H&F Council Vows to Step Up Fight again Dodgy Landlords

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After recent court successes secure funds from government

Hammersmith & Fulham Council says it has secured £91,000 from the government for recent successes cracking down on rogue landlords and is pledging to use the money to step up the fight.

Those dodgy landlords include:

Royston Cooper, 47, of Billingshurst, West Sussex, fined 28,000 for four offences under the Housing Act.

He failed to license a house in Talgarth Road, Hammersmith, which he rented to five architectural students despite it having a broken boiler during a freezing winter and a shared toilet that leaked waste.

H&F Council says it arranged for a new boiler to be installed and the toilet to be fixed while taking action against the landlord.

Cooper did not appear and was found guilty of four offences under the Housing Act.

He was also ordered to pay costs of £2,160 and a victim surcharge of £120. The tenants were able to apply to have some of their rent returned.

Alan Lempriere, of Herne Hill, South London, was fined £20,000.

He was prosecuted by H&F Council for operating a house in multiple occupation in Harrow Road, North Acton, without a licence not carrying out gas or electrical safety checks; not complying with the council’s requests for information about the property; not providing adequate smoke alarms or protected means of escaping from a fire; and not treating areas affected by damp and mould.

Lempriere, was also ordered to pay costs of more than £4,796 and a £120 victim surcharge at Hammersmith Magistrates' Court.

Sunil Patel of Australia Road in White City, who was handed down an 18 month conditional discharge and ordered to pay more than £8,600 in costs.

Patel, 44, was prosecuted at Hammersmith Magistrates’ Court by H&F Council for failing to carry out a raft of checks and repairs at his flat in December. Tenants had to endure living with mould on the walls, broken smoke alarms, faulty electrics, a missing letterbox flap letting in draughts, faulty central heating, broken laminate flooring and a missing carpet.

The other charges related to a leak under the bath which Patel, of Surrey, did not repair properly and not replying to requests for more information.

Landlords must hold a licence for each house in multiple occupation they own if it is rented out to five or more people, is at least three storeys high and has a shared toilet, bathroom or kitchen.

" We are determined to stop unscrupulous landlords who make their tenants’ lives a misery or even put them in danger," says Cllr Lisa Homan, H&F Cabinet Member for Housing.

" Everyone who pays rent has the right to live in a safe and comfortable home and we will not hesitate to take legal action to protect our residents."

To report a problem, contact H&F council’s private housing and health service on 020 8753 1221 or email: phs@lbhf.gov.uk.

 

February 2, 2016