Landlord Fined £140k for Unlicensed Shared House

A landlord couple and their property company must pay more than £140,000 in fines and costs after a disgruntled tenant tipped off Hammersmith and Fulham Council that their home was an unlicensed shared house.

Francesco Grasso and his wife, Margaret Cabo, and property manager Top Holdings Ltd, of which Grasso was a former director, appealed an earlier conviction at the City of London Magistrates Court.

Grasso and the company were found guilty of renting a house in West Kensington as an unlicensed shared house, failing to publish the manager’s contact details and flouting health and safety rules.

Grasso and Top Holdings Ltd were each fined £35,000 and ordered to pay £25,000 costs.

Cabo was found guilty of managing an unlicensed shared house. She was fined £7,500 with £14,500 costs.

The convictions were upheld on appeal at Isleworth Crown Court.

Letting agent banned for renting out ramshackle homes

Letting agent and landlord Ruhul Shamsuddin was handed a ban for renting overcrowded, dilapidated properties in Essex.

Shamsuddin owns letting agency Lordsons Estates, Lordsons Ltd, and Conker Property Management.

The ban stops him from involvement in a letting agency or renting out homes across England for three years.

Shamsuddin is a repeat offending rogue landlord.

His latest conviction leading to the ban was in Southend-on-sea, Essex, where he was found guilty of multiple offences at three shared homes.

Southend magistrates heard a family of two adults and three children lived in one room while other homes were overcrowded and unsafe.

Last year, Shamsuddin was fined £22,884 for housing offences., including cramming 21 people, including five children, into an 11-roomed house. Lordson Estates was also fined £17,293 after being found guilty of 23 housing offences.

Unlicensed home broke safety rules for more than ten years

An unlicensed shared house was rented for over ten years in Potter’s Bar, Hertfordshire.

Hertsmere Council fined an unnamed landlord £5,000 for allowing six tenants to live there. A council inspection also found the home lacked fire safety measures, including fire doors and smoke alarms.

Councillor Alan Matthews, the council’s Portfolio Holder for Housing, did not comment on the time the house was rented without a license or statutory safety measures but criticised the landlord.

He said: “People’s safety is our highest priority, and the fine issued in this case shows that we will take appropriate action to deal with landlords who fail to take their responsibilities seriously.”

Double trouble for rogue landlords

A couple renting homes in Haringey, North London, have been caught twice within a few months for letting unlicensed shared homes.

Earlier this year, they were fined £10,000 for housing offences, and then recently, they were fined another £5,000 for similar offences.

A Haringey Council spokesman confirmed the fines are paid and the property is licensed and health and safety compliant.