London Councils Crack Down on Rogue Landlords

A London council wants to improve housing standards by increasing fines for rogue landlords.

Haringey Council, North London, is the first council in the country to revise civil penalty notice (CPN) fines.

The council wields CPNs to penalise bad landlords by issuing the tickets to bypass slow and expensive court proceedings.

The maximum CPN penalty a council can demand is £30,000, but lower fines are at the council's discretion and depend on the seriousness of the case. The Renters' Reform Bill, currently navigating Parliament, has a clause raising the maximum penalty to £40,000.

Haringey is increasing the minimum fine to £2,500. Examples of higher penalties include £17,500 for running an unlicensed house in multiple occupation (HMO) and £22,500 for failing to comply with an improvement notice.

Councillor Sarah Williams, Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning and the council's deputy leader, said: "This policy change demonstrates our commitment to holding landlords accountable and ensuring all residents in Haringey have access to safe, high-quality housing.

"By increasing penalties and streamlining our enforcement strategy, we are sending a strong message - breaking the law will have serious consequences and we will simply not tolerate it."

Haringey Council's private rented homes enforcement policy

Plea to overturn £11,000 fine rejected

Housing officers were shocked to find 12 people living in an unlicensed, crowded HMO in Redbridge, East London.

Eight adults and four children under five lived at the house, which was built for workers on a nearby housing estate. Besides not having a licence, the house was found unsafe due to overcrowding, a lack of fire safety and poor rubbish management.

Landlord Pellhum Mazreku was appealing an £11,000 fine at the First Tier Property Tribunal, but the judge upheld the fine and dismissed the appeal.

Cllr Kam Rai, Leader of Redbridge Council, said: "We will not allow developers or substandard landlords to ride roughshod over local people."

HMO extension had no planning permission

Neighbour complaints led to a South London council uncovering a large extension to an HMO in Putney.

BMR Hemini Ltd, which manages more than 200 properties across London, had built the extension without planning permission.

Wandsworth Council ordered the company to demolish the extension. The company appealed the order but lost the appeal, taking nine months to start knocking down the extension.

Wimbledon Magistrates found property developer Charles Margulies and BMR Hemini Ltd guilty of ignoring the enforcement notice. The court ordered them to pay a £26,000 fine, a victim surcharge of £3,600 and the council's costs of £23,554.

£37,000 fine for overcrowded HMO

Magistrates fined landlord Charles Egbiremolen for shoehorning 18 renters into a three-bedroom house converted into eight bedsits.

Willesden Magistrates were told the house was a fire hazard, the garden was strewn with rubbish, and neighbours complained about anti-social behaviour from the tenants. Egbiremolen was found guilty of nine offences, including failing to license the property, management and safety offences and failure to supply statutory information to the council.