13th
Feb 2015
A landlord has been ordered to pay his council £100,000 plus for going ahead with an illegal conversion.The landlord converted a three bedroomed property in Enfield to become six flats without applying for planning permission.
At Wood Green Court, towards the end of 2013, the landlord submitted a guilty plea for contravening the Town and Country Planning Act.
The Council found out in October 2010, that the landlord had converted the house and immediately slapped an order on him to restore the property back to its original state. The landlord took no notice, obviously trusting in fate that the situation would just “disappear”, however three years later the authority finally prosecuted him.
He received an order to pay a huge sum of £125,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act, making sure that during those years there was little chance that he would make a profit from the illegal conversion. However the fines did not just stop there, as he received a further fine of £14,294 plus a £120 victim surcharge.
The landlord was warned that if he would not or could not pay the compensation levy, then he could be handed a 27 month prison sentence.
Chris Bond, the Cabinet member for environment and community safety said: "The planning process is there to ensure that new developments and conversions are safe, lawful and meet safety standards. Landlords cannot run amok and recklessly convert houses into multiple properties willy nilly and rent them out in order to make a quick buck, without expecting us to come after them.
"He will also have to put the building back in its original state, in fact he would have been well advised to have listened to our planning enforcement officers and gone through the proper planning process in the first place, because it would have saved him considerable time, effort and money."
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