Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Landlord set to lose rents from illegal conversions
Rogue landlords continue to blight the Harringay Ladder - Haringey Council have managed to bring one to book.
A rogue landlord faces fines and having his rents confiscated after losing his appeal against conviction for two illegal house conversions.
Cllr Nilgun Canver, Cabinet Member for the Environment, said:
"Hopefully we will now see justice done. The extra rent accrued while people were living in illegally converted flats may now be confiscated. I hope this is a lesson to all landlords who try to take shortcuts or hope to dodge planning laws."
[name removed] of Southgate converted properties on Hewitt Road and Burgoyne Road N4, to four and five self-contained flats. He had no planning permission for the conversions. Consequently council planning enforcement officers issued enforcement notices requiring him to return the properties to single dwellings.
He was first prosecuted and convicted in 2010 when he failed to comply with the enforcement notice. A further prosecution in 2011 resulted in a second conviction.
Subsequent planning inspection visits found no changes to the properties and he was prosecuted and convicted for a third time in January this year. He unsuccessfully appealed the conviction at Wood Green Crown Court on March 11, arguing he had done all he could to comply with the enforcement notices. The judge dismissed this as 'far too little too late'.
Haringey Council requested that the matter be referred for confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act as so much time had lapsed since the enforcement notices were first in breach. He stands to potentially lose all of the calculated benefits from renting these properties as flats in breach of the enforcement notice and may be fined and asked to pay costs incurred by the council.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Finsbury Park Ranger on
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There's no more room in the Harringay inn apparently unless the council can gets its act together and does something themselves in conjunction with the hedge funds.
New rules dictate that each inn must only be spaciously resided by middle class folk.
Thumper, hazel and bigwig have to face the bulldozers instead.
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Permalink Reply by LSquared on
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No offence FPR, but Harringay (as opposed to bigger divisions like Haringey, London, England, Great Britiain, Uk, etc...) is pretty tiny. The fact that the planning authorities have decided that it's not a good idea to convert more houses in a specific handful of streets doesn't mean our only options are to burn the planning rule book or concrete the Green Belt!
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Wasn't my green belt suggestion amigo, it was the only suggestion that was served up at the time of writimg as a counter solution to making more use of our existing housing stock.
Alan is now suggesting an interesting development concept but that requires big resources, can the public sector pull their finger out and build enough without killing thumper and co and doing it on the cheap on the green belt .... ?
Doubt it but as long as green lanes doesn't have more of exactly the same people the political parties previously cut the deals to let in, all is good.
It's multiple personality disorder nimbyism at its finest.
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Served up by who? I've seen plenty of suggestions for improving housing provision other than unconstrained private development or building on the green belt.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Commuting takes energy and is "dead time" in that it does not contribute to GDP. It has to be minimised. We need to build new homes and we can't demolish current medium density housing to build high density housing as it's almost all in private hands. Therefore we must build on the green belt. It's going to happen.
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Where's the money coming from though Alan? Out of the big three parties the biggest pledge is by Labour to build 100'000 homes nationally over a number of years. That's not even going to touch the sides.
You can drool over the most amazing blue prints but right now people want homes. It's London's greatest 'export' opportunity where we get to sell our housing cake and keep them in Londres but can Harringay council organise a housing piss up in one of the most unusual home brew opportunities in modern times ?
Not really, they build little and stop local initiative from tapping into the unique opportunity.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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I've completely lost you, FPR. A few minutes ago we were escaping the bulldozers in Watership - or was it Woodberry - Down. (Admittedly accompanied by a USA immigrant rabbit called Thumper.) Now we're organising piss-ups with home brew and cakes and ale?
If only I knew what you were on about . . .
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Simple concept, more immigration requires more housing. The public sector are failing to provide whilst dictating that the private sector should stop providing solutions in green lanes and probably will expand the 'solution' elsewhere.
The result will be really unaffordable housing for all.
Not ideal really is it ?
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Careful what you wish for. Try a satellite Google of Southall.
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Also have a look at: BBC news item in 2004: Why concrete gardens are growing
Or Google: flood risk; Friends of the Earth.
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If the Friends of the Earth are not to your liking, try the Royal Horticultural Society. Over recent years they've published on why greening matters in cities.
They reviewed the science - here's a summary. It asks: "What is the value of gardens in urban areas? Do gardens sustain our cities? There are brief sections headed: moderating temperature; preventing urban flooding; supporting human health; providing urban biodiversity; carbon emissions; and water use.
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