2nd
Sep 2015
On August 6th at Ealing Magistrates’ Court, a landlord was penalised with fines of £75,215 for, amongst other offences, not bothering to licence his four HMOs, (Houses in Multiple Occupation).
The landlord, Mr. Gunapalan Vamathevan, was charged and prosecuted for a total of nine
offences in the court.
Vamarthen was taken to court by council after they were made aware that he had several unlicensed HMOs so they undertook an investigation, which culminated in the hearing.
Through the subsequent investigation by the council’s regulatory service, it was also discovered that he had breached many rules in the management of the houses, which included serious hazards and dangerous staircases in his properties .
Despite the council sending many HMO licensing application forms accompanied by warning letters to Mr. Vamathevan, he completely ignored them and failed to send back applications for the HMOs.
After more inspections were carried out by the council’s service, the landlord was given a number of notices listing the required work to be carried out. He subsequently ignored them and therefore breaching the prohibition orders.
Ealing Council stated that they will always act upon these types of offences and therefore prosecuted Vamathevan for breaching management properties regulations and ignoring the served notices.
In a last ditch attempt to stave off the impending actions being brought to his unsatisfactory conclusion, the landlord eventually ‘relented’ and submitted HMO licence applications once the prosecution had started its course.
Councillor Ranjit Dheer, cabinet member for safety, culture and community services, said: “This case is a significant result against an unscrupulous landlord who has previously been prosecuted by the council for his disregard of licensing regulations.”
“We make every effort to ensure residents in our borough are well protected and have decent living standards. We take a tough line against anyone who deliberately flouts the law and Mr. Vamathevan has quite rightly been given a very heavy penalty for his prolonged and intentional illegal behaviour.”
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