put up with these appalling and dangerous conditions.

‘No Manchester residents should have to live in properties like this, and we will not tolerate private landlords who behave as if the law does not apply to them. The size of this fine should serve as a warning to others and demonstrate how seriously we take offences which endanger our residents.’

Well done Manchester Council.

Cheers!

theartfullodger

UPAD, an online Lettings Agent reports at..
http://www.upad.co.uk/blog/2011/08/landlord-convicted-of-21k-benefit-fraud/
.. my summary...

A Sussex landlord has been convicted of a £21k benefit fraud, after it was revealed that he had failed to declare rental income from a property he was letting out. Bab Saracouli, 43, of Barons Way, Polegate in East Sussex was found guilty of pocketing more £21,391 in council tax relief and housing benefits whilst also trousering £775 in monthly rental payments from a property he part owns in Watford. The rental payments were paid into a bank account that Saracouli had repeatedly failed to disclose.
Saracouli was not jailed. Instead, he received a suspended sentence and a four month curfew from the judge at Hove Crown Court in August. The curfew runs from 10:30pm until 5am daily. He pleaded guilty to 12 charges of dishonestly making a false statement with a view to obtaining benefit. Costs of £3590 were also awarded to Wealden and the council has been awarded “beneficial interest” in the undeclared property in the hope they can be reimbursed.

"Beneficial interest" meaning Wealden Council should have a very good chance of recovering the monies.


Cheers!


Artful

lynzpower

http://theehp.com/2011/09/15/housing-landlord-faces-jail-for-illegal-evicting-pregnant-teenager/

A landlord is facing jail after he ordered his three sons to rip the doors and windows out of the home of a heavily pregnant teenager in a dispute over rent.

Property developer Steven Simpson, 48, took it into his own hands to evict Michaela Landless after she struggled to come up with the £500-a-month rent for the property in Cupar, Fife.

Cupar Sheriff Court was told the 18-year-old sat crying in her dressing gown as Simpson's sons began dismantling the two-bedroom flat on October 19 last year, seven days after he served notice to evict her.

Under the law, Miss Landless, who was eight months pregnant at the time, should have had two months to comply with the order.

She said the door was ripped from its hinges by one workman as others scaled ladders to the first-floor flat and the landlord removed the fuses from the electricity box.

"I was terrified. I was such a mess and could not stop crying and shaking," she said.

"When the police arrived I wanted to make a cup of tea so I could calm myself down but there was no power left.

"I just could not calm myself -- I was heavily pregnant and with the hormones and everything that was going on I was just really scared.

poor woman, what a terrible story.

mustrum_ridcully

Hopefully this will ensure that Mr Simpson and his sons will never be able to be declared as a "fit and proper person" to be a landlord in Scotland.

tbs624

Quick round up of recent cases

From Southend on Sea Council website

A private landlord has been fined for failing to repair his property and leaving his tenants to suffer damp, draughty and hazardous conditions for two years.

Terry Frost, of Cotswold Road, Westcliff, had denied failing to comply with an Improvement Notice issued under the Housing Act 2004.

But he was found guilty when he appeared at Southend Magistrates' Court on Monday 26th September.

Frost was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £1,500 costs plus a £15 victim surcharge.

Source


Couple of cases relating to tenants being left in the cold last winter:

From Redbridge Council website

A Redbridge landlord who left tenants to live in a property with no heating or hot water has been fined £2000.00

It is the latest in a number of successful prosecutions taken by the Council against irresponsible landlords.

David McDonnell, from Bedford Road, Ilford was fined at Redbridge Magistrates Court on Thursday 29 September for poor management of a House in Multiple Occupation and failure to provide documents related to gas and electricity safety certificates when requested.
Mr McDonnell was also ordered to pay court costs of £251.25

Source


From the HSE website

A man who rented out his Huddersfield home left his tenant at risk by ignoring repeated warnings to have the gas appliances in the property safety-checked.

Anthony Brownson, who now lives in Cheshire, was contacted by Kirklees Council and then by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) several times between May 2010 and March 2011.

Leeds Magistrates' Court was told he persistently ignored requests by the council and HSE to produce a landlord's Gas Safety Record for his former home in Lane Top, Linthwaite. He also failed to respond when HSE served him with an Improvement Notice and did not attend a scheduled interview with an inspector under caution.

In the meantime, Mr Brownson's tenant and her daughter had been left with a faulty boiler system and without a safely working gas fire during one of the coldest winters in recent times. They eventually left the property. Finally in March this year, Kirklees Council ordered safety work to be carried out, again after Mr Brownson failed to fulfil his landlord's responsibilities.

Mr Brownson, of Boyds Walk, Dukinfield, Cheshire, pleaded guilty to a breach of gas safety regulations by failing to carry out an annual safety check on gas appliances between April 2007 and March 2011. He also admitted an offence of failing to comply with an Improvement Notice between December 2010 and March 2011. He was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £2,089.25 in costs.

Source

theartfullodger

Landlord forced to repay £34,347:81 rent to HMO tenants having failed to gain HMO License.

Interesting case, HMO tenants of unlicensed properties note to your possible financial advantage!! See...
https://www.24dash.com/news/housing/2011-06-13-Landlord-told-to-repay-34-000-rent-to-tenants
&
http://www.the-negotiator.co.uk/the-news/regulation/unlicensed-landlord-ordered-to-repay-rent/6516073.article

Legal action by Camden Council has forced a residential landlord to pay back more than £34,000 received in rent, to eight tenants, after it failed to licence a property as a house in multiple occupation (HMO).
.
Mayfair Property Agencies Limited had already been convicted at Highbury Magistrates Court on 3 February 2011, for failing to licence the five-bedroom property in Eversholt St, King’s Cross, as a HMO.
.
The eight tenants who lived there have now successfully claimed back a total of £34,347.81 of rent which they had paid to their landlord, Mayfair Properties Agencies Limited and their managing agents, Network Agencies Limited. Each company was also fined £10,000 plus Camden Council’s legal costs.
.
Councillor Sue Vincent, Cabinet member for Environment and Deputy Leader, said: "I hope this acts as a warning to other landlords who fail to licence their properties.
.
"Licences are issued to keep tenants safe in their homes and Camden will always crack down on landlords who don’t comply with the law."

Well done Camden Council!!

chemer2011

Simply put my Girlfriend moved into a flat above a chemist in the past and it had a large sitting room and 3 bedrooms and a large kitchen.

Now the problems the windows are large and hard to lock down causing excess cold.

Stairs are too steep and actually one of her girls fell on them and twisted her ankle and they are poorly lit.

Bell was not working downstairs resulting in delays in visitors who were trying to get in.

The passageway to the bedrooms is poorly lit. There is a large window there that someone could have an accident and fall through that is not able to lock either.

There was a socket in the main bedroom hanging off. Also a black plug in the kitchen.

Her Children had to be watched as one is 15 but is Core Autistic so is prone to try and escape through the windows etc. Coincidently The Landlord said he would fix the Windows but never did.

My girlfriend also had an Electric Shock back in June this year and could have lost the baby. It took a week for The Landlord to send an Electrician out.

Now the reason I am putting this to you is that she finally had enough and due to poor health has moved in with me. She admits she left her furniture behind cause wanted to get out fast. But now the Landlord is trying to make her pay for the Electrics is charging her for a cupboard door hanging off which was like that at the time when she moved in. Expects her to clean the place cause says it was not in a good State even though when she moved in there were plates and mouldy cutlery in the kitchen.

I need to know if she can challenge him about the Deposit and his claims. Find out how to report him for the sockets and wiring which are still a Health and Safety Hazard.

We reside in The Dudley Council Area of The West Midlands.

Thank you for your Help.

Stephen and Annette

lynzpower

Hi,

the thing is that your partner should have called Environmental Health asap and then they would have taken action. Now she doesnt live there any more how would she let them in to inspect?