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 Luci on
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I don't think most of the houses I've lived in were HMOs. We live in a very small house on the other side of Chestnuts Park from Harringay, no prospect of being able to move, and I can't see that my boys aged 4 and 6 now are ever going to be able to leave home, since rent for a room in an HMO or shared non HMO house is more than we've ever paid for our mortgage (we were very very lucky and bought some time ago) and they're currently talking about not allowing people under 25 any Housing Benefit. Private landlords are very much part of the problem, they push up the prices of housing. And as for your comment about posh houses for rich families - ordinary houses haven't been affordable here in Tottenham for some years, and I don't know when they were affordable in Harringay because it was well before I moved to London over 18 years ago or found somewhere to buy 3 years later. I don't know anything about you and I'm making no assumptions, you know less about me (apart from what I say here) and are making lots.
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Permalink Reply by markb on
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Tenants have some blame for price rises too, albeit out of desperation for quality. The ones that took over the last two places I stayed at got into a bidding war both times and offered over asking price. Sadly, that's supply and demand for you.
London is getting rather New York like. I expect shoebox rents to go up even more.
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I'm his current tenant, worst time of my life. DONT EVER RENT FROM HIM.
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