Landlord Must Pay £78K or Face Jail

Landlord Titilola Oyejole must pay £78,683 to avoid jail after converting her home into flats several years after a conviction for the same offence.

Oyejole, of Dagenham, Essex, split her five-bedroom semi-detached home into two flats without planning permission nearly a decade ago.

When she applied for an HMO licence for the property in 2016, Barking and Dagenham council officers visited her home and found she lived in one flat while the other was privately rented. The rented flat was in a poor state, needing work to put right dangerous electrics, damp and a rat infestation.

The council served an enforcement order on Oyejole, banning the conversion and ordering her to restore the property.

She ignored the notice and was fined £200 with £4,233 costs at Snaresbrook Crown Court. A confiscation order for £19,784 was imposed.

In 2023, she returned to court and was found guilty of ignoring the enforcement order.

This time, she was told to pay fines and costs of £26,700 and a confiscation order of £51,983. If she fails to hand over the money, she faces jail.

Unfair tenancy agreements

Landlord Anna Yang, 67, was fined £2,700 with £3,125 costs by magistrates at Bexhill, South London, for forcing tenants to sign unfair contracts giving away their protection from immediate evictions.

Yang, of Southend, Essex, supplied the tenancy agreements to tenants renting a flat in Charlton, South London.

Letting agent fraudsters

Scammers Sultana Akther, of Rainham, Essex, and Skeena Noor Rashid, of Beckton, East London, kept deposits and rents worth £24,000 paid by tenants to letting agents Signature London Ltd and Signature London Group Ltd.

Both admitted fraudulent trading at Snaresbrook Crown Court. Akther was fined £2,000 and jailed for 14 months, suspended for 18 months concurrent on each charge. Rashid was ordered to carry out 240 hours of community work.

Council agrees not to name and shame rogue landlord

A council has agreed not to shame and name a rogue landlord if he pays a £17,500  financial penalty for failing to license two HMO properties.

Ashfield District Council, Nottinghamshire, says anonymity was agreed as a condition of the landlord accepting the penalty.

The council says the landlord ignored several warnings to licence the homes in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, so officers launched an investigation.

A visit to the homes found they were rented out and uncovered some defects and safety concerns, which are being dealt with separately from the licensing offences.

Danger wiring sparks fine

Failing to upgrade dangerous electric wiring and other defects has cost landlord Mohammed Quahid Laib £8,471 in fines and costs at Peterborough Magistrates Court.

Laib was found guilty in his absence of renting out an unlicensed HMO and other housing offences which council housing officers found on a visit to the home following a complaint.

Extra HMO floor was a stretch too far

A landlord built an extra floor onto a single-storey buy-to-let home extension without permission, magistrates at St Alban’s were told.

Some tenants were concerned when builders removed walls, blocked fire escape routes and unsafely stored tools at the shared house in Watford. They complained to the council, which found nine renters living in a home designed for seven people alongside various safety issues.

Landlord Syed Shah pleaded guilty to 13 housing and planning offences and was ordered to pay £26,535 in fines and costs.