18th
Dec 2023
A landlord who thought he was clever when he using a fake name to remain incognito has been found out and for his sins is lumped with a total of £485,000 in fines for illegally letting out a shed as five flats.
The landlord from Sudbury Yehudi Levhar has already had to plead guilty to renting out the house as two flats without being given planning permission.
Neighbours warned Brent council about the property’s lettings ten years ago in 2013, where upon its officers served a planning enforcement notice to ban the property from being rented out as seven flats, however the rogue landlord took no notice and carried on regardless.
Tenants in the house and the shed told the council’s officers their landlord was a Barry Jackson but the team was unable to find him until 2016 and failed to have sufficient details to prove who he was.
At a later date the properties was registered with the land registry by a certain Yehuda Levhar.
It was only in 2020 that the team was able to finally able to track down Levhar and started court proceedings which has taken three years to complete.
The landlord was slapped with an order to pay council costs of £60.000, £1,000 court fine and a £424,000 confiscation order for his ‘ill-gotten’ proceeds to be paid to the government over several years
A council spokesperson says: “Yehuda Levhar has felt the force of the law for choosing to rip off tenants, house them in appalling conditions and ignore planning regulations.
“This sort of exploitation is illegal and we will root out every last landlord in Brent who acts like this.
“We will utilise in full force our recently granted borough-wide licensing, which will enable us to improve standard of living for renters in Brent, and give landlords clear guidance on what responsibilities are expected of them to safeguard renters’ security."
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