14th
Oct 2015
A landlord who ignored having to get permission to convert a property into flats carried on regardless, has received a fine of £427,000 for his illegal efforts.
The landlord admitted his guilt in court and was slapped with a £30,000 fine, together with council costs of £15,000 on top of the hefty £382,000 confiscation order. The order was estimated at the amount of rent he would have received from the illegal flats’ rents.
Despite being warned by the council that if he rented the property as flats in West Norwood, that he would be in breach of Lambeth council’s planning regulations, and upon receiving the notice from the council to desist from renting out the property as flats, he decided to appeal against it. He unsuccessfully launched his appeal and ignored the improvement notice by continuing to rent out the flats. The council took the landlord to court with a non-compliance prosecution.
Councillor Matthew Bennett Lambeth’s cabinet member for housing, said: “Lambeth takes a hard line against rogue landlords who try to make a quick buck out of the housing crisis. This landlord will have to pay over £400k in fines and could face prison after ignoring the council’s early warning. Let this be a lesson to anyone else who thinks they can cheat their way to a profit – Lambeth will always pursue rogue landlords through the courts to protect our residents from exploitation.’
Nearly a third of the confiscation order for £382,000 will go to Lambeth council to further fund their efforts in keeping standards high in the private rented sector, both the courts and the Home Office will be handed the rest.
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