Both a landlord and letting agent have been fined £3,000 plus costs, after being found guilty of running an unlicenced HMO where seven people were rescued from a fire.
Owner Wimalendran Jeyaruban and letting agent Chaudry Amir Ijaz did not register the Croydon property, which had five paying tenants at the time of the fire.
During a blaze at the flat earlier this year, seven people were led to safety by firefighters and five others were rescued from a neighbouring property.
A subsequent inspection by council housing enforcement officers found there were five people permanently living at the flat, all of whom paid £150 per month to Ijaz.
Jeyaruban had previously agreed to empty the unlicensed flat in 2012 after the council discovered it was being used as a HMO . However, he decided to ignore the council warnings and let it out to Ijaz, who in turn rented it as a HMO , despite having no HMO licence himself.
In addition to the fines, both were ordered to pay the court £2,500 in costs.
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Comments
So he's been letting this flat out at £750pm. Unlicensed since 2012.
I make that around £18k in income.
And he gets a £3k fine.
Wow! Another shining example of the great british justice system in action.
Would like to know who prosecuted this so to ask them why the fine was ridiculously small, also to inform them that the Proceeds of Crime Act recovers much more money.
These criminals should be banned from ever doing business in the property sector. Shame on them.